California News : Rape Suspect No Longer Linked to Serial Killings

A 23-year-old Massachusetts man being held in a Las Vegas jail on suspicion of rape is no longer considered a suspect in the serial slayings of five women in the city’s Clairemont and University City neighborhoods, San Diego police said Thursday.

Louis Angel Mandez moved from New Bedford, Mass., to San Diego in October, about a month after 42-year-old Pamela Gail Clark and her 18-year-old daughter, Amber, were stabbed to death in University City on Sept. 13, authorities said.

Mandez, who also spells his name Mendez, waived extradition at a hearing in Las Vegas on Wednesday and will be returned to San Diego early next week, Lt. Gary Learn said Thursday.

Mandez is wanted in connection with the rape of a 22-year-old UC San Diego student in Pacific Beach on Saturday. He was arrested by the Nevada State Highway Patrol on Interstate 15 just south of Las Vegas at 4:35 a.m. on Sunday.

He was driving the victim’s car, a Volkswagen Rabbit, Learn said. Mandez faces charges of rape, auto theft and burglary when he returns to San Diego.

Learn said police in New Bedford were aware of Mandez, and “through reliable information, we’ve learned that he resided in that city for a majority of 1990. Even though we’ll be conducting some other inquiries, this all but eliminates him in connection with the Clairemont series.”

San Diego police said Mandez allegedly entered a woman’s home in the 900 block of Loring Street through an unlocked, sliding-glass door in the middle of the day and raped her at knifepoint with a weapon obtained in her apartment.

This matches the pattern of the serial slayings, in which five women have been stabbed to death in their homes during the day with weapons obtained in their kitchens. In each case, police say, the killer has entered through unlocked or open doors.

Mandez “vaguely” matched the description of the serial-killing suspect, Learn said. A person witnesses described as a light-skinned black male, 5-foot-7 to 5-10 with a trim to medium build and short-cropped dark hair was seen fleeing the apartment on Cowley Way, where 18-year-old Holly Suzanne Tarr was stabbed to death on April 3.

Mandez, 6-foot-1 and 175 pounds, was listed by authorities at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas as white. Learn said Mandez is of Puerto Rican descent.