Nevada man arrested in four cold-case deaths

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. -- A Nevada man's arrest in four cold-case deaths in California has authorities scrambling to determine whether he is connected to killings in other states, including the notorious "Double Initial Murders" of three girls in upstate New York in the early 1970s.

Joseph Naso, 77, of Reno was being held Tuesday on suspicion of murder in the deaths of four women whose bodies were found across Northern California from 1977 to 1994.

Like the "Double Initial" case, all four women had matching initials for their first and last names.

Authorities said Naso, 77, once lived in the Rochester area and traveled between there and the West in the early 1970s.

Naso was arrested late Monday in South Lake Tahoe after being released from El Dorado County Jail, where he was serving time on an unrelated probation violation. Authorities said he was on probation for a 2009 grocery store theft in California when a random search of his Reno home in April 2010 turned up guns and ammunition.

The search also uncovered evidence that helped link him to the Northern California killings, said Nevada authorities .