Article author:
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A male California prosecutor accused of raping and murdering two women in the 1980s was found dead after investigators linked him to DNA evidence. He was found guilty on Thursday, prosecutors said.
Horace Van Waltz Jr., 67, was convicted of first-degree murder due to special circumstances allegations involving multiple murders, rape and sodomy, Los Angeles County said. The district attorney's office said in a statement.
A former Bakersfield resident, his Vaultz has been incarcerated since his 2019 arrest. In next month's sentencing, he could face life in prison without parole.
Vaultz was convicted of murdering Mary Duggan in 1986 when he was 22 years old. Her body was found in the trunk of a car in a parking lot in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank. He was also found guilty of murdering 20-year-old Selena Keo in 1981. The body was found under bushes near his apartment in Montclair, Bernardino County. Both were strangled.
These cases have been documented using investigative genetic genealogy, where genealogy websites are used to identify potential relatives of suspects based on DNA collected at crime scenes. It was sober for decades until it was linked to Vaultz.
It was the first criminal case in LA County to use this procedure, according to the Attorney's Office.
At his trial, prosecutors alleged that Vaultz was a sexually motivated serial killer. The defense alleges that he had consensual sex with the woman and that someone else killed her. Waltz described himself as a "swinger" and said he did not remember meeting the victim. KNBC-TV reported that a DNA link had been shown between the third killing in the city.
Her 25-year-old Janna Rowe had her strangled and left in a garbage pile. Waltz was acquitted of her death in 1988 before DNA evidence was used in the trial and is not retrialable.
