Thursday, February 20, 2025, 4:50PM |  19°
MENU
Advertisement
This Sept. 16, 2019, photo made available by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office shows Robert Hayes under arrest.
1
MORE

A suspected serial killer arrested over the cold-case murders of 3 women in Florida

Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office via AP

A suspected serial killer arrested over the cold-case murders of 3 women in Florida

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 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, Mr. Hayes had only been arrested in the Palm Beach County case, Chief Capri said. However, DNA evidence collected in that killing matched samples from the Daytona Beach homicides, he said.

Advertisement

"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 Chief Capri, who called Mr. 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. Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood, who was previously police chief for Daytona Beach, said Monday he had spoken to one of the victims' family members to convey the long-awaited news.

"They are absolutely ecstatic," he said. "They didn't think they'd be alive to see this day come."

A bloody trail

Advertisement

The killings began in the waning days of 2005.

That's when Ms. 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, on Christmas Eve, promising to return in a few hours so they could complete a holiday tradition of cooking a full Christmas dinner together.

Her partially nude body was found later in an alley on North Street. She had a bullet through the back of her head.

Ms. Green's body was found at a construction site off LPGA Boulevard on Jan. 14, 2006. She, too, had been shot in the head. A Jacksonville native with two daughters, Ms. Green, 34, was among a group of friends who had signed a poster that was hung in Ms. Gunther's memory in the alley where she was found.

They also both frequented Willie' Place, a bar on Madison Avenue.

Ms. 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.

In addition to proximity, police said the three women were linked by a history of prostitution. The fourth woman whose death has over the years been attributed to the same killer, Stacey Gage, did not have a prostitution record but died under similar circumstances.

The 30-year-old woman was found near Hancock Boulevard Jan. 2, 2008.

"We don't know at this point in time if it's related," Chief Capri said Monday of Ms. Gage's killing. "We're still investigating that."

The break in the case came after another slaying across the state: On March 7, 2016, a road crew worker found the body of a nude woman, later identified as 32-year-old Rachel Elizabeth Bey, along State Road 710 in Jupiter.

DNA match leads to arrest

An autopsy determined that Ms. Bey had been strangled. Evidence near her body -- including drag marks and a lack of blood -- suggested that the killing had happened elsewhere. She showed signs of having been beaten, including fractures to her jaw and broken teeth.

"There were also obvious injuries about her hands and arms that could be consistent with defensive injuries," a probable cause affidavit said.

Investigators determined that Ms. Bey was a prostitute who operated in West Palm Beach. She had last been seen by a close friend the same day her body was found, walking near Dixie Highway about 2 a.m.

DNA from semen recovered from Ms. Bey during an autopsy, as well as a swab of one of Ms. Bey's hands, drew a match to two of the three Daytona Beach cold cases. Investigators soon zeroed in on Mr. Hayes, who had lived in Daytona Beach during the period of the homicides there and, in 2016, about a mile from where Ms. Bey was last seen alive.

On Sept. 13, agents with a Palm Beach sheriff's fugitive task force were watching Mr. Hayes as he smoked and discarded a cigarette while waiting for a bus near his home. They collected the butt and had it processed for DNA -- finding a match to Ms. Bey's case, as well as those in Daytona Beach, the affidavit said.

Mr. Hayes had been questioned during the initial investigation of the Daytona Beach killings. He had bought a gun the same month as Ms. Gunther's death -- .40 caliber, the same as that killed her -- but told detectives when interviewed several months later he had given it to his mother, according to the affidavit.

However, a year after Ms. Gunther's killing, he reported a .40 caliber gun stolen from his vehicle in Riviera Beach.

As officials announced Mr. Hayes' arrest Monday, State Attorney R.J. Larizza of the 7th Judicial Circuit, which includes Volusia County, praised detectives for their diligent work pursuing the challenging case and their use of modern technology to crack it.

"We are truly in a brave new world and we have brave folks that are helping put these cases together," he said.

First Published: September 17, 2019, 2:26 a.m.

RELATED
SHOW COMMENTS (0)  
Join the Conversation
Commenting policy | How to Report Abuse
If you would like your comment to be considered for a published letter to the editor, please send it to letters@post-gazette.com. Letters must be under 250 words and may be edited for length and clarity.
Partners
Advertisement
Penguins hall of fame broadcaster Mike Lange works the play-by-play during the Alumni game at Heinz Field on Dec. 31, 2010.
1
sports
Mike Lange, longtime Penguins broadcaster, dies at 76
Mike Lange be­gan an­nounc­ing for the Penguns in 1974.
2
sports
How the hockey world is reacting to the death of Penguins broadcaster Mike Lange
Penguins broadcaster Mike Lange during a press conference at Consol Energy Center.
3
sports
Jason Mackey: What Mike Lange meant to me, and why we must carry on his incredible legacy
Dr. Sylvia Owusu-Ansah helped writers of "The Pitt" with her perspective working in emergency medicine.
4
a&e
'It's very real,' says the Pittsburgh ER doctor who consulted on 'The Pitt' TV show
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, GM Kevin Colbert and president Art Rooney II watch afternoon practice Friday, July 27, 2018, at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe.
5
sports
Brian Batko’s Steelers mailbag: Should there have been a better long-term plan at quarterback?
This Sept. 16, 2019, photo made available by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office shows Robert Hayes under arrest.  (Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office via AP)
Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office via AP
Advertisement
LATEST news
Advertisement
TOP
Email a Story