Arrest amid hunt for serial killer of homeless

ANAHEIM, Calif.?? A suspect was arrested late Friday after a homeless man was found stabbed to death behind a fast-food restaurant in Anaheim in the fourth such killing in recent weeks.

Police said they believed the detained man was responsible for the slaying, authorities said, but they wouldn't discuss if he was connected to the deaths of the three other homeless men, all believed to be the work of a serial killer.

The arrest was made after two people who witnessed the killing chased after the suspect for a quarter-mile, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The dead man was found between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Friday near the restaurant at the intersection of La Palma Avenue and Imperial Highway, police said.

Police set up a massive containment area at the crime scene in a search for the killer. They also searched through nearby neighborhoods, including a mobile home park, the Times reported.

Deputy Anaheim Police Chief Craig Hunter told the Times that "in a general sense" the arrested man looked like a suspect in the first killing who was caught on a surveillance video. However he added they were not assuming they'd caught the serial killer.

'Nicest guy'
The Orange County Register spoke to Krista Sehegetz, who lives in the area and said she had known the slain man, John, for five or six years. She used to speak to him and take him food.

"He was very solitary," Sehegetz told the paper. "When I first met him, I asked him if there was anything he needed, and he said 'I have everything.' "

"He was the nicest guy you can imagine," Kevin Christensen, who told the Register he'd recently spoken to the man. "I wanted to warn him there was a serial killer loose, and he said 'Don't worry about it.'"

Three other homeless men have been stabbed to death in north Orange County since mid-December.

James Patrick McGillivray, 53, was killed near a shopping center in Placentia on Dec. 20; Lloyd Middaugh, 42, was found near a riverbed trail in Anaheim on Dec. 28; and Paulus Smit, 57, was killed outside a Yorba Linda library on Dec. 30.

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Police suspect all three were victims of a serial killer. It was not known if the latest death was connected to the other killings.

Police have released grainy photographs captured from surveillance video that show a male suspect dressed in dark clothing. A white, late-model Toyota Corolla is also a vehicle of interest.

Police and advocates have been urging those living on the streets to head inside or buddy up in the wake of the killings.

Earlier Friday, the Orange County sheriff's deputies union announced a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45995726/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

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