A Mexican national and possible illegal migrant has been charged with the murders of three women in the Dallas, Texas, area in the last four months, according to police.
Oscar Sanchez Garcia, 25, is said to have preyed upon sex workers and abandoned their lifeless bodies along the Trinity River in southwest Dallas between April and July before his arrest this week, police announced.
Charged with three counts of murder, Garcia is also currently being held on an immigration detainer while his legal status in the country is determined, according to the Dallas Morning Herald.
Garcia was arrested Wednesday, after police used a combination of surveillance footage, vehicle information, cell phone records, and DNA from sexual assault kits, according to the reports.
Bail for Garcia has been set at least $4 million, NBCDFW reported.
Kimberly Richardson, 60, was discovered dead on April 22, on the same block of Santa Fe Avenue where 25-year-old Cherish Gibson was found weeks later on June 24, according to police.
Investigators are still working to determine the identity of the third woman, whose body was found July 15, roughly two-and-a-half miles from the others, police said.
The Dallas Police Department first warned the public Tuesday about the suspicious deaths of three women but stopped short of linking the cases to the same person.
Gibson and Richardson were both either nude or partially clothed and suffered apparent stab wounds, according to the NBC report. The third victim was also stabbed, though additional details were not immediately available, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Garcia reportedly lived just 10 minutes from where two of the victims’ bodies were found.
Garcia’s arrest comes at a time when the country is hyper-fixated on serial killers amid several high-profile arrests and developments.
Rex Heuermann was arrested in New York last week in connection with the Gilgo Beach killings of at least three women, all sex workers, whose bodies were found in 2010. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
A years-long investigation had led police to the hulking New York City architecture boss from Massapequa Park. Heuermann is now being held in a local jail without bail as prosecutors prepare their case in the three murders and police work on to possible links to additional killings.
Meanwhile, investigators in Oregon have identified a career criminal named Jesse Lee Calhoun as a person of interest in the murders of four women over the past several months who were all found dead in the metro Portland area. Calhoun has not been charged with murder but is currently in jail on unrelated charges.
