Police Say Investigation of Serial Killings Is at a Standstill

San Diego police have received more than 2,200 leads in connection with the serial stabbing deaths of five women in Clairemont and University City, but with no arrest in sight and tips tapering off, the case is at a standstill, officials said Monday.

Asked at a press briefing whether an arrest was imminent, or if a piece was still missing, Capt. Dick Toneck said investigators are stuck.

“A piece is still missing,” he said. “If I had something to bring forth in the way of an arrest, I would relish that. But, as it stands, we’re sifting through all the clues and all the tips people have phoned in. We’re just hoping one will lead to an arrest.”

Toneck said the Police Department’s 33 investigators working the case full time have called back almost everyone who phoned in with information.

The case has received widespread media coverage in San Diego, where Police Chief Bob Burgreen has labeled the search for the killer the largest manhunt in the city’s history and the department’s No. 1 priority.

Since Jan. 12, four women between the ages of 18 and 21 were murdered inside their homes in the middle of the day, after the killer entered through an unlocked or open door, police say. The fifth victim, 42-year-old Pamela Gail Clark, was the mother of one of the victims, 18-year-old Amber Clark. Both were stabbed inside their home in University City on Sept. 13. The three other women lived within two blocks of one another in a row of apartment houses in Clairemont.

The manhunt and subsequent publicity led to a run on locks and security devices at local stores. Police have held twice-weekly press briefings, at which they often have nothing new to report. The briefings are to be reduced to once a week later this week.

On Monday, Toneck, one of seven ranking officers assigned to the case full time, said investigators don’t have a clear idea of the killer’s possible whereabouts or whether he has left the area.

“We don’t have anything to indicate (the suspect) is still here,” Toneck said. “God forbid he’s still here. We don’t have any leads to tell us where he may be.”

Toneck said the leads had given police a range of possible suspects “who fit the description to a T. And yet, those are not the people. Their backgrounds, their whereabouts, just don’t fit.”

Toneck has said police are eyeing a number of possible suspects but have no one under “classic surveillance.” He declined to say what that means.

The department made a controversial arrest shortly after the third killing in early April when a native-born Puerto Rican--and a decorated ex-Marine--was followed for weeks and finally detained because he closely resembled a composite drawing of the suspect.

The man later said he phoned police and told them he committed the crime in the hope he could then convince them he was innocent. He was cleared shortly after his arrest.

Just last week, police ruled out any link between the serial slayings and a man arrested on suspicion of rape in Escondido.

The Clairemont-University City suspect is said to be a light-skinned black male, 5-foot-7 to 5-foot-10, with medium build and short, dark, kinky hair. He was briefly seen by a painter as he ran from the Clairemont apartment where 18-year-old Holly Suzanne Tarr was killed April 3.

It is that one sighting upon which the widely distributed composite of the suspect is based.

Toneck said that, based on a psychological profile prepared for the Police Department by the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., the killer is thought to be a loner and “disorganized” in his methods of operation.

Police believe the weapon used in each of the killings was obtained at the scene; in every case but the first, investigators later found knives believed to have been the killer’s weapon.

Although he appears to be a loner, “there’s no doubt that somebody--a loved one, a neighbor, a close friend--knows this guy,” Toneck said. “We just don’t know why this person hasn’t called in and said, ‘I know this guy.’ We’re hoping that will happen.”

But police have declined to say what, if any, reason they have to believe someone knows the suspect. They also decline to discuss almost any question relating to evidence.

Toneck said the number of investigators working the case was recently scaled back from 34 to 33, and that $145,000 has been spent investigating the slayings. He said the number of detectives working the case “may be scaled back further at the point where the leads start to diminish.”

Police are concerned that unsuspecting residents may soon grow complacent and stop taking the precautions that many in the area instituted after the fourth and fifth killings in University City on Sept. 13, Toneck said.

“People are going to get complacent. But as we’ve said to them, don’t get complacent. This person is still around, still out and about, so please lock your doors in the daytime, be aware of your surroundings, get to know your neighbors and have your neighbors know you. Know the routines of one another at all times.”