Episode
A Serial Killer Across Four States: DNA Links Ricky Dawson to a 1992 San Francisco Murder
- Podcast
- COLD CASES SOLVED
- Published
- Jul 31, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 175
- Processing state
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Summary
After more than three decades, San Francisco prosecutors have charged Ricky Dawson in the 1992 rape and strangulation of Nancy Hernandez, a 45-year-old woman found dead in a Chinatown alley. Dawson, already serving life for a 1996 Denver murder and previously convicted in a Florida killing, has now been linked by DNA to at least four deaths spanning California, Colorado, Florida, and possibly Washington. This episode examines how cold-case DNA technology connected the crimes, the pattern investigators see across state lines, and what the charges mean for a case that sat unsolved for 34 years.