Cherie Washington, a 26-year-old African-American woman from Sacramento, was found buried in a shallow grave in the city’s Oak Park neighborhood on April 20, 1987. Her body was wrapped in bedding and showed the same pattern of concealment and decomposition seen with several other young women recovered during the mid-1980s investigation; many victims had been bound, partially or fully nude, and hidden in yards or inside homes where the suspect had lived or worked.

Investigators identified a pattern that pointed to a single perpetrator. Morris Solomon Jr., a handyman who had lived and worked at several of the properties where bodies were found, was arrested on April 22, 1987, two days after Washington’s remains were uncovered. Inconsistencies in his statements and forensic evidence connected him to multiple killings, and he was ultimately charged in several of the deaths, including Washington’s.

Washington’s case is one of several linked by burial method and victim profile, highlighting the particular vulnerability of marginalized women during that period. Anyone who knew Cherie Washington or has information relevant to her death is asked to come forward.