5 Strangulations Not Linked, Police Say : Focus Shifts in Women’s Slayings

Police on Friday asked the district attorney’s office to issue a warrant for the arrest of a man suspected of killing a Chula Vista woman whose strangled body was found in a South San Diego parking lot last month. Police, however, say there is no indication that the suspect is responsible for four other strangulations that have taken place since October.

Wanted in connection with the Jan. 24 killing of Linda Kay Freebe, 30, is Donald Eugene Couch, 28, said police spokesman Bill Robinson. Freebe’s body was found in the parking lot in the 2200 block of Manya Street.

Police earlier in the week said they had not ruled out the possibility that the same person had committed all five killings. But Phil Jarvis, chief of homicide unit, said he had “not a single shred of evidence that would lead me to think that he was responsible for any of the other deaths.”

“We are not looking at any single individual,” to hold responsible for the deaths, Jarvis said.

All five of the women found since October had been involved in prostitution and drugs, police said, but they deny that there is a common denominator linking them to one killer.

Police are investigating each case separately, Jarvis said.

The four other women who have been strangled to death within the last four months, are:

- Linda Joyce Nelson, 27, whose body was found Jan. 4 dumped along an off-ramp on Interstate 805 at 47th Street in National City.

- Deborah Ann Stanford, 24, whose body was found Feb. 5 leaning against a van’s rear wheel in a paint store parking lot at 30th Street and Polk Avenue.

- Djuna Thomas, 20, whose body was found Oct. 3 on a sidewalk in the 5000 block of Guyman Street.

- Trina Carpenter, 23, whose nude body was found Feb. 11 in a burning trash dump in the 4500 block of Altadena Street.

Couch is also wanted by Fresno police in connection with a parole violation, Jarvis said.