Alicia Monique Alexander was 18 when her body was found on September 11, 1988, in an alley near 43rd Place and Western Avenue in the Vermont Square neighborhood of Los Angeles. She was discovered with a gunshot wound to the chest, a method later associated with the killer who left several victims in alleys or dumpsters across South Los Angeles.

Alicia’s death was later linked by DNA to Lonnie David Franklin Jr., the offender known as the Grim Sleeper. Franklin was arrested in July 2010 and connected to at least ten murders through DNA matches. His trial began in February 2016 and in May 2016 a jury found him guilty of ten counts of murder; he was sentenced to death in August 2016.

Alicia’s case illustrates how advances in DNA forensics eventually connected decades-old scenes to a suspect. If anyone knew Alicia, saw her on or before September 11, 1988, or has information relevant to her life around that time, please come forward.