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Authorities: 1 Of 4 Women Found In Ditch Near Atlantic City Was Strangled
 
An autopsy shows one of the four women found dead in a ditch Monday in New Jersey was strangled. Examinations are pending for the other three.  
   The four were found behind a motel outside Atlantic City Monday, shoeless and face down in several inches of water. The area where they were discovered is known for drug use and prostitution.

Authorities say each body was in a different stage of decay, and the victim who was examined appeared to have been dead for several days.

Officials don't know if the women were killed nearby and dumped in the ditch, but say there's no evidence that they were murdered in surrounding motels.



(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Bet they are prostitutes, since no missing women reports in the news, and Pimp Law was being inforced.

Or maybe random murders by a serial killer.

I vote Pimp working a problem.

I have noted a similar factor or two,between a series of killings in the Datona,Fl area,about 1 yr ago.Their have been a series of cluster murders on the I-95 corrider over the last 10 yrs.They come and go,often reappering about 6-12 months apart and about 300-900 miles apart.Just a random thought,from the treetops.Cat

Yes I agree, most likely prostitutes or homeless lost people.

This just strikes such a sad note with to me , especially as the Holiday Season approaches.

4 women dead and their families are probably estranged from them and don't have a clue.

If these 4 women were found in an upscale town it would be all over the papers.

God bless them, and I hope they get the maniac who is doing the killing.

Atlantic City prostitutes fear a killer
Staff and agencies
22 November, 2006



By WAYNE PARRY, Associated Press Writer 28 minutes ago

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - Prostitutes working in the shadows of Atlantic City‘s glitzy casinos say they are living in fear of a possible serial killer after the bodies of four women were found in a drainage ditch behind a row of seedy motels.

"It scares the hell out of me," said Christine, a prostitute eyeing cars driving by a cheap motel on Pacific Avenue near several casino entrances. "We‘re all talking about it, and I‘m still ready to jump in the first car that comes along. But I got anxiety, bad."

Autopsies found that two of the women found Monday had been slain: one by strangulation with a rope or cord, one by smothering. The others were too badly decomposed to determine a cause of death, prosecutors said.

Bunny, a prostitute and drug dealer who works out of the same Pacific Avenue motel as Christine, said she will no longer accompany clients to motels on the Black Horse Pike, locals‘ name for the seedy stretch of Route 40 in Egg Harbor Township where the bodies were found.

The only woman authorities have been able to identify, 35-year-old Kim Raffo, died from strangulation. Her body had been in the ditch a couple of days, an autopsy showed.

Raffo, raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., came to New Jersey about four years ago after getting into problems with drugs in Florida, said her sister, Maria Santos. Only since she was found dead did Santos learn the former PTA mom was selling her body — but she knew her formerly close sister was in big trouble.

Christine, 37, said she knew Raffo, who she said used to work street corners about a mile from where Christine usually works.

Bill Southrey, president of the Atlantic City Rescue Mission, said Raffo stayed at the mission for one day last year, and two days in January.

Christine said word of the killings has been slow to circulate among her fellow streetwalkers.

Khadijah, 38, said that because of the killings she will only "date" regular clients in a motel she knows. She‘s thinking about reviving her former habit of carrying a knife, and said she will rely on her boyfriend to scout out clients for her, at least until things cool down.

"I‘m only out here on the days I absolutely need to," she said.

How often is that?

"Every day."

___

Associated Press Writer Geoff Mulvihill in Mount

Another victim has been identified.  They are working hard to identify the other two.  Yesterday the newspaper printed the tattoos that were on one of the victims in hopes someone would recognize them.  I tried to find an online photo to post, but failed.  The first tattoo is professionally done and is an adorable bulldog.  It was on the small of her back.  The second tattoo did not look as professional and it was of a playboy bunny.
http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061125/UPDATES01/611250347/1005/NEWS01

Better description of tattoos:
"...She has a red and black tattoo of a bulldog at the small of her back, a tattoo of a Playboy bunny in a heart on her upper right shoulder and a faded tattoo that reads 'Yolly' on her stomach around her navel, Blitz said."
(The Playboy bunny tattoo has a small heart NEXT to the bunny, according to the sketch, not around the bunny.  And according to investigators 'Yolly' could potentially be another name because it is faded...Solly?, Sally?)

Maybe they will get this murderer soon (Not sure how safe I would feel if I was Ms. Brown):
"..."I loved every last one of those girls," said Janette Brown, who claimed Friday before the prosecutor's announcement that she knew all four of the victims. "They were sweet girls but they were just hooked on crack."

Brown says she occasionally helped them get by providing clothing, showers and shelter.

"I think I know exactly who did it but I'm scared to say because he's still out there," she said, holding her hands to her face."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15889402/

Expert: Jersey killer racked with guilt?
Nov. 25, 2006 at 3:55PM

An expert on ritual murders theorizes the killer of four women found near Atlantic City, N.J., is being plagued by guilt over his actions.
      Dawn Perlmutter, who has worked with police departments on multiple-murder cases across the United States, told WCAU-TV in Philadelphia Saturday that the "arrangement" of the victims' bodies -- shoes removed and heads facing east -- is an indication "he is revering and desecrating the bodies at the same time."
      "I think we have a very conflicted perpetrator who may feel guilty after he has done an act," Perlmutter said.
      Authorities in nearby New Jersey have formed a multi-agency task force to investigate the deaths of the four victims, whose bodies were found face down in a drainage ditch Monday in Egg Harbor Township.
      Two of the slain women were known to have lived and worked in the streets in the area of Atlantic City's casinos, and had records of prostitution arrests.

http://crime.about.com/b/a/257210.htm

Sketches of tatoos in this article....

Thanks Jac.  Interesting article.  And these pictures of the tattoos need to be widely circulated so this poor girl gets identified.
(http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o302/Belladoodle/tattoos-1.jpg)

Yes. Someone knows this girl , and the other unidentified one too.

From what I have read they have quite a task force working on this.

I hope they get the killer/killers soon...

Possible 'Person Of Interest' In A.C. Murders
(AP) ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. As authorities identified a third woman Monday whose body was discovered in a ditch behind a string of seedy motels, several prostitutes said detectives have been showing a cell phone photo of a man they described as a “person of interest” in the case.

