Volusia County - Daytona Beach (Ridgwood Ave corridor)

http://www.wftv.com/news/7659204/detail.html

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A string of similar murders in Daytona Beach has some people wondering if there is a serial killer on the loose. Three women have been killed since December.

 

http://www.wesh.com/news/7753512/detail.html

 

http://www.wftv.com/news/7750790/detail.html

A body found of a 27 yr old woman in Satellite Beach.

 

Pretty scary, although a certain kind of woman seems to be the target for this very bad person.

Stay safe down there, at any rate!

Lynie

 

Daytona Beach releases some details on serial killings


http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_local_orlandocrime/2006/03/daytona_beach_r.html


At this time there are no specific suspects. Persons of interest have been identified and appropriate follow-up conducted.
Based on evidence and information gathered to this point it appears that these incidents are the work of a serial offender.
It is believed that the perpetrator is male.
Each of the victims died from gunshot wounds.
No evidence has been discovered to indicate that any of the victims were abducted or taken against their will.
It is believed that these victims were ‘substitute’ victims. The victims are providing a channel for the perpetrator to act upon stressors in his life.
It is believed that a close acquaintance of the perpetrator is the source of causal stress in his life and that this person may become a victim in the future.
Based on investigative findings thus far the incidents are not related to, or connected to, area wide special events

 

I don't like to speak ill of the dead, but...all the photos of the victims appear to be mugshots. Are they not saying something here? I suspect this is another Green River type killer, going after prostitutes. It's so sad that their "business" requires them to go off alone with male strangers and put themselves into this dangerous situation.

 

Regardless, they didn't bargain for death. Remember the world's oldest trade. It is because they are vulnerable just like children are vulnerable just like wives who believe their husbands are vulnerable.

Because someone decides that these people don't have a right to life doesn't make it OK. The world struggles with everything...Bird Flu, Poverty,Politicians With Agendas, and it costs. It costs lives and it costs heartache.

As soon as this killer ventures out with a victim of opportunity and the victim doesn't fit the others, he will be caught.

Some of you may remember a post I made a long time ago about an incident in Daytona Beach. I was working there in the 80's and came back to my hotel about 5:30 PM. I went to the bar in the Sheraton and had a drink. I felt immediately woozy and went to my room and chained the door ASAP. The next morning I awoke with no memory of the night before and I was still fully clothed but laying on top of the bedspread and feet hanging off the edge. I believe I was slipped something. It was the oddest feeling to lose that amount of time. It happens...it happens for the wrong reasons and it happens to people who have no clue it will.

 

Like the GR case even girls that were not prostitutes but merely run aways or poorer younger women who could not afford a better neighborhood were all clumped together as women of the night.

Despite the later detication of Reichart in the GR case in the earlier days that was not the case. The police largely ignored it because of what they presumed was merely a case of ... " it goes along with the territory "

Daytona is a very transient area. Its also an area where on any give day young girls roam without parents.
IMO Plenty of girls and young women have gone missing in Central Florida.
Most are not prostitutes. Also Central Florida has 1,000's and 1000's of acres of undeveloped forest, just because they have not found remains this killer has left behind doesnt mean they aren't there.

 

2 more bodies may also be his handy work.

http://www.wftv.com/news/7970733/detail.html

Flagler Beach is a half hour or so North of Daytona

 

I think this would have happened to me if I had not latched that chain immediately. Of course, he would have left me in the hotel room but this was the 80's. I was a young woman then.DNA was an undiscovered science. The perps are much more sophisticated now.

 

Concerned person, I hope you didn't get the impression from my post that I thought they were any less a victim because of their profession. I was merely pointing out a common trait that the victims appear to have, mugshots. I was trying to say that they were more vulnerable because they have to get in cars or private places with men they don't know, if that is what they were arrested for. I hate that pervs and monsters prey on those with particular vulnerabilities...children, the disabled, the addicted and those whose poverty places them in the risky occupation of prostitute. It's even more disgusting that some of these creeps are people who are supposed to be caring for these folks, people like clergy, hospital employees, or babysitters. Makes me so mad and sad at the same time.

 

Police speak with 911 caller in serial killer case


The man called police Feb. 24 from a convenience store pay phone on Mason Avenue and Bill France Boulevard, about a mile from where he had discovered Iwana Patton's body in a wooded area near Williamson Boulevard and Mason.

Skipper said investigators tracked down the Daytona Beach man using a tip from a third person who was with him the day he found Patton.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/volusia/orl-bk-police031406,0,7633377.story?coll=orl-home-headlines

 

Daytona Prostitutes Hunting Serial Killer
http://www.local6.com/news/7977302/detail.html

Women involved in prostitution in Daytona Beach, Fla., have reportedly armed themselves and are searching for a serial killer behind the slayings of three residents, according to a Local 6 News report.

