Man awaiting predator hearing named in killing

TACOMA – A convicted murderer being held for a hearing on whether to commit him indefinitely as a violent sexual predator has been charged with a killing in California in 1989.

Investigators in other jurisdictions also are looking at killings that may involve Joseph Michael Nissensohn, 57, who was convicted of second-degree murder in 1991, authorities said.

Nissensohn was convicted in the 1990 stabbing death of a woman in Tillicum, south of Tacoma. Court records said the woman was killed during a drug-fueled bondage sex session in the back of a van while Nissehsohn’s soon-to-be wife watched.

Nissensohn has completed his sentence but remains in custody pending a hearing Thursday on a move by the state to commit him indefinitely to a center for violent sexual offenders.

“The No. 1 priority right now is to keep him confined,” Washington state Assistant Attorney General Joshua Choate told the Sacramento (Calif.) Bee.

On Jan. 29, the district attorney’s office in El Dorado County, Calif., filed a murder charge against Nissensohn for the killing of Kathy Graves, 15, who vanished from her home in South Lake Tahoe in 1989. Her remains were found near the Tallac Trailhead nearly a year after she was last seen, according to court filings.

“Were we aware we were on a time crunch and afraid he was going to get out? Certainly,” Assistant District Attorney William M. Clark told the Tahoe Daily Tribune.

According to a 66-page report filed by the Washington state attorney general’s office, a psychologist who evaluated Nissensohn found he was “committed to the exploitation of others for his personal pleasure.”

According to the psychologist’s report, Nissensohn befriended a young girl named Kathy from South Lake Tahoe in 1989 and introduced her to LSD. Nissensohn’s ex-wife told police in Florida he went into the woods with the girl to have sex in August 1989, then hurried back to the car alone minutes later.

Authorities in Monterey County, Calif., said Friday that Nissensohn is under investigation in the killing of two girls, ages 13 and 14, whose decomposed bodies were found in a remote rural area near Seaside in 1981.

Ann C. Hill, a Monterey County deputy district attorney, said DNA evidence from the long-unsolved killings was being analyzed by the FBI.

Nissensohn’s former wife also said he was involved in two killings in Oklahoma and one in Nevada, but court filings provide no further details.