Prime Suspect in Slaying of 4 Prostitutes Identified : Crime: Police are searching for paroled convict Michael Hubert Hughes, who they say has a history of violence and sexual offenses.

A man believed to be a former security guard was named Thursday as the prime suspect in the strangulation deaths of at least four prostitutes in the Los Angeles area.

Acting on a tip, officers from Los Angeles and Culver City recently went to the suspect’s last known address, only to find that he had just moved, said Culver City Police Chief Ted Cooke.

“The victims were essentially prostitutes, and we’re very much concerned because we think he poses a danger to others until we catch him,” Cooke said.

The bodies of three of the victims were found dumped in alleys in a commercial area of Culver City, but detectives said they believe the killer choked his victims to death elsewhere.

The suspect was identified as a paroled convict, Michael Hubert Hughes, 37, also known as Michael Forunte and Michael Hudges. He was described as a 6-foot-2, 220-pound African American with a criminal history of violence and sexual offenses.

Although the killings bear “a great deal of similarity” to a spate of prostitute slayings in the San Gabriel Valley, Cooke said there is no evidence to indicate they were the work of the same person.

The victims were identified as Teresa Ballard, 26, whose partially clothed body was found in Jesse Owens Park, near Western Avenue and Century Boulevard in Los Angeles, on Sept. 23, 1992; Brenda Bradley, 38, whose partially clothed body was found in an alley near the eastern tip of Culver City 12 days later; Terri Myles, 33, whose nude body was found two blocks away on Nov. 8 of this year, and Jamie Harrington, 29, whose clothed body was found nearby six days after that.

Police said that Hughes was living in Gardena at the time of Ballard’s killing but has since moved among several addresses in West Los Angeles.

At this point, he may be living on the street, detectives said. He is believed to have worked for a security company in the past.

Although investigators from Culver City and Los Angeles have been working on the case for months, it was only in the last few days that a witness provided information leading to the warrant for the arrest of Hughes, they said.