"Rather than run from the man police labeled a serial killer, streetwalkers here in Daytona Beach along Ridgewood Avenue say they are seeking the serial killer out," Local 6 reported Tarik Minor said. "They believe the man responsible for murdering three women here is someone they have come in contact with." (More at link)

 

Alot of tough talk. Most of them are probably already carrying some type of weapon. The problem will be if they are doing drugs and high, they won't be able to fight back. This "slicky boy" out there trolling will probably only approach one thats vulnerable because of alcohol or drug use. It would be better if some undercover cops got out there. Too bad its taken three deaths before they got with it.

 

BB, that is usually the case with serial killers. These girls can't protect themselves when someone wants them dead. It is an illusion.

 

Nancy Grace is worried tonight on her show that this serial killer could switch over and kill a drunk high school or college girl there in Daytona on Spring Break this week.

 

MAYBE he has killed prostitutes thus far because they're an " easy kill."
But what about OUR children going on Spring Break, many to Daytona Beach?



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11929741/

SNIP>>

By Clint Van Zandt
MSNBC analyst & former FBI profiler
Updated: 9:11 p.m. ET March 20, 2006


Clint Van Zandt

Since Christmas 2005 an unknown serial killer has murdered three women in the Daytona Beach, Florida, area. The media and the police speculate that he may kill again this month, noting that he killed in December, January, and February. He may, unfortunately, feel the need to meet this terrible expectation. The believed interval between the three known murders is 19 days, 41 days, and 23 days, or an average of three weeks between homicides. If this is any kind of pattern for the killer, he could be expected to strike again as soon as this week.

The three known victims are local women, who worked along Ridgewood Avenue. They may have abused drugs and worked as prostitutes or otherwise raised their victim profiles to put them at high risk.


The body of Laquetta Gunther, age 45, was discovered December 26, 2005, in a narrow alley between two buildings off Beach Street. Found in a fetal position, partially clothed, she had been shot in the head. Julie Green, 34, was found January 1, 2006, lying facedown in a ditch at a construction site off LPGA Boulevard. Investigators have not revealed whether Green, like Gunther, was partially clothed. She had been shot. And, on the afternoon of February 24, shortly after 1 p.m., police were tipped by a man, calling from a pay phone, as to the whereabouts of the body of Iwana Patton. Patton, 35, was found on a dirt road just off Williamson Boulevard. She, too, had been shot. Having identified the mystery caller who led investigators to the body, police no longer consider him a suspect.

Many questions arise about the unknown serial killer who has murdered these three women. But most vacationers and students arriving here for spring break, seeking the beautiful sand and sun of Daytona’s beaches, have no idea that this murderer may be out looking for his next victim. Will the killer strike again, and if so, will he seek his next victim from the ranks of crack addicts and streetwalkers? Or will he look for a new type of victim? Because at least two of his three known victims abused drugs and were prostitutes, other women with similar backgrounds would be an obvious choice for this killer. But, will he continue to seek victims living and functioning on the edge of society? They are easy victims for him. Or will he change his MO to frustrate police efforts to identify him? These are just a few of the questions that profilers and investigators are racing to answer, before another woman is killed by this cold, faceless, relentless killer.



Many prostitutes choose to work on the street rather than as call girls. Some say this gives them the opportunity to meet and otherwise consider their “client” before they go off on a “date.” Others choose to work on the street because they can set their own hours or simply because they are so addicted to drugs or so sick that they cannot find employment with an escort service. One report theorizes that over 1,000,000 American women (and, we know, men and children, as well) have worked as prostitutes. While streetwalkers are believed to represent only 20% of the “working” prostitutes in this country, 70% report that they have been physically and sexually assaulted, some reporting such assaults on a weekly basis. At least 50,000 prostitutes are believed to be HIV positive, with some cities reporting that over half of all prostitutes test positive for HIV.

 

Laura we have this thread somewhere in here ...

 

Oh. I looked and looked and didn't see anything in a search.
IF it's here, it's been pretty well hidden, OR I need new contact lens.
I'm sorry. I thought it was alarming, considering the time frame of Spring Break.. and last year's probable murder of Natalee Holloway.

 

Hi Laura, There is a thread on this case (it is a few pages long), and it is in this forum. It is called "String Of Similar Murders Has Some Worried About Serial Killer. Daytona Beach, Fl." Here is the link--http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36985