Elandra Joyce Bunn, a 33-year-old African-American woman from Los Angeles, California, was found dead on June 5, 1987. Her body was discovered in an alley along the Figueroa corridor in South Los Angeles by an 11-year-old boy. The scene was grim—she had been left naked among trash, a detail that underscored the brutality of the crime. Bunn was a mother and a long-time resident of California, remembered by family and friends as loving and kind.
Her death was initially one of many unsolved murders in the area, and it would take years before justice was served.
The autopsy revealed that Elandra Joyce Bunn had suffered extensive trauma. According to testimony from the deputy county medical examiner during the trial, she had two battered and bloody eyes, abrasions and lacerations on her head, bruises on her neck consistent with strangulation, and additional bruises and lacerations across her legs and torso. The examiner concluded that her neck had likely been wrenched violently, possibly by shaking her head back and forth during the assault. These findings pointed to a deeply violent and personal attack.
Years later, the case was reopened by the Los Angeles Police Department's Cold Case Unit. Through DNA evidence and witness testimony, authorities linked her murder to Chester Dewayne Turner, a convicted serial killer. Turner, an African-American man and former pizza delivery driver, was already serving a death sentence for the murders of 10 women and an unborn child committed between 1987 and 1998. In 2007, he was tried and convicted for the murder of Elandra Joyce Bunn, along with three other women: Deborah Williams, Mary Edwards, and Cynthia Annette Johnson. All four victims were African-American women who had been strangled in South Los Angeles.
Turner's conviction in Bunn's case was part of a broader investigation that ultimately identified him as one of Los Angeles' most prolific serial killers. His crimes were concentrated within a small geographic area, and many of his victims were vulnerable women, often homeless or involved in sex work. The breakthrough in Bunn's case came after Turner was arrested in 2002 for an unrelated sexual assault, which led to a DNA sample being collected and matched to evidence from multiple unsolved murders.
In 2014, Chester Dewayne Turner was sentenced to death for the murders of Elandra Joyce Bunn and the three other women. The court found special circumstances of multiple murders and prior convictions, reinforcing the severity of his crimes. The resolution of Bunn's case brought some measure of closure to her family, who had waited decades for justice. Her death, once a cold case, became a pivotal part of the effort to hold Turner accountable for his long and violent history.
