This combination of undated photos from the Megan’s Law website shows suspects, Steven Dean Gordon, 45, left, and Franc Cano, 27, who were arrested on Friday, April 11, 2014, on suspicion of killing four women in Orange County, Calif.SANTA ANA, Calif. – GPS technology helped police link two convicted sex offenders to the rapes and killings of at least four women in California, but the mother of one victim said Tuesday that the monitoring system should have done more to prevent the crimes in the first place.
“If they were monitored correctly, then maybe none of this would have happened,” said Jodi Michelle Pier-Estepp, the mother of victim Jarrae Nykkole Estepp, whose naked body was found March 14 on a conveyor belt at an Anaheim trash-sorting plant.
The situation has raised new questions about the effectiveness of the devices that are supposed to deter criminals by keeping them away from forbidden area such as schools and playgrounds and from anyone who has a protective order.
They are also supposed to be an investigative tool for law enforcement to track down convicts.
Federal and state officials said the devices worked as intended after Estepp, 21, was killed, pinpointing the locations of suspects Franc Cano, 27, and Steven Dean Gordon, 45, after the crimes.