Using DNA evidence, law-enforcement officials have found and charged the 75-year-old Texas man responsible for the killings of three women and a teenager in 1980 and 1995, authorities said on Friday.
“Detectives from the Los Angeles and Inglewood, Calif., police departments traveled to Fort Worth, Texas, to arrest the man, Billy Ray Richardson, whom the police linked to the murders of Kari Lenander, Beverly Cruse, and her sister, Debra Cruse, in 1980 in Los Angeles, as well as Trina Wilson in 1995 in Inglewood,” according to The New York Times.
Richardson was charged on Thursday with four counts of murder and related charges. Additionally, as of Friday afternoon, Richardson was incarcerated in Tarrant Country, Texas, awaiting extradition to Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles district attorney, George Gascon, said, “I cannot imagine the pain that these families have endured. Their loss is immeasurable. We hope that together we can bring justice to the families who have endured so much and have waited years for this moment.”
In 2001, a cold case in Los Angeles was reopened for detectives to investigate further into the murder of 15-year-old Kari Lenander. Her body was found on July 26, 1980, in a South Los Angeles neighborhood, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
“On the night she was killed, Kari and her best friend, 15-year-old Toni Garfield, were at Toni’s house prepping for a party and drinking tequila,” Detective Tim Marcia told The Los Angeles Times Magazine in 2010. The girls went out dancing and hitchhiked on their way home.
They were picked up by a white man, who stated his name was Ken. Toni was dropped off at home at about 10 p.m., but Kari continued partying with Ken, the magazine disclosed. Five hours later, Kari’s body was found.
Detective Marcia reported, “There was a big break in the case in the mid-2000s after a DNA profile determined the race of the suspect. It had long been believed that the girls had been picked up by a white man, but a test by a private lab indicated that her killer was Black. It was unclear how much of a role that test played in identifying Billy Richardson, who is Black.”
A few months prior to Kari’s murder, two naked bodies of Beverly Cruse, 25, and Debra Cruse, 22, were discovered on March 5, 1980, by their brother in a West Los Angeles apartment. Their brother told the police he went to visit his sisters due to the fact that he had not heard from them for several days and was concerned. The prosecutor’s office said that both women had been shot in the head.
More than 15 years later, Trina Wilson’s body was found near an Inglewood park on December 31, 1995. However, the “circumstances of her death were not immediately clear on Friday,” according to The New York Times. About 17 years later, in 2012, the Inglewood City Council adopted a resolution offering $25,000 for information that could lead to the identification, arrest, and conviction of Wilson’s murderer(s).
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/16/us/billy-richardson-cold-case-california.html
“Detectives from the Los Angeles and Inglewood, Calif., police departments traveled to Fort Worth, Texas, to arrest the man, Billy Ray Richardson, whom the police linked to the murders of Kari Lenander, Beverly Cruse, and her sister, Debra Cruse, in 1980 in Los Angeles, as well as Trina Wilson in 1995 in Inglewood,” according to The New York Times.
Richardson was charged on Thursday with four counts of murder and related charges. Additionally, as of Friday afternoon, Richardson was incarcerated in Tarrant Country, Texas, awaiting extradition to Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles district attorney, George Gascon, said, “I cannot imagine the pain that these families have endured. Their loss is immeasurable. We hope that together we can bring justice to the families who have endured so much and have waited years for this moment.”
In 2001, a cold case in Los Angeles was reopened for detectives to investigate further into the murder of 15-year-old Kari Lenander. Her body was found on July 26, 1980, in a South Los Angeles neighborhood, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
“On the night she was killed, Kari and her best friend, 15-year-old Toni Garfield, were at Toni’s house prepping for a party and drinking tequila,” Detective Tim Marcia told The Los Angeles Times Magazine in 2010. The girls went out dancing and hitchhiked on their way home.
They were picked up by a white man, who stated his name was Ken. Toni was dropped off at home at about 10 p.m., but Kari continued partying with Ken, the magazine disclosed. Five hours later, Kari’s body was found.
Detective Marcia reported, “There was a big break in the case in the mid-2000s after a DNA profile determined the race of the suspect. It had long been believed that the girls had been picked up by a white man, but a test by a private lab indicated that her killer was Black. It was unclear how much of a role that test played in identifying Billy Richardson, who is Black.”
A few months prior to Kari’s murder, two naked bodies of Beverly Cruse, 25, and Debra Cruse, 22, were discovered on March 5, 1980, by their brother in a West Los Angeles apartment. Their brother told the police he went to visit his sisters due to the fact that he had not heard from them for several days and was concerned. The prosecutor’s office said that both women had been shot in the head.
More than 15 years later, Trina Wilson’s body was found near an Inglewood park on December 31, 1995. However, the “circumstances of her death were not immediately clear on Friday,” according to The New York Times. About 17 years later, in 2012, the Inglewood City Council adopted a resolution offering $25,000 for information that could lead to the identification, arrest, and conviction of Wilson’s murderer(s).
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/16/us/billy-richardson-cold-case-california.html
