Police are trying to determine if a man shot and killed by officers inside a Sunnyvale home last month was a serial killer. Michelle Roberts reports.
Police are trying to determine if a man shot and killed by officers inside a Sunnyvale home last month was a serial killer.
Authorities said Glen Griggs was brandishing a BB gun when Sunnyvale Department of Safety officers arrived to serve a search warrant at his house near the intersection of Fair Oaks and Maude avenues. Officers ended up shooting Griggs fatally. They said he was the prime suspect in the killing of Molly Anne Franquemont, 39, who used to live with Griggs but was last seen in March 2013.
But police said on Thursday there is now reason to believe Griggs’ criminal history could be deeper than what was first suspected. He will never be prosecuted for his alleged crimes, but the string of four suspicious deaths of women Griggs was dating at the time has investigators looking for answers.
Back in 2006, one of Griggs’ possible victims was found dead at a Sunnyvale garbage processing center. At the time, police said it looked suspicious, but no arrests were made.
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In 2003, 38-year-old Evalene Jordan died in a home she shared with Griggs in Tuolumne County.
In 2005, Griggs called police to his new home after he said he found the body of his girlfriend, Beverly Donaldson. Her death was classified as an accidental alcohol overdose.
Then, in 2006, 50-year-old Kelley Daniel was found dead on a conveyor belt at the Sunnyvale Materials Recovery and Transfer Facility. No cause of death was given. She too was dating Griggs in the months before she died.
But it wasn’t until the disappearance of Franquemont that police noticed a pattern.
"Griggs has a repeated pattern of being present or associated with dead white females who have problems with alcohol,” investigators said in court documents.
In those documents, Franquemont’s friends said she feared for her life near Griggs and even thought about sleeping with a machete under the couch. No one has heard from her for more than a year.
Police are trying to give the victims’ families some answers, according to legal analyst Steven Clark.
“Did he have help? Mr. Griggs may be dead, but is there anyone else who can be held accountable for these women’s deaths?” Clark said. “ I think the police will look at that as well.”
The Sunnyvale Department of Safety is asking anyone with more information to come forward.