Barbara V. Breidor, 42, of Ventnor, was the third of four women whose bodies were found face-down in a ditch last week to be identified, according to the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office. The cause of her death, like that of a fourth, as yet unidentified woman, was not revealed from an autopsy.

The body of Breidor, who was identified through dental records, had been in the drainage ditch for at least two weeks, authorities said. Like the other two victims who have thus far been identified, she had been involved in prostitution, authorities said.

“She was a known face around here,” said Denise Hill, who described herself as a prostitute. “She was pretty.”

Hill and another admitted prostitute, Zandra Kiesel, said Monday evening that detectives had recently canvassed the beachfront area in the north end of Atlantic City, showing them a cell phone photo of a man they both recognized as a customer.

“They said he’s a person of interest,” Hill said.

She described the man as a white man with a scruffy beard and mustache, sporting “a beer belly” spilling out over blue jeans, wearing a black baseball cap with a gold insignia on it.

“He came off like he was severely hurt by someone,” Kiesel said. “I was with him one time and he started crying and said, ‘You’re the only one who ever held me.’ He was really into being held.”

Hill said the man was “talking crazy talk” and musing about having done bad things in his life, but did not specify what those were.

Janet Niedosik, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office, would neither confirm nor deny the women’s assertions.

“We never discuss the evidence in an ongoing case,” she said.

The four women were found last Monday after police were told about a body discovered by two people who were walking near the Atlantic City border.

The other victims whose identities are known are Kim Raffo, 35, and Tracy Ann Roberts, 23. Raffo was strangled. Roberts, whose last known address was in Atlantic City, died from asphyxia, but authorities do not know exactly how she was killed.

Raffo’s body had been in the ditch for a couple of days; the fourth woman’s body had been there for up to a month.

Certain similarities between the women and the way the bodies were situated have led some to wonder if a serial killer is to blame. Three of the four were blonde. All were barefoot, and their bodies were arranged face-down with their heads pointing east toward the Atlantic City casinos.

The two prostitutes who spoke Monday about the cell phone photo also discounted speculation among some street walkers that the last unidentified victim might be a hooker known on the streets as “Lena,” short for Kathleen.

“It wasn’t her,” said Hill. “Lena took a bus back home to Boston. It’s not her.”

Police said the fourth victim is a white female, approximately 5’0” and weighing 160 pounds. The victim has several identifying tattoos, including a bulldog on the small of her back and a Playboy bunny inside a heart on her upper right shoulder.

If you have any information, contact the police.

(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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A.C. killings echo three earlier casesThree suspected prostitutes were slashed, two fatally. The attacks might be related.

By George Anastasia and Jacqueline L. Urgo
Inquirer Staff Writers
Previous stories about Shore slayings
ATLANTIC CITY - Earlier this year, three suspected prostitutes were attacked on North Georgia Avenue a few blocks from the city's Boardwalk casino strip.

All three were slashed across the throat. Two died.

Those unsolved crimes have attracted the attention of investigators probing the killings of four suspected prostitutes whose bodies were found last week in a drainage ditch in the West Atlantic City section of Egg Harbor Township.

"Major Crimes, the FBI and the state police have been in," said Atlantic City Police Detective Richard Johnson, a city arson investigator who worked on the Georgia Avenue cases.

Johnson was quick to point out that there was no hard evidence linking the Georgia Avenue slashings to the marsh killings, which some have attributed to a serial killer. Investigators are interested because all of the victims were apparently prostitutes, Johnson said.

Though the victims on Georgia Avenue were slashed, authorities have determined that at least two of the women whose bodies were dumped in the marsh had been strangled. Pathologists could not determine the cause of death of the two other marsh victims because the bodies were too badly decomposed.

Yesterday, as a task force of federal, state and local authorities pressed the hunt for the killer of the women in the marsh, a third victim was identified as 42-year-old Barbara V. Breidor. The fourth victim, whose body had been in the ditch for up to a month, remains unidentified.

Authorities pointed out that all four women in the ditch were white with blond or light hair.

Two of the Georgia Avenue victims, including one who died, fit that description, Johnson said. The other woman who died was African American.

"They're all from the same victimization group," Capt. Jim Hutchins of the Atlantic City police said, referring to the women's background as suspected prostitutes. He said yesterday that linking the two sets of killings would be speculation at this point.

The first Georgia Avenue slaying was on May 3, according to police, who opened an investigation after firefighters responding to a fire in an apartment at 29 N. Georgia Ave. discovered a charred body.

The victim was later identified as Veronica Fields, 45.

"She was badly burned," said Johnson, the arson investigator. "It wasn't until the autopsy that we realized her throat had been slashed.

Authorities believe Fields' killer put her on a bed in her apartment and set the bed on fire.

In July, a suspected prostitute was attacked in a parking lot next to that building, Johnson said. Her throat was slashed, but she survived.

Police would not release the woman's name yesterday.

Two months later, on Oct. 1, police were summoned to an apartment at 26 N. Georgia Ave., where they found Karen Luongo dead in her bathtub. Her throat had been slashed.

Luongo was last seen entering her apartment a few nights earlier with an unidentified man, according to a report in the Atlantic City Press.

Johnson said investigators had been pursuing several angles in that case, including one theory that Luongo was killed because she knew who had killed Fields.

The two apartment buildings are across the street from each other, just a few blocks from the Boardwalk casino strip and the city convention center and train station.

The apartment building at 26 N. Georgia has a notorious history. Twenty-five years ago it was the residence of mob boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo, who is now serving a 55-year prison term for racketeering and murder.

"Back then that was one of the safest blocks in the city," an investigator said.

The Atlantic City Police Department Vice Squad has been providing information to the law enforcement task force investigating the West Atlantic City murders.

The four marsh bodies were discovered Nov. 20 within about 300 feet of one another in a drainage ditch behind a strip of seedy motels along the Black Horse Pike, about a mile outside Atlantic City.

All four were barefoot, lying facedown, with their heads pointed toward Atlantic City.

