Police Get Help in ID'ing Grim Sleeper Photos

This summer, when police in Los Angeles finally caught a serial killer they have hunted for nearly two decades, they figured they had solved their case.

Then they found a stash of photos of more potential victims, 160 more, in the home of Lonnie Franklin Jr., the "Grim Sleeper" serial killer suspect.

CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy say detectives need the public's help to figure out who they are and they're getting it.

Gallery: "Grim Sleeper" Suspect's Secret Photos

The photos are chilling; many of the 160 women are partially nude, others appear asleep, drugged or even dead. Police have no clue who most of them are or what happened to them.

"Obviously our hope is that they are all alive and well and nothing bad has come from them but we don't know that," said Det. Dennis Kilcoyne with the LAPD.

Franklin is already charged with murdering 10 women on Los Angeles' south side, and police say they believe these photos were also taken by him. He's called the "Grim Sleeper" because police say the former city mechanic took a 14-year hiatus between his killing sprees.

LAPD Inundated with Calls After Release of Pictures

Enietra Margette survived her encounter with Franklin. In 1988 he raped her, and dumped her on the side of the road with a bullet in her chest.

"I know this guy who got me in a car was intimidating verbally," Margette said.

When police arrested Franklin this past July they found a disturbing collection of nearly 1,000 photos inside his house. Unable to identify many of the women, last Thursday police posted the pictures online. The site has received 11 million hits. Thanks to hundreds of tips from the public, detectives have now identified 17 of the 160 women; some are alive, others died of natural causes, but ominously at least 4 have been missing for years.

"These are women probably in the final of their lives before they were killed by this alleged serial killer," said CBS News Legal Analyst Lisa Bloom. "Hopefully there's a good outcome for some of them but it's not looking good at this point."

Releasing this much evidence in an investigation is certainly unusual but police say they simply had no choice. They need to know if these women are dead or alive.

Lonnie Franklin's attorney, Louisa Pensanti, says the LAPD is tainting the potential jury pool.

In a statement, Pensanti said: The LAPD "have forgotten the basics in their desire for sensationalism and are jeopardizing Lonnie Franklin's chance for a fair trial."

If convicted, Franklin could face the death penalty. In the meantime, it's all these unknown faces that now haunt detectives.

Visit Crimesider for complete coverage of the "Grim Sleeper" case.