North Carolina
Ex-trucker awaiting trial in North Carolina murder is charged with suspected serial killings in California
A former long-haul trucker awaiting trial in the 1992 murder of a North Carolina woman was charged in the suspected serial killings of three more women in California more than four decades ago, authorities said Thursday.
Warren Luther Alexander, 73, was charged with three counts of murder in connection with the 1977 strangulation deaths of Kimberly Fritz, 18; Velvet Sanchez, 31; and Lorraine Rodriguez, 21, law enforcement officials said at a news conference in Ventura County.
The women, all sex workers, were found dead in Port Hueneme, Oxnard and an unincorporated part of Ventura County, respectively, in May, September and December of that year, officials said.
Alexander, who is being held without bail at a Ventura County jail, was extradited earlier this week from North Carolina, where he was charged with murder two years ago in the strangulation death of Nona Cobb, Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko told reporters.
Cobb, 29, was found dead on an interstate northwest of Winston-Salem on July 7, 1992, according to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.
Her autopsy showed that she had been strangled, according to NBC affiliate WXII-TV of Winston-Salem.
Alexander was arrested in connection with the killing on March 15, 2022, in Diamondhead, Mississippi, the bureau said in a news release at the time.
Court records for Alexander’s case in North Carolina were unavailable Friday night and it isn’t clear if he has entered a plea or who is defending him.
Alexander is scheduled to be arraigned on the California charges on Aug. 21, court records show. A lawyer for Alexander did not respond to a request for comment Friday night.
Nasarenko said authorities in North Carolina used genetic genealogy, a technique that matches DNA obtained from crime scenes and elsewhere to profiles assembled by genetic testing companies, to link Alexander with Cobb’s killing.
After Alexander’s 2022 arrest, his DNA was uploaded to a nationwide law enforcement database and authorities in Ventura County were alerted to the case, Nasarenko said.
In 2006, investigators in the county had uploaded DNA preserved from the 1977 crime scenes to the same database, Nasarenko said, but it wasn’t until after Alexander’s arrest that his DNA entered the database and there was a match.
“Today marks the first crucial step toward achieving long-awaited justice,” the prosecutor said.
Alexander lived in Oxnard, roughly 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles, in the 1950s and 1960s while attending school, Nasarenko said. He returned there in the 1970s and worked as a long haul-trucker for the next three decades, the district attorney added.
Detectives who investigated the cases initially suspected the same suspect was responsible for the series of killings, he said, but they exhausted their leads and the cases went cold.
Authorities are now working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation through its Highway Serial Killings Initiative to help identify other potential victims linked to Alexander, Nasarenko said.
Authorities believe there may be others locally and in other states, he said.
“This is not in any way closed,” Nasarenko said.
North Carolina
Dead woman found entangled in O'Hare baggage machinery was from North Carolina, authorities say
CHICAGO (AP) — The dead woman who was found entangled in a baggage conveyor belt at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport was from North Carolina, authorities said Friday.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the woman as 57-year-old Virginia Christine Vinton of Waxhaw, North Carolina. The office’s spokesperson, Natalia Derevyanny, said an autopsy was scheduled for Friday.
Firefighters responding to a 911 call found Vinton’s body entangled in the belt around 7:45 a.m. Thursday in a baggage room near a terminal that serves international flights.
According to police, surveillance footage shows Vinton enter the area around 2:27 a.m. Thursday, but it doesn’t show what happened to her.
The room where Vinton’s body was found is off limits to the public, and it’s unclear why she was in it, authorities said. A U.S. Department of Labor spokesman said she was not an airport employee.
Police declined to comment further on the matter.
There was no immediate response Friday to messages left at possible phone numbers listed as belonging to Vinton’s family
NORTH CAROLINA (WTVD) — Thousands across central NC are still without power Friday morning after Debby made its way through the state.
According to Duke Energy, there are over 500,000 customers were affected overall by the storm across the Carolinas. About 18,000 customers are impacted Friday morning.
Jeff Brooks with Duke Energy said most of the Triangle outages are in Chatham and rural Orange County.
ABC11 is tracking these outages across the Triangle and other counties.
Debby, which entered North Carolina as a tropical storm, weakened into a tropical depression and is continuing in its path toward the north.
RELATED | Debby leaves significant damage in NC as it heads northeast
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GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) – As of Thursday night, nearly 300 roads are impacted by flooding across North Carolina.
Pitt County:
U.S. 264 just past NC 30 from Washington to Greenville has water covering part of the roadway. The road was closed but has since reopened.
Hudsons Crossroads south of Grimesland near Black Jack Grimesland Road is impassable in both directions.
Greene County:
SR-1204 (Gurganus), Near Peanut south of Snow Hill closed in both directions.
Jones County:
SR-1310 (British), Near Caswell Station northwest of Trenton closed in both directions.
SR-1306 (Webb Farm), near Wyse Fork North west of Trenton closed in both directions.
SR-1130 (Pleasant Hill), near Vine Swamp west of Trenton closed in both directions.
Duplin County:
SR-1378 (Stokes Gooding), near W. Best Rd. near Kenansville closed in both directions.
SR-1301 (Bowdens Road), Near Faison McGowen Road west of Kenansville closed in both directions
SR-1959 (DS Williams Road), near NC 11/903 near Kenansville closed in both directions.
SR-1911 (Brooks Quinn Road), near Dickson Road near Magnolia closed in both directions.
SR-1148 (Rosemary Road), near Bay Road In Rose Hill closed in both directions.
SR-1116 (South Railroad St), near S NC 41 Hwy in Wallace closed in both directions.
SR-1154 (HC Powers Road), near Shaw Road in Wallace closed in both directions.
Carteret County:
SR-1385 (Shell Hill Rd), Near Nelson Neck Rd closed in both directions.
Click here for a complete list or closed roads across NC.
Copyright 2024 WITN. All rights reserved.
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