Breidor last lived on Lafayette Avenue in Ventnor. She was identified through dental records, Atlantic County Prosecutor Jeffrey S. Blitz said.

Earlier, investigators identified two other victims as Tracy Ann Roberts, 23, and Kim Raffo, 35, both of Atlantic City. Both had been strangled.

Breidor was wearing Capri-style jeans and a brown, long-sleeve zippered jacket. Blitz estimated her body had been in the water at least two weeks and authorities could not determine a cause of death.

Breidor, Roberts and Raffo had arrest records for prostitution, Blitz said.

The fourth victim, described as 5 feet tall and weighing about 160 pounds, has not been identified. Authorities believe her body was in the water for up to a month. Investigators hope several identifying tattoos, including a black-and-white bulldog on the small of her back, a crudely designed Playboy bunny on her shoulder, and the name "Yolly" or "Molly" on her stomach, will help them learn her identity.

The three known victims have been described as transient, living in boardinghouses and apartments in Atlantic City's poorer fringes. Fields and Luongo, the Georgia Avenue victims, also skipped from house to house.

"They're easy targets," said Hutchins, a 25-year police veteran. "If they disappear for two weeks, nobody cares. They just figure they're 'cracked out.' "

Hutchins said most prostitutes in Atlantic City - as in other cities - are drug addicts likely to take risks.

"It's an occupational hazard," he said. "But they'll pretty much do anything for a dollar."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact staff writer George Anastasia at 856-779-3846 or ganastasia@phillynews.com.

Authorities ID fourth body found near Atlantic City

By WAYNE PARRY
The Associated Press

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Now that authorities know the identities of all four women whose bodies were found face-down in a drainage ditch behind a string of seedy motels last week, the really hard part starts: Trying to determine if their deaths were the work of a serial killer.

The body of a woman whose identity had stymied investigators for more than a week since it was found near three other corpses was identified Tuesday as a 20-year-old from western Pennsylvania.

Molly Jean Dilts was believed to have been in the ditch the longest - up to a month.

Atlantic County Prosecutor Jeffrey Blitz said he could not speculate on whether a serial killer is to blame for the deaths because the cause of death for two of the women has not been established.

"There are similarities in the four deaths," he said. "What we have now is two confirmed homicides and two undetermined causes of death that are being investigated as homicides."

The prosecutor noted that all four women were found face-down in a drainage ditch behind motels along the Black Horse Pike just west of the Atlantic City border. All were barefoot and their heads were facing east toward the Atlantic City casinos.

At least three of the women were known prostitutes, but there was conflicting information as to whether Dilts was involved in prostitution. Lt. Michael Dunford, commander of the Atlantic City Police Department's special investigations unit, said she had not been arrested there and was not known to city police.

But several prostitutes working along Pacific Avenue who were shown a photo of Dilts said Tuesday they had seen the woman, whom who they knew as Molly, soliciting customers on the street. One transvestite prostitute who would not give his name, said, "I dated with her."

Blitz said he could not comment on the prostitutes' claims, and said Dilts' background is still being investigated. She had no known occupation locally, he said.

Joe Boccino, who owns Papa Joe's Restaurant, where many prostitutes buy food, said he saw Dilts a few weeks ago.

"She comes and goes, comes and goes," he said. "She was always very polite with everybody in the neighborhood."

 
Boccino said he saw no evidence she was involved in prostitution.

Dilts had last been in touch with her family in Blairsville, Pa., about 42 miles east of Pittsburgh, on Oct. 7, authorities said. A missing persons report about her had been filed and Dilts' fingerprints were used to learn her identity.

Dilts was charged last year in Pennsylvania for assault and possession of drug paraphernalia, but did not show up for a court hearing in May, according to court records.

An autopsy could not determine her cause of death. She had no known local address, authorities said.

For the past week, authorities had circulated images of Dilts' tattoos in hopes she could be identified. She had a red and black tattoo of a bulldog on the small of her back, a tattoo of a Playboy bunny in a heart on her upper right shoulder and a faded tattoo that read "Molly" on her stomach around her navel above a tiny blue butterfly.

Local tattoo parlors had no record of her being there, and said the Playboy bunny was crudely drawn, leading to speculation that it was done by an amateur.

The other women have been identified as Kim Raffo, 35, Tracy Ann Roberts, 23, and Barbara V. Breidor, 42. Raffo, who had been living in Atlantic City, was strangled. Roberts, whose last known address also was in Atlantic City, died from asphyxia, but authorities do not know exactly how she was killed.

Like Dilts, a cause of death could not be determined for Breidor, who grew up in Pennsylvania and most recently lived in Ventnor.

Raffo's body had been in the ditch for a couple of days. Authorities have said the body now identified as Dilts had been there for up to a month.

Blitz also said the murders of two prostitutes and the slashing of a third earlier this year on the same street in Atlantic City do not appear to be related to the four ditch deaths.

"They are dissimilar to the women found in Egg Harbor," he said. "There were two bodies, one of which was set on fire, that were found in their apartments. The manner of death was with a sharp instrument."


November 28, 2006 6:10 PM

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A name to go with final face from A.C. ditch
Medical examiner unable to tell what killed Pennsylvania 20-year-old
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
BY WAYNE WOOLLEY AND MARYANN SPOTO
Star-Ledger Staff
A 20-year-old woman from western Pennsylvania was identified yesterday as the last of four women whose bodies were discovered last week in a drainage ditch behind a string of seedy motels in Egg Harbor Township, just outside Atlantic City.

Molly Jean Dilts of Black Lick, Pa., was identified after investiga tors in New Jersey matched fingerprints filed with a missing persons report that her family filed with the Pennsylvania State Police.

Dilts, whose body investigators believe had been lying in the ditch for more than a month, had her first name tattooed on her abdo men and a bulldog tattoo on her lower back.

Atlantic County Prosecutor Jef frey Blitz said autopsies had not determined a cause of death for Dilts or Barbara Breidor, 42, of Ventnor, who was identified Monday.

Two other victims, Tracy Ann Roberts, 23, and Kim Raffo, 35, were identified last week. Atlantic County Medical Examiner Hydow Park determined that Raffo had been strangled and that Roberts died from lack of oxygen, but it was unclear how.

