LOS ANGELES, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- As Southern California authorities look for an alleged serial killer, a group working with the homeless is urging them to use the buddy system.
The FBI has teamed with Orange County authorities in their search for a person they say they believe has slain three homeless men, the first being James Patrick McGillivray, 53, killed Dec. 20, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
Police are hesitant to release details other than saying the slayings occurred Dec. 20-30. A makeshift memorial has grown at the Placentia shopping center, the location of the McGillivray killing.
Larry Haynes, executive director of Mercy House, a non-profit group working with the homeless, is urging people to use extreme caution and use the buddy system or be around other people, the newspaper said.
"It's a reasonable assumption to say something is going on. Obviously there's a psychopath out there," Haynes said.
Paulus Smit, 57, a victim who was fatally stabbed, was fondly remembered by the director of the Yorba Linda library. Smit visited the library "almost daily," Melinda Steep said.
"We all knew who he was. It's hard to know that one of our regulars is gone forever," Steep said.
