Confessed Trash-Bag Killer Quizzed in Death of Boy, 8
by Bill Farr
Los Angeles police investigators disclosed Friday they have questioned confessed “trash-bag” murderer Patrick Kearney about the killing of Merle (Hondo) Chance, an 8-year-old boy who disappeared near his Venice home last April. The inquiry reportedly was triggered by a letter Kearney himself wrote last month to Los Angeles County authorities, saying that his victims included several young boys. LAPD spokesman Lt. Dan Cooke said, “Our people in the Major Crimes Unit have questioned Kearney about the Chance boy’s death.
They are investigating further to see if all the details check out” Cooke’s statement was made after a report by KNXT newsman Pat Downey on the television station’s early evening newscast. Downey said Kearney had given investigators the names of “two young men, two 14-year-old boys, a 13-year-old boy, and two small children.” Meanwhile, The Times learned that prosecutors from Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties have been conferring this past week on putting all of the remaining murders chargeable to Kearney into one massive case, which would be handled in the Los Angeles courts.
These discussions also have dealt with the possibility that the death penalty might still be sought against Kearney for the multiple murders. Kearney already has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to three murders last month in Riverside County, but he technically would be eligible for parole in seven years on that sentence. After the sentencing, one of the doctors who examined Kearney revealed that the confessed mass slayer had sent a letter to the Los Angeles County sheriff’s office about persons he had killed in this county, including four he had not previously mentioned, bringing the total to 32 murders. One of these new names reportedly was that of the Chance boy, whose decomposed remains were found in June by a hiker in the Angeles National Forest, 11 miles north of Altadena. Kearney originally had told authorities he had killed 28 persons in 10 Southern California counties.
