Verna Patricia Williams, a 36-year-old Black woman, was found dead on May 26, 1986, in the stairwell of 68th Street School in Los Angeles, California. Her body was discovered by students, and authorities determined that she had been strangled. At the time of her death, police suspected that she was one of many victims of a serial killer known as the Southside Slayer, who had been targeting women in the area since 1983.
Williams was believed to be the 17th woman whose murder was attributed to this unidentified assailant. She had a history of arrests for prostitution, which was a common characteristic among many of the victims in the case.
For years, her murder remained unsolved, but in 2008, forensic advancements led to a breakthrough. DNA evidence linked convicted serial killer Michael Hughes to Williams' case, along with three other homicides. Hughes, a former security guard, had already been convicted in 1998 for the first-degree murders of four women, all of whom had been strangled and left in alleys in Culver City. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for those crimes. A decade later, investigators connected him to additional murders, including that of Williams, through DNA profiling.
On November 3, 2011, Hughes was convicted of three more murders, including the killing of Williams, as well as the deaths of Yvonne Coleman, a 15-year-old girl, and Deborah Jackson, also known as Harriet McKinley, a 32-year-old woman. The following year, on June 22, 2012, Hughes was sentenced to death for these crimes. Authorities believed that Hughes had moved frequently throughout his life, residing in Long Beach, San Diego, and Michigan, and they warned law enforcement agencies across the country that he might be linked to additional murders beyond Los Angeles.
Williams' murder was part of a larger pattern of serial killings in South Los Angeles during the 1980s and 1990s. At least five serial killers were active in the area, preying primarily on young African American women and leaving their bodies in alleys, vacant buildings, or parks. The discovery of Hughes' involvement in multiple cases underscored the dangers faced by vulnerable women in the community and the challenges law enforcement encountered in solving these crimes.
