The Region - News from May 28, 1986

Investigators identified the body found by schoolchildren on the stairwell of the 68th Street Elementary School as that of Verna Patricia Williams, 36, of Los Angeles. Police had said earlier that she may be the 17th victim of a serial killer who has preyed on prostitutes since the fall of 1983. Los Angeles Police Lt. John Zorn said Williams was identified from arrest record fingerprints as a prostitute who worked the Broadway-Figueroa Street area, a few blocks from the South-Central Los Angeles school where she was found. Zorn, co-leader of the Southside Prostitute Killer Joint Task Force, said there were indications that the latest killing fit the pattern of the serial killer. A coroner’s spokesman said the cause of death has not yet been determined and an autopsy may be performed today.