Juan Chavez (1965 – September 9, 1999) was a Mexican serial killer who, between 1986 and 1990, killed at least six gay men in three cities in Los Angeles County, California.
[4] On July 17, 1986, Chavez met up with 46-year-old Alfred Rowswell at a well-known pickup spot for male “street hustlers”.
Later that year, police located Rowswell's car in Utah, and collected an unknown male fingerprint on the driver-side window.
[6] A cigarette butt discovered inside Penn's apartment contained his killer's DNA, and police collected it and stored it in a file.
In 1992, Chavez was convicted on multiple counts of kidnapping and robbery in unrelated cases, and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
[7] Following his conviction, investigators re-examined four murders from 1989 and came to the conclusion that an unidentified serial killer was targeting gay middle-aged men.
After a further examination, authorities tied him to the 1989 murders, as he was identified as the man seen looting one of the victims ATM's on camera after the killing.
[6][9] Investigators publicly announced that the killing of Penn had been solved, but by that time Chavez had been dead for almost thirteen years.