The Grim Sleeper

Drawing from Grief: A victim's brother sketches the Grim Sleeper Trial

Full story coming May 6, 2016

On Thursday, Lonnie David Franklin Jr. was found guilty of a series of murders in South Los Angeles that spanned more than two decades.

Alicia Alexander, 18, was the seventh victim of the man authorities dubbed the Grim Sleeper serial killer. Her naked, decomposing body was found discarded under a mattress in an alley in 1988.

Alicia’s family has attended nearly every court hearing since Franklin’s arrest in July 2010. Donnell Alexander, Alicia’s older brother, used a blue pen to take notes and sketch in a composition notebook during Franklin’s nearly three-month trial. Recording his thoughts, he said, was a way to cope with the decades of pain since his sister’s death.

Stephen Ceasar covered the trial for The Times. Read his story about the Alexander family’s perseverance on Friday.