Fact check: False claim a serial killer murdered 9 women in San Antonio

BrieAnna J. Frank, USA TODAY
·3 min read

The claim: A serial killer has murdered 9 women in San Antonio, Texas

Some social media users are claiming one person is behind a purported spate of homicides in Texas' second-most populous city.

"There’s a serial killer in San Antonio. Killed 9 women. Please be careful out there," reads a Dec. 9 Facebook post, which was shared more than 5,000 times in one week (direct link, archived link).

Other versions of the claim were shared widely on the social media platform.

But the San Antonio Police Department said the posts are false. There is no evidence that a serial killer is targeting women in the city.

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USA TODAY reached out to social media users who shared the claim for comment.

San Antonio police say claims are 'unsubstantiated'

There is no record of the killings described in the post nor is there evidence a serial killer is currently in the San Antonio area.

Officer Ricardo Guzman, a spokesperson for the San Antonio Police Department, told USA TODAY he was not aware of any such cases.

The department also said the claim had “no factual basis” in a Dec. 12 statement posted on Facebook.

"(We) want to reassure the public to not be alarmed on this unsubstantiated social media post," the post said.

When reached for comment, the sheriff's office in Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, referred USA TODAY to the police department's statement.

Officials in nearby Kerr County debunked similar claims of a serial killer in the area in July, as the San Antonio Express-News reported at the time.

Fact check: False claims of serial killer ‘currently hunting’ in many different communities

Earlier this month – two days before the post about the supposed serial killer and the women's deaths was published – a San Antonio jury found a former Border Patrol agent guilty of murdering four women, and stories about his conviction appeared in USA TODAY, The New York Times, CNN and other outlets.

The San Antonio Current and the San Antonio Express-News also reported the recent serial killer claim was false.

USA TODAY has previously debunked claims of serial killers in other parts of the country, including West Virginia, North Carolina and Washington state.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim a serial killer has murdered nine women in San Antonio. The San Antonio Police Department told USA TODAY it was not aware of any such cases and later issued a statement saying the claim was baseless.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: False claim serial killer murdered 9 women in San Antonio