Frustration Rises in Serial Slaying Case

San Diego police are pursuing more than 2,000 leads in connection with the stabbing deaths of five women in Clairemont and University City, but none has produced an arrest and investigators are increasingly frustrated, police said Monday.

“Absolutely, there’s frustration,” Lt. Gary Learn said at a morning press briefing. “We’ve spent a tremendous amount of time and effort on this. In one two-week period, detectives alone recorded more than 1,400 hours of overtime. That’s seven days a week, including Saturdays, Sundays and extended hours. It adds up to almost $45,000 in overtime pay.”

Learn said that, based on the leads, more than 100 potential suspects have been interviewed and evaluated.

“We’ve focused in on a number of people because of their activities, past crime histories or things that have come to our attention,” he said. “I can’t say we’ve focused on any one particular person, but it’s the kind of thing where, five minutes from now, the lead could turn up, and right around the corner we’d have (a suspect).”

Learn said media attention has helped generate and maintain the flow of leads as well as isolate the suspect’s description to that of a black male, of unknown nationality, 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-10, medium build with short, dark, kinky hair.

He said the widely distributed composite drawing is based on the account of one witness, who saw the face of the killer as he ran from the Clairemont apartment where 18-year-old Holly Suzanne Tarr was slain on April 3.

The killer briefly confronted a maintenance man, who didn’t see the suspect’s face because it was hidden by a shirt. But the ensuing commotion alerted a painter, who “got a real good look” at the killer’s face, Learn said.

He said investigators later found a T-shirt and a knife, believed to be the murder weapon.