Saturday, March 24, 2012

High School Basketball Star Chokes

"Dead inmate linked to other killings

DENVER - A man who died in pri­son in 1996 af­ter be­ing convicted of murdering three women also killed four oth­ers be­tween 1979 and 1988 and might be responsible for as many as 20 homi­cides, au­thor­ities said.

Vin­cent Groves, who played on a high school champion­ship bas­ketball team, stran­gled most of his victims, said Denver Dis­trict Attor­ney Mitch Morrissey.

Groves was first convicted of sec­ond-degree murder in 1982 for killing Tammy Sue Woodrum, 17, and was re­leased in 1987 on mandatory pa­role. In 1990, Groves was sen­tenced to life in pri­son for the slaying of Juanita “Becky’’ Lovato, 19, and 20 years in pri­son for sec­ond-degree murder in the death of Diane Montoya Mancera, 25.

By us­ing DNA from one of those murders, crime an­a­lysts have since linked Groves to the slayings of Emma Jenefor, 25, Joyce Ramey, 23, and Peggy Cuff, 20, who were all stran­gled in 1979, au­thor­ities said.

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