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Police photo of Joseph Naso, 77. Washoe County Sheriff
LIVE BLOG

77-year-old charged with murdering four women in California

Questions raised over whether the alliteration of victims’ fore- and surnames was a factor in the killings.

PROSECUTORS IN THE US have filed murder charges against a man accused of killing four California women whose names have raised questions about whether they were targeted because of their alliterative initials.

The victims slain in the 1970s and 1990s all had first and last initials that were the same — a fact that authorities are investigating to determine whether it’s a coincidence or the pattern of a serial killer.

Joseph Naso was charged in Marin County. Prosecutors added special circumstances of multiple murders, which make him eligible for the death penalty.

Naso is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges at an afternoon hearing.

Investigators say a search of Naso’s home in Reno, Nevada, turned up evidence linking him to bodies found across Northern California. Now detectives around the country are looking into whether the 77-year-old freelance photographer could be tied to their cold cases.

- AP