The Chiller Killer

He called Lillienfeld and his hunch paid off. Lewis says, "It was like the lottery. It is ironic, but it does happen. When officers network, we solve cases."

Gargiulo was arrested on June 6, 2008, by the Santa Monica Police Department and charged with the attempted murder of Michelle Murphy. He was later charged with the murders of Ellerin and Bruno.

Illustration by Matt Mahurin

PHOTO COURTESY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF AND LAPD

Rare photo of Ashley Ellerin. In the media hubbub, several online images were wrongly identified as Ellerin.

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More About

• Tricia Pacaccio
• Ashley Ellerin
• Michael Gargiulo
• Murder and Homicide
• Crime and Law

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Diane Pacaccio has pure contempt for the Cook County state's attorneys, who have failed to act, even though the human detritus found on her dead daughter's fingernails has been linked via DNA tests to Gargiulo.

"Their job was handed to them when they found out it was his DNA," she says. "After years it was finally handed to them, and they didn't do anything about it. They should be ashamed of themselves. There was no way in high hell that the DNA should have been on my daughter."

Reflecting on all that has happened, Diane Pacaccio says, "I don't know why [the State's Attorney's Office] didn't put him in jail. ... I just don't understand it." Even now, so many years after losing her daughter, "I can barely leave the house. I can't get over it. I don't want them to think they are leaving my daughter's case as an open case."

For this mother, the case that will one day unfold in a Los Angeles courtroom 2,000 miles from Cook County is already closed. "If it wasn't for Tricia, he wouldn't be in jail today," Pacaccio says.

Of those who died after Gargiulo slipped in among the beautiful young people of Los Angeles 10 years ago, she can only say, "These girls could have been alive."