DNA Links Ga. Man to Conn. Killings

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- New DNA testing has linked a Georgia man to the killings of four Connecticut women in the early 1990s, and investigators believe he may have been involved in up to six other slayings here.

Emanuel Lovell Webb was charged with murder in the killing of Elizabeth Gandy, 34, on April 19, 1993, prosecutor Jonathan Benedict said.

Webb, 40, is in prison in Georgia on a parole violation. Benedict said authorities were discussing his extradition to Connecticut.

Webb was linked to Gandy's slaying after cold-case detectives began reinvestigating the killings of about 15 Bridgeport women in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Benedict said.

During that time, young women were found dead in vacant buildings and lots in the city's East End.

Detectives discovered that 10 homicides from the time period had similar characteristics, and sent evidence from four of the cases to the FBI to compare evidence with DNA profiles of convicted felons nationwide. Such profiles were not available in the early 1990s.

The identification system recorded DNA "hits" for Webb in the killings of Gandy and three other Bridgeport women: Sharon Cunningham, Minnie Sutton and Sheila Etheridge.

Police are continuing to look into the homicides of Cunningham, Sutton, Etheridge and other women killed around the same time, Benedict said.

Webb lived with his sister, Bernice Snead, and a girlfriend in the East End from 1987 through 1993, the Connecticut Post reported Wednesday.

In August 1993, Webb moved back to Mount Vernon, Ga., where his family had lived previously. He was charged there in July 1994 with the killing of Evelyn Charity, who was sexually assaulted and strangled, according to Georgia court records.

Webb later pleaded guilty to reduced charges and received a prison sentence of 20 years. He was released on parole in late 2001.