# A Serial Killer Across Four States: DNA Links Ricky Dawson to a 1992 San Francisco Murder

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/cold-cases-solved-2138662/a-serial-killer-across-four-states-dna-links-ricky-dawson-to-a-1992-san-francisco-murder
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/cold-cases-solved-2138662/a-serial-killer-across-four-states-dna-links-ricky-dawson-to-a-1992-san-francisco-murder.md
Podcast: [COLD CASES SOLVED](https://stenobird.com/podcast/cold-cases-solved-2138662)
Published: 2026-07-31T19:41:41+00:00
Episode link: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/a-serial-killer-across-four-states-dna-links-ricky-dawson-to-a-1992-san-francisco-murder--73291753
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/73291753/podcast_1785526647.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/cold-cases-solved-2138662/episodes/a-serial-killer-across-four-states-dna-links-ricky-dawson-to-a-1992-san-francisco-murder
Duration seconds: 175

## Resource

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.

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## Transcript

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