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OC Serial Killer Accused of Murdering His High School Friend's Mother and Brother
Itzcoatl Ocampo/Anaheim PD
A friend of alleged Orange County serial killer Itzcoatl Ocampo, who had been accused of murder, was released from jail yesterday—and those murders are being pinned on Ocampo himself.
Eder Giovanni Herrera, 24, had been accused of murdering his mother Raquel Estrada, 53, and her son Juan Herrera, 34, according to City News Service. But now prosecutors have dropped charges against Herrera and released him from jail (and into the custody of ICE). Now prosecutors are trying to pin the murders on Herrera's friend Ocampo, who is already accused of murdering four homeless men in Orange County.
Ocampo and Herrera were high school buddies that lived just a mile apart in Yorba Linda. The case against Herrera had been based on eyewitness accounts and reports about his behavior that night. But Detectives said DNA ties Ocampo to the scene of the crime, where Estrada and her son were stabbed 30 and 60 times respectively last October. The homeless murders Ocampo is accused of happened later.
That represents a big change in the case, D.A. Tony Rackauckas told the Los Angeles Times: "This case has now expanded from murdering random vulnerable strangers to murdering people he knew."
Detectives are trying to make sure Ocampo isn't responsible for any other stabbing murders: Ocampo interrogated about the dismemberment murder in Hollywood, his attorney said.
“Every defense attorney with a stabbing in Orange County is going to try to pin it on (Ocampo),” Ocampo’s attorney, Randall Longwith told CBS Los Angeles.
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