Victim May Have Been Novice at Prostitution : Artist Held in Woman’s Strangulation

Police have arrested a Sherman Oaks graphics artist on suspicion of murder in the strangulation of an 18-year-old woman during what may have been her first attempt at prostitution, authorities said Wednesday.

Richard Heywood Jordan, 40, was arrested on suspicion of murder Tuesday afternoon at his place of work in West Hollywood, Detective Pat Anguiano said.

Jordan was identified with the help of the woman’s boyfriend, who wrote down the license number of a car in which the woman was picked up Sunday evening on Sepulveda Boulevard at Vanowen Street in Van Nuys, Anguiano said.

The clothed body of Jacquie Raye Graham was found dumped Monday afternoon near the 16200 block of Burbank Boulevard in the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area, Anguiano said. He said a motive for the killing has not been determined.

Graham went with her 18-year-old boyfriend to the Sepulveda Boulevard area in Van Nuys on Sunday, police said. The said the couple moved from Kent, Wash., to Oxnard two months ago.

They apparently came to Southern California in search of work, had little success and decided Graham would work the boulevard as a prostitute, the detective said.

Investigators believe they were amateurs at prostitution, the detective said.

“As far as we know, all indications are that this was her first time as a street-walking prostitute,” Anguiano said.

Autopsies Wednesday on Graham and a second, unidentified young woman whose decomposed body was found nearby a day later found that each had been strangled, Los Angeles County coroner’s spokesman Bill Gold said.

Investigators so far believe the two cases are unrelated because there is little besides the location of the bodies to link them. Graham appears to have been strangled with twine, whereas the unidentified woman’s killer apparently used his or her hands, Anguiano said.

Jordan was being held without bail in Van Nuys Jail pending arraignment Monday in Van Nuys Municipal Court, the detective said.