Residents in the neighborhood of Pacific and Ocean avenues in Atlantic City, where Dilts was known on the streets, said she had been seen there for only about two months before her disappearance and appeared to have no place of her own to live.

"She used to find a place wherever she could rest her head," said the owner of Papa Joe's, a local res taurant on nearby Tennessee Ave nue.

A woman answering the phone yesterday afternoon at the Dilts home in Pennsylvania said, "I can't talk to you..." and hung up.

Blitz has said Breidor, Raffo and Roberts had records for prostitution arrests. Dilts had no such ar rest record in New Jersey.

She was charged last year in Pennsylvania for assault and for possession of drug paraphernalia, but did not show up for a court hearing in May, according to court records.
Dilts last spoke with family members in Pennsylvania on Oct. 7, Blitz said. He said Dilts had lived with a boyfriend before coming to New Jersey.

Black Lick is a township in Indiana County, Pa., about 40 miles east of Pittsburgh. Named for a nearby coal-blackened creek, its population was barely 1,300, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.

The four victims, all white, were found Nov. 20 lying face-down between the Atlantic City Expressway and the Black Horse Pike in Egg Harbor Township on Atlantic City's western outskirts. The bodies were spaced at intervals along a 320-foot stretch, arranged in a line with their heads pointing east, toward Atlantic City's casinos. Three of the four were blondes and all were barefoot but otherwise clothed.

Despite similarities in the loca tion where they were found and the arrangement and appearance of the bodies, Blitz has declined to say whether he believes they were victims of a serial killer.

Dilts is believed to have been in the drainage ditch the longest of the four victims.

Roberts, whose last known address in Atlantic City was a room on the beach block of Tennessee Avenue, died from asphyxia by unspecified means. Park, the medical examiner who performed the au topsies on all four women last week, said Roberts was deprived of oxygen, but he was unable to determine how, the prosecutor said.

Raffo, who most recently re sided in a boarding house in the 100 block of Ocean Avenue, died from ligature strangulation. She is believed to have been in the water a couple of days.

Authorities estimated Breidor, who had lived with a friend and the friend's father in a condominium on Lafayette Avenue in Ventnor, was in the water for at least two weeks, Blitz said.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Atlantic County major crime unit at (609) 909-7666. Information also can be called in anonymously to Crime Stoppers at (800) 658-8477. Crime Stoppers offers cash rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those who commit crimes in Atlantic County.



Staff writers Mary Jo Patterson, Rudy Larini and Russell Ben-Ali contributed to this report.

Thanks Jac.  Hope they get him soon.

Me too.

4 young women, so very sad.

Investigators Step Up Search For AC Killer

POSTED: 7:07 am EST December 1, 2006
UPDATED: 7:35 am EST December 1, 2006

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While many were sleeping, 20 investigators from five agencies converged in the Atlantic City area to try to figure out who killed the four women who were found in a marshy ditch behind a row of Egg Harbor Township motels last week.

Many experts believe a serial killer targeting prostitutes murdered the women, although prosecutors have not publicly said that.

The four victims were identified as Molly Dilts, Kim Raffo, Tracy Ann Roberts and Barbara Breidor. Those who still work the street told NBC 10 they’re scared and working reduced hours in the Atlantic City area.
 

Investigators said Raffo, Roberts and Breidor all had previous arrests for prostitution, and sources told NBC 10 that Dilts sold her body for sex, too, although her family denies the charges.

Friday’s pre-dawn investigators combed Pacific Avenue and some Atlantic City casinos, talking to dozens of people, including other prostitutes.

“The cops [are] everywhere,” Honey, a self-proclaimed prostitute said. “They’ve been showing me pictures, asking me questions -- seeing if I knew the girls or any of their friends.”

The case prompted her to cut down on her street-working hours.

“Every time you come out here, you just take a chance,” Honey said.

Prosecutors will not say if they believe they’re looking for a serial killer.

Many experts, though said the killing resemble the work of one.

John White, a licensed psychologist and associate professor of criminal justice at Stockton College of New Jersey, said many serial killers ID prostitutes as their victims because they're available and vulnerable.

"Very few serial killers will just actually stop,” White added. “They may take a break, but very few actually stop killing.”
Copyright 2006 by NBC10.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



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Still think it's pimp and not a serial killer.

Course I guess you could say a pimp killing his workers like that would be a serial killer.

I don't think it's a pimp.

Pimps make their money off these women, why would he kill 4 of his meal tickets?

Well, not having been in the business myself, but I see it portrayed all the time in movies that Pimps have to inforce their rules occasionally in order to keep the rest of the workforce inline.

I think that's what's been happening, who know's what size of workforce this particular pimp is running.

Seems one interviewed lady said she knew who the killer was.

I would not be surprised if pimps may knock their prostitutes around, but I don't think a pimp is doing the killings.

Most serial killers are people who blend in to society, going unoticed and could even have normal lives with families...

I just hope who ever it is, they find them quickly.

As the news story stated serial killers may take breaks once in awhile but they never stop.

http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=204110248&p=zx4yyx954

Serial Killer across the Pond also targeting prostitutes.

Speculation About Foot Fetishist in Killings
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By SERGE F. KOVALESKI
Published: December 14, 2006
When four prostitutes were found slain in a marshy ditch on the outskirts of Atlantic City three weeks ago, each was barefoot, a detail as intriguing as it was mystifying.

So on Monday, after managers and several guests at an Atlantic City hotel where two of the victims had sometimes stayed read an account of a man described as being obsessed with women’s feet — which appeared on a private group’s Web site — they said they recalled a peculiar man who took a room there for three weeks this fall.

What led people at the hotel to wonder about a connection between that man — who registered using an address in Phoenix — and the obsessed man described on the Web site as a serial killer, was one chilling theory in the site’s unofficial account: “He has an extreme foot fetish and has a collection of women’s shoes and the shoes of his victims,” the document said.

It went on to speculate that “he may even be known for offering women foot massages.”

Officials declined to comment about the theory on the Web site or about whether they were seeking anyone who fit such a description.

