The 2014 Case of the Year was awarded to both the Anaheim Police Department and the Santa Police Department for their joint investigation of two serial killers who picked up prostitutes from various locations in Orange County and strangled them to death where they stayed in an industrial area of Anaheim.

On Friday, March 14, 2014, around 10:30 a.m., APD officers were dispatched to a trash collection business in east Anaheim after employees found a dead body on a conveyer belt used to sort trash. APD Homicide detectives quickly identified the victim, Jarrae Estepp, as a documented prostitute. Over the course of the following month, APD detectives linked Estepp to the disappearance of three other documented prostitutes who were last seen in Santa Ana. These women were identified as Kianna Jackson, Josephine Vargas and Martha Anaya, all of whom vanished in late 2013.

APD Homicide detectives partnered with SAPD Homicide to conduct numerous interviews, extensive surveillance and sort through voluminous records. This collaborative effort led to the identification of two suspects: Franc Cano and Steven Gordon, both of whom were transient sex registrants who slept in and around an RV they parked in the area where Estepp’s body was discovered. Cano and Gordon were arrested on April 10, 2014. Both defendants were charged with multiple counts of special circumstance murder.

A jury convicted Steven Gordon on December 15, 2016, and he was sentenced to death. As of April 2020, Franc Cano is still awaiting trial.

Read about the investigation at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-11-19/detective-julissa-trapp-podcast-series or listen to the podcast at https://wondery.com/shows/detective-trapp/.