For decades, a serial killer lived among the people of South Los Angeles. To some neighbours, Lonnie Franklin Jr. was a helpful man who repaired cars. To the families whose loved ones never came home, the man known as the “Grim Sleeper” remained an unanswered question.
Then his son’s DNA gave investigators a crucial lead.
In this episode of American DNA Detectives, we follow the investigation that exposed Franklin—from the evidence preserved across decades to the familial DNA search that helped police identify him in 2010.
This case used familial searching in a law-enforcement DNA database. A close biological relationship pointed investigators towards Franklin, but they still needed his own DNA to confirm the connection.
At the heart of this story are the women whose lives he took, the families who waited for answers, and survivor Enietra Washington, who lived to tell what happened to her. Franklin was convicted in 2016 of ten murders and one attempted murder.
How did he escape detection for so long? And how did a DNA profile belonging to someone else finally bring investigators to his door?
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Content advisory: Discussion of murder, sexual violence and survivor testimony.
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