FAIRFIELD, Calif. — A decades-long investigation into two separate homicides across California ended Monday when Solano County Sheriff's deputies arrested 76-year-old James Ray Gary of Fairfield.
Police allege Gary killed 46-year-old Latrelle Lindsay of Union City in 1980 and 46-year-old Winifred Douglas from the Oakland/Berkeley area in 1996.
Both woman were declared dead because of asphyxia from strangulation and blunt force trauma.
It wasn't until 2003 that evidence from the 1996 homicide with possible DNA was sent to the California Department of Justice for DNA analysis—where it would later match with evidence from the Union City case.
The DNA also matched evidence in a sex crime investigated by a North Bay Police Department in 2021. Gary would eventually be identified through this most recent investigation, where a fresh DNA sample was collected.
He was booked into the Solano County Jail on charges related to the Oakland/Berkeley area homicide, and law enforcement say they expect to file charges in the Union City homicide as well.
