Dead man’s DNA links him to 2 cold case murders in Vegas. He lived in Fresno, Merced

A man with ties to Fresno, Merced and other parts of Northern California was connected by DNA to the cold case sexual attack and fatal strangling of two women in Las Vegas, investigators say.

Eddie George Snowden Jr. was named Monday as the suspect in the slayings of Lori Ann Perera, 31, in 1992, and Pearl Wilson Ingram, 35, in 1994, Las Vegas homicide Lt. Jason Johansson told reporters.

Snowden died in February 2017 at age 80 of natural causes, investigators said.

Johansson said detectives learned Snowden lived previously in Fresno and other California cities including Madera, Merced, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Woodland and Watsonville.

He credited police in Fresno with helping the investigation.

Fresno Police Lt. Paul Cervantes on Tuesday told The Bee that investigators aided by collecting DNA locally, and have reviewed cases in the Fresno area but have not found any with similarities to the Las Vegas murders.

“There’s nothing that jumped off the page at us,” he said. “It’s incumbent on us to look at these cases and revisit them.”

Cold cases are reviewed annually, if not more often, he said.

Though Snowden died before he faced prosecutors, Ingram’s younger sister, Teresa Board, said the news that her sister’s assailant had been identified by authorities brought “much needed closure” to her family.

“It’s been a long, long 28 years,” said Board, pausing amid sobs as she recalled that her sister’s body was found partially disrobed in a dumpster behind a supermarket not far from where police said Snowden used to live.

Board said her sister, who was known as “Pinky,” had a son who now lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

“She didn’t get to become a grandmother, and that’s not fair,” Board said.

Perera’s nude body was found two years earlier in the same area where Snowden lived, bearing signs that her wrists and ankles were bound and she was beaten, police said. Both women died of strangulation.

Board credited police for revisiting the case and Snowden’s family for providing DNA samples that investigators matched using forensic testing with funding from a philanthropic group called the Vegas Justice League.

“Any other families out there going through what we’ve gone through, keep hope alive, keep God first,” Board said. “You, too, can have closure.”