Police Investigating Possible Serial Killer In Tight Neighborhood

HOUSTON (AP) – They are the victims of a possible serial killer: Seven women – all prostitutes at one time – whose nude bodies have been found near churches in a tight-knit but struggling Houston neighborhood known as Acres Homes.

The slayings, which began in January 2006, have spurred the longest homicide investigation in Houston police department history – filling seven four-inch thick binders, and a 695-page report too thick to be printed on the office’s regular machines.

Ten officers worked full time on the case at one point, but that has dwindled to three as leads dry up. Houston police investigators say the hunt to track down the killer has become a roller coaster ride of frustration and 18-hour work days.

The women lived in a shadowy, secretive world, where their last paces are nearly impossible to trace and witnesses are reluctant to step forward. Pamela Ann Goss, 50, and Lakita Stubblefield, 21, were both stabbed to death. Vanessa Lackey Franklin, 45, and Willie Bianca Jones, 18, were strangled.

It is unclear how Jasmine Clark, 21, Patricia Duffy-Garcia, 45, and a still unidentified woman died. Some of the women could have picked up as many as 10 customers in one night, and several had semen from a number of men on their bodies, making it nearly impossible for police to figure out the last person they were with or to determine if they had been sexually assaulted.

Police are entering the DNA into an FBI database that contains genetic samples from convicted felons and from crime scenes. So far, the database has yielded no suspects, said police Capt. Steve Jett. Some of the DNA on the prostitutes probably belongs to customers who have no criminal record and are not even in the database, investigators said.

“DNA does not come with a driver’s license,” Jett said. “So we are not able to determine exactly who was involved with this person.” Police have questioned other neighborhood prostitutes, hoping that one of them may remember being picked up by someone who matches the killer’s profile.

Many told of sexual assaults or frightening encounters, but never reported them and couldn’t identify the customer, Walker said. Initially, investigators thought the murders might have been connected to a string of sexual assaults in Acres Homes. But a suspect arrrested in those attacks turned out to have no link to the deaths.

“You have no idea how frustrating this whole case is. We get some leads that we think are good, then have to eliminate them,” said Lt. Ron Walker, who is overseeing the investigation. In Acres Homes, a black community where family roots go back several generations, the deaths are a grim and frightening reminder that urban reality is intruding on a neighborhood where country living still lingers just minutes from the skyscrapers of downtown Houston.

Horses are still a common sight on the roads, and modest shotgun houses and dilapidated shacks sit across the street from newly built luxury homes shuttered behind iron gates. Residents still know their neighbors, despite pockets of drug use and prositution. Yet people now wonder if a serial killer walks among them – and whether enough is being done to catch him.

“The perpetrators need to be caught, if nothing else than to bring justice to the victims,” said the Rev. Edwin Davis, pastor of Galilee Missionary Baptist Church, site of a recent community meeting to address concerns about the unsolved cases. “It would bring a lot of ease to a lot of people.” The first victim – Clark – was found lying in a wooded area near New Macedonia Church on January 19, 2006.

At first, the death was ruled a drug overdose, but after the bodies of other women were found nearby, police included her case in the Acres Homes investigation. Four other women were killed in the next six months. Goss’s body was tossed behind Pine Grove Church of God, a block away from where Clark was found. Duffy-Garcia was discovered in a heavily wooded area on “Jesus Street,” where small signs declare: “Church of God Property. Please no dumping.”

The skeletal remains of another, unidentified, victim, were found in ditch on an undeveloped street. Stubblefield’s body was found behind Parlay Cafe, near Pine Grove Church. She had also been stabbed. Franklin’s body was found eight miles from Acres Homes. But she was added to the list because her death seemed to fit the pattern: She had worked as a prostitute, and her nude body was dumped by a church.

The nude body of the latest victim – Jones – was found in a drainage ditch on September 22. She was last seen alive at the Bluemagic Lounge, a ramshackle beer joint tucked in a residential street. A small photograph of Jones wearing a mischievous grin is now taped aboved the club’s front door.

“I’m just scared. I’m afraid. I was born and raised here and we never had problems like this before. We could sleep with our windows open,” said Daphene Tyler, 42, whose family has operated the Bluemagic Lounge for 62 years. Investigators say they may be close to solving the murder of Jones, who they believe was caught in an interstate juvenile prostitution ring.

But they are still slamming into dead ends on the other cases. “We’re asking people to concentrate on the victims. Do you know what happened to these women? These were people. They have families. They have mothers. They have sisters. They have children,” said Walker.

“Yes, they may have been prostitutes, but they didn’t deserve to die or have done what was done to them.”

By MONICA RHOR Associated Press Writer

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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Edited and Posted to KVIA.com by Miguel Martinez