Police Ask Help to Locate Killer

Police are seeking help from the public in tracking down the killer of a young man whose body was dismembered and parts stuffed in plastic bags. Sketches of the unidentified man killed Saturday have been released by the Los Angeles Police Department. The man is described as white having near shoulder-length brown hair about 5-foot-5 17 to 20 years old 130 to 135 pounds with brown eyes and a mole under his right ear. Authorities are investigating the possibility the slaying may be linked to three similar deaths in beach cities since December. Sgt Dan Cook said the four victims may have been hitchhiking and picked up by the killer or killers. The main factor indicating the killings may not be connected is only two of the four bodies were found mutilated.

The latest victim police said had been stabbed strangled and dismembered sometime Saturday. The body parts found belonged to the same man the county coroner said. A passing motorist Sunday found a green plastic bag containing a leg on the Terminal Island Freeway near Anaheim Street. The same day a police helicopter located another bag on Terminal Island containing two handless arms. A third holding the torso was found on Terminal Island near Alameda Street and Henry Ford Drive and a fourth bag on Wednesday in a trash can in Sunset Beach. An employe of a Gardena area paper company found the head Thursday in a brown shopping bag. All four victims were about 20 years old and police believe homosexuality may have been involved in the cases. The body of a still unidentified man was found April 14 in Huntington Beach and another body, Feb 6 on the Terminal Island Freeway and a third body was found Dec 26 near the junction of the San Diego and San Gabriel River freeways in Seal Beach.