New Killing Added to Task Force Investigation

The Metropolitan Homicide Task Force has taken over the investigation of the killing of a woman found in Scripps Ranch Wednesday because of the case’s similarity to more than 40 killings it is investigating, a spokeswoman for the task force said.

In many of those cases, the bodies of nude, strangled women have been found in remote parts of the county.

The identity of the woman found Wednesday in an isolated strip of Scripps Ranch Boulevard is still not known, but she was strangled with a rope and was believed to have been a prostitute, said task force spokeswoman Lt. Liz Foster.

“It was enough for the task force to take the case,” Foster said.

The dead woman was found about 20 feet down an embankment in the 10300 block of Scripps Ranch Boulevard about 7:30 Wednesday morning. Police said the woman, who is possibly Latina or Asian, was in her 30s and was wearing a dark blouse, bright green pants and white sandals.

The woman’s body was found when a woman on her way to work saw a coil of yellow nylon rope near the sidewalk and glanced over the embankment. The rope led down to the body and was wrapped around the victim’s neck, Foster said.

There is evidence that, sometime during the night, the woman’s body was dragged from a vehicle parked at the curb and then either thrown or taken down the embankment, said San Diego Homicide Lt. Paul Ybarrondo. The San Diego police were handling the case until it was turned over to the task force late Thursday afternoon.

Foster, of the task force, said that the woman was also beaten with a blunt object.

“We believe we found her within a 24-hour period of her death,” Foster said. “That will help in the identification because there is evidence that has yet to be destroyed.”

This is the first case added by the task force since last July, when a woman was found dead in La Mesa, Foster said. In that case, the primary cause of death is listed as an overdose but, for reasons she wouldn’t discuss, Foster said the task force is keeping the case.

The joint city-county task force was formed in September, 1988, to investigate a growing list of victims that police thought might be related to the Green River serial killings in the Seattle area. The series of slayings here began in 1985, shortly after the similar series of killings ended in the Seattle area.

This is the 16th strangulation case the task force has investigated, Foster said.

Officials said they are hoping that three tattoos on the woman’s body will make identifying her easier. On her left shoulder and on her left thumb is the same tattoo of a butterfly or small flower. On the woman’s left thigh, the name “Tommy” is written vertically, Ybarrondo said.