MILWAUKEE — A Milwaukee man authorities say is linked by DNA to the slayings of nine women since 1986 was captured by police after an alert officer spotted his car at a motel, authorities said.
Walter E. Ellis, 49, has been charged in the deaths of two of the nine victims, and more charges are expected this week, prosecutors said Monday.
Ellis had been in trouble with the law before. He pleaded no contest in 1998 to a reduced charge of second-degree reckless injury and served three years of a five-year sentence, police Chief Edward Flynn said. That wasn't enough to raise red flags, Flynn added, and it was only in recent years that DNA technology evolved enough to connect the cases to the suspect, the chief said.
"Yes, he does have a criminal history," Flynn said. "His criminal history, however, does not lend one to immediately say, you know, 'prime suspect.'"
Police began to focus on Ellis after his name surfaced in connection with a number of unsolved homicides, Flynn said. The chief would not be more specific.
Ellis was arrested days after police matched a DNA sample from his toothbrush to samples from the victims.
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