The City Council renewed a $500,000 reward today in hopes of apprehending the "Grim Sleeper" believed responsible for murdering 11 people and attacking a woman in South Los Angeles over a 22-year span.
DNA and ballistics evidence has connected the serial killer to the murders of 10 women and one man between 1985 and 2007. After 1988, the killer did not commit any known homicides until 2002. He last struck on Jan. 1, 2007.
The victims were all African-American and most were apparent prostitutes or drug addicts, who were sexually assaulted.
A 12th victim escaped after she was shot and raped.
"In hindsight, now that we have the forensics to go back and reexamine what was taking place during the 1980s, we realize that multiple serial killers were at work in the same general area of Los Angeles at that time," said LAPD Detective Dennis Kilcoyne.
"He disappeared off our radar screen from the end of 1988 until 2002, when he re-appeared and committed another murder. The 11th murder was committed in 2004, then he stopped again for three years. Once again, in January of 2007, he struck again."
The City Council approved a $500,000 reward in the case last fall.
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The families of some of the victims joined Councilman Bernard Parks at City Hall to renew the reward.
Mary Alexander's daughter Monique was killed in 1988.
"She was a very loving daughter and we miss her very much," Alexander said. "I hope you guys will keep the money up so we can find somebody who did these crimes to our daughter and the other daughters because I'm sure the mothers love their daughters just like I love mine."
In February, the LAPD released a 911 tape made by an eyewitness more than 20 years ago after he saw the killer dispose of a woman's body in South Los Angeles.
About 12:19 a.m. on Jan. 10, 1987, the witnesss called police from a pay phone to report that he had seen a man remove a woman's body from a blue and white 1976 Dodge van.
The man told the dispatcher the van's license plate was 1PZP746, and police found it about 30 minutes later at the now-defunct Cosmopolitan Church at 6075 S. Normandie Ave.
Anyone with information on the murders was asked to contact the LAPD at (877) LAPD-24-7.
