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Sex offenders accused of killing 4 fled to Vegas in 2012, records show

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A pair of registered sex offenders now accused in a string of Orange County slayings had cut off their electronic monitoring devices in 2012 and fled to Nevada, where they stayed at the Circus Circus Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, court records show.

Franc Cano, 27, and Steven Dean Gordon, 46, both had served prison time on sex crimes and pleaded guilty to failing to register as sex offenders when they were picked up two weeks later in Las Vegas, according to authorities and court records.

Federal court records show that the two traveled to Nevada using the false identities Dexter McCoy and Joseph Madrid.

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After pleading guilty in Nevada, the men had to provide DNA samples, and their computers were monitored by federal agents, according to records.

Though authorities said Gordon and Cano checked in monthly with Anaheim police as required, they are now suspected in the slayings of four women who vanished from the streets on Santa Ana and Anaheim. All had histories of prostitution.

Gordon and Cano were arrested Friday in an industrial area of Anaheim, not far from the trash sorting facility where the naked body of Jarrae Nykkole Estepp was found, officials said.

Police haven’t said whether the bodies of the other women have been found.

The string of disappearances in Santa Ana began in early October soon after Kianna Jackson, 20, arrived in the city for a court hearing on four misdemeanor charges of prostitution and loitering to commit prostitution, according to court records. Jackson had grown up in a small, rural Northern California town but moved to Las Vegas after one semester of college.

Her mother, Kathy Menzies, said Jackson stopped responding to her text messages shortly after she arrived in Santa Ana.

Nearly three weeks after Jackson disappeared, Josephine Monique Vargas, who grew up in Santa Ana, left a family birthday party and said she was going to the store. She was not seen again.

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Vargas, 34, had a rough past that at times involved drug use and prostitution, according to court records. But she was also very close to her family, especially her mother, and had been trying to improve her life. After she disappeared, her mother, Priscilla Vargas, would walk East 1st Street in Santa Ana, among the city’s roughest blocks, asking the drug dealers, street workers and anyone else who might be around if they knew anything about her eldest child, whom everyone called “Giggles.”

When Martha Anaya, 28, disappeared Nov. 12, she had been planning her daughter’s birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. She asked her boyfriend to pick up their daughter so she could work, but stopped responding to his messages later that night.

Like the other women, Anaya had a history of prostitution, according to court records. Her family worried that her past may have reduced the urgency of the official search following her disappearance.

While the other women appeared to have vanished without a trace, Estepp’s body was found amid the trash at a recycling plant in Anaheim last month.

Police said said it’s unclear whether the women were targeted because of their ties to prostitution.

“Their activity could have been a contributing factor, but at this time, we are not certain that activity is what made them victims,” said Lt. Bob Dunn, a spokesman for the Anaheim Police Department.

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Police said they are consulting with other law enforcement agencies to see whether there might be links to other cases.

Paloma.esquivel@latimes.com

Adolfo.flores@latimes.com

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