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A suspected serial killer linked to the deaths of at least three women more than a decade ago in Daytona Beach has been arrested in South Florida, law enforcement officials announced Monday.
Robert Hayes, 37, was tied to the Central Florida killings after a similar 2016 homicide in Palm Beach, Daytona Beach police Chief Craig Capri told reporters at a news conference.
As of Monday, Hayes had only been arrested in the Palm Beach County case, Capri said. However, DNA evidence collected in that killing matched samples from the Daytona Beach homicides, he said.
“At this point in time, we have not charged him yet with ours, but we have linked him with forensic evidence to three of our murder victims,"” said Capri, who called Hayes a “disgusting serial killer.”
Police have worked more than a decade to solve the killings of LaQuetta Gunther, Julie Ann Green and Iwana Patton, whose bodies were found in Daytona Beach between 2005 and 2006. The death of a fourth woman, Stacey Gage of Holly Hill, may also be linked to the same killer.
“We don’t know at this point in time if it’s related,” Capri said. “We’re still investigating that.”
The killings began on Christmas Eve in 2005.
That’s when Gunther was last seen alive. The 45-year-old painter and labor hall worker left the Daytona Beach home of her best friend, Stacey Dittmer, promising to return in a few hours so they could complete a holiday tradition of cooking a full Christmas dinner together.
Her body was found in an alley on North Street, partially nude with a bullet through the back of her head.
Green’s body was found at a construction site off LPGA Boulevard Jan. 14, 2006. She, too, had been shot in the head. A Jacksonville native with two daughters, Green, 34, was among a group of friends who had signed a poster that was hung in Gunther’s memory in the alley where she was found.
They also both frequented Willie’ Place, a bar on Madison Avenue.
Patton, a 35-year-old nursing assistant who lived in Holly Hill, was found dead off a dirt path near Williamson Boulevard and Mason Avenue the following month.
Suspected serial killer arrested, linked to cold-case murders of 3 women in Daytona Beach
A suspected serial killer linked to the deaths of at least three women more than a decade ago in Daytona Beach was arrested over the weekend in South Florida, law enforcement officials announced Mo…
www.orlandosentinel.com