Police Release Sketch of 'Grim Sleeper'

The Los Angeles Police Department has released a sketch of a man they suspect in at least 11 deaths since the 1980s in hopes of tracking down the serial killer. The suspect is known only as the "Grim Sleeper" due to the fact that he apparently took a 14-year hiatus.

The deaths occurred in Los Angeles, L.A. County and Inglewood from 1985 until 2007.

Investigators say DNA evidence and ballistics evidence connected the murders of 10 women and one man from 1985 to 1988 and then from 2002 until 2007. No homicides were linked to the same suspect between 1988 and 2002.

The victims were all black and most were prostitutes or drug addicts, police said. They were sexually assaulted. A 12th victim managed to escape after being shot and raped in 1988. It was that victim's description from which the police developed its latest sketch.

LAPD Sketch

The suspect is described as 5-10 and 160 pounds. He is soft-spoken, articulate and has neatly trimmed hair and a pockmarked face. But that description is from 1988. Police hope to age-enhance the sketch.

In 2008, a $500,000 reward was issued by the Los Angeles City Council for information leading to the killer's arrest and conviction.

In February, the police released a 9-1-1 tape of a call made in 1987 of a witness reporting the killer disposing of a woman's body in an alley in South Los Angeles, hoping to identify the caller.

See Also:
L.A. Detectives Step Up Search for Grim Sleeper Serial Killer

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^{Photo: LAPD Sketch}