Two parolees raped and killed at least four women while wearing GPS trackers. Officials say there ma

(15 Apr 2014) Two parolees raped and killed at least four women while wearing GPS trackers, and there may be more victims, a California police chief alleged Monday. Franc Cano and Steven Dean Gordon, both registered sex offenders, were both wearing ankle bracelets when the women were assaulted and killed last fall, Anaheim police Chief Raul Quezada said at a news conference. Authorities at the news conference did not explain how Cano and Gordon allegedly managed to carry out the killings while under supervision, but Quezada said data from the GPS devices "was one of the investigative tools we used to put the case together." Anaheim police Lt. Bob Dunn earlier said the two were complying with a requirement to check in monthly with authorities and police had no reason to watch them more closely and hadn't received any such request from other agencies. The discovery of one woman's body on a conveyor belt at an Anaheim trash-sorting plant was the key to breaking the case, Quezada said. Investigators were seeking the other bodies. "They put a stop to a serial killing that would likely have continued beyond this point," District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said at the news conference. Quezada said authorities were confident that there was at least a fifth victim and perhaps more. The department has contacted other places with missing-persons cases across the country, Dunn said earlier. Police believe the men killed a woman in Anaheim and three in Santa Ana last October and November while on parole. Cano, 27, and Gordon, 45, were arrested by investigators on Friday. Each man was charged Monday with four felony counts of special circumstances murder and four felony counts of rape. If convicted, they could face a minimum sentence of life without parole or the death penalty. They were being held without bail and expected to be arraigned Tuesday. Police at first didn't link the disappearances of the four women. "These individuals were not on our radar whatsoever," Santa Ana Police Chief Carlos Rojas he said. "Our three missing in Santa Ana just completely went off the grid and we were trying to follow up as much as we could." Santa Ana police searched a canyon, examined the women's cellphone records, alerted hospitals, put the word out on social media and even checked motels they were known to frequent but without success in finding them. Then the naked body of Jarrae Nykkole Estepp, 21, was found March 14 on a conveyor belt at an Anaheim trash-sorting plant. Once investigators concluded that Estepp was killed and that she had "a similar profile to our victims, we were able to ... move forward," Rojas said. Police believe Cano and Gordon have known each other since cutting their ankle bracelets in 2012 and boarding a Greyhound bus to Las Vegas using fake names. The men were arrested by federal agents on May 8, 2012, after a two-week stay at Circus Circus Hotel & Casino, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Nevada. Both were wanted fugitives: Gordon traveled using the alias Dexter McCoy and Cano chose Joseph Madrid, authorities said. Cano and Gordon were previously ordered to register as sex offenders after being convicted in separate cases of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14. Gordon was convicted in 1992 and also has a 2002 kidnapping conviction, according to the Orange County district attorney's office. Cano's conviction dates back to 2008, prosecutors said. The men also checked in with Anaheim police every 30 days, as required, and provided updated photos, fingerprints and addresses, Dunn said. In fact, both men checked in earlier this month, Dunn said. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...