Homeless serial killer suspect investigated in additional slayings

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/02/homeless-serial-killer-suspect-probed-in-additional-slayings.html

Detectives are investigating whether accused serial killer Itzcoatl
Ocampo was involved in the slaying of a Yorba Linda mother and her son
two months before the string of fatal stabbings of homeless men in
Orange County began.

Ocampo, 23, has been charged with four counts of murder in the fatal
stabbings of the homeless men, a run of violence that began Dec. 20.

Orange County District Atty. Tony Rackauckas called the slayings a
“serial thrill-kill spree” and suggested the former Marine had other
killings planned when he was arrested.

PHOTOS: Orange County serial killer

After Ocampo was arrested Jan. 13, investigators began to look into
links to other crimes, including the double homicide in Yorba Linda,
said Sgt. Jim Griffin with the Brea Police Department, which patrols
Yorba Linda.

"There are some similarities,” Griffin said.

About 11:30 p.m. Oct. 25, police responded to a 911 call from a male
stating he had heard loud banging and noises coming from a Yorba Linda
home. Police arrived and noticed a large amount of pooled blood near
the front door.

Inside they found the bodies of Juan Herrera, 34, and his mother,
Raquel Estrada, 53, both of whom had been stabbed to death.

Estrada’s second son, Eder Giovanni Herrera, 24, was arrested the
following day as a suspect. He is accused of stabbing his mother and
brother to death, then fleeing to a friend’s house where he was
arrested, according to a news release by the Brea Police Department.
Griffin would not comment on specific similarities between the
homicides and the homeless killings, or how Ocampo could be tied to
the earlier deaths.

"We’re waiting on forensics,” he said.

Susan Kang Schroeder, a spokeswoman with the Orange County district
attorney’s office, declined to comment on the case.

Ocampo, who was living about a mile from the home where the two bodies
were found, is accused of killing four middle-aged homeless men.

On Dec. 20, James McGillivray, 53, was stabbed while he was sleeping
outside a Placentia shopping center. Eight days later, Lloyd “Jim”
Middaugh, 42, was found stabbed to death on the Santa Ana River trail.
Paulus “Dutch” Smit, 57, was stabbed to death Dec. 30 outside the
Yorba Linda library, which Ocampo was known to frequent.

John Barry, 64, was the fourth victim. He was stabbed outside an
Anaheim Carl’s Jr., an incident that led to Ocampo’s capture.
.