A serial
killer is suspected to be on the loose in Stockton, California in the United
States. Stockton cops said Wednesday that a recent series of unsolved homicides
in the city throws up a pattern.

“As
detectives have been looking at the data and evidence for some of the recent
homicides, they have noticed the homicides are occurring during the night or
early morning hours and our victims were alone,” the Stockton Police Department
said in a statement.

The numbers:

A total of 43
murders took place in Stockton so far this year. This is 11 more than the
number of homicides being investigated by the same time last year. Of these,
some of the recent murders seem to share a pattern.

Some of the
murders that show a pattern, according to Newsweek, are:

·      
A 21-year-old man shot dead inside his vehicle on 800 Block, East Hammer
Lane. Police discovered the body early morning.

·      
A 35-year-old man found dead inside his car at 1 am between the Sikh
Temple and East Sixth streets. The man died of gunshot wounds.

·      
A 37-year-old man found dead on a sidewalk near Manchester Avenue. The
man was shot. Police called to the spot at 1:41 am.

·      
A 54-year-old man was found dead on a sidewalk on Porter Avenue
following a shooting at around 2 am.

The pattern:

Police say
the pattern in the killings is that the victims were alone and were killed in
cars or while walking. All the dead bodies were found “in very dark places,”
according to Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden. “People are by themselves,
they don’t have that situational awareness that we would like folks to have,”
McFadden said.

Also Read | Stockton serial killings: What police know so far

The locations
where the murders were committed lacked security cameras and the killer or
killers did not take anything from the victims. No witnesses were present at
the scenes.

Police
advisory:

The Stockton
police chief said cops “have no information that there’s a serial killer on
loose” in Stockton’s streets, but detectives “haven’t ruled out anything.” “I
know that’s put a lot of folks on edge, hearing that out there,” he said.

Also Read | Stockton killings: 5 active serial killers in the United States

“And I’m just
here to say that we have no evidence of that. We are seeing some patterns and
similarities in some of our more recent homicides where we’re taking a closer
look at. We don’t know if it’s one person, or if it’s five or six people. We
just don’t have that information right now,” he said.