The speculation about such a man could be a lead in a case that has baffled investigators since the bodies of the four women were found on Nov. 20 in a ditch behind several seedy motels on the Black Horse Pike in Egg Harbor Township, just outside Atlantic City.

On Tuesday afternoon, investigators showed up at the hotel, the Fox Manor, on Pacific Avenue, after learning that there might be a lead there on a suspect, the general manager, Manny Trivedi, said.

Yesterday Mr. Trivedi said in a telephone interview that the hotel guest he was thinking of kept six to eight pairs of women’s shoes in his room. Mr. Trivedi described that man as being of medium height and weight, with blue eyes, thinning brown hair and a mustache.

Mr. Trivedi and another manager at the hotel, who said he saw the shoe collection, and who spoke on the condition that his name not be used because of his concern about the continuing investigation, said that during the man’s three-week visit, a woman staying at the hotel told him that the man had mentioned to her that he was interested in caressing her feet.

Mr. Trivedi said that after the woman, whom he would only identify as Michelle, read the Internet description of the theorized killer — which was produced by an independent group in New Jersey that profiles serial killers on a Web site called Stalk Inc. and has no links to the police in this case — she became alarmed and told him about her odd encounters with the hotel guest. He added that on Tuesday the police spent about two hours interviewing the woman, who has been staying at the hotel for about five months.

“He also told this woman, Michelle, that he was an ex-marine and knew tae kwon do or something like that and could kill someone in a minute,” Mr. Trivedi recalled her telling him.

The hotel managers said that the man they described had spent time with a man from the area who is believed to drive a white van, the type of vehicle some prostitutes on Pacific Avenue say might have been involved in the killings.

Mr. Trivedi said that on Monday, a uniformed officer from the Atlantic City Police Department gave him a copy of the partial profile on the Stalk Inc. Web site and that the next day an investigator from the Atlantic County prosecutor’s office came to get a copy of it, as well as a copy of the former hotel guest’s driver’s license, which the hotel had on file.

The Atlantic County prosecutor, Jeffrey S. Blitz, said yesterday that no one from the task force looking into the case had been distributing the Web-based profile. Asked yesterday about the man with the women’s shoes, Mr. Blitz declined to comment.

The task force includes representatives from the prosecutor’s office, the Egg Harbor Township and Atlantic City Police Departments, the state police and the F.B.I.

The victims, who the medical examiner said were left in the ditch over a period of several weeks, were found barefoot, their heads all facing east toward Atlantic City. One victim was strangled, another died of asphyxiation and the bodies of the two others were too badly decomposed to determine the causes of death.

The description on the Web site asserted that the “lethal predator” responsible for the four deaths was from the area and was familiar with the site where the bodies were left.

“He has not killed every prostitute he has come in contact with,” the document theorized. “There are prostitutes who know him for the sexual gratification he gets from their feet.”

The description theorized that the killer probably had a record of sexually or physically abusing women. It was released by John Kelly, the president of Stalk Inc., who described himself as a social worker and addiction specialist. He said he had compiled criminal profiles in several well-publicized murders, including the Green River Killer case in Washington state and another in which the bodies of four women — all former heroin-addicted prostitutes in Worcester, Mass. — were found over the last several years.

Mr. Kelly described his theory about the Atlantic City killer this way: “He can relive his fantasy through the shoes, which serve as somewhat of a trophy.”

He said that he told the police in Egg Harbor Township three weeks ago that he had come up with a partial profile of the person who could be responsible for killing the four women. They referred all questions about the investigation to the county prosecutor.

“We told them to watch the Web site for updates,” he said. “A profile always continues to evolve. But it’s only a tool. It’s up to the police as to what they want to do with it.”

Nate Schweber contributed reporting.

Next Article in New York Region (6 of 29) »

'Ipswich Ripper' Prostitute Murder Investigators Eye Atlantic City Cases for Possible Link
Thursday, December 14, 2006
By Edward Barnes and George Kindel

 E-MAIL STORY PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION
NEW YORK —  Police investigating the brutal "Ipswich Ripper" murders of five prostitutes in England will examine possible links between those killings and the murders of four prostitutes in Atlantic City, N.J., last month, FOXNews.com has learned.

Ipswich Police spokeswoman Shelly Spratt said contact with authorities in Atlantic City "is an avenue we will go down." She said investigators already have discussed making that contact, but because more bodies turned up on Tuesday they had not opened discussion yet.

"We can use all the help we can get," Spratt said.

Janet Niedosik, a spokesperson for Atlantic County Prosecutor Jeffery S. Blitz, who is heading the Atlantic City investigation, declined to comment late Wednesday.

"We don't comment on onging investigations and that includes what other law enforcement agencies we are talkimg to," Niedosik said. "The investigation is continuing and there haven't been any arrests yet."

In a case reminiscent of the infamous 19th century "Jack the Ripper" slayings, Ipswich police and Scotland Yard investigators continued Wednesday to search the marshlands and fields outside Ipswich for clues — and possibly more victims.
 
The bodies of five women, all known prostitutes, have turned up in the past 11 days in Ipswich. The latest discoveries came Tuesday, when the bodies of two women were found at the side of a busy road on the outskirts of town.

In Atlantic City, police continue their investigation into the seemingly ritualistic murders of four prostitutes whose bodies were found in a watery ditch behind a seedy motel outside the gambling mecca.

The bodies were found within a few hundred feet of each other, all face down in several inches of water, heads turned east — toward Atlantic City — wearing clothes, but no shoes or socks.

At least one of the victims died of strangulation; another, officials said, died by asphyxia "by unspecified means."

Based on the decomposition of their bodies, authorities believe the women died on different days, from two days to up to a month before their bodies were discovered.

The known similarities of the Ipswich and Atlantic City cases are:

— The victims all are known prostitutes.

— They range in age from 19-42, with most being in their 20s.

— Autopsies have determined that three of the nine victims died of strangulation or asphyxiation. Official cause of death is pending on two of the Atlantic City victims, and four of the Ipswich women.

Atlantic City police identified the victims as Molly Jean Dilts, 20; Kim Raffo, 35; Tracy Ann Roberts, 23; and Barbara V. Breidor, 42.

