Hueneme Officials Look for Link to Rogers : Crime: Police seek samples of alleged killer’s DNA, believing they might answer questions about three unsolved slayings.

Police officials Monday asked the FBI to send DNA samples from Glen Edward Rogers now that the accused serial killer is in custody.

Port Hueneme Police Department investigators suspect that Rogers, 33, may have committed at least one unsolved murder in this tiny port town during a violent spree two years ago.

“If the DNA matches, we know we have a case,” said lead investigator Sgt. Jerry Beck.

Beck also requested that the Federal Bureau of Investigation interview Rogers about his familiarity with Port Hueneme and any knowledge he may have of three killings committed here in the summer of 1993.

Rogers, a former Van Nuys resident who is accused of murdering at least five people nationwide, was arrested by state police in Kentucky Monday after a 15-mile chase.

He became a suspect in the trio of Port Hueneme slayings when police learned last week of Roger’s alleged method of killing, which often consisted of strangling a victim, sometimes leaving the body in a bathtub and setting the crime scene on fire.

Port Hueneme resident Cynthia Burger met an eerily similar fate Aug. 5, 1993. The 44-year-old customer service manager at Gold Coast Acura in Ventura was sexually assaulted and strangled in her two-story condominium that was then set ablaze. Investigators found Burger’s body in the bathtub.

Two other murders committed that summer also share similar characteristics: the strangling death of Norma Rodriguez, 32, and the rape and stabbing death of Beatrice Bellis, 87. Police pursued hundreds of leads, but all three murders remain stubbornly unsolved.

Police have DNA samples thought to be from the suspect in the Burger and Bellis murders. Beck said he is eager for the FBI to send a comparison sample from Rogers to the Port Hueneme crime lab.

Beck said that he does not expect the three murders to be related and that at best, Rogers may be linked to only one of the killings. The DNA samples collected at two crime scenes don’t match.

“It’s a real slim chance Rogers was involved, but we owe it to the victims’ families and the community to take another look,” Beck said Monday.

Police also want to know whether Rogers has visited Port Hueneme. It is already known that Rogers had frequented the Los Angeles area since 1982.

The Los Angeles Police Department suspects Rogers in the strangulation of Sandra Gallagher, 34, which occurred two months ago in Van Nuys. Gallagher’s body was found in her burnt-out pickup truck.

“Considering the way California is connected by freeways, it’s entirely possible Rogers visited the area,” Beck said.

In the past two days, dozens of Port Hueneme residents have told police they have seen Rogers in the area in the past several weeks.

“One guy said they saw him driving on the freeway, another said he saw him in a Wal-Mart in Lompoc and another said he saw him in a local bar,” Beck said. “None have been confirmed.”

Whether or not Rogers is involved in the Port Hueneme murders, public discussion of them can only help.

“Hopefully, somebody out there will remember the murders and call us with new information,” Beck said.

But it may be several days before Port Hueneme police learn anything from the FBI--police departments from all over the country are phoning in requests in attempts to link similar unsolved murders to Rogers.

“We’re in a long line of police departments looking for fingerprints and DNA,” Beck said. “But who knows? Maybe he’ll start talking and mention killing someone in Port Hueneme.”

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