1 Suspect Held in Slayings, Other Mistakenly Released
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SAN DIEGO — One suspect in a string of murders in Missouri, Arizona and Nevada was arrested Wednesday but a second suspect was inadvertently released.
Alan Nicklasson, 22, an ex-convict from Missouri, was arrested without incident after being spotted hitchhiking along Interstate 805.
A companion, now thought by authorities to be Dennis J. Skillicorn, 34, was detained but released when a computer check showed no warrants under the name he gave officers. A third man was also detained and released.
Nicklasson and Skillicorn, who is also an ex-convict and convicted murderer, are suspects in four murders in three states, as well as a shooting incident in a Huntington Beach shopping mall that began as an attempted purse snatching.
The murders began soon after Skillicorn was released from a four-month program at the Salvation Army rehabilitation center in Kansas City on Aug. 23 and left with Nicklasson. The two had met at the center.
Nicklasson and Skillicorn had not been positively spotted since Aug. 27. “We have an active manhunt going on right now,” said FBI spokesman Ron Orrantia.
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