Serial Killer’s 7th Possible Victim Found

SACRAMENTO —  Police on Wednesday dug up a decomposing body that they found with high-technology sensors in the yard of a vacant house, the seventh possible victim linked to accused serial killer Morris Solomon.

The corpse was discovered shortly after daybreak when a low-flying helicopter equipped with heat-sensing infrared scanning gear pinpointed the grave site in a low-income neighborhood, about four miles southeast of the state Capitol.

Police spokesman Sgt. Bob Burns said the body was found in the same yard where the remains of a young female, another victim linked to Solomon, were unearthed March 19.

Gender a Mystery

“We’ve found the remains of a human being, but at this point we don’t even know if it’s male or female,” Burns told reporters at the scene.

Solomon, 43, an itinerant handyman who repaired old houses in exchange for rent-free quarters, was arraigned earlier this week on murder charges. He was accused of killing six young women, most of them prostitutes and cocaine users, over a two-year period. He has not yet entered a plea.

Burns said the corpse discovered Wednesday showed up as a “hot spot” on the infrared monitor in the helicopter Wednesday as officers flew over nine areas that they described as suspicious due to depressions or indentations. Authorities planned to excavate other spots in the same yard, which appeared as “hot spots” on the scanner, later in the day. But work ceased until today after the mechanical failure of a backhoe-tractor.

Other ‘Hot Spots’

Burns also said police would investigate additional “hot spots” detected in the yards of three other area houses. The scanners can detect the small degree of heat given off by a decomposing body.

Altogether, detectives have checked the yards of more than 30 homes where Solomon lived and worked. Solomon lived at the house where the body was discovered Wednesday until last November, Burns said.

Sacramento County Dist. Atty. John Dougherty said earlier that his office will seek the death penalty for Solomon.

Court and prison records reveal that Solomon has been arrested at least 10 times in the last 18 years for sexual assaults and other violent crimes and had spent 2 1/2 years in San Quentin for sex crimes and two years in a state mental hospital as a mentally disordered sex offender.