By Chris Bartholomew
Out on the street on a dark quiet night, a woman stands and faces the unknown, waiting for a man to come and pay her money for sex. Another man steps out of the shadows to talk to the woman as traffic has stopped and they are alone. Sounds like the beginning of a horror story but it's not. The man is carrying a notepad and on it he writes the tag number of any car the woman might get into. Just in case. For the police should something untoward happen. There is a serial killer loose and the woman is doing everything she can to be safe, except stay off the street.
The women of the night in Daytona Beach Florida are arming themselves, the only trouble is that a knife or a notepad won't stand up to a gun, and the only time something like that would be of help is after someone has been killed.
Daytona Beach, a beautiful resort town, close to many attractions and a favorite for bikers during bike week, and for racing fans because there is the speedway, the Daytona 500. Downtown Beach Street is pretty, pink, and busy most of the time. Nearby Ridgewood Avenue is a street you could find the likes of in any city in the United States. There is nothing really remarkable about the street, it's a favorite place for hookers, but that in itself isn't especially important, unless a serial killer is living in the town looking for hookers.
December 26, 2005, the partially clothed body of the first known victim of the Daytona Beach serial killer is found in an alley off Beach Street. Laquetta Mae “Quetta” Gunther. She was shot in the head with a .45 caliber handgun. She was found in the fetal position. Due to the damage of the shot to her face, she was identified by her tattoos. She was killed at least two days before her body was found, perhaps being transported to the alley. Someone reported seeing an older man smoking a cigar leaving the alley. No one can identify this man.
January 14, 2006, the body of Julie Ann “Sissy” Green is found. Her partially clothed body was found in a ditch next to a dirt road west of LPGA Boulevard near the Bayberry Lakes subdivision. The area was a construction site. She had been shot to death with a .40 caliber handgun. She had been shot less than twenty four hours earlier.
DNA is taken by the police from people voluntarily at traffic stops to build a DNA base for Daytona Beach.
February 24, 2006, the partially clothed body of Iwana Patton is found on a dirt road off of Williamson Boulevard. Authorities had received a telephone call from an unknown caller describing the location of Patton's body. The woman had been sexually assaulted before she was shot to death. She was shot in the head at close range with a .40 caliber handgun. Police say Patton had been killed less than 24 hours earlier.
March 10, 2006, Daytona Beach Police and the State of Florida investigators announce that the three women were likely the victims of a serial killer. A few suspects are rounded up, arrested, and then because of DNA evidence, let go.
December 10, 2007, Stacey Gage is last seen alive. January 2, 2008 her body is found. The body of Stacey Gage was found in a densely wooded area in the 1600 block of Hancock Boulevard, near an abandoned church, in Daytona Beach on January 2, 2008.
January 23, 2008, authorities announce that the murder of Stacey Gage is connected to the previous three homicides. There is a serial killer in Daytona Beach.
The police have the killer's identity in his DNA left at the scenes. The police know that he used a .45 caliber handgun to kill the four women. There is the witness that told someone that they saw an older man walking out of an alley where one victim was found, and we know that guy was smoking a cigar.
Speculation is that they will catch him when he does something stupid, like being caught with a body in the trunk during a traffic stop, but I hope this isn't the way it happens, I hope there are no more bodies to this one. One thing I think is safe to speculate: someone, somewhere knows who this man is. A mother, father, brother, sister, girlfriend, friend, wife. Someone knows.
Facts: He has or carries a .45 caliber handgun. He left his DNA at the crime scenes.
Possible facts: He's an older man. He smokes cigars. He looks like someone these women were not afraid to get into a car with, or pick up, not sick looking or spooky.
If I lived in Daytona Beach, I'd be looking out for an older white man who smokes cigars and carries or has a .45 caliber handgun, and likes to walk around at night. If I knew of someone like this, I'd be looking at my life and relationship to see if anything was going on during the dates of these killings. I would be afraid. People tend to ignore things even when they know something is not right. If I lived in Daytona, I'd quit ignoring things and try to stop the killer. Someone knows.
Editor's note: this article was written in 2008, while the case was open and unattributed. It has not been solved. The four killings of Laquetta Gunther, Julie Green, Iwana Patton and Stacey Gage are still carried by Daytona Beach police as the work of one man, linked by DNA, and no one has been charged. The article's closing appeal, that somebody knows who he is, still stands.