Texas man arrested in connection with four Los Angeles-area cold case killings
Billy Ray Richardson was arrested in Fort Worth, Texas and faces four murder charges in connection with the cold case slayings in Los Angeles County, police said
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A Texas man has been arrested for four cold case murders committed in the Los Angeles area in the 1980s and 90s, authorities said Thursday.
Billy Ray Richardson, 76, was arrested in Fort Worth, Texas on Thursday after being charged with the 1980 murders of Beverly Cruse, Debra Cruse and Kari Lenander in Los Angeles and the 1995 slaying of Trina Wilson in Inglewood, the Los Angeles Police Department said.
He is in police custody awaiting extradition to Los Angeles, police said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Investigative and forensic work over decades connected these murders through DNA and linked them to suspect Billy Ray Richardson," police said.
Los Angeles Police Department headquarters. The LAPD on Thursday said a Texas man has been arrested and charged with four decades-old murders in and around the city. (Reuters)
Los Angeles prosecutors have charged him with four counts of first-degree murder with special circumstance of multiple murders and murder under the commission of rape.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Beverly, 25, and 22-year-old Debra Cruse were found dead by their brother in the bedroom of Beverly's apartment, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Lenander, 15, was found months later raped and strangled and her body dumped in a gutter, the Times report said.