It wasn't a witness or informant that tipped off law enforcement to the identity of the "Grim Sleeper" serial killer, who had eluded police for more than two decades, but DNA from the suspect's own son.
A new technique called familial DNA led police to 57-year-old Lonnie David Franklin Jr., who was charged with 10 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder Wednesday in the infamous "Grim Sleeper" slayings.
Police said that the technique could prove more revolutionary than fingerprinting in solving crime.
"This is a landmark case. This will change the way policing is done in the United States," said Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck at a press conference today.
The high-profile case had languished unsolved, and had haunted the files of the LAPD cold-case unit for years. According to the attorney general's office, the suspect's son was arrested and convicted in a felony weapons charge and swabbed for DNA last year. When his DNA was entered into the database, detectives were alerted to a partial match to evidence found at the "Grim Sleeper" crime scenes.
Police began investigating Franklin's son's relatives, and found a match in Lonnie Franklin. Police said he had never been a suspect until now.
"This arrest provides proof positive that familial DNA searches must be a part of law enforcement's crime-fighting arsenal. Although the adoption of this new state policy was unprecedented and controversial, in certain cases, it is the only way to bring a dangerous killer to justice," said Attorney General Jerry Brown in a statement.
The familial DNA program was enacted by Brown in April 2008 as a way to fight violent crimes when there is "serious risk to public safety," according to the attorney general's office. Californiais the first state to use familial searches.
The killings of 10 young black women and one man, beginning in 1985, have all been blamed on the "Grim Sleeper."
The cluster of killings stopped in 1988, but then, 14 years later, police said they linked new murders to the same man, nicknamed the "Grim Sleeper" for the long lull between slayings. The most recent murder happened in January 2007.
Police closed off the block on 81st Street in South Los Angeles where Franklin lived Wednesday and the arrest was made. Residents were shocked.
Neighbor Donna Harris, who's known Franklin for nearly 20 years ago, said the retired mechanic was supposed to fix her car this morning.
"Everybody on the block, we all knew if anything was happening with anybody's cars, he was always there for us. Especially the ladies," Harris said. "Even if we weren't at home, instead of calling Triple AAA, he would help."
Franklin was reportedly a mechanic for a Los Angeles Police Department station, near the epicenter of the murder spree, in the 1980s.
Though Harris counted Franklin as a friend, she said the news was frightening.
"It frightens me to know that somebody like that was that close," Harris said. "I don't want to believe it's true, [but] if he did what he's been accused of, God judged him for that."
Franklin has a criminal history dating back to 1989, according to records. His four previous convictions include charges of a misdemeanor battery and assault, as well as two charges for stolen property -- one of which he served jail time for.
With these latest charges, he could face the death penalty or life in prison without possibility of parole. He's expected to be arraigned today.
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