Scotland Yard detectives were expected Wednesday to identify the two women whose bodies were found Tuesday, but Det. Chief Superintendent Steward Gull said "it is a natural assumption" to believe the bodies are those of Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29, both known prostitutes who were reported missing.

So far, Ipswich investigators have been able to determine the official cause of death in only one of their five cases. Anneli Alderton, a 24-year-old whose body was discovered in a wooded area last Sunday, had been asphyxiated, and likely strangled, Gull said.

Police are uncertain how 25-year-old Gemma Adams and 19-year-old Tania Nicol were killed. Their bodies were both found in water, which has hampered the forensic investigation, Gull said. A similar problem is delaying final cause-of-death findings in two of the four Atlantic City killings.

Clennell's father said he didn't know his daughter had worked as prostitute, and he was "going through hell."

"I never knew that she lived the life that she did," Brian Clennell told the BBC. "Somebody out there must know, somebody that's doing this. He's sick, he's got to be caught. It could be somebody's father, it could be somebody's uncle, it could be anybody."

Suffolk police said the other three victims, well known in Ipswich's red-light district, were found naked and a few miles apart: one in a stream, another in a pond and a third in the woods near a country road.

The two bodies discovered Tuesday were lying near a busy road outside Levington, a village about five miles south of Ipswich.

Ipswich, a small blue-collar city to the northeast of London, has about 40 prostitutes working the street, Hannah Besley, a community safety officer who chairs the city's Prostitution Steering Group, told the Associated Press. The women are well known to her group and police.

When the first women vanished, most of the prostitutes — including Clennell, who disappeared after the first two bodies were discovered — kept working, but that's no longer the case.

"It's now gotten to such a critical stage that they are terrified, and last night it was very quiet — reassuringly so," Besley said.

Atlantic City prostitutes have echoed the same fears.

"It's dangerous, but all you're focused on is that next dollar," said a prostitute known on the streets as Spazz who last month told the Associated Press that she was looking for a gun or a knife to protect herself. "It kind of clouds your judgment. You're not focused on the situation you're getting into. That's the scariest part about it."

Atlantic City authorities do not believe the four bodies found Nov. 20 just off the Black Horse Pike in Egg Harbor Township are related to the attacks on three prostitutes earlier this year in Atlantic City. In each of those earlier attacks, the prostitutes' throats were slashed; one survived.

Atlantic County Prosecutor Jeffrey Blitz said the Atlantic City cases were sufficiently different from the Egg Harbor deaths to make authorities believe they were carried out by different attackers.

The U.S.'s most notorious prostitute killings were committed in the Pacific Northwest by a single attacker who came to be known as the Green River Killer. In pleading guilty in 2003 to the murders of 48 prostitutes, Gary Leon Ridgway told a judge he targeted streetwalkers "because I thought I could kill as many as I wanted to without getting caught."

"They were easy to pick up, without being noticed," he said in court. "I knew they would not be reported missing right away, and might never be reported missing."

The Associate Press contributed to this report

I'm a little curious how the hotel manager, Manny Trivedi, and the other manager at the hotel, know that there were six to eight pairs of women's shoes in the possible suspect's room. Did the man invite the hotel managers in to his room and show them the shoes?  Were they spying on guests and going in their rooms and looking around?

Maybe he stayed overnight and someone from housekeeping made up the bed, and mentioned something..

Just a guess.

Thanks for the updates Jacquie!

LOVE the pic in your sig line  :D


I hope you are enjoying the festivities of the season --

and you too, Louise  :lol:

Thanks Sharon!

Same to you and Louise    :lol:

Hi Jacqueline and Sharon,

Merry Christmas to you, too!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16261645/

http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=ENOnline&category=News&tBrand=ENOnline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED18%20Dec%202006%2011%3A00%3A05%3A787

This one contains a picture of the man arrested....

That's what I was thinking when I saw the pics of the victims, those were some darn pretty prostitutes.

Me too...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/19/nipswich19.xml

Atlantic City, N.J. There have been no arrests, there do not appear to be any suspects and the investigation appears to have stalled.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — It has been more than three months since the bodies of four murdered prostitutes were found in a marshy drainage ditch behind a string of seedy motels just outside Atlantic City.
Other than identifying the bodies and offering some details about the causes of death, the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office has provided little information about its investigation into the sensational case.
There have been no arrests, there do not appear to be any suspects and the investigation appears to have stalled.
The murders were featured in a segment of "America's Most Wanted." But since that show was telecast in December, there has been little to report.
Atlantic County Prosecutor Jeffrey Blitz said the Major Crimes squad in his office, with assistance from local police and the FBI, continues to work the case.
"Nothing has changed," Blitz said in a telephone interview the other day. "We still meet every morning. There are leads that are being pursued."
Blitz described the investigation as "methodical" and detailed. But as he has since the case burst into the headlines, he would not discuss specifics.
A retired Atlantic City vice squad officer suggested that the prosecutor's office dropped the ball by not "flooding" the streets of Atlantic City with police immediately after the bodies were discovered on Nov. 20.
Jim Hutchins, a vice squad police captain who retired on Dec. 1, said his investigators were not asked to provide assistance until three days after the grisly discovery.
"They didn't throw enough resources at it soon enough," Hutchins said. "They should have flooded the streets. We should have been talking to informants, offering money. Somebody had to see something. ... They don't even know where the crime scene is."
Where the women were killed, how they were killed and how their bodies ended up in the water behind one of the motels are three crucial questions that need answers if the case is to be solved, he said.
The women, ranging in age from 20 to 42, were part of "the life" in Atlantic City. They were prostitutes who worked the streets. At least three were believed to be drug addicts.
"They were victims of their lifestyle," Hutchins said.
"They do anything, they go anywhere" for crack cocaine, he said.
All four women appeared to have been killed by the same person. All were believed to have been strangled or suffocated, although the bodies of two were so decomposed that a cause of death could not be determined.
The prosecutor's office has not described the homicides as the work of a serial killer. Experts and TV shows such as "America's Most Wanted" have strongly suggested that possibility.
The fact that no other victims have been discovered fuels that theory.
"I think it would reasonable to say the guy has left the area," said Hutchins, who added that he and several other former police officials who retired late last year meet regularly and continue to speculate on the case.
The facts in the case are like pieces of a puzzle that has yet to take shape: All four women were white and had blond or light hair; all four bodies were found in a watery ditch with their heads pointing east toward Atlantic City; all four were shoeless.
Investigators spent a lot of time searching Room 101 of the Golden Key Motel, but have never disclosed why.
What, if any, significance should be attached to any of that remains a mystery.
"They were all pointing east, but the tides could have caused the bodies to shift," Hutchins said.
Did their shoes fall off at some point, he asked, "or were they this guy's trophies?"
Did the killing of the first victim "trigger" something in the murderer's mind that led him to kill others, or were all four killings part of a pattern?
These are the kinds of questions Hutchins said he and his friends have been discussing since they retired.
No one has the answers, and speculation and gossip further muddy the waters.
The prosecutor's office has established a tip line, (609) 909-7666, and has asked for the public's assistance.
But many veteran investigators such as Hutchins believe that it is too late and that the trail has gone cold.
"They've got to get lucky," he said. "If it happens again somewhere else and police there make the connection, maybe the case gets solved. But it's going to take luck."
Meanwhile, life on the streets continues.
On a weekend night last week, Atlantic City police conducted a sweep of several locations where prostitutes are known to ply their trade. Fourteen women were arrested

