TX Fort Worth-area man, 76, charged with four California cold case murders from 1980 and 1995

[Bishop Black]

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/crime/article263508473.html

A North Texas man who’s suspected of killing three women and a teenage girl in California in 1980 and 1995 was arrested in Fort Worth on Thursday night. Billy Ray Richardson, 76, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder in connection to deaths of three Los Angeles victims — 25-year-old Beverly Cruse, 22-year-old Debra Cruse and 15-year-old Kari Lenander — in 1980, and the killing of Trina Wilson, of Inglewood, in 1995.

Richardson was identified as a suspect through DNA, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a news release, adding that the 76-year-old is being charged on special circumstances of multiple murders and murder in the commission of rape.

 

[faithx]

According to the Los Angeles County Inmate Information Center, Billy Ray Richardson was extradited from Fort Worth, Texas to Los Angeles and booked into the Twin Towers Correctional Facility yesterday. He also made a court appearance today at 8:30 AM.

 

[I Survived]

Maybe, if he's the actual killer, he could have killed some other woman. I think it's strange he kills three in a year and then he waits 15 years to kill the fourth one.

 

[dotr]

Billy Ray Richardson - Google Search

Billy Ray Richardson
March 11 2023 rbbm

Suspect in cold-case killings of teen and 3 women in LA and Inglewood has died

Billy Ray Richardson was pronounced dead in custody Feb. 15.

www.dailynews.com

''LOS ANGELES — A 76-year-old man who was allegedly linked by DNA evidence to the cold-case killings of a 15-year-old girl and three young women in Los Angeles and Inglewood dating back as far as 1980 has died while in custody.

Superior Court Judge Armenui Amy Ashvanian announced Friday that the court had received documentation that Billy Ray Richardson was pronounced dead Feb. 15.

Richardson — who had previously been brought into court on a hospital gurney — had been awaiting arraignment on four murder charges after being extradited last year from Texas.

The case against him was dismissed as a result of his death.

“I just feel very sad for the families that will never get to see him held responsible for the crimes he committed — the horrendous murders of these four young women,” Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman said outside the downtown Los Angeles courtroom. “I hope at the very least it brings them some peace to know we’ve identified the perpetrator and he’s no longer living among us.”

''Richardson died from complications of a cervical spine injury and blunt force trauma, according to records from the coroner’s office, which concluded that the manner of his death was an “accident.”
The coroner’s office also listed COVID-19, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and dementia as other significant conditions for Richardson.''