Lorenzo Gilyard

Lorenzo Jerome Gilyard, Jr. (born May 24, 1950 ) is an American serial killer . He is charged with the rape and murder of 13 girls and women between 1977 and 1993. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for six of the murders on March 16, 2007, with no release.

Origin and young years

Gilyard comes from a family with a criminal background. His father Lorenzo Gilyard (* February 24, 1927, † October 24, 1999) was convicted of rape in 1970, his brother Darryl E. (also Daryle E .; * February 12, 1953) committed a murder in 1989 and was therefore lifelong Sentenced to prison. His sister Patricia D. Dixon (born July 20, 1958) was a prostitute and was sentenced in 1983 to a 10-year prison term for the murder of a customer. In his younger years, Gilyard was known for bullying and sometimes beating women .

The murders

Most, if not all, of Gilyard's victims were prostitutes. All bodies were found shoeless near Kansas City in remote locations. Most of them had clothes or paper towels stuffed into their mouths and had strangle marks on their necks.

Gilyard had a criminal record for child molestation , raping a friend's 13-year-old daughter. He was still a suspect in five rapes between 1969 and 1974, but was not convicted. Gilyard was suspected of the murder of Sheila Ingold in 1987 . A crime lab linked this case to twelve other homicides using identical DNA traces. A blood sample taken from Gilyard during an investigation in 1987 led to charges.

Of his known victims, twelve were murdered between 1977 and 1989. After living with a woman in Missouri and Los Angeles for a short time , he murdered his thirteenth victim. There were no attempts to link him to the killings during his numerous stints in Los Angeles between 1987 and 1992, and it is believed that he stopped killing in 1993.

The process

Gilyard has been charged with premeditated murder on seven counts. The trial was primarily based on DNA evidence, which showed that he was having sexual intercourse with the victims at the time they were murdered. “The victims had several things in common: all were found dead within a year and a half, all were dumped in remote or hard-to-reach places, all were strangled, all of them had indications that they were engaged in a fight, all of them the shoes were missing and all but one had various indications that they had [recently] had sexual intercourse, ”said prosecutor Jim Kanatzar in his opening statement. Gilyard was found guilty on six counts and sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of release. He's serving his sentence at the Crossroads Correctional Center .

Victim

Gilyard was convicted of the murder of the following people:

• Catherine M. Barry (34)
• Naomi Kelly (23)
• Ann Barnes (36)
• Kellie A. Ford (20)
• Sheila Ingold (36)
• Carmeline Hibbs (30)

Gilyard was acquitted of the murder of Angela Mayhew (19) for lack of evidence.

The following victims are attributed to Gilyard, but her case has not been brought to court:

• Stacie L. Swofford (17)
• Gwendolyn Kizine (15)
• Margaret J. Miller (17)
• Debbie Blevins (32)
• Helga Kruger (26)
• Connie Luther (29)
• Paula Beverly Davis (21)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} LJWorld: Kansas City man guilty of murdering six women, March 17, 2014. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
2. ↑ ^{a b} TruTV Crime Library: Serial killer Lorenzo Gilyard . Retrieved July 26, 2014.
3. ↑ The Gainesville Sun: Man Charged in 12 killings of women, girls in Kansas, April 20, 2004. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
4. ↑ ^{a b} USA Today : 6 of 13 counts of murder dropped against serial killings suspect, May 3, 2007. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
5. ↑ San Francisco Chronicle /SFGate.com: March 5, 2007 article (page no longer available)
6. ^ The Sydney Morning Herald : Life sentence for US man who strangled six women, April 14, 2007. Retrieved July 26, 201.
7. ^ AOL News: TV Drama Helps Family Find Missing Loved One, February 9, 2010. Retrieved July 26, 2014.