Police: Suspect in Colorado slayings not linked to any Las Vegas murders

A man wanted in a 1996 slaying in Denver, who also is an FBI suspect in serial killings of women near truck stops elsewhere, was arrested Tuesday in Las Vegas.

Chester Leroy Todd, 66, was booked into Clark County Detention Center on Tuesday. Records show he was being held on a fugitive charge and faces extradition to Colorado. Todd, who has lived in the Las Vegas area for 14 years, checked into University Medical Center on Jan. 7, gravely ill and suffering from severe Parkinson's disease, authorities said. He remained a patient until the day of his arrest.

According to a Las Vegas police report, Todd was arrested after he told someone at UMC there was a warrant for his arrest in Colorado. The former truck driver is accused in the 1996 death of Sherri Majors, 27, a mother of three who was found beaten and strangled near railroad tracks in Denver.

According to Denver police, Majors accepted a ride from Todd on March 17, 1996. Her body was found the next morning. Police later found evidence linking Todd to the slaying in a tractor-trailer he had abandoned in Iowa after learning he was a suspect, authorities said.

Soon after Majors' death, Todd was named a person of interest in a separate Colorado slaying of a girl whose body was found by a road, the Denver Post reported.

He also was a convicted murderer who spent almost 20 years in an Illinois state prison from 1967 to 1986.

An FBI bulletin in 2006 named Todd among 30 suspects in the rapes and murders of prostitutes near truck stops nationwide. Of the suspects, only Todd was specifically named in the bulletin.

Larry Hanna, a Las Vegas homicide detective, said there was "no chance" Todd drove a truck or was a serial killer in his time in Las Vegas.

Hanna said detectives interviewed Todd shortly after his arrest. They learned Todd had been "virtually homeless" in Las Vegas for years and lived under a false identity, he said.

It's unlikely Todd was involved in any Las Vegas homicides, though several prostitutes disappeared in the Las Vegas area from 2003 to 2006, and their bodies were later found along major highways. Those cases remain open.

"There's absolutely no reason to believe at this point he (Todd) was involved in any type of series," Hanna said. "The last time he drove a truck was in '96."

An investigator with the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, which reviewed the truck driver serial killings, seemed surprised at learning of Todd's arrest. An agency spokesman did not return calls seeking comment.

The father of Sherri Majors, Everett Donelson, said he already has forgiven Todd for his actions and hopes to tell him that someday.

"The Lord knows all about him, and one day he's going to have to stand before him and answer for the things he's done," said Donelson, 67, of Denver. "That's good enough for me."

Donelson said he and his wife, Linda, 65, raised their daughter's three young boys after she was slain. All three are in their 20s now, and didn't get much time with their mother, a single parent who had been taking courses to become a paramedic .

Donelson said he spoke to the FBI about Todd several years ago. Agents were reviewing drivers' logs to see if Todd could be linked to other victims, but Donelson wasn't told of any determination.

Donelson said he would grieve for families of any other victims. He said overcoming the death of his daughter was one of the most challenging thing in his life.

"I felt like someone reached inside my chest and yanked one-third of my heart out. You talk about the darkest hours of your life that was it."

Contact reporter Mike Blasky at mblasky@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283.