STOCKTON, Calif. — As police in Stockton search for a person or people behind a string of serial killings, investigators in San Joaquin County find themselves in a familiar situation with a suspect at large accused of potentially multiple homicides.
In Sept., the Stockton Police Department released a security camera photo of an individual described as a “person of interest” in seven connected shootings, six of which were fatal between April 2021 and Sept. 2022.
Authorities have asked those with information on the crimes or person of interest to contact them at 209-937-8377.
Since 1977, at least six confirmed serial killers have been convicted in killings that happened in San Joaquin County. Here are the county’s most notorious convicted serial killers:
I-5 Strangler Roger Kibbe
Span of crimes: 1977-1987
Roger Reece Kibbe, known as the “I-5 Strangler,” was convicted of at least one murder in San Joaquin County, the Associated Press reported.
In total, Kibbe was suspected in eight killings across Northern California, many of which happened in communities along I-5.
He plead guilty to six counts of murder in Amador, Contra Costa, Napa, Sacramento, San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties.
Kibbe received two life sentences without the possibility of parole. He was killed while in custody at Amador County’s Mule Creek State Prison in 2021.
Speed Freak Killers
Span of crimes: 1984-1999
For a nearly 15-year span, childhood friends Loren Herzog and Wesley Shermantine terrorized the San Joaquin County community, accused of at least seven local murders. The two were dubbed the “Speed Freak Killers.”
Shermantine was convicted of four murders, which included the deaths of Cyndi Vanderheiden, Chevelle Wheeler and two men who were shot in their car in 1984.
Herzog was found guilty in three murders in 2001, but an appeals court threw out his conviction saying investigators coerced Herzog’s taped confession to the killings.
In the taped confession, Herzog said Shermantine claimed to have had 24 victims. Herzog later pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was eventually paroled in 2010. He took his own life in Jan. 2012.
Shermantine, who is currently housed at San Quentin Prison, wrote letters to media outlets, a bounty hunter and law enforcement after Herzog’s death leading investigators to wells in the Linden area where more human remains were found.
Watch More: Families of ‘Speed Freak Killers’ victims notified after possible bone found in San Joaquin County
William Jennings Choyce
Span of crimes: 1988-1997
Over the course of one year between 1997 and 1998, Williams Jennings Choyce, known as the "Joy Killer" killed three women in Stockton.
Prosecutors described the deaths as "joy killings." The women, two of whom were from Stockton and one from Oakland, were fatally shot and then left in secluded areas. The victims were all described during the murder trial as prostitutes.
Choyce was convicted of raping two Oakland women and was serving time in a state prison when DNA evidence connected him to the three murders.
Choyce was sentenced to death after jurors returned guilty verdicts on the murder charges in 2008.
According to data from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Choyce is still sitting on death row at San Quentin State Prison.
Louis Peoples
Span of crimes: 1997
Louis Peoples began his killing spree in Oct. 1997, weeks after being suspended from his job as a tow truck driver in Stockton for testing positive for methamphetamine, according to the Associated Press.
Peoples called his former employer one night using an alias to request a tow truck. James Loper, 29, responded to the call and was subsequently shot and killed by Peoples, a jury found.
The next day, Peoples called the company using his real name saying he was sorry to hear about Loper's death and asked to return from his suspension. Peoples was turned down.
In the following weeks, Peoples robbed a liquor store shooting and killing the owner, Stephen Chaco, 39. After that murder, Peoples robbed another San Joaquin County liquor store which also ended in the fatal shooting of owner Beson Yu, 56, and clerk Jun Gao, 46.
Peoples was sentenced to death, but appealed to the state's Supreme Court. In 2016, the Supreme Court upheld his death penalty sentence.
According to the state's supreme court, the gun he used in the killings was stolen from an off-duty Alameda County sheriff's deputy.
In Jan. 2021, Peoples died by suicide while on death row at San Quentin State Prison.
Wayne Adam Ford
Span of crimes: 1997-1998
In 2006, convicted serial killer Wayne Adam Ford was sentenced to death after being found guilty in four murders across the state, according to reporting by the Los Angeles Times.
The newspaper reported Ford admitted to killing three women including Las Vegas native Lynette White whose body was found Sept. 5, 1998 in San Joaquin County.
Prosecutors alleged Ford strangled his victims before dumping their bodies.
Ford is currently on death row at San Quentin State Prison, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Watch More from ABC10: Stockton Serial Killings: Town hall tackles worries on violence
