Suspects wore GPS trackers during killing spree, police say

ANAHEIM, CALIF.— Two parolees raped and killed at least four women while wearing GPS trackers, and there may be more victims, a California police chief alleged Monday.

Franc Cano and Steven Dean Gordon, both registered sex offenders, were both wearing ankle bracelets when the women were assaulted and killed last fall and earlier this year, Anaheim police Chief Raul Quezada said at a news conference.

Authorities at the news conference did not explain how Cano and Gordon allegedly managed to carry out the killings while under supervision, but Quezada said data from the GPS devices “was one of the investigative tools we used to put the case together.”

Anaheim police Lt. Bob Dunn earlier said the two were complying with a requirement to check in monthly with authorities and police had no reason to watch them more closely and hadn’t received any such request from other agencies.

The discovery of one woman’s body on a conveyor belt at an Anaheim trash-sorting plant was the key to breaking the case, he said. Investigators were seeking the other bodies.

“They put a stop to a serial killing that would likely have continued beyond this point,” District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said at the news conference.

Quezada said authorities were confident that there was at least a fifth victim and perhaps more.

The department has contacted other places with missing persons cases across the country, Dunn said.

Cano, 27, and Gordon, 45, were arrested by investigators on Friday.

Each man was charged Monday with four felony counts of special circumstances murder and four felony counts of rape.