The Riverside Prostitute Killer
The One Who Got Away
As the killers body count continued to rise, so did the demands for justice.� �In a city not known for community activism, public outrage toward the faceless killer was vented in letters to newspaper editors, the Riverside Task Force and during community meetings. � National media outlets began to regularly broadcast the case and at one point the television program Americas Most Wanted covered the killers crimes.� In an effort to find the killer, all available law enforcement personal began combing the area. � At one point the manhunt grew to include over 20 law enforcement agencies.� Regardless of the spotlight upon him, the killer was undaunted and continued to elude identification and capture.
Kelly wrote that on the morning of April 27, 1991, a transient stumbled upon the body of 24-year-old Cherie Michelle Payseur, a part time maid and prostitute.� �The victim had been left in a flowerbed in a bowling alley parking lot.� She had been violated, strangled and posed�- a toilet plunger protruding from her vagina.
Following the discovery of Payseur, in a brief interview with The Bay City News, Lake Elsinore Detective Bob Creed defended accusations that the department was dragging their feet because the victims were prostitutes.� �Standing in front of a wall, which displayed the serial killer's handiwork: Gutierrez; Palmer; Ortega; Young; Ruiz; Lyttle; Angel; Leal; Ferguson; Miller; Coker; Sternfeld; Milne; and the latest, Cherie Michelle Payseur. Creed said, We don't care if they're drug addicts or prostitutes.� They're getting the same resource level as if they were cheerleaders.
On July 4, 1991, picnickers near Railroad Canyon Road discovered the remains of 37-year-old Sherry Ann Latham, a known prostitute and drug user.� �The victims hand was wrapped around some nearby branches, suggesting that she was still alive when the killer left.� Apparently, Latham had made one last feeble attempt to crawl away before succumbing to her injuries.� An autopsy later revealed that the victim had been strangled and feline hairs were discovered on her corpse.� According to the victims friends, she did not own a cat, thus leading investigators to wonder if her killer did.
Just when it seemed they were never going to catch a break, investigators got their first major lead on August 15, 1991.� �According to Keers, a man driving a gray van picked up a prostitute near the University of California.� The woman told investigators that everything was going fine at first, but then the John became angry and began assaulting her for no reason.� Luckily the girl managed to jump out of the vehicle and run down the street.� The man quickly sped off, but stopped at a nearby corner and picked up the girls friend, a 23-year-old prostitute named Kelly Marie Hammond.� Later that same night investigators found Hammonds naked body near the intersection of Sampson Avenue and Delilah Street.� The victim had been strangled and her body was still warm.� Investigators had just missed the killer they so desperately sought.
The woman who escaped the killers clutches was able to help investigators create a composite sketch of the suspect and his vehicle.� Investigators quickly issued an APB and within hours newspapers and television stations were broadcasting the killers likeness.