Slain Woman’s Cries for Help Heard by Friends

Friends of 26-year-old Trina Chaney--who may be the 18th victim of the so-called Southside Slayer--said Tuesday they heard her yelling “Help! Help!”several hours before her nude body was found sprawled in an alley off 105th and South Grape streets in Watts.

Sheilah Walker, who lives on 105th Street about half a block from the murder scene, said Chaney had been with her and several of her relatives until about 5 or 6 a.m. Monday, and then left, saying she was going out to make a phone call.

“About 40 minutes later,” Walker said, “we heard her yelling ‘Help! Help!’ ” Her brother, Marcellus Walker, said he ran outside to see what was happening but found no sign of anyone on the streets. But, he said, he did find a pair of blue high-heeled shoes that Chaney had been wearing. He said the shoes were in the middle of the street near the alley, making it appear that Chaney had lost them while fleeing someone.

Ufemio Ortega said he found Chaney’s body shortly before noon Monday in the alley behind a rented house he owns on Grape Street.

Cmdr. William Booth, Los Angeles Police Department spokesman, said detectives still have not decided whether Chaney will be added to the list of 17 women whose murders are under investigation by the 50-member Southside Serial Killer Task Force. He said a decision probably will be made sometime today when the coroner’s office is scheduled to have autopsy results. Booth said he would make no comment on the cause of Chaney’s death until after the autopsy.

However, members of the task force said Chaney’s death fits the general pattern of previous murders attributed to the Southside killer or killers. Chaney, like 14 of the Southside victims, was a black woman.

Gloria White, 28, who lives in the 10300 block of Hickory Street, said Chaney had been playing cards with her and several other friends before she left at about 3:30 a.m., apparently to go to the house on 105th Street.

“We begged her not to go,” White said. “But she said she had to make a phone call (from a pay booth) and said she would be all right. We waited up for her until about 4:30, but she never returned.” White said she was only a casual friend of Chaney, but understood that she had an 11-year-old daughter who lives with relatives.

Booth said that police records indicate that Chaney had been arrested at least once on a prostitution count and once for possession of an illegal substance.

All but two of the 17 victims have records of arrests for prostitution, according to police. All have been strangled and stabbed or slashed, and their bodies dumped at isolated spots in the South-Central area of Los Angeles.

The first victim was was murdered more than three years ago. The murder of Austerberta Alvarez, 24, whose body was found at the 66th Street School on July 25, was the last case assigned to the task force investigating the killings.

Women who have survived attacks by a man believed to be the killer have described him as a black man between 30 and 35 years old, 5 feet, 10 inches to 6 feet tall, of medium build with muscular arms and chest. At least one witness said he wore a small mustache.

Rewards totaling $35,000 have been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer or killers.