SAN GABRIEL VALLEY : Investigators Link Slayings of 3 Strangled Women

Investigators have linked the slayings of three women found strangled recently in the San Gabriel Valley, authorities said Wednesday.

Detectives from the Pomona Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said they also are trying to determine whether two other slayings are linked to the three San Gabriel Valley cases.

All five victims were black, in their 30s and believed to have been prostitutes, Sheriff’s Deputy Larry Mead said.

The victims were Betty Sue Harris, 37, of Pomona, whose body was dumped Nov. 1 in the City of Industry; Roxanne Brooks Bates, 31, of Pomona, found Nov. 5 along a road near Chino; Helen Ruth Hill, 36, of West Covina, found Nov. 14 in a parking lot in Industry; Donna Lenore Goldsmith, 35, of Montclair, discovered Nov. 17 near a trash bin in Pomona; and Cheryl Sayer, in her mid-30s, whose body was found Dec. 30 in Pomona.

Investigators have determined the Hill, Goldsmith and Sayer slayings are connected but do not have enough information at this point to connect the other two homicides, Mead said.