Murders of Four Young Men in Beach Areas Linked Police Say

Victims in Los Angeles, Orange Counties, Dismembered and Sexually Assaulted; First Body Found in December.
by Jim Stingley

A killer who preys on young men, sexually assaulting them and dismembering some, is at large in beach areas of southern Los Angeles and western Orange counties, authorities said Wednesday. The slayer has claimed at least four victims in the past five months. Since all of them were young men of average size and strength, authorities believe the killer may have an accomplice. The latest grisly discovery, made Wednesday, was that of a crudely severed leg.

Detectives from six law enforcement agencies are scheduled to meet today at Seal Beach police department to compare notes on the four murders. The first was discovered December 26, 1972, when the nude and strangled body of Edward Daniel Moore, 19, a Camp Pendleton marine, was found in an open area near the junction of the San Diego and San Gabriel River freeways. Moore had been sexually assaulted. Strangled and Assaulted the second body was found Feb. 6 near the Terminal Island Freeway, just south of Pacific Coast Highway. Though its identity has never been established, the nude body was that of a man 19 to 20 years old. He too had been strangled and sexually assaulted. This month two more, or at least parts of two more, were found.

On April 14 a young man 20 to 25 years old and still unidentified was found dead from a blow to the head at Ellis Avenue and Gothard Street in Huntington Beach. He had been mutilated. On Sunday four plastic bags were found in the harbor area. The bags collectively contained one leg, two arms, one torso and human skin. The torso, that of a young man, had been mutilated. Wednesday, in Sunset Beach in Orange County, one leg was found wrapped in cloth in a trash bin behind a bar at 9th St. and Pacific Coast Highway. Police believe it is part of the body found Sunday.