Serial killers and true crime

“These people are not suspects,” Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said of the photos. “We don’t even know if they are victims. … We certainly do not believe that we are so lucky or so good that we know all of the victims. We need the public’s help.”

Grim Sleeper Unidentified Photos

Beck also cautioned the public that some of the photos are decades old, and that the women “will have changed, aged.”

The Los Angeles Police Department has tentatively indentified five of the dozens of women found in photos discovered on the “Grim Sleeper” serial killer’s property.

The photos show women ranging from teenagers to others who look as if they’re in their 60s. Some are smiling, others appear to be unconscious.

Doan said that all of the 160 images will remain on the L.A.P.D. website for now.

“We’ll take them down if we’re satisfied that the individual has been possibly identified,” he said.

Los Angeles Police homicide detective Dennis Kilcoyne said various area police websites have recieved over 8 million hits since the photos were made public on Thursday, and the department has recieved hundreds of phone calls.

“Our best wish is that we get a phone call from each and every one of the them and that everyone is OK,” he said.

Detectives also encouraged any of the women who are still alive to come forward and explain how they came to be photographed.

Franklin, a 57-year-old mechanic, was charged with 10 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder in July in the “Grim Sleeper” case. He is accused of murdering 10 young women between 1985 and 2007 in South Los Angeles.

When detectives searched Franklin’s home and surrounding property, they found more than 1,000 photos and hundreds of hours of home video footage in his procession.

“It’s a long period of time that he’s been taking pictures,” Kilcoyne said.

Authorities working on the case said they had been trying to identify the women in the images for months.

The cluster of killings stopped in 1988, but 14 years later police said they linked new murders to the same man. The nickname “Grim Sleeper” came from the long lull between killings. The most recent murder happened in January 2007.

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Update: as of 12/21/10 29 people have been identified.

Los Angeles police detectives say they have tentatively identified about 29 of the 160 women whose photos were found in the home of a man suspected of being the “Grim Sleeper” serial killer.
Detectives said Monday that they were able to remove 29 photos from the collection posted online. They say the majority of the women in the photos are alive and well. A few have died from natural causes and a few are missing persons.
The LAPD website where the photos were posted got thousands of hits and police were inundated with phone calls, emails and other tips.
Last week, police released 180 images that were taken from photographs or home video found in suspect Lonnie Franklin Jr.’s home and garage.

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