MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee police have arrested a man in connection to slayings of nine women dating back to 1986.
Police Chief Edward Flynn said Monday that 49-year-old Walter E. Ellis of Milwaukee was arrested Saturday. Prosecutors said he faces two counts of first-degree intentional homicide and more charges are expected.
Police said Ellis’ DNA was found on the bodies of nine women killed between 1986 and 2007.
Online court records show Ellis pleaded no contest in 1998 to a reduced charge of second-degree reckless injury. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
Terry Williams, a brother of one of the victims, said Monday that the family has carried a great burden since his sister, Joyce Mims, was strangled in 1997 at the age of 41. Williams, 49, said the family thinks the killer might have been related to his sister’s boyfriend at the time who has since died.
“We just hated that it had taken so long for them to find her killer, those women’s killer. But you know, justice one day is better than no justice at all,” he said.
Flynn and Milwaukee County district attorney John Chisholm announced a new investigation four months ago after DNA evidence linked the women’s deaths to one person. Police said then that they never stopped investigating the cases, but scored a major breakthrough when DNA technology suggested the same person killed six of the women and had sex with the seventh.
The victims were six black women between the ages of 19 and 41 and a white 16-year-old runaway. Their bodies were found within a 3-square-mile area of Milwaukee’s north side between 1986 and 2007.
The investigation produced breaks in other cases. Detectives resubmitted numerous DNA samples taken from prostitutes in unsolved homicide cases to the state crime laboratory to check for possible links to the killer. That work led to progress in at least 10 unrelated killings, authorities said.
Two people were charged in a pair cases from 1990 and charges were being considered against a third suspect, Chisholm said late last month.
Five other suspects have been identified in other cold cases, four of whom are currently serving life terms or extended terms, Flynn said. Police were continuing to gather more evidence in those cases, he said.
