Sherry Ann Latham, a 37-year-old white female, was found murdered on July 4, 1991, in Lake Elsinore, Riverside County, California. Her body was discovered by picnickers in light brush approximately 15 feet east of Grape Street, near a roadside parallel to Interstate 15, just south of Railroad Canyon Road. Latham, who was known to be involved in sex work and struggled with drug addiction, had been strangled.
Her hand was found wrapped around nearby branches, suggesting she may have still been alive and attempted to crawl away before succumbing to her injuries. Feline hairs were discovered on her body, though she did not own a cat, leading investigators to suspect the killer might have had one.
Latham was one of at least 12 women murdered by William Lester Suff, a serial killer who terrorized Riverside County between 1989 and 1991. Suff, who had previously been convicted in Texas for the murder of his infant daughter and later released on parole, moved to California where he began targeting women—many of whom were sex workers and drug users. His victims were typically strangled, and some were also stabbed or mutilated. The brutality of the crimes and the vulnerability of the victims drew national attention and led to the formation of a multi-agency task force.
Suff was arrested in January 1992 after a police officer noticed his van matched tire tracks found at several crime scenes. He was working as a warehouse clerk for the county at the time and had misled neighbors into believing he was a law enforcement officer. In 1995, he was convicted of 12 counts of first-degree murder, including that of 37-year-old white female Sherry Ann Latham. The jury found that he had committed the murders while lying in wait and had used a deadly weapon in several cases. He was sentenced to death and remains on death row at San Quentin State Prison.
The case of Sherry Ann Latham and the other victims remains one of the most significant and chilling criminal cases in Riverside County history. The conviction of William Lester Suff brought some measure of justice to the families of the victims, though the horror of his crimes continues to resonate decades later.