CBS 48 Hours had a look at this tonight....there were some persons of interest....hope they solve it...

It may have been a repeat...I am not sure, but was intrigued with the things that were discussed about the victims.

   
Crime & Courts
Police still hunt a serial killer of 4 prostitutes Monday, June 23, 2008
Last updated: Monday June 23, 2008, EDT 7:02 AM BY WAYNE PARRYTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS
   
ATLANTIC CITY — The short brunette with long, wavy hair looks around as she stakes out a street corner on Pacific Avenue. She shoots nervous glances not only into the passing cars that might contain "a date," but also up and down the side streets and alleyways, which could contain something more sinister.

It has been more than a year and a half now since the bodies of four prostitutes were found face-down in a drainage ditch just outside the city limits in Egg Harbor Township. No one has been charged with the killings.

Atlantic County Prosecutor Ted Housel said the deaths are sufficiently similar to make it appear that they are the work of a serial killer. Housel is asking other prostitutes and drug users to tell police what they know about the case, with the promise they won't be arrested.

"Short of putting a bag of heroin on the table and asking us to hold it while you talk to us, I can promise that you won't be pursued for anything like that," he said, referring to prostitutes or drug dealers who come forward. "Nobody is going to be scrutinized because of lifestyle choices in an investigation like this."

On Nov. 20, 2006, the bodies of Barbara Breidor, Molly Jean Dilts, Kim Raffo and Tracy Ann Roberts were discovered behind a string of cut-rate motels known for drugs and prostitution on a road called the Black Horse Pike. Many residents and workers in the area say they don't believe the case will ever be solved — or that authorities even care much about the victims because they were prostitutes and used drugs.

Housel refutes such speculation.

"They were four human beings, with people who cared about them, people who loved them, and they deserve even in death to be treated with respect and dignity — especially in death," the prosecutor said. "Nobody in this office thinks any less of them because of what they did in their private lives."

In an interview with The Associated Press, Housel came as close as any law enforcement official has yet come to definitively saying the deaths are the work of a serial killer.

"They were four young ladies in close proximity to each other," he said. "You can infer something from that. The idea that there might be four people who had done the exact same thing is not logical."

All four women were found facedown in the ditch behind the motels. All were barefoot and their heads were facing east toward the Atlantic City casinos. All were white, and three were blondes.

Clinton Van Zandt, a former profiler with the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit who now runs his own security consulting firm in Virginia, believes one person killed all four women.

"The interesting thing is they've not had any other homicides of prostitutes," he said. "It begs the question: Where is the killer? Has he moved on to another type of environment? Is he dead? Is he incarcerated for something else?

"The statistical probability is that it's one person," Van Zandt said. "I don't think this is someone who would go out, kill four women and then say, 'OK, I've reached my quota.' You would expect an offender like this to continue to offend."

Housel said authorities have interviewed and questioned many possible suspects, but don't have enough evidence to charge anyone.

"We're not at that point," he said. "That doesn't mean the case is not being worked on. It's not like we're not doing anything."

But along the seedy strip of run-down motels known for prostitution and drug use near where the bodies were found, many people have given up hope that anyone will be arrested for the killings.

"I don't think they're ever going to solve it," said Gina, a desk clerk at one of the motels. She would not give her full name because she said authorities asked her not to discuss the case.

She said police and detectives scoured the area intensively for weeks after the bodies were found. But then the attention died down.

"It's been a long time since anyone has been here asking questions," she said. "It's kind of scary. The guy who did this is still walking around."

Housel said his office and a dozen other law enforcement agencies have logged over 175,000 hours investigating the case.

At first, there were 140 people assigned to it in November and December 2006.

From January to August 2007, there were 85 people assigned to it, although not exclusively.

Intense forensic investigation of evidence gathered in the case is ongoing, including DNA samples.

But it's not like TV crime shows where a blood stain or hair instantly identifies the killer.

"There's DNA, and then there's DNA," Housel said. "DNA degrades. Let's say I stabbed you with a sword and I threw it in the ocean. At one point, it would be covered with your DNA. But it can wash off and chemically degrade in the water to the point where you can't make a match."

The only person publicly known to have submitted a DNA sample in the case is Terry Oleson, a Salem County handyman who had stayed at the Golden Key Motel shortly before the bodies were found behind it.

Oleson, who is now on probation, said he had nothing to do with the killings, and a prostitute who once publicly accused him of involvement later recanted and apologized to him at a news conference.

The brunette eyeing cars on Pacific Avenue acknowledged she is a prostitute, but would not give her name to a reporter. She said she's still nervous working the streets.

"Atlantic City's just not the same since those four girls got killed," she said, leaning over to look invitingly at each male driver that crawls past on the street than runs behind eight of the resort's 11 casinos. "I watch my back all the time now. Whoever did it is still out there."

