Breaking News: DNA links Santa Monica man to three murders

NO MENTION OF ANY CONNECTION TO JULIANA REDDING CASE

UPDATE (1:20pm PST): Today’s front page article from Santa Monica Daily Press

***

(August 30) The Associated Press reports that a 32-year-old Santa Monica air conditioner repairman is connected to the stabbing deaths of three women, including a former girlfriend of the actor Ashton Kutcher.

According to the AP’s report, Michael Gargiulo has been in custody since July following his arrest for a knife attack this past spring:

Gargiulo was being held in lieu of $1.1 million bail on attempted murder and burglary charges stemming from the April 28 stabbing of a Santa Monica woman in her home, (Santa Monica police Lt. Darrell) Lowe said. Detectives matched a DNA sample taken from blood at the scene to Gargiulo. (Associated Press)

The AP article makes no mention of the Juliana Redding murder case. The 21-year-old aspiring actress from Tucson was found murdered in her Santa Monica condo on March 16.  No arrest has been made, nor have any suspects been named in the Redding case.  Police have released very little information about the Redding case.

In February 2001, 22-year-old Ashley Ellerin was dating Kutcher when her body was discovered in her Hollywood Hills home.

Santa Monica police have told the AP that DNA evidence gathered at the April 28 knife attack connects Gargiulo to the stabbing deaths of women in Los Angeles (the Ellerin case), Monterey Park (a 2005 case) and to the 1993 murder of a high school girl in Glenbrook, Illinois (near Chicago):

Tricia Pacaccio, a senior at Glenbrook South High School, was found stabbed to death on her front doorstep, clutching her door key. (Associated Press)

Please stay tuned.