Vivian Collins, 25, was found murdered in South Los Angeles on March 18, 1987. Described as a sex worker, she had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Her body was discovered near the residence of Louis Craine, who was arrested on May 29, 1987, after first being taken in connection with the killing of another sex worker, Carolyn Barney.

During interrogation Craine confessed to the murders of Vivian Collins and Loretta Perry and tried to implicate his brother Roger, alleging they had both been with Vivian and that Roger strangled her. Family members provided an alibi for Roger, and authorities charged Louis Craine in Vivian’s death. In 1989 Craine was convicted in multiple murders tied to the South Los Angeles killings and sentenced to death; he died of AIDS-related complications on November 3, 1989, while on death row.

Vivian’s murder was one of several in a pattern that targeted predominantly African American sex workers in South Los Angeles in the 1980s. Does anyone have information about Vivian’s life or the circumstances that led to her being in that neighborhood that night?