A “serious, dangerous serial killer” appears to be preying on homeless people in Orange County, police said Wednesday as they raced to find a dark-clothed suspect in connection with three stabbing deaths.

Police have only a vague description of that suspect, captured in surveillance video in the moments leading up to the first attack. They believe the killer is a male, and they can see in the video that he was wearing a dark hoody when he approached a sleeping homeless man from behind.

The video also shows a white Toyota Corolla, model year 2000 to 2003, in a parking lot near where the killing happened. A time stamp on the video suggests the car pulled out more than an hour before the attack; police have said they believe thehe slept outside a shopping center in Placentia; he was identified as James McGillivray, 53. The next victim was found eight days later on the Santa Ana River Trail, near the 91 Freeway; he was identified as Lloyd Middaugh, 42.

The third victim was killed two days later, on late Friday afternoon, behind the Yorba Linda library. He was identified as Paulus Cornelius Smit, 57. A photo of him, framed by the words, “Rest In Peace Dutch,” stood at a small candlelit memorial to him at a stairwell behind the library this week.

All three victims were stabbed multiple times. A police bulletin posted at a Fullerton homeless shelter also reported that all three men were killed as they slept alone. But Anaheim Sgt. Bob Dunn said Wednesday that police