The Riverside Killer: Who is William Suff?
Riverside KillerWilliam Suff, the infamous Riverside Killer, hid in plain sight. Between 1973 and 1991, he murdered his two-month-old daughter in Texas and went on to kill women across Riverside County, California. He was convicted of 12 murders, and a 13th victim has since been linked to him.
Crime+Investigation examines how a man who had already killed his baby daughter was released early and went on to murder at least 12 women.
Early life
William Suff was born on 20th August 1950 in Torrance, California, as the eldest of five children. He had a troubled upbringing characterised by instability and poor influences. His mother was described as domineering, using coercion to control her husband and children.
Following his parents’ divorce, Suff’s mother turned to prostitution to support herself. Prosecutors believed this may have contributed to his hostility towards sex workers.
At 18, he met 15-year-old Teryl. The couple married in 1969 and had two children together: a son, William Lester Suff Jr., born in November 1970, and a daughter, Dijiania, born in July 1973.
A history of violence
Unable to control his temper, Suff soon became abusive towards Teryl, often threatening to kill her if she didn’t do what he wanted. He was also abusive towards the children, especially baby Dijiania.
On 25th September 1973, Suff was looking after Dijiania at the family home in Fort Worth, Texas, while Teryl went out. At some stage, he hit the two-month-old so hard that she stopped breathing. When Teryl came home, she called for help. Emergency services pronounced Dijiania dead at the scene, and an autopsy revealed that she had suffered repeated abuse.
Suff and Teryl were both convicted of killing their daughter. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals later reversed Teryl’s conviction because of insufficient evidence, but Suff’s was upheld and he was sentenced to 70 years’ imprisonment. He would be released on parole in 1984, after only a decade behind bars, and was paroled to California.
A killer in plain sight
Once he was released from prison, Suff took extreme care to blend in with his community. He found an administrative job at John’s Service Centre on Main Street in Lake Elsinore, a popular resort town and mineral hot-spring destination.
‘He seemed real nice. He used to buy sodas for all the grandkids’, one resident remembered. A former co-worker added, ‘I’ve never seen that man lose his temper. He was always a really nice guy. He always went beyond the call of duty to help.’
However, while Suff seemed outwardly friendly, he was harbouring an uncontrollable rage and resentment towards women. The murder of baby Dijiania and his treatment towards Teryl were the first signs of a violence that was about to escalate.
The Riverside Murders
Suff began targeting women across Riverside County. Most of his victims were sex workers, women who were often vulnerable, in a pattern also seen in the case of Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer. His first known victim, 19-year-old Cathy Small, was killed in 1986, but she was not linked to him until DNA evidence connected her decades later.
In January 1989, he attacked 27-year-old sex worker Rhonda Jetmore after driving her to a secluded location. He tried to choke her, but Rhonda fought back. When he forced his fingers into her mouth, she bit down so hard that one of her teeth broke.
Thankfully, Rhonda escaped. But Suff was not caught, and the killings continued.
23-year-old Christina Leal was found in December 1989, strangled and stabbed to death on a Quail Valley hillside. She had been bound before she was killed.
In February 1990, the body of 35-year-old Carol Miller was discovered in an orchard in Highgrove.
In August and September 1990, 27-year-old Kelly Hammond and 30-year-old Catherine McDonald were found stabbed and strangled. The killings continued into October and December 1991, when police located the bodies of 35-year-old Delliah Zamora and 39-year-old Eleanor Casares.
How William Suff was caught
Police finally caught Suff on 9th January 1992 after pulling over his van for an illegal U-turn. Forensic evidence from inside the vehicle helped link him to the murders.
In July 1995, a Riverside County jury found Suff guilty of murdering 12 women and attempting to murder another. However, investigators suspected that his true victim count could be much higher.
Three months later, Suff was sentenced to death. Although California introduced a moratorium on executions in 2019, his death sentence remains in place. During sentencing, Judge W. Charles Morgan described Suff as ‘a cruel and indifferent man’.
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