March 21, 2013
City News Service
The Los Angeles Police Department detective credited with the dogged pursuit of a suspect in the Grim Sleeper serial killings received a retirement sendoff Wednesday at the Los Angeles City Council meeting. Detective Dennis Kilcoyne will end his 36-year career with the LAPD April 1. In 2010, Kilcoyne was credited with tracking down Lonnie Franklin, who has been charged with 10 murders and one attempted murder attributed to the so- alled Grim Sleeper.
Kilcoyne lobbied for the first-ever use in the United States of familial DNA, the genetic material of a potential suspect's family members. The technique led to the identification of Franklin as a suspect in the killings that began in 1985. He is still awaiting trial.
Council members Jan Perry and Bernard Parks were joined by Police Chief Charlie Beck to honor Kilcoyne at today’s council meeting.
“There was one man whose force of will, whose refusal to accept the status quo, whose refusal to accept defeat found the suspect in that case, and that’s Dennis,” Beck said.
Kilcoyne was also involved in the murder investigation of O.J. Simpson, the killing of Bill Cosby’s son Ennis and the North Hollywood Bank of America shootout.