MONTEREY PARK, Calif. – Sheriff’s homicide investigators are asking for the public’s help in identifying potential victims of sexual assaults of a teacher who is also a homicide suspect at a news conference Thursday.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials and a captain in the Gardena Police Department presenter a photo of former middle school teacher Charles [Chuck] Wright, who is awaiting trial for a sexual assault case and a homicide case, according to Alba Ibarra of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau. The two photos presented represent how Wright looked in 2005 and present day.
The second victim was 18.
“We are asking for the public’s assistance as we have strong suspicions he has victimized other sex workers.”
According to sheriff’s officials, using current fingerprint and DNA technology, Wright was arrested in 2021 in connection with the murder of Pertina Epps, who was found dead near a carport in Gardena in 2005. Wright was released after posting a $1 million bond and shortly thereafter was linked to a separate sexual assault case that occurred in 2006.
Within the last two years several women have turned up dead under suspicious circumstances including Mikeona Johnson and Tioni Theus and their murders have not been solved. Authorities haven’t deduced he was involved with their murders.
Detectives arrested Wright for the sexual assault case in June. He remains in custody awaiting trial on both cases.