Bay Area Serial Killer Case Goes National

We are learning new details about that an accused serial killer in Marin County may have a connection to unsolved murders on the East Coast.  There is a killer in New York state that is known as the "double initial" killer because his three young victims, killed in the 1970s, had the same letter for their first and last name.

All four California victims also had the same letter for their first and last name.

On Monday Marin sheriff deputies arrested 77-year-old Joseph Naso minutes after he was released from the El Dorado county Jail in Tahoe. Naso is suspected of killing Roxene Roggasch in Marin County in 1977.  He is also accused of killing three other woman in California in the 1970s and 90s.

The three New York victims were children. Carmen Colon, 10, Wanda Walkowicz, 11, and Michelle Maenza, 11 were all abducted separately. They were strangled and dumped just outside the city limits of Rochester, New York.

The Marin County DA would not release many details about the cases during a news conference Tuesday. More informationa may be in the criminal complaint that will be filed Wednesday.

Now, a special task force formed during the investigation of the Calfiornia crimes says it is investigating whether Naso killed other woman in New York.  Investigators said Naso was a professional photographer who traveled the country for work.

His Marin County victim, Roxene Roggasch from Oakland, was found dumped in heavy brush off of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard on Jan. 10, 1977. The case remained unsolved until recently.
 
Investigators said they suspect Naso also killed Carmen Colon in Contra Costa County in 1978. The two other victims, killed in Yuba County in 1993 and 1994, are Pamela Parsons and Tracy Tofoya.

Investigators would not discuss details of the investigation Tuesday, but there are reports the case began to crack open last April when a probation officer visited Naso at his home in Reno and discovered guns and ammunition. Other searches of the home found photographs and writings that tied him to the murders of the four women.

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