FL FL - Phyllis Flagler, 25, & Janet Ramos, 20, Broward County, 1994 & 2002

Phyllis Flagler, addicted to drugs and pregnant, was found dead almost exactly 11 years ago, strangled and half-naked in a Dania Beach vacant lot.
Eight years later, Janet Ramos, 20 and trying to escape a tough past, was found in a similar position in a parking lot in Deerfield Beach: upright, strangled to death, her shirt pulled up.
Their murders have remained unsolved -- but police may now have a suspect, and he's already in jail.
Newly matched DNA evidence has linked a man arrested earlier this year on unrelated rape charges with the two unsolved murders, police records show.
Alvin Merrit, 56, is in the Miami-Dade County Jail awaiting trial on two sexual battery charges. He has not been charged in the Flagler and Ramos murders.
Ramos was among at least 15 women, many of whom were prostitutes or had drug problems, whose murders went unsolved in Broward County between 1999 and 2003. The outcome of those cases was unclear on Friday.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/13520457.htm

More from the news article
(Florida Department of Law Enforcement records show he has been arrested in South Florida 28 times since 1968, on everything from vagrancy to car theft to robbery to kidnapping. Many of the crimes were dismissed, or he was acquitted.
In 1986, he was charged with homicide and robbery. He was acquitted by reason of insanity on the murder charge; the robbery charge was dismissed, according to state records. More details were not available on Friday.

In 1989, he was convicted of a Dade burglary. He was not arrested again until 1998, records show, when he was nabbed for indecent exposure (he pled no contest).
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:banghead: 28 TIMES .How many women has this raped/murdered because they didnt lock him up and throw away the key,it sounds like he is going to be responsible for quite a few,DNA is certainly doing well in cases like these ,
I wonder if the people such as defense lawyers and judges ever sleep again after they hear that someone like this that they let out of prison is a serial murderer .

I just found an interesting tidbit about reducing sex offender crimes. Georgia republicans have introduced this bill in addition to ankle bracelets and a minimum 25 year sentence.

http://www.cbs46.com/Global/story.asp?S=4299318

I am bothered by the fact that on one of his charges (murder) he was acquitted by reason of insanity. So what the heck was he doing out on the streets again? Oh, yes. I'm sure he was "restored to sanity" and turned loose on the public.

Opie said:

I am bothered by the fact that on one of his charges (murder) he was acquitted by reason of insanity. So what the heck was he doing out on the streets again? Oh, yes. I'm sure he was "restored to sanity" and turned loose on the public.

Click to expand...

This is one of my big worries, Opie. I believe most of the criminals know how to play the system and their lawyers. People who murder do so with an intent. Whether the intent is reasonable to us is questionable.Most are not self-defense or true insanity most result from selfishness and greed.

It sounds as though they may be looking to connect him to other killings. This guy most likely wasn't insane. But not normal either. He sounds like a serial, from the discriptions of the victims, the crime scenes, and the history.