A suspected serial killer from Mississippi will stand trial for three cold case murders committed in 1977, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday.
Warren Luther Alexander, 73, is accused of strangling three women to death in Ventura County nearly 50 years ago.
In February 2023, detectives began re-examining the 1977 murders of Kimberly Carol Fritz, Velvet Ann Sanchez and Lorraine Ann Rodriguez.
While the exact circumstances surrounding the women’s deaths were not disclosed by the D.A.’s Office, an article published in 1978 in the Utah publication the Daily Herald stated that the three women were prostitutes who were strangled with their own underwear.
Fritz, who was only 18 at the time, was found in a motel room on May 29, 1977. Sanchez, 31, was found dead in an Oxnard motel on Sept. 9, the Daily Herald reported. And Rodriguez, then 22, was found dead near a highway in Oxnard on Dec. 27, although investigators believed she was also killed at a motel and dumped at the scene, the Herald reported.
Another article from the Los Angeles Times stated that detectives initially noticed patterns in how the women’s bodies were arranged, almost identically, in a reportedly “degrading” fashion. Both Sanchez and Rodriguez were mothers, and Fritz had just finished high school, the Times reports.
It was through modern DNA technology and data sharing that detectives in 2023 were able to connect Alexander to the unresolved murders.
In August 2024, Alexander was extradited to California from Surry County, North Carolina, where he was awaiting prosecution for a different cold case murder from 1992.
The 73-year-old pleaded not guilty at his Aug. 21 arraignment. However, on Oct. 18, a Ventura County judge decided to move forward with a trial after a three-day preliminary hearing.
The hearing called 13 witnesses, including three DNA analysts, a fingerprint examiner and five witnesses from the original 1977 investigation.
Alexander is scheduled for an information arraignment on Nov. 1 at the Ventura County Superior Court. The D.A.’s office said he remains in county jail without bail.
