DNA search yields other possible cases

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Investigators have identified two additional serial killing suspects as part of the same probe that led authorities to charge a Kansas City man with killing 12 women, the head of the city's crime lab said Wednesday.

Lab director Gary Howell declined to elaborate about the suspects or the victims, including how many people investigators believe the suspects may have killed. He said their crimes did not approach the level of Lorenzo Gilyard, 53, who was charged Saturday with killing 12 women, all but one a prostitute.

Both suspects are in police custody and are likely to be charged in the future with additional crimes, Howell said.

Police Detective Mike Luster said Wednesday night that investigators "had several hits and made some arrests" but was unable to provide further details.

John Liebnitz, a spokesman for the Jackson County Prosecutor's office, said he wasn't familiar with the cases Howell described and couldn't comment.

Howell said the suspects were identified during the past year after a federal grant allowed the crime lab to test evidence from old cases using the latest DNA technology. Criminal investigators in the late 1980s and early 1990s used a DNA technology that was extremely accurate but slow, expensive and time-consuming.

The new technology is easier, less expensive and more reliable. It also allows investigators to extract DNA from much smaller and older samples.

The first hit police got, Luster said, was on a 1991 case in which a woman was sexually assaulted and strangled in her home.

But the suspect has since died in prison, Luster said, and police have been unable to reach the woman's relatives to notify them of the break.

Steve Egger, a professor of criminology at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, said it wasn't surprising that the examination of old cases led authorities to find more than one serial murder suspect because prostitute slayings were among the backlog. It was not clear from Howell's limited description of the victims whether they were prostitutes.

Egger said prostitutes are the most common victims of serial killers because they are easy targets. He said their disappearances aren't noticed as quickly nor are the investigations into their deaths typically pursued as aggressively.

The fact that two of the suspects hadn't been charged also didn't come as a surprise.

"They can take their time if the person is in prison because they aren't going to go anywhere," he said.