Approximately two months later, on July 14, 79-year-old Hattie Davis Bonner was found suffocated in her bed in a strikingly similar manner to the previous attack.
[1] On October 6, Forte broke into the home of 78-year-old Alvin Bowen, a retired Southern Bell executive, and his 75-year-old wife Thelma, who was blind.
The resulting blaze caught the attention of the neighbors, who quickly alerted the authorities, who managed to put it out before it could reach the couple's bedroom.
[5] Owing to the lack of clues or any suspects, all four cases eventually went cold, and were considered among the most notorious unsolved murders in the state at the time.
Five years later, his DNA was linked to the Nightstalker murders, resulting in his subsequent arrest on April 30, 2001, at his workplace in Dudley.