SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — The San Francisco Police Department has identified a suspect in a 1992 homicide. The man is also connected to a cold case homicide out of Denver.
According to the San Francisco Police Department, the cold case happened in Chinatown on May 2, 1992, when 45-year-old Nancy Hernandez was found dead in a utility corridor at Hang Ah Alley.
Investigators determined that Hernandez was an unhoused woman living in the alley. She was badly beaten, sexually assaulted and strangled.
The case laid dormant until 2023 when San Francisco Police Department’s Cold Case Unit reopened it. DNA profiles from the scene matched an offender named Ricky Dawson.
Dawson is also linked to three other cases involving sexual assault and homicide in Seattle, Denver and Panama Beach, Florida. He is currently awaiting a murder trial in Denver.
Dawson is facing charges of first-degree murder and attempted sexual assault related to the murder of Terri Turachak.
On Oct. 5, 1996, Denver officers and medical personnel were called to 1927 E. 17th Ave. where they located Turachak. The coroner’s office determined she died of strangulation and blunt force trauma to her head.
Following a lengthy investigation, including years of interviews and evidence testing, a warrant was issued for Dawson in Colorado on Jan. 27, 2023.
San Francisco police issued an arrest warrant for Dawson in connection to Hernandez’s murder on Jan. 2. He will be transported to San Francisco after his trial in Denver.
