Two parolees charged with killing four women were wearing GPS trackers at the time of the murders — and there may be many more victims, authorities announced Monday.
Anaheim Chief Raul Quezada said Franc Cano, 27, and Steven Dean Gordon, 45, were both wearing the ankle monitors last fall when the women were killed in Anaheim and Santa Ana.
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Anaheim police began investigating the two men after the body of 21-year-old
Jarrae Nykkole Estepp was discovered at an Anaheim
recycling plant on March 14.
Santa Ana police soon joined Anaheim homicide detectives to probe the mysterious disappearances of three other women missing since late last year: 34-year-old Josephine Vargas, 20-year-old Kianna Jackson and 28-year-old Martha Anaya.
Police say that all four women were known to frequent a rough Santa Ana neighborhood known for prostitution and drug sales.
Police believe Cano and Gordon have known each other since cutting their ankle bracelets in 2012 and boarding a Greyhound bus to Las Vegas using fake names. The men were arrested by federal agents on May 8, 2012, after a two-week stay at Circus Circus Hotel & Casino, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Nevada.
Both were wanted fugitives: Gordon traveled using the alias Dexter McCoy and Cano chose Joseph Madrid, authorities said.
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After fleeing Los Angeles in 2012, the two were re-arrested and both pleaded guilty to failure to register as a sex offender. They were ordered to provide DNA samples and have their computers monitored by federal agents, according to the federal documents, which were first obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
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police have not provided details on what led them to arrest the men for the killings or how they could have committed the crimes while under police supervision. Because the two were in compliance with their monthly check-ins, police had no reason to watch them more closely, Dunn said, and they had not received any requests from other agencies to do so, he said.
The string of disappearances in Santa Ana began in October after Kianna Jackson, of Las Vegas, arrived in the city for a court hearing on four misdemeanor charges of prostitution and loitering to commit prostitution. Her mother said she stopped responding to her text messages soon after she arrived in Santa Ana.
Josephine Monique Vargas was last seen Oct. 24 after leaving a family birthday party to go to a store. The Times said Vargas had a rough past that at times involved drug use and prostitution, but her mother said she had been trying to better her life.
Martha Anaya asked her boyfriend to pick up their 5-year-old daughter so she could work on Nov. 12 then stopped responding to his messages later that night. Police said she also had a history of prostitution.
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