"We Still Have 55 Faces Here": LAPD Seeks Links Between the "Grim Sleeper" Suspect and More Possible Victims, AP, 2011

Name: "We Still Have 55 Faces Here": LAPD Seeks Links Between the "Grim Sleeper" Suspect and More Possible Victims, AP, 2011
Uploaded: 2011-04-06T00:00:00Z
Duration: 1 min 32 s
Description: An April 2011 AP report on the LAPD news conference at which detectives said Lonnie Franklin Jr. might be linked to eight more possible victims and appealed for help with photographs found in his home. Franklin is not heard.

An April 2011 AP report on the LAPD news conference at which detectives said Lonnie Franklin Jr. might be linked to eight more possible victims and appealed for help with photographs found in his home. Franklin is not heard.

Subject: Lonnie Franklin
Recorded: April 5, 2011
Runtime: 1:32

Content warning: Concerns missing and murdered women. No graphic detail.

The Interview

This is not an interview with Lonnie Franklin Jr., who is not heard. It is a 92-second Associated Press news report, narrated by AP's Brian Thomas, on the Los Angeles Police Department news conference of April 5, 2011. An LAPD detective, not named in the recording, speaks twice: about the 55 photographs still unidentified, and about why three women's pictures mattered most.

Historical Context

Franklin was arrested in July 2010 and charged with ten murders and one attempted murder in South Los Angeles between 1985 and 2007. When detectives searched his home, they seized a large number of photographs of women, and in the months after the arrest the LAPD released many of them and asked the public to help identify the women.

Circumstances

On April 5, 2011, LAPD Robbery-Homicide and task force detectives announced that eight more people might be connected to the case: six missing women, the unsolved 1988 murder of Inez Warren, and an unidentified woman. They again asked for help with 55 photographs that remained unidentified. The pictures of three women had been found in a refrigerator in Franklin's garage, apart from the other photographs.

What the Recording Covers

The narrator says detectives believed Franklin "may have killed eight additional victims." The detective says, "We still have 55 faces here that we don't know the answers to." The narrator names Ayellah Marshall, 18, missing since February 2005, and Rolenia Morris, 29, missing since September 2005, and shows an unidentified woman, explaining that their photos were found in a refrigerator at Franklin's home along with a photo of a woman he was already charged with killing. The detective says the three were "of the utmost important to us" because of where the items were found, "separate and apart" from most of the photos. The narrator adds that the families of four other missing women had come forward, and names Inez Warren.

What Makes the Recording Significant

It records the moment the LAPD first publicly widened the case beyond the ten charged killings, and the photo appeal that remains a distinctive feature of the investigation.

Important Caveats

Franklin is not heard. The detective is not named in the recording; AP's written report of the same day quotes Detective Dennis Kilcoyne, head of the task force, but not these sentences, so he should not be named on the page without confirmation from the picture. The narration says Inez Warren was killed in "1998"; the LAPD and other sources give 1988. The uploader's "eight additional murders" should be read as eight possible victims, six of whom were missing women. Franklin was never charged with the deaths of Ayellah Marshall, Rolenia Morris or Inez Warren.

Narrator: 58-year-old Lonnie Franklin, dubbed the Grim Sleeper, is already accused of killing 10 women and girls as far back as the 1980s. Tuesday, Los Angeles police detectives say he may have killed eight additional victims. Since his arrest last year, when police seized numerous photos from his home, authorities have asked the public for help in locating dozens of missing and unidentified women. They did that again on Tuesday.

Lapd Detective: We still have 55 faces here that we don't know the answers to, and where that leads us tomorrow, I don't know.

Narrator: Tuesday, they sought help from the public locating three women in particular. First, 18-year-old Ayellah Marshall, who disappeared in February of 2005. Second, 29-year-old Rolenia Morris, who disappeared in September of 2005. And this woman, who has not been identified. Police are focusing on the three because their photos were found in a refrigerator at Franklin's home, along with a photo of a woman he's already been charged with killing.

Lapd Detective: The reason that those three are of the utmost important to us is the location at Mr. Franklin's residence that these three items were recovered, and they were separate and apart than the majority of the photos that we've been working on.

Narrator: After Franklin was arrested last year, the families of four other missing women approached police. Authorities believe those missing women could be Franklin's victims, too, as well as this woman, 28-year-old Inez Warren, who was shot and killed in 1998. Brian Thomas, the Associated Press. [Speech ends at about 01:31; clip ends at 01:32.] ---