Awesome article from the time LE found Julissa Trapp. It's behind the scenes of the investigation.
JMHO
fran
Faith, love and tracking serial killers
Detectives describe how they investigated the slayings of five women on O.C. streets.
Anaheim homicide Detective Julissa Trapp looked at the body of a young woman that had tumbled onto a recycling conveyer belt from a garbage truck and knew one thing with absolute certainty – she needed to buy a rosary.
The next day, Trapp headed to the store where she gets a rosary every time she launches a homicide investigation. With St. Patrick’s Day coming up, she picked a green one.
First the detective would pray her team would find the killer of the 21-year-old who ended life both as a mother and a street walker. Then – if Trapp’s prayers were answered and a suspect was arrested – she would give the rosary to the victim’s family.
This week, Trapp handed the green rosary to Jodi Estepp as she mourned the death of her daughter, Jarrae Estepp. It was a moment of some closure for the grieving parent. But there was no closure for the detective.
Coming off four weeks of dumpster diving and sleepless nights, Trapp’s team had grown to more than 75 as detectives scoured alleys, consulted with FBI profilers and sifted through data collected from GPS monitoring systems to make a key breakthrough. They discovered they weren’t just searching for Jarrae Estepp’s killer but something that usually only exists in movies and television: a serial killing duo.
Trapp’s team arrested two suspects on charges of murdering Estepp and three other women, but the remains of three victims are still missing. Worse, Trapp knows in her bones and from evidence gathered that there is a fifth victim whose name remains a mystery.
She also acknowledged during a wide-ranging interview this week, “There could be more.”
‘DON’T GET TO MEET VICTIM’
Born in the San Fernando Valley, Trapp moved to Anaheim as a child. When she was five years old, a policeman gave her a sticker and she laughed recently when she recalled knowing then and there what she wanted to be when she grew up – not a policewoman but a policeman.
When she turned 16, Trapp joined the Anaheim police department’s explorer program. At 21, she was hired as a cadet. Her mentor was old school and advised that if she wanted to join what police call the varsity squad – homicide – she needed to work in the domestic violence unit, sex crimes or gangs.
Trapp worked all three.
more at link ........ http://www.ocregister.com/articles/trapp-610516-team-lomeli.html?page=1
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