Serial killers and true crime

Daytona Beach Victims

A message, written in black marker on the wall of one of the buildings, reads: “2/2010 Mom, you are missed, Love, Nikki.”
It could have been written for either Laquetta Gunther or Julie Green.

Laquetta Gunther, a 45-year-old construction day laborer and occasional prostitute was killed first. Her body was found on 12/26/2005 and she was last seen 12/24/2005 at Chubby’s bar at 650 N. Beach St.

Her body was discovered stuffed between the two buildings in a space not even 3 feet wide. She had been shot in the head, execution-style, with a .40-caliber bullet. A passerby found her half-nude corpse between the two buildings across the street from the former Chubby’s.

Over the next two months, two more women met a similar fate.

Then there was the shooting of 34-year-old Julie Green in January 2006 and 35-year-old Iwana Patton in February of that year. Green and Patton were also shot in the head with a .40-caliber weapon and both were naked as well when they were found.

The suspect also left behind an unmistakable calling card. His semen was on both Gunther and Green, police said.

Stacey Gage, 30 years old, was found two years later in January 2008. She had been shot in the head in a wooded area near a former church off Hancock Boulevard. Investigators have never said whether the caliber of weapon used on Gage was a .32-, a .40-, or a .45-caliber gun. But Police Chief Mike Chitwood has repeatedly said that Gage’s death was “eerily similar” to the other three.

There was no DNA found on Gage’s nude body because she had been exposed to the elements for about a month before she was discovered by a Daytona Beach policeman on patrol.

Although the killer’s DNA is stored in a database kept by the FBI, it has not yet matched others kept in the national listing.
Florida did begin testing many men arrested but no leads have come from that yet.

On Christmas Eve night this year and every year since Gunther was murdered, her friend, Stacey Dittmer has held a candlelight vigil at the murder site with people who knew Gunther. This year, Gunther’s 70-year-old mother, Barbara Rurak, planned to join the group.

In a telephone interview this week from her home in Sarasota, Rurak asked the same question everyone here is asking: “Is anything being done?”

While the time has passed, none of the women is forgotten. Dittmer planned to make a poster with the names of all the murder victims so she could leave it at the site where Gunther was shot.

Full Story

Chronology and a lot of information.

December 26, 2005: Body of Laquetta Gunther is found.

January 14, 2006: The body of Julie Green is found.

February 24, 2006: The body of Iwana Patton is found.

March 10, 2006: Daytona Beach Police and State of Florida investigators announce the three women were likely the victims of a serial killer.

April 21 2006: Police confirm the collection of DNA from several “persons of interest.”

April 22, 2006: Local police confirm that police officers were questioned in the slayings.

June 10, 2006: Police arrest David Gibson Lindsay on an unrelated warrant.

June 20, 2006: DNA evidence excludes David Gibson Lindsay as a suspect.

December 10, 2007: Stacey Gage is last seen alive.

January 2, 2008: The body of Stacey Gage is found.

January 23, 2008: Authorities announce that the murder of Stacey Gage is connected to the previous three homicides.

An article on the DNA testing to try to find the killer.

Reported drug connection. IMO, a bit unlikely.

VBullitan Forum with links and info.