‘Stalker’ Link Studied in New Murder

A young woman was killed by an attacker in her apartment in Orange early today, and police were trying to determine whether the slaying was the latest attack by the “Night Stalker” killer.

The woman’s identity was withheld, and authorities declined to say how she was killed. But Orange County and Los Angeles County sheriff’s department investigators involved in the “Night Stalker” case were advised of the killing, police said.

Orange Police Department Lt. Mike Leintz said a woman in the northeast area of the city called police about 5 a.m., reporting that “she heard a screaming female knocking on her door.” After telephoning police, she answered the door and found a nude woman in a flower bed, Leintz said.

“There’s nothing to indicate that” the killing is related to the string of 21 attacks and 14 murders attributed to the “Night Stalker,” Leintz said, “and nothing to indicate that it isn’t.”