Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 12, 1990 TAG: 9006120460
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ARLINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"We have the physical evidence to link him to all three of the murders," Arlington Police Chief William Stover said Monday. "And we have confessions to all three of the murders."
Chander Matta, 21, was arrested Sunday and charged with the slaying of prostitute Sherry Larman, 26.
Police said that when Matta was questioned Sunday afternoon, he made tape-recorded statements that led them to believe he killed Larman, 16-year-old Jodie Marie Phillips and Sandra Rene Johnson.
A credit card slip for garden supplies from a drugstore was found in the bag police say was used to suffocate Phillips.
The receipt, bearing the name of Matta's father, led police to the neat gray stone house where police believe Matta suffocated two of his victims in the basement while his parents were away.
Matta was being held without bond after arraignment Monday morning in General District Court. A hearing on whether he should be released on bond was set for Thursday, and a preliminary hearing was scheduled for July 9.
Phillips was found May 30 near an Alexandria office complex, with a plastic bag still bunched around her neck. Police said she had been dead for three or four days. Johnson, 20, was found in Arlington on May 27. Larman was found May 26 on the top level of a parking garage in Arlington, also with a plastic bag over her head.
Police believe Phillips and Larman were killed in the basement of Matta's parents' home. Phillips had been beaten. All three victims had worked in an area where prostitutes congregate in downtown Washington.
Five other prostitutes who also worked in that area have been killed since April 1989, but District of Columbia police said Monday they do not believe Matta is involved in those deaths.
by CNB