Alpine County investigators are searching for possible connections between a man accused of murdering a Clements, Calif. woman and 1984 murder in Hope Valley.

Henry Howell, 41, a Santa Clara resident was found shot to death near his car on Highway 88 in September 1984. Until Monday, the Alpine County Sheriff’s Department had developed no suspects in the case. Now it seems San Joaquin County prosecutors believe they have the killer.

Under the new “serial killer” statute, the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s office has charged Loren Joseph Herzog with Howell’s murder. The newly enacted clause in state law allows prosecutors to consolidate multiple murder cases from different jurisdictions.

Herzog is facing five counts of murder. San Joaquin prosecutors believe he is responsible for a string of killings that took place in San Joaquin and Alpine counties between 1984 and 1985.

Herzog and Wesley Howard Shermantine, both 33, were arrested last week on suspicion of killing Cyndi Vanderheiden, 25, last November. Her body has not been found.

Shermantine is accused of abducting and slaying a Stockton teen-age girl who also remains missing.

Herzog also is accused of fatally shooting Howard King, 35, and Paul Raymond Cavanaugh, 31, whose bodies were found beside a car on Roberts Island on Nov. 27, 1984; and the September 1985 murder of Robin Armtrout, 24, whose nude body was found stabbed nearly a dozen times on the east bank of Potter Creek near Linden.