September 16, 2019 – In Breaking News – CNN
Genetic genealogy led Florida investigators to a suspect in a 2016 killing, and he has been linked through DNA and other forensic evidence to at least three other slayings from a decade prior, authorities said Monday.
Even with that link, it was a cigarette butt that the suspect dropped at a bus station last week that led to his arrest, court documents indicate.
Robert Hayes, 37, was arrested Sunday without incident. A Palm Beach County judge ordered him held without bail Monday on a first-degree murder charge, pending a grand jury proceeding.
(Robert Hayes is charged in the March 2016 murder of Rachel Bey and may be tied to at least four other women’s deaths in Florida. Courtesy of PalmBeachPost and YouTube. Posted on Sep 16, 2019.)
Hayes, wearing a dark jail uniform, his wrists shackled at his waist, appeared alongside a public defender.
The county’s Office of the Public Defender said it does not comment on pending cases.
“We will keep working every single day, every single hour until we find these monsters that are out here and do these things because I can guarantee you, folks, if we hadn’t put this individual in jail, he would’ve done this again and we would’ve had another innocent victim out here,” Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw told reporters.
Links to other killings
Though Hayes has been charged only with 32-year-old Rachel Bey’s March 2016 strangulation death in Palm Beach County, Daytona Beach Police Chief Craig Capri said Hayes will be charged in at least three killings in that city: those of Laquetta Gunther, 45, in 2005; Julie Green, 34, in 2006; and Iwana Patton, 35, in 2006, all of whom were shot in the head.
(The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office says it’s arrested a suspected serial killer from the Central Florida area. Courtesy of ABC Action News and YouTube. Posted on Sep 16, 2019.)
Investigators will continue their investigations to determine if Hayes is a suspect in any other killings, including that of 30-year-old Stacey Gage in 2008, authorities said.
DNA obtained in the Bey investigation matches DNA in the Gunther and Green probes, Capri said.
Patton’s body spent a long time in the woods after her killing, complicating efforts to collect DNA, the chief said, but ballistic evidence in her death — namely, a casing from a .40-caliber firearm — links hers to the other Daytona Beach killings.
Calling Hayes a “disgusting serial killer,” Capri said the delay in charging Hayes in the other three killings stems from his department’s desire to build a “solid, solid case” against him and to ensure he never gets out of prison.
“I can’t be more happy today that we got this killer off the street so nobody else can become a victim, and now we’re going to tie some loose ends up and then move forward with going after this guy and prosecuting him for these three murders,” he said.
More charges coming
There is no rush to file the Daytona Beach charges because Hayes is in jail and isn’t a threat to the public, State Attorney R.J. Larizza said.
It was too early to say whether his office will pursue the death penalty, he said.
(Police in Florida say Robert Tyrone Hayes, 37, is linked to the murders of at least four women spanning a decade in Daytona Beach and Palm Beach County. Hayes, who has been charged with only one of the murders, appeared in a Palm Beach County court Monday and was ordered held without bail. Courtesy of CBS News and YouTube. Posted on Sep 16, 2019.)
Continue reading… Man arrested in 2016 strangulation death is a ‘serial killer’ linked to at least three other Florida slayings, police say
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