An elderly woman identified as **Lucy Grant**, an **92-year-old White female** from Los Angeles, California, was discovered dead in her home on **November 8, 1974**. Investigators determined that she had been **sexually assaulted** and **murdered**, with clear signs of **forced entry**—her residence had been burglarized during the same incident. Her death shocked the local community, given her advanced age and the circumstances indicating a violent intrusion.
Law enforcement classified the case as a **homicide investigation**. Due to the nature of the crime—rape, forced entry, and murder—it was handled with significant resources and recorded as part of Los Angeles County's homicide files.
Decades later, in early 2009, police finally identified a primary suspect in a series of unsolved homicides of elderly women that included this case. The suspect, **John Floyd Thomas Jr.**, an **American male serial offender** also known as the “Westside Rapist” and “Southland Strangler,” was arrested on **March 31, 2009** after DNA evidence from a statewide database matched him to biological material recovered from several crime scenes.
Thomas, then **72 years old**, was subsequently charged with multiple charges that included the murders of at least seven elderly women, one of whom was Lucy Grant. Prosecutors linked him to her death based on the distinctive pattern of sexual assault, strangulation, and theft, matching his hallmark methods.
Following his arrest, Thomas faced formal charges related to Lucy Grant's murder, among others. In **September 2009**, he was indicted for the murders of several women, including Lucy Grant. He later entered a guilty plea on **April 1, 2011**, in a deal that avoided a death sentence. Thomas received **life imprisonment without the possibility of parole**.
In summary, **Lucy Grant**, a **92-year-old White woman**, was found raped and killed in her Los Angeles home on November 8, 1974. The case remained unsolved for decades until advances in DNA technology linked **John Floyd Thomas Jr.**, who was arrested in March 2009, charged later that year, and convicted in April 2011. No other arrests or alternative suspects have been publicly disclosed; law enforcement treated Thomas as the sole perpetrator across these linked crimes.
