SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – A Fairfield man was arrested this week in connection with multiple cold case homicides throughout the Bay Area, according to the Solano County Sheriff's Office.
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Although James Ray Gary's of crimes span three jurisdictions and more than three decades, law enforcement wasn't able to connect the 76-year-old to various unsolved cases until earlier this month.
In July of 1980, Latrelle Linday, 46, of Union City, was found dead inside a home by police officers. She had been strangled to death "associated with blunt force injuries," according to the Sheriff's Office.
No arrests were made at the time of the murder, but a DNA sample was later sent for entry and search in a law enforcement database.
Sixteen years later in March 1996, 46-year-old Winifred Douglas, from the Oakland/Berkeley area, was found in the bushes by Caltrans on Highway 780 near Laurel Street in Vallejo. She had been killed due to asphyxia and blunt force trauma to the head and neck. The case went unsolved.
In 2003, evidence from the Solano County homicide with possible DNA was sent to the California Department of Justice for analysis.
There was a hit off the profile, but it didn't match anyone in the FBI's DNA database.
In 2012, the connection was made between the two cases as the Solano County homicide DNA matched a piece of evidence from the Union City case, but officials still didn’t have a name. Just this month, another connection was made between the cases handled by the Union City Police Department and the Solano County Sheriff's Office to a sex crime investigated by a North Bay Police Department in 2021.
From the most recent case, a possible suspect was identified, and officials were able to collect a DNA sample from Gary.
On Monday, the results came in that Gary's DNA was a match for all three crimes and a warrant for his arrest was issued.
He was taken into custody on Tuesday and is currently being held in the Solano County Jail for homicide and without bail. Additional charges are expected to be filed in connection with Union City's 1980 homicide.
"We are grateful for the cooperation between the Union City Police Department, the CA Department of Justice, and the Solano County Sheriff's Office," said the Solano County Sheriff's Office. "We are hopeful that this arrest can help bring some closure to the families and friends that have been seeking justice for as much as 40 years."
This case is still being investigated.
Anyone with information relating to the 1996 Solano County homicide is asked to please contact Solano Sheriff Investigations at 707-784-7050. Those with information relating to the 1980 Union City homicide are asked to please contact Union City Police Department Investigations at 510-675-5227.
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