New Emphasis on Solving Gentile Slaying Commendable : Task force also investigates killings of 42 others

San Diego Police Chief Bob Burgreen may have spoken for the entire community in June when he told a Times reporter: “There is no slaying in this city that has bothered me more than the murder of Donna Gentile.”

The possibility that Gentile was murdered by a police officer has profoundly disturbing implications.

Burgreen and the task force investigating the murders of Gentile and 42 other women over the past five years are right to redouble their efforts to get to the bottom of what may be the county’s most important mystery. Last week, the city-county task force trying to solve the crimes was expanded from 11 to 21 investigators.

Most importantly, it added a prosecutor from the state attorney general’s office in what appears to be an effort to address the unstated criticism that law enforcement officers cannot be asked to probe a crime that may involve members of their own department or profession.

Gentile’s badly beaten body was tossed off Sunrise Highway in a rural area of East County five years ago. Gravel was stuffed in her mouth, a sign that she may have been killed because she testified against police officers.

Gentile told the city Civil Service Commission that officer Larry Avrech gave her confidential police information in exchange for sex. The commission concluded that it had no evidence to support Gentile’s allegation but upheld other charges that Avrech impeded a police investigation of the matter and revealed internal police procedures against prostitution.

Burgreen, Sheriff John Duffy and Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller, who head the task force, should be commended for increasing its size in the hope of solving the slayings, and for taking steps to ensure its integrity.