Serial killer charged in San Francisco cold case murder after Colorado conviction
By Carlos E. Castañeda
A serial killer convicted or linked to the sexual assault murders of three women in three states was charged in a 1992 cold case murder and rape in San Francisco, the District Attorney’s Office said on Wednesday.
Ricky Dawson, 65, was charged with murder, with special circumstances including a prior murder conviction, a rape allegation and a sodomy allegation. Dawson was arraigned on Monday in San Francisco and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
On May 2, 1992, a woman was found dead on the ground in an alley the city’s Chinatown neighborhood. She was identified as 45-year-old Nancy Hernandez, who police said had been using a utility corridor in the alley as a shelter. An autopsy showed she had multiple traumatic injuries and the cause of death was asphyxia due to strangulation. Later tests showed Dawson’s DNA was found on the victim, police said.
Dawson was identified as the suspect in January 2025, when he was awaiting trial in the sexual assault and strangulation murder of a Colorado woman, Terri Turachek, in 1996. He was convicted in March and was serving a life sentence before he was extradited to face charges in San Francisco.
Dawson had been identified as a suspect in the Colorado case after pleading guilty in 2001 to the second-degree murder and sexual assault of a woman in Panama Beach, Florida. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in that case before being extradited to Colorado.
Investigators said Dawson’s DNA profile obtained in Florida also matches the DNA obtained in a 2000 cold case murder in Seattle. The autopsy of the victim, Debbie Cashio, found she had multiple blunt force trauma injuries and died strangulation. Dawson has not been charged in the case.
The FBI defines serial murder as the unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender or offenders, in separate events.
Dawson’s next court date is July 30 for the preliminary hearing in the San Francisco case.
