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SALT LAKE CITY — Does an alleged serial killer whose victims all had first and last names that began with the same letters have any ties to Utah?
Joseph Naso, 77, was charged Wednesday in Marin County, Calif., with killing four women from 1977 to 1994 in northern California. The victims all have first and last names that began with the same letters: Carmen Colon, Pamela Parsons, Roxene Roggasch and Tracy Tafoya.
Investigators are also looking at whether Naso could be linked to the so-called "Double Initial Murders" in the Rochester, N.Y. area, where three young girls, also with the same name alliteration, were raped and strangled in the 1960s and 1970s.
It was during that time that detectives believe Naso traveled back and forth to New York from the West.
Naso, who lives in Reno, was arrested in South Lake Tahoe Monday. Investigators said they are looking into the possibility of additional victims across the country.
One case detectives might look at is a cold case from Salt Lake City. A young girl, whose first and last name begin with the same letters, was killed about the same time as the slayings in California started.
On May 12, 1977, 16-year-old Sharon Schollmeyers was found dead in her Salt Lake apartment, 125 1st Avenue. Her naked and bound body was discovered in a partially filled bathtub, according to the state's cold case website. A Utah medical examiner determined the manner of death was homicide.
When contacted by KSL News Wednesday, both state and local authorities said they were just barely finding out details about the Naso case and could not say yet whether there was any possible connection or if it was a case being looked at for a possible tie.
Email:preavy@ksl.com
