Arrest made in homeless killings

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Investigators are “extremely confident” that a man in their custody is responsible for all four recent killings of homeless men in Orange County, Anaheim police Chief John Welter said Saturday.

Welter said at a news conference that investigators have tied 23-year-old Itzcoatl Ocampo, of Yorba Linda, Calif., to the killings, which have struck fear into the area’s homeless community for the past month.

Ocampo was detained Friday night after a fourth homeless man was found slain in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant.

Three other homeless men have been found stabbed to death in north Orange County since mid-December, and a task force of police officers, sheriff’s deputies and FBI agents had been looking for the single suspect they believed was responsible for all three.

“We are extremely confident that we have the man that is responsible for the murders of all four homeless men in Orange County,” Welter said.

The latest stabbing victim was described by friends as a Vietnam War veteran in his 60s named John.

He was found between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Friday in a Carl’s Jr. parking lot at the intersection of La Palma Avenue and Imperial Highway in Anaheim, police said.

Ocampo was being held without bail on suspicion of murder, Dunn said.

James Patrick McGillivray, 53, was killed near a shopping center in Placentia on Dec. 20; Lloyd Middaugh, 42, was found near a riverbed trail in Anaheim on Dec. 28; and Paulus Smit, 57, was killed outside a Yorba Linda library on Dec. 30.