Investigators have suggested that they believe that accused serial killer Joseph Naso has many more victims out there, and the prosecution in his quadruple murder trial in Marin County yesterday revealed the identity of one more of them. That victim is Sara Dylan, born Rene Shapiro. Though Naso has not been charged with her death, Dylan's passport was found among other items in Naso's safety deposit box. Prosecutors only discovered a DNA link six months ago to a skull found in Nevada County 15 years ago, and they told the jury this belonged to Dylan, who disappeared in 1992 after attending a concert in Hawaii. Dylan was a devoted Bob Dylan fan who had legally changed her name as some of his fans did, and investigators believe she was hitchhiking from a Dylan concert in Red Bluff to his shows in Santa Rosa and San Francisco when Naso likely picked her up near his home. In his possession also was her driver's license, and a Dylan pin she kept in her makeup kit. These items, Naso claimed, could have come from his frequent "dumpster diving."
Prosecutors believe that Dylan is the girl identified on Naso's often mentioned "List of 10." She may be number 8, they say, listed as "girl in Woodland, Nevada County."
Naso is serving as his own attorney for reasons that appear to be derived from hubris, stubbornness (he claimed not to be able to afford a defense, but with over $1 million in assets he was not eligible for a public defender), and a desire to paint himself as so innocent that he shouldn't even need an expensive defense. In his two-hour opening statement yesterday, Naso said, "If I was guilty, I would have to hire the two or three best attorneys in the Bay Area."
But there is a mountain of circumstantial evidence to suggest that Naso knew all five victims, took photos of their bodies, possibly post-mortem, and collected trophies from each, including newspaper clippings about each of their deaths. Also, there is DNA evidence directly connecting him to the murder of Roxene Roggasch, who was 18 when her body was found near Fairfax in 1977.
In his remarks, Naso describes himself as a sort of small-time playboy who "dated" many women over the years, kept a dirty diary of his exploits, and happened to have a "dark" artistic side involving extreme bondage imagery and photos of apparently dead women. In his statement Naso declared, "I'm not the monster who killed these women. I don't do that. I dated, I danced; I don't kill people."
Also part of Naso's defense, responding to the fact that all four of the victims that figure in this case were prostitutes, he said, "I have no issues with prostitutes. I have high regard for them."
Naso's delusional mentality about his interactions with women seems to date back decades. Prosecutors also introduced Naso's "rape journal," found in his home in 2011, with details of apparent rapes of women going back to the 1950s. He was convicted of assault to commit rape back in 1958 in Rochester, New York, a crime he admits to, and the journal describes how he raped the girl in a cemetery, holding her down, then drove her home and waited while she rushed inside to her mother, thinking she wanted to introduce him! But the mother came out and wrote down his license plate number, leading to his arrest and conviction.
Naso made excuses for the language in his journal, saying, "That's the way I talk. 'I picked up a nice broad,' and 'I picked up another broad and raped her.' It's not forcible rape."
ABC 7 and Bay City News have more quotes from the courtroom.
Below, the full List of Ten as presented at Naso's trial.
1. Girl near Heldsburg Mendocino Co.
2. Girl near Port Costa
3. Girl near Loganitas [likely Roggasch]
4. Girl on Mt. Tam
5. Girl from Miami near Down Peninsula
6. Girl from Berkeley
7. Lady from 839 Leavenworth
8. Girl in Woodland (near Nevada County) [Likely Sara Dylan]
9. Girl from Linda (Yuba County) [likely Pamela Parsons found in 1993]
10. Girl from MRSV (Cemetery)
[Marin IJ]
[ABC 7]
[BCN/Appeal]
