A 49-year-old man suspected of killing at least eight women over 21 years in Milwaukee has been charged with strangling two women who died a decade apart, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Walter Ellis’s DNA has been found on at least nine females killed between 1986 and 2007. The investigation included researching 15,000 sexual assault investigations spanning 23 years, reviewing 6,000 prostitution-related investigations and arrests, checking on 2,000 arrests in areas where the bodies were discovered over 15 years, and searching a state DNA databank of 125,000 people and 6 million in the national DNA databank.
“Good police work and good police science have led us to Walter Ellis,” said Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn. Tests conducted on a toothbrush seized from Ellis under a search warrant showed that his DNA was found on the two victims. Ellis was criminally charged 12 times between 1981 and 1998 for violent and property crimes.