A suspected serial killer already in custody in North Carolina for an unsolved murder case has been charged with the murders of three women who were strangled to death in California in 1977, authorities said.

Kimberly Carol Fritz, 18, was killed in May 1977, Velvet Ann Sanchez, 31, was strangled in September 1977 and Lorraine Ann Rodriguez, 21, was killed three months later in December, according to authorities in Ventura County, California.

According to authorities, the victims were all sex workers who often vacationed in local hotels.

Police immediately believed the strangulations were related, but the cases were closed, Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said at a news conference Thursday.

In 2006, detectives uploaded DNA evidence collected at the crime scenes to CODIS – the federal law enforcement DNA database – but found no match, Nasarenko said.

A “breakthrough” came last year when investigators re-uploaded DNA to CODIS and found a match with 73-year-old Warren Luther Alexander, Nasarenko said.

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Alexander’s DNA is in the system because he was arrested in North Carolina in 2022 in connection with an unsolved 1992 murder case, Nasarenko said.

The North Carolina victim, 29-year-old Nona Cobb, was also strangled, Nasarenko said. Alexander is still awaiting charges in that case, authorities said.

Alexander was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and extradited from North Carolina to California on Tuesday, authorities said.

“The day of reckoning has finally come in Ventura County,” Nasarenko said.

Alexander made his initial court appearance in Ventura County Superior Court and is currently being held without bail in the Ventura County Jail, authorities said. His arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 21.

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Alexander lived in Ventura County in the late 1950s and 1960s and returned there in the 1970s, Nasarenko said. From the 1970s through the 1990s, he was a long-distance truck driver, Nasarenko said.

Nasarenko said authorities believe there are more victims and said investigators are working with the FBI to solve additional cases.

Suspected serial killer charged in 1977 murders of three young women: authorities originally appeared on abcnews.go.com