Port Victim Unidentified – Police Probe Tie in Two Murders

by Tim Lemm

The Los Angeles Police Department announced Wednesday it is investigating a possible link between the Febryuary 6 murder of a young man whose nude body was found in Wilmington and the December 26 strangulation death of a serviceman in Seal Beach. Investigator John St. John of the LAPD robbery-homicide detail at Parker Center said similarities between the two cases have led to the possibility that both men may have been killed by the same person.

The homicide investigator said he is working with Seal Beach detectives who are probing the strangulation death of a 19-year-old Marine Private stationed at Camp Pendleton. The fully clothed body of Daniel Edward Moore was discovered December 26 on the shoulder of a freeway offramp in Seal Beach. Sgt John Avery of the Seal Beach homicide detail said the young man apparently was strangled in the early morning hours and then dumped on the San Gabriel River Freeway The sergeant said there are no suspects in custody, and he has few leads to go on other than the similarity to the Wilmington homicide.

The nude body of a young man who had been garroted with a length of steel wire was found February 6 on a muddy brush-covered bank of the Terminal Island Freeway in Wilmington. Harbor Division police said the victim apparently had been dead for about six hours when he was found by a passing truck driver. A composite drawing of the victim by Jack Moffett of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department was released Wednesday. The new sketch provides a more detailed picture of the 17-to-18-year-old youth who was about five feet eight inches tall and weighed 138 pounds,

He had wavy brown hair and brown eyes. Extensive checks of fingerprint and dental records locally in Washington and at the Department of Defense have failed to identify the slain youth. St John said that since the Wilmington and Seal Beach murders both were committed during the early morning hours and that both victims were dumped on a freeway embankment there is a possibility, they may have been committed by the same person. He asked persons with information on either homicide to call Harbor Division homicide investigators or the robbery-homicide detail at LAPD headquarters in Los Angeles.