A 73-year-old man has been charged with the murders of three women dating back to 1977 in the USA, following a breakthrough in a cold case investigation through DNA evidence. Warren Alexander remains in custody without bail. Mr Alexander is also awaiting prosecution for a separate cold case from 1992.
The case provides the importance of technological advancements in forensics.
The victims were all found dead, northwest of Los Angeles in America, in 1977. According to the District Attorney each of the women was a victim of “ligature strangulation” and all were sex workers known to frequent areas associated with sex trafficking. Despite early suspicions that the crimes were linked, detectives were unable to identify a suspect until the recent DNA match to Alexander.
The match occurred last year in 2023 after DNA evidence was uploaded into a national database. Investigative genealogy had already identified Alexander as a suspect in the 1992 North Carolina murder of Nona Cobb, which led to his arrest in March 2022.
Just as in Australia, if an accused faces historic charges of this nature, the court’s focus will include evaluating the strength of the DNA evidence and its relevance to the crimes in question.
Our DNA laboratories in Queensland have recently faced an inquiry. The results were astounding and can be viewed at:
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