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Police fear photos may be lost victims of convicted serial killer

by Vikki Vargas (NBC) - bio

LOS ANGELES (NBC) - There are pictures of laughing babies, of teenagers at parks and parties and a number of girls who appear naked. These pictures are some of the 100 photos found in a Seattle storage locker that once belonged to Rodney Alcala.

Persecutors say that more than 3 decades have passed since the 66-year old amateur photographer focused his lens on his victims. Among the last of his victims, Robin Samsoe. The 12-year old was kidnapped from Huntington Beach in 1979. Her gold earring was found in the same storage unit. Alcala was convicted of her murder for the third time; 2 other cases were turned over on appeal.

"Everywhere he's been, there's people missing," victims brother, Richard Samsoe said.

He has known about the photos for years and feared they might be the faces of more unnamed victims.

"The start of this trial, they were thinking that it was up to 50. Then during the trial, it was down to 175. They really have no idea. It could just keep going," Samsoe said.

Detectives say Alcala wrote names and addresses on the back of some of the prints. Many people say they have never met him. But they are others who are yet to be identified. Prosecutors say that they are releasing the photos now in hopes of finding ones in photos alive.

"We know that Mr. Alcala was a photographer. We know that he has many of these pictures taken. We don't know at this point if their victims of Mr. Alcala's, if they belong to a cold case.. We don't know anything else other than the fact that Mr. Alcala had them," District attorney, Susan Kang-Schroeder said.