khoji parkSerial Killer · Los Angeles, California · 2010
A Discarded Pizza Helped Identify a Killer
Genetic genealogy and an undercover operation ended a decades-long Los Angeles murder mystery.
Read in slides1. The South Los Angeles Murders
During the 1980s, investigators in Los Angeles linked killings through forensic evidence. Most victims were Black women. Police examined cases across South Los Angeles without identifying the person responsible, while relatives and community members sought answers. The nickname Grim Sleeper referred to an apparent long gap in linked cases, rather than proof that no other crimes occurred during it.
Investigators linked several homicides through ballistic evidence.
2. The Grim Sleeper Moniker
Murders linked to the specific firearm abruptly stopped after 1988, creating an apparent fourteen-year hiatus in the killer's activity. The investigation stalled as detectives ran out of viable leads and community activists criticized the police department's lack of progress. In 2002, killings resumed with the murder of fifteen-year-old Princess Berthomieux. Investigative journalists eventually dubbed the elusive killer the Grim Sleeper due to the lengthy break between attacks.
The apparent gap did not establish that the offender had stopped.
3. Task Force Formation
In 2007, DNA analysis connected the murder of twenty-five-year-old Janecia Peters to at least eleven earlier unsolved homicides. Following this genetic breakthrough, the Los Angeles Police Department secretly formed the eight hundred task force to reinvestigate the cold cases. Officials announced a large financial reward and featured the unsolved murders on national television programs. Public pressure mounted as families demanded answers regarding the department's previous handling of the cases.
Police formed a dedicated task force after new DNA links emerged.
4. Familial DNA Breakthrough
Detectives searched California's state offender DNA database for a direct match to the genetic profile recovered from the crime scenes. When direct database searches failed to yield a suspect, investigators utilized familial DNA searching techniques. The search identified a strong genetic similarity to a convicted felon named Christopher Franklin. Authorities quickly determined that Christopher was too young to have committed the 1980s murders, directing their focus toward his father.
Familial database searches pointed investigators toward a close relative.
5. Undercover Surveillance
Police placed Lonnie Franklin Jr. under intensive surveillance to obtain a direct DNA sample for comparison. Officers followed Franklin to a restaurant in Buena Park during the summer of 2010. An undercover detective posing as a waiter collected dishes, glasses, and partially eaten pizza crusts discarded by Franklin. Forensic analysts compared the saliva found on the pizza items to the DNA profile recovered from the historical crime scenes.
Detectives collected discarded pizza items to obtain a DNA sample.
6. Arrest of Lonnie Franklin
Laboratory testing confirmed that the DNA extracted from the pizza crust matched the genetic profile of the serial killer. On July seventh, 2010, law enforcement officers arrested fifty-seven-year-old Lonnie Franklin Jr. at his South Los Angeles home. Prosecutors formally charged him with ten counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. Subsequent searches of his residence revealed over one thousand photographs of women and girls.
Police arrested Franklin after genetic testing confirmed a direct match.
7. Photo Discovery
Following the arrest, the police department publicly released a collection of photographs found inside Franklin's garage in an effort to identify potential additional victims. Many images depicted conscious and unconscious women dating back decades. Detectives investigated whether Franklin was responsible for numerous other unsolved missing persons cases across Los Angeles. Prosecutors later presented evidence linking him to several additional slayings during court proceedings.
Investigators reviewed hundreds of recovered photographs to identify victims.
8. Trial Proceedings
Franklin's capital murder trial finally commenced in Los Angeles Superior Court in February 2016 following numerous legal delays. During the trial, prosecutors presented overwhelming ballistic and genetic evidence connecting Franklin to the ten named victims. Enietra Washington, the sole known survivor of his attacks, testified about her harrowing encounter. On May fifth, 2016, a jury convicted Franklin of nine counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder.
A Los Angeles jury convicted Franklin on all counts after a lengthy trial.
9. Death Sentence
During the penalty phase of the trial, prosecutors introduced evidence regarding additional women believed to have been killed by Franklin. On August tenth, 2016, the Superior Court formally sentenced Franklin to death for each of the ten murder convictions. He was subsequently transferred to San Quentin State Prison to await execution on death row. Defense attorneys criticized the lengthy legal process while victims' families expressed relief at the verdict.
A judge sentenced the convicted serial killer to death.
10. Death on Death Row
On March 28, 2020, Franklin was found unresponsive in his San Quentin cell and pronounced dead. He had been convicted of ten murders and an attempted murder and sentenced to death in 2016. Police had examined other possible victims and photographs from his property. Those inquiries were not all additional convictions, and his death did not establish everyone’s identity or fate.
Franklin died in his prison cell while awaiting execution.