Task Force Is Renewed in Prostitutes’ Killings

A joint city-county law enforcement task force investigating a series of prostitute killings has formally agreed to continue working together, officials announced Monday, particularly since six arrests already have been made by the detectives and 3 dozen cases remain unsolved.

Officials also released detailed information Monday on 40 cases reviewed by the task force, showing that most of the victims were prostitutes from 20 to 40 years old who were strangled and dumped nude in remote parts of San Diego County.

Sgt. Liz Foster, a spokeswoman for the San Diego Metropolitan Homicide Task Force who is assigned to the Sheriff’s Department, said details of the joint agreement will not be released until later. The agreement was renewed by investigators of the Sheriff’s Department, the San Diego Police Department and the county district attorney’s office.

Created in September

The task force was created in September, initially for six months. City and county law enforcement officials had decided to pool efforts to find an assailant or assailants responsible for the string of slayings. The victims were young women, many of them prostitutes, drug users and street transients.

The series of slayings began in 1985, shortly after a similar series of killings ended in the Seattle area. Although some Seattle investigators think their so-called Green River killer may be operating in San Diego, local officials here haven’t publicly made that connection.

Foster said officials so far are more than pleased with the efforts of the San Diego task force and hope to continue its work until more suspects are found.

“I’d say the success of the task force is supported by the arrest and conviction rate of various suspects on assaults and murders of prostitutes,” she said.

She identified those arrested and the crimes as:

- Daniel Stafford, sentenced to time served and probation for violent assault on a prostitute who survived.

- Blake Taylor, sentenced to nine years to life in prison for attempted murder of a prostitute.

- Thomas Eastgate, who pleaded guilty and is imprisoned for assault on a prostitute with a deadly weapon.

- Ronald Porter, charged in an attack on a prostitute who was choked unconscious.

- Alan Michael Stevens, charged with murdering a prostitute.

- Glesty O. Waters, charged with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, robbery and kidnaping.

The cases of Porter, Stevens and Waters are pending.

According to the detailed list released Monday, there are 40 separate murder cases. Two of the cases have resulted in arrests, meaning that 38 open murder investigations remain under study by the task force.

Of the closed cases, one involves Stevens, arrested for the death of Cynthia McVey, who was last reported alive in a bar in Carlsbad. She was strangled and found nude 2 miles north of Pala Mission Road on Nov. 29.

The other closed case involves Terry Millaud, who was convicted of the murder of 31-year-old Patricia Smith. Her nude body was found inside a motel room in the 5000 block of El Cajon Boulevard. She had been beaten and stabbed in the chest and abdomen, puncturing her heart, liver and spleen.

‘A Known Prostitute’

“Smith was a known prostitute,” according to a statement on the list. “The case is being treated as ‘of interest’ but not apparently linked to any other cases.”

Of the remaining 38 cases, 5 of the bodies were found in 1985, 16 in 1986, 8 in 1987 and 9 last year. None of the bodies was discovered this year.

The ages of the victims are almost evenly split between their 20s and 30s, with the youngest victim’s age being 19 and the oldest described as being between 30 and 45. Of the victims, 24 were white, 5 were black, 4 were Latina, and the remains of 5 were so decomposed that their racial origin could not be determined.

Fifteen of the women were strangled. Other causes of death included gunshot wounds, stabbing and drug overdoses. Twenty of them were found nude.

Other Cases

In other cases, Viola Wright, 37, appeared as if she had been struck twice by a car, and Sandra Cwik, 43, identified as a transient from Florida, died from loss of blood. The cause of death of 12 of the victims remained undetermined by the county coroner’s office.

And the list showed that 18 of the women had documented histories of prostitution.

Many of the victims, such as Rhonda Hollis and Melissa Sandoval, had last been seen alive on El Cajon Boulevard, a San Diego street plagued for years by prostitution.

The first case involved the death of Donna Gentile, whose nude body was found in June, 1985, just off Sunrise Highway, 2 miles north of Interstate 8. The list described the 23-year-old woman as having “an extensive police record for prostitution.”

“Rocks had been stuffed into her mouth,” according to the list. She had been strangled.

The most recent case that remains uncleared involves Mary Wells, 31, who was found dead Sept. 25 in the 300 block of 2nd Avenue in San Diego.

“Wells was found fully clothed in a parking lot,” the list said. “She was a prostitute who worked the downtown area. She had been shot once in the head.”