Page 1 2 >> 
ATLANTIC CITY — The short brunette with long, wavy hair looks around as she stakes out a street corner on Pacific Avenue. She shoots nervous glances not only into the passing cars that might contain "a date," but also up and down the side streets and alleyways, which could contain something more sinister.

 
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS
The bodies of Barbara Breidor, Molly Jean Dilts, Kim Raffo and Tracy Ann Roberts were discovered Nov. 20, 2006, behind a string of cut-rate motels known for drugs and prostitution, just outside Atlantic City in Egg Harbor Township. Friends erected a memorial of crosses to three of the victims last November to mark the first anniversary of the unsolved slayings. It has been more than a year and a half now since the bodies of four prostitutes were found face-down in a drainage ditch just outside the city limits in Egg Harbor Township. No one has been charged with the killings.

Atlantic County Prosecutor Ted Housel said the deaths are sufficiently similar to make it appear that they are the work of a serial killer. Housel is asking other prostitutes and drug users to tell police what they know about the case, with the promise they won't be arrested.

"Short of putting a bag of heroin on the table and asking us to hold it while you talk to us, I can promise that you won't be pursued for anything like that," he said, referring to prostitutes or drug dealers who come forward. "Nobody is going to be scrutinized because of lifestyle choices in an investigation like this."

On Nov. 20, 2006, the bodies of Barbara Breidor, Molly Jean Dilts, Kim Raffo and Tracy Ann Roberts were discovered behind a string of cut-rate motels known for drugs and prostitution on a road called the Black Horse Pike. Many residents and workers in the area say they don't believe the case will ever be solved — or that authorities even care much about the victims because they were prostitutes and used drugs.

 Housel refutes such speculation.

"They were four human beings, with people who cared about them, people who loved them, and they deserve even in death to be treated with respect and dignity — especially in death," the prosecutor said. "Nobody in this office thinks any less of them because of what they did in their private lives."

In an interview with The Associated Press, Housel came as close as any law enforcement official has yet come to definitively saying the deaths are the work of a serial killer.

"They were four young ladies in close proximity to each other," he said. "You can infer something from that. The idea that there might be four people who had done the exact same thing is not logical."

All four women were found facedown in the ditch behind the motels. All were barefoot and their heads were facing east toward the Atlantic City casinos. All were white, and three were blondes.

Clinton Van Zandt, a former profiler with the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit who now runs his own security consulting firm in Virginia, believes one person killed all four women.

"The interesting thing is they've not had any other homicides of prostitutes," he said. "It begs the question: Where is the killer? Has he moved on to another type of environment? Is he dead? Is he incarcerated for something else?

"The statistical probability is that it's one person," Van Zandt said. "I don't think this is someone who would go out, kill four women and then say, 'OK, I've reached my quota.' You would expect an offender like this to continue to offend."

Housel said authorities have interviewed and questioned many possible suspects, but don't have enough evidence to charge anyone.

"We're not at that point," he said. "That doesn't mean the case is not being worked on. It's not like we're not doing anything."

But along the seedy strip of run-down motels known for prostitution and drug use near where the bodies were found, many people have given up hope that anyone will be arrested for the killings.

"I don't think they're ever going to solve it," said Gina, a desk clerk at one of the motels. She would not give her full name because she said authorities asked her not to discuss the case.

She said police and detectives scoured the area intensively for weeks after the bodies were found. But then the attention died down.

"It's been a long time since anyone has been here asking questions," she said. "It's kind of scary. The guy who did this is still walking around."

Housel said his office and a dozen other law enforcement agencies have logged over 175,000 hours investigating the case.

Page 1 2 >> 

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http://www.northjersey.com/news/crimeandcourts/Police_still_hunt_a_serial_killer_of_4_prostitutes.html

FBI still hunting serial killer in AC, Black Horse Strangler
November 18, 3:30 PM

Four women engaged in prostitution were brutally murdered three years ago this month. Their bodies were dumped and posed in a drainage ditch along the Black Horse Pike in West Atlantic City. Signs of strangulation were found. On the highway vestiges of a memorial broken down with time, blows in the wind.

The women's heads were turned east to Atlantic City and their unblinking eyes looked towards the casino district and Pacific Avenue were they plied their trade. Law enforcement told the community that their shoes were missing. Many wondered if the supposed serial killer took their shoes as a trophy. Prostitutes were questioned about customers that had a "shoe fetish."
(http://image3.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID25653/images/5754a48225c323ec.jpg)
Barbara Breidor, Molly Jean Dilts, Kim Raffo and Tracy Ann Roberts went out for a night of business and never returned home. They were not even reported missing until their bodies were found. Their partially decomposed bodies were discovered by a passerby on Nov. 20, 2006.

Atlantic County Prosecutor Ted Housel said Wednesday that his office continues to investigate the murders.

"Once their identities were determined by intensive investigative efforts during the week following their November 20, 2006, recovery, this agency has continued to aggressively pursue this homicide investigation," stated Housel. "We have been assisted in our efforts by other law enforcement agencies such as the United States Justice Department, the FBI, federal and state forensic laboratories, the New Jersey State Police along with the Egg Harbor Township and Atlantic City Police Departments."

Housel said he recently assigned additional personnel from his office to work along with other agencies and the continual use of national data banks such as the ViCAP, the Justice Department's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program. He is also using the FBI's Critical Incident Response Group.

Several people were questioned in the murders and one man was held in jail, however he was released after being charged with another crime. He was a handyman at the Golden Key Motel on the Black Horse Pike. The bodies of the women were found directly behind this location.

The murder case is not cold and Housel is asking all members of the community with knowledge of these crimes or of these victims to share their information wiht the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office, Major Crimes Unit at (609) 909-7666. You can also contact Crime Stoppers at (609) 652-1234 or 1-800-658-8477.

Anyone with information who would like to use the internet can access the Prosecutor's Office at:
Atlantic County Prosecutor and provide information by filling out the form anonymously on the Submit a Tip page.

http://www.examiner.com/x-25653-FBI-Examiner~y2009m11d18-FBI-still-hunting-serial-killer-in-AC-Black-Horse-Strangler