Los Angeles/ Crime & Emergencies
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Published on June 16, 2024
Death Row Inmate Chester Turner Now Charged With 1998 Murder in Salt Lake CitySource: Utah Reps, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

After more than two decades, a grim chapter in Salt Lake City's history emerges with a new twist, Chester Turner, currently on death row for a series of brutal murders in Los Angeles, has now been charged with the 1998 killing of Itisha Camp in Utah, as confirmed by authorities this past Friday.

Turner, 57, was first convicted in 2007 for ten murders, and then again in 2014 for an additional four, his victims predominantly marginalized women entangled in the vulnerable streets of Los Angeles, according to ABC7, the haunting specter of his crimes now reaches beyond the California borders, stretching its tendrils to implicate him in the death of Camp, whose life was tragically cut short at 21 and body was found discarded at the back of a Utah business.

Despite the passage of time, DNA technology played a pivotal role in linking Turner to the Utah case, a piece of the puzzle that had befuddled investigators for years, as detailed by CBS News Los Angeles. Camp's profession as a sex worker mirrors the backgrounds of many of Turner's Los Angeles victims, an unsettling pattern that law enforcement agencies have now painfully reconstructed.

In an unusual turn of events amidst the relentless march of justice, a historical assault case file from Salt Lake City, which listed Turner as the victim, emerged as one of the crucial links that suggested his presence in Utah around the time Camp's lifeless body was discovered her brief stay in the city lasting scarcely a few weeks, according to the Utah Department of Public Safety. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill expressed the gravity of the situation, noting "It must have been profoundly difficult for Ms. Camp's family... we hope the filing of this charge brings some relief," as stated by ABC7.