Victim of South L.A. Slaying Identified

A woman whose death had been investigated as the possible work of the so-called “Southside Slayer” was identified Wednesday as Loretta Jones, 22, a student at El Camino Community College.

Her partially clad body was found Tuesday in an alley in South-Central Los Angeles. She had been beaten about the head and upper torso.

The death initially was investigated for a possible connection to as many as 13 fatal attacks on women, most of them prostitutes. However, Lt. John Zorn, head of the task force probing the crimes, said, “At this point, there’s no link. . . . But we can’t rule it out, either.”