CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SAN DIEGO : Tourist Killing May Be Tied to 2 Others

Police say the killing earlier this week of a teen-age tourist from Michigan may be related to two similar slayings of young women in the same area since January. Police had been reluctant to comment on the growing fears about a serial killer stalking young women in the sprawling rows of apartment buildings in the neighborhood near Mission Bay. But police released a statement after the stabbing death Tuesday of Holly Suzanne Tarr, 18, a high school tourist from Okemos, Mich. Because of two similar cases in recent months, “We can’t discount the possibility that the three may have been committed by the same person,” police spokeswoman Dorothy Powell said. “All of the victims were young women. All were students. All were murdered in upstairs apartments. And all were stabbed during the day.”