Detectives from the Los Angeles and Inglewood, California police departments traveled to Fort Worth, Texas to arrest the man, Billy Ray Richardson, whom police linked to the murders of Carrie Leonard, Beverly Cruise and her sister, Debra Cruz in 1980 in Los Angeles, and Trina Wilson in 1995 in Inglewood. All the victims had been raped, prosecutors said. DNA evidence helped link the crimes to Mr Richardson, although authorities did not say what new evidence had led to him. It was not clear whether Mr Richardson was known to any of the victims. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said Mr. Richardson was charged Thursday with four counts of murder and related charges. As of Friday afternoon, he was in a jail in Tarrant County, Texas, awaiting extradition to Los Angeles. No trial date had been set. Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon said in a statement Friday that he is grateful for those whose work led to the arrest. “I can’t imagine the pain these families have gone through,” he said. “Their loss is incalculable. We hope that together we can bring justice to the families who have endured so much and waited years for this moment.” Attempts to contact surviving family members of the victims on Friday were unsuccessful. In 2001, cold case detectives in Los Angeles reopened the murder of Ms. Lenander, who was 15 when she was killed. Her body was found in a South Los Angeles neighborhood on July 26, 1980, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Officials said she was murdered and the victim of a sexually motivated crime. In 2012, the Los Angeles City Council approved a $50,000 reward for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for her murder. At a news conference in 2012 when the reward was announced, Detective Tim Marcia of the Los Angeles Police Department said investigators had some “significant leads” in the murder. “But we need a name,” he said. On the night Ms. Lenander was killed, she and her best friend, 15-year-old Tony Garfield, were alone at Ms. Garfield’s house preparing for a party and drinking tequila, Detective Marcia told The Los Angeles Times Magazine in 2010. Profile. The girls decided to go to the dance and hitchhiked on the way back. They were picked up by a white man who said his name was Ken and that he was visiting from Canada. Mrs Garfield was delivered at home, but Mrs Lenander said she was going to “keep the party going” with Ken, the magazine reported. The girls were separated at about 10pm and Mrs Lenander’s body was found about five hours later. Detective Marcia said there was a major break in the case in the mid-2000s after a DNA profile determined the suspect’s race. It was long believed that the girls had been taken by a white man, but a test by a private laboratory showed that her killer was black. It was unclear how much of a role that test played in identifying Mr. Richardson, who is black. “That information narrowed down the direction I had to go,” Detective Marcia told the magazine. “Instead of having a big, whole pie, I put it in a quarter pie.” A few months before Ms. Lenander’s murder, the naked bodies of Beverly Cruse, 25, and Debra Cruse, 22, were found on March 5, 1980, by their brother in a West Los Angeles apartment, the Los Angeles Times reported. Mr. Cruz told the police that he went to the apartment because he had not heard from his sisters for several days. The prosecutor’s office said the women were shot in the head. More than 15 years later, Ms. Wilson was found near an Inglewood park on Dec. 31, 1995, according to city records. The circumstances of her death were not immediately clear Friday. In 2012, the Inglewood City Council passed a resolution offering $25,000 for information that could lead to the identification, arrest and conviction of those responsible for Ms. Wilson’s murder. Vimal Patel contributed reporting and Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
