By DAWN HOBBS
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

As tips come in, detectives from the Santa Barbara Police Department's Cold Case Homicide Unit are learning more about a Brooks Institute student who was murdered nearly two decades ago.

Kym Morgan, 24, was last seen meeting a man in a Mesa shopping center about a room to rent on April 28, 1985. Four days later, her dismembered body was discovered strewn along East Camino Cielo. Her killer was never caught.

"We have learned that Kym had been attending meetings during that time involving three support groups and are hoping anyone involved in those groups with her would call us," said Detective Tim Roberts, who with Detective Greg Wilkins, runs the department's new unit.

Kym attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings at Friendship Hall, located in the 700 block of State Street, the Alano Club at Garden and Cota streets, and Overeaters Anonymous, located at the time in a church on Calle Real near Turnpike Road.

"We believe that anyone who attended those meetings with her may provide substantial information regarding the investigation," said Detective Roberts. "We fully understand the need for confidentiality in each of these organizations and by no means do we intend to violate the sacredness of their existence... We don't want to know who you are. We want to know what you know."

Kym's death, possibly the work of a serial killer, was one of four unsolved homicides featured in a three-part News-Press series that ran Dec. 29-31.

The series generated more than 30 fresh tips detectives are now pursuing in search of information that could lead to arrests. The other victims highlighted in the series were Esther Taboada, Frank Gomez and Lori Rosen.

"A lot of people are calling in with information they originally thought was insignificant to the case," said Detective Wilkins. "But the information could well lead to significant findings in the case."

Cold Case detectives suspect Esther was killed by her husband, and that he has since been in hiding in Santa Teresa, Guerrero, Mexico.

On Feb. 28, 1992, the 26-year-old mother of two got off work from Sears and walked toward her car in the La Cumbre Plaza parking lot when she spotted her husband, Mario Soto Taboada, waiting for her. She was in his truck only minutes when detectives say he pulled out a knife and stabbed her in the neck.

Cold Case detectives suspect the man who stabbed 36-year-old Frank Gomez to death was a serial killer. On the evening of Jan. 31, 1995, Frank, the brother of a Santa Barbara police officer, was last seen at The Pub on Helena Street where he was visiting a bartender who was his neighbor.

Witnesses said Frank left the bar with a gray-haired white man in his 50s about 9 p.m. Three hours later, his body was found behind the ticket office of the Santa Barbara Bowl. Detectives recently submitted a gray hair strand for DNA analysis which may reveal the killer's identity.

Detectives are also receiving tips on some of the department's other unsolved homicides and re-establishing communication with those families.

"Because of the articles, Barbara Turner's family has gotten in contact with us again," said Detective Wilkins.

Barbara, 41, was bludgeoned to death in 1972 off the 600 block of Cabrillo Boulevard. Detective Wilkins plans to submit DNA from this case that was previously deemed not testable.

He's also reviewing the department's other 22 unsolved homicides to see what other evidence can be resubmitted.

"With all of the new advances in DNA, it is certainly worth sending the evidence out again," Mr. Wilkins said.

Likewise, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department has resubmitted DNA evidence that was gathered at the scene where Lori Rosen was killed.

The 19-year-old City College student was found strangled and bludgeoned to death in her Montecito cottage on March 7, 1977.

Lori's boyfriend at the time, Ron Landis, contacted the News-Press this week.
He plans to submit information about the case to the television show "America's Most Wanted" in hopes it will be aired and generate new leads.

"I need to have some closure and if this is the last thing I do in my life to help find her killer, I will," he said.

Mr. Landis said he still feels guilty 25 years later that he was at a party and not with Lori the night she was killed.

"The love I had for Lori was the greatest love I've ever had," he said. "It will never be duplicated."

e-mail: dhobbs@newspress.com

YOU CAN HELP

The News-Press will host a public chatroom Wednesday from 10 a.m. until noon when anyone can talk with Cold Case detectives about the unsolved homicides of Kym Morgan, Frank Gomez, Esther Taboada and Lori Rosen.

To read the News-Press three-part series and view related materials, visit www.newspress.com and click on the Cold Case icon. This is also the link for the chatroom.

If you have information about the killings, you may call the Santa Barbara Police Department's Cold Case Unit at 897-2320 or 897-2426. You may also call the department's Anonymous Tipline at 569-COPS.

Anyone with information about the killing of Lori Rosen may call the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department Anonymous Tipline at 681-4171 or Detective Rod Forney at 684-4561.