On June 18, 1986, the decomposing body of 22-year-old African American woman Yolanda Johnson was found in the closet of an abandoned duplex on Fourth Avenue in the Oak Park neighborhood of Sacramento. A 911 call about a foul odor led police to the building; the body’s condition suggested she had been dead two to three days. Investigators reported ligature marks on her neck and wrists, consistent with binding and strangulation, though advanced decomposition made the precise cause of death difficult to determine.

Yolanda Johnson is identified as the first known victim in a series of murders later linked to Morris Solomon Jr., a handyman who had lived and worked in the area and who previously resided at the duplex where her body was found. Solomon was a suspect early on but was not immediately arrested because investigators lacked sufficient evidence. Over the following months additional victims with similar circumstances were discovered at properties connected to Solomon, creating a pattern of bound, partially clothed women, some buried in shallow graves.

If anyone knew Yolanda, the duplex on Fourth Avenue, or saw activity in Oak Park in June 1986, please share what was seen or remembered.