Trash Bag Suspect Released

by Riverside (UPI)

A suspect in the homosexual “trash bag killings,” the slayings of up to 28 or more young men which may be the largest mass murder in U.S. history, was released from jail Thursday. “We still feel he is involved in these killings, but we are unable at this time to prove it, said District Attorney Byron Morton as David Douglas Hill went free because the Riverside County Grand Jury refused to indict him. He was released as his roommate, Patrick Wayne Kearney, appeared before a judge after being indicted on three counts of murder.

Arraignment was scheduled for July 28. Kearney, 37, and Hill, 34, of Redondo Beach, California, self-described homosexuals gave themselves up here as they were being hunted as suspects in the “trash bag killings, the slayings of 11 young men, mostly known homosexuals, whose dismembered bodies were found wrapped in plastic trash bags along highways from Los Angeles to the Mexican border over the past two years. Kearney admitted and gave details of at least 15 and possibly 28 killings, detectives have said. The total could rise to as many as 40 going back 10 years, they said. A 12th body was found buried beneath a garage at a Culver City apartment building where Kearney and Hill once lived, after Kearney told investigators where to look.

Unlike Kearney, Hill refused to talk. Morton said the evidence against Hill was weak and some of the evidence tended to exonerate him. The major evidence was that he shared with Kearney the house where detectives found a blood-stained hacksaw and other indications that at least one of the victims was shot and cut up there. Kearney was indicted for the murders of three young men whose bodies were found in Riverside County. Authorities in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and Imperial counties, where other bodies were found, said they were still investigating. Hill was released after the grand jury refused to indict him and none of the other jurisdictions brought charges, although they may later.