Crime & Safety

Is a Serial Killer Targeting O.C. Homeless?

Three slayings since Dec. 20 have authorities looking for connections and posting warnings in areas where transients gather.

Police in Anaheim, Yorba Linda and Placentia formed a joint task force Tuesday to investigate whether a serial killer might be targeting the homeless in their cities.

Since Dec. 20, three transients have been found stabbed to death in the area. No definite connection has been made, but the cases bore enough similarities that investigators decided to take a closer look, Anaheim police Sgt. Bob Dunn said.

"We haven't ruled anything out,'' Dunn said regarding speculation a serial killer was on the loose. "But it's still early on ... and we're not using that word yet.''

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Two of the slayings happened last week. Just before 5 p.m. Friday, 57-year-old Paulus Cornelius Smit was found at the bottom of a stairwell outside the library at 18181 Imperial Highway in Yorba Linda, according to Sgt. Jim Griffin of the Brea Police Department, which also patrols Yorba Linda.

Paramedics tried to revive Smit, but he was pronounced dead at the scene, Griffin said.

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Two days earlier, around 6:15 a.m., Anaheim police were summoned to a riverbed bike trail near Tustin Avenue and the 91 Freeway, where they found the body of 42-year-old transient Lloyd Middaugh, Dunn said.

And, on Dec. 20 around 8:15 p.m., 53-year-old James Patrick McGillivray was fatally stabbed in a Placentia shopping center on North Bradford Avenue. Surveillance video from a nearby business showed a possible suspect dressed in black lurking in the area, police said. 

So far, authorities have declined to release the video, and Dunn said, "We're not certain that's the suspect."

In the meantime, police have been posting fliers in areas where transients congregate, warning them to be careful and stay in groups.

Griffin described the pattern of killings as unusual. "I'm not familiar with anything like this in the past," he said.

Anyone with information was asked to call (714) 765-1944 or email detectives at htf@anaheim.net.

-- City News Service contributed to this report.


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