A 73-year-old Mississippi man, Warren Luther Alexander, has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the unsolved murders of three women in Southern California dating back to the late 1970s.
Alexander, a resident of Diamondhead, Mississippi, has a history as a long-haul trucker, a profession he was engaged in during the time of the murders.
The victims—Kimberly Fritz, 18, Velvet Sanchez, 31, and Lorraine Rodriguez, 21—were all found strangled to death in 1977 in the areas of Port Hueneme and Oxnard, northwest of Los Angeles. These murders, though believed to be related, remained a mystery for decades until a breakthrough in 2022. Alexander’s DNA was uploaded to the national Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) after he was arrested in North Carolina, where he was in custody awaiting trial for another murder.
The case that led to his DNA being registered on CODIS was the 1992 murder of Nona Cobb, a 29-year-old woman found dead along an interstate near Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Alexander was arrested and charged with Cobb’s murder on March 15, 2022. According to local reports from WXII-TV, Cobb’s autopsy revealed signs of strangulation, similar to the earlier cases in California.
Following the DNA match, California authorities extradited Alexander from North Carolina on Tuesday. He is now set to be arraigned on the California charges on August 21.
During a recent press conference, Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko provided some background on Alexander’s connections to California. He revealed that Alexander had lived in Oxnard during the 1950s and 1960s while attending school. In the 1970s, Alexander returned to the area as a truck driver, a job he held for approximately three decades.
“These murders may have occurred 47 years ago, but the investigators with the Ventura County DA’s office have remained committed to solving these cases,” Nasarenko stated.
Alexander’s arrest has brought renewed attention to the tragic cases of Fritz, Sanchez, and Rodriguez, all of whom were sex workers at the time of their deaths. As the investigation continues, both California and Mississippi communities are watching closely as justice for these long-unsolved crimes may finally be within reach.
