Suspect Charged in 1 of 13 Similar Bay Area Killings

SAN FRANCISCO —  In the course of their lives, the 13 women never knew one other. But in their sudden and violent deaths, they share grim and unsettling similarities.

They were elderly, white and lived alone, several on corner lots. Each was fatally beaten in what they believed to be the sanctuary of their own homes or gardens.

Police throughout the San Francisco Bay Area also report that in addition to the 13 murder victims, more than two dozen other elderly women have suffered similar attacks since 1980--and lived.

The man charged with one of the slayings and two of the savage assaults is ex-convict and alleged cocaine addict Franklin Lynch.

Arrested last Friday in Los Angeles after a statewide manhunt, he was returned to the San Francisco Bay Area on Tuesday, and police said they will question him in connection with murders from Redwood City to Vallejo since 1980. Lynch will be arraigned in Hayward Municipal Court today.

Although details are not available about each slaying, police said that in most cases victims were bound with electrical cord and a blanket or bag was thrown over their heads.

Among the dead: Pearl Larson, 76, Adeline Figuerido, 89, and Anna Constantin, 73, all of San Leandro; Norma Marglon, 78, and Agnes George, 74, of Richmond; and the latest, Marie Lovardi, 82, of San Jose.

San Mateo Police Lt. Ed Smith said the 1982 “Ghetto Murder” of an elderly woman in her home also fits the pattern of the others. Redwood City police have four murders that are similar; Vallejo and Albany each have one.

“The irony and the tragedy of this,” said Richmond Police Sgt. Ray Howard after the slaying of Agnes George, “is to have it happen in a close-knit neighborhood of people, mostly retired, who have known each other for years and who watch out for each other.”

Lynch is a 32-year-old ex-felon who has been in and out of state prisons since his incarceration in 1983 for a Palo Alto residential robbery. Dubbed the “Day Stalker,” he was most recently released on parole on May 23, according to Robert Gore, a state Department of Corrections spokesman in Sacramento.

Redwood City Police Chief Anthony Guardino issued a statewide warning on June 11 outlining several assaults that Lynch was suspected of being involved in.

Most of the assault victims, Guardino said, had been attacked while gardening in their yards in mid-day.

Larson was slain on June 24, Figuerido on July 28, Constantin on Aug. 13, Marglon on Sept. 2, George on Oct. 15 and Lovardi on Oct. 18.

Many elderly were left terrified in the wake of the slayings and assaults.

Guardian Angels Arrive

In San Leandro, about 40 Guardian Angels swarmed into town for private patrols and house sitting after a warrant was issued in August for Lynch’s arrest for burglary and the attempted murder of two women in unincorporated areas near the city.

Ted Swenson of the city’s Recreation Department, estimated that 25% to 30% of San Leandro’s approximately 65,000 residents are over 60. After the attacks on elderly women began, he said, the department had a surge of interest in a program in which volunteers helped the elderly install dead-bolt locks.

San Leandro Police Lt. Tom Hull said Lynch is a “likely suspect” in the Larson and Figuerido killings, although no charges have been filed in those incidents.