Police in Florida are confident that they have nabbed a serial killer off the streets, revealing at a press conference Monday they have the required DNA evidence to allegedly link a 37-year-old man to the brutal killing of four women.
Daytona Beach Police Chief Craig Capri depicted Robert Hayes as a “gross serial killer,” including that legal testing has matched him to the chilly case murders of three women in that city alone.
Hayes was caught over the weekend by Palm Beach authorities and charged with the 2016 murder of 32-year-old Rachel Bey. The victim was sexually assaulted in addition to being severely beaten and strangled.
All three victims — Laquetta Gunther, 45, Julie Green, 34 and 35-year-old Iwana Patton — were found dead in similar circumstances. They were shot dead and left nude with their faces on the ground in nearby parts of the city.
“If we failed to put this person in prison, he would’ve repeated his behavior and another person would have suffered,” said Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.
But Wallace said on Monday raised a suspicion that he could be involved in more murders.
Hayes was a student at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach when the initial killings took place. Ironically, he majored in criminal justice.
Earlier on Sunday, when Hayes was arrested, he was living with a woman and a young baby. The woman and the baby who is believed to be about 2 years old, was staying with Hayes in an apartment in West Beach. The relationship between the three is still not known.
The authorities revealed that more details will be confirmed and released to the public in the upcoming days.
The DNA on the cigarette matched Hayes to the murders, authorities revealed.
For cross-checking, they had another sample collected from Hayes after his arrest, which was also indicated a positive result.
