Itzcoatl Ocampo, Calif. homeless killings suspect, eyed in mother-son murder
(CBS/AP) ANAHEIM, Calif. - Police say that ex-marine Itzcoatl Ocampo, accused of killing four homeless men in Southern California, has been linked to the October 2011 stabbing deaths of a woman and her son.
Investigators have determined that there is an association between Ocampo, who was arrested Jan. 13, and Eder Herrera, 24, who is charged in the deaths of his mother and daughter, Raquel Estrada and Juan Herrera in Yorba Linda.
They would not provide more details of the association.
Police believe Herrera stabbed his mother and brother to death then fled to a friend's house. He was arrested the next day.
Detectives said they say similarities between the Yorba Linda murders and the stabbings of four homeless men, namely the severity of the attacks, the number and type of wounds, and the proximity of Ocampo's house to where Estrada and Herrera were killed, reported the Orange County Register.
The homeless men Ocampo is accused of killing were each stabbed more than 40 times with what police believe to be a 7-inch fixed blade military-style knife, said authorities. Ocampo faces four counts of first-degree murder, plus the special circumstances of multiple victims and lying-in-wait.
The men Ocampo allegedly killed during his December - January spree are: James Patrick McGillivray, 53, who was stabbed Dec. 20 near a shopping center in Placentia; Lloyd Middaugh, 42, who was
found Dec. 28 near a riverbed trail in Anaheim; Paulus Smit, 57, who was stabbed to death outside a Yorba Linda library on Dec. 30; and John Berry, 64, who was stabbed to death on the day Ocampo was arrested.