John Jefferson
Chester Turner, already convicted of murdering 14 women in Los Angeles, is accused of strangling Itisha Camp in Salt Lake City, Utah, back in 1998. He’s seen here sitting in a LA courtroom on Aug. 1, 2014. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
A serial killer already on death row for murdering 14 women in California is accused of strangling another woman to death more than two decades ago in Utah.
It’s the first known murder 57-year-old Chester Turner allegedly committed away from the Los Angeles-area, authorities said. The Salt Lake City District Attorney’s Office on Friday announced the filing of an aggravated murder charge against Turner. Prosecutors say he killed Itisha Camp, who was in her early 20s, in 1998. Three teenagers flagged down a Salt Lake City police officer on Sept. 24, 1998, after they found a body with a scarf wrapped around her neck at the bottom of some stairs behind a business at 165 East 900 South in Salt Lake City, a complaint said.
Her pants were partially pulled down and her shirt pulled up, according to a criminal complaint. A medical examiner identified the victim as Camp and determined she died from strangulation. The autopsy also found semen on her body and scarf which she had been wearing as a decorative headpiece which was used as a murder weapon. Camp had only been in Salt Lake City for a couple weeks and worked as a prostitute at the time of her death, authorities said. She had allegedly just bought some drugs from a dealer nearby. The stairwell was known for a place where men would relieve themselves, according to cops.
Detectives learned she was last seen at home on Sept. 23, 1998. Investigators submitted DNA evidence to a lab for testing and it came back a positive match for Turner. Cops learned that Turner was on parole in California in 1998 for auto theft and drug-related charges and fled to Utah. They also located a report in which Turner was a victim of assault in 1998, placing him in the area at the time of the murder.
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“It must have been profoundly difficult for Ms. Camp’s family and loved ones over the last 25 years, not knowing if the suspect in her murder was still out in the public. We hope the filing of this charge brings some relief to Ms. Camp’s loved ones and our entire community, knowing that the defendant is already behind bars,” Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said in a statement.
Turner preyed on prostitutes and homeless women from 1987 through 1998. Juries in LA convicted Turner of 10 murders along with killing an unborn child in 2007, plus another four murders in 2014. Turner had raped and strangled many of the women. He’s currently on death row at the San Quentin prison.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Turner did most of his killing in a 30-block stretch of south LA in an area notorious for drugs and prostitution. DNA evidence allowed cops to charge Turner with most of the murders.
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