Atlantic City Eastbound Strangler 4 Women Found Dead behind Motel Egg Harbor Twp, Nov 2006

[cynical_1]

For what it's worth, the woman who actually found the first body stated that she was walking the trail with a friend when she noticed a purple flower on a reed growing out of the ditch. She reached over to pick the flower and that's when she saw the body of Kim Raffo.

 

[Barbie619]

The other thing that I wonder about is the train tracks there. I read that there was a train station. Was it a train for passengers or a freight train for transporting goods and materials. How many stops did it make and was there work being done on the tracks at that time? If anyone knows of the history of this railroad, please chime in.

My grandmother and I would take a train to AC way back in the 60's...

 

[Skully]

East (?)Rail road, I think that is the name of that line, used to do freight back in 2006 for a construction company. But it may have been a passenger line as well. I forget the RR name, I can look it up.

 

[Muttley]

From the S.T.A.L.K website 'Perhaps so he can look across the bay, at a defined landmark, where these women were posed into subservient positions. Also, perhaps, where he could live out his demented sex, power and control fantasies.'

This got me thinking about landmarks, look at that billboard! Then I started thinking about the access road to the billboard and train tracks. Someone from a billboard maintenance company wouldn't look suspicious driving or parked on the dirt road on the OTHER side of the ditch. Here's a Google look at the view from the billboard, you can see right down into the ditch. Could our killer have climbed the billboard during the day and checked his "work"?

 

[PictureSnatcher]

I believe I was in contact with him... On several occasions...just didn't trigger him for some reason. I have attempted to pass on the info I do remember which is extensive and unfortunately have been met with a very lukewarm reception. I honestly think they don't want it brought up. They are trying to change the face of Atlantic City and as I've said before... We were being harassed on night in 2007 by some local vice cops and feeling my oats a little and what not said... Don't you have a serial killer to catch... Isn't that a problem bigger than this you should be focused on and a cop looked me square in the face and said.... We don't see him as a problem.. We see him as a solution to a problem! There are some good decent and genuine cops but most of them.... Nah. We watched a pimp snack the crap out of a girl right in the sidewalk outside Trump plaza and a cop was RIGHT THERE in his patrol car... He looked over.. Chuckled and looked the other way. It's just how it was at that time.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Hey, do you have any idea who the two men from Queens were or who the crack dealer was that was staying with Kim Raffo?

December 23, 2006 The New York Times By SERGE F. KOVALESKI ...Steven Cicero, a friend of Ms. Raffo’s, said that he was interviewed by the authorities late last week and that they asked about a crack dealer who had been sleeping in the living room of her Ocean Avenue apartment, and about two men from Howard Beach. Mr. Cicero, who is from Ozone Park, Queens, said the investigators indicated that they had been to Queens over the last two weeks. “They showed me pictures of two guys from Howard Beach, one scruffy guy and one with big ears,” Mr. Cicero said. “They said these guys are from your neck of the woods. They asked me if I knew Lenny’s Clam Bar in Howard Beach. I hate to say it, but it doesn’t sound like they really got anything right now.” The owner and manager at Lenny’s Clam Bar said on Friday that no detectives had come to inquire about the Atlantic City killings...

 

[sakura.shinra]

I was wondering too, what do these ladies wear in the cold of Oct and Nov in AC? They are found with the cloths on, and some say that is an indication of "no sex". I don't think all sex requires you to take your cloths off, but maybe your shoes, if you don't want someone to track dirt or mud into your car or home, or what ever. So he may have been into the foot thing, keeps the shoes and socks, but they are still dressed after the sex act then he strangles them, and are taken to the canal. So sex can be his thing, just not what we think.

That's a really good point. We think of the sex act as something that takes place in a room, usually with a bed and with clothes removed but for street-level prostitutes that's often not the case at all. Much of their trade is plied in the backs of cars, in alleys or doorways or public toilets, with minimal undressing, only taking off what's necessary to do the deed. The victims of Jack the Ripper almost always had sex fully clothed, because they were the lowest of the low in the prostitution hierarchy and to make enough money to scrape by they relied on servicing as many men as possible in a night. Not much has changed for street-level prostitutes, especially those suffering with addiction. For them it can be the choice between spending money on a cheap motel room or doing it in a car or an alleyway and having a bit more for drugs at the end of the night.

 

[cynical_1]

From the S.T.A.L.K website 'Perhaps so he can look across the bay, at a defined landmark, where these women were posed into subservient positions. Also, perhaps, where he could live out his demented sex, power and control fantasies.'

This got me thinking about landmarks, look at that billboard! Then I started thinking about the access road to the billboard and train tracks. Someone from a billboard maintenance company wouldn't look suspicious driving or parked on the dirt road on the OTHER side of the ditch. Here's a Google look at the view from the billboard, you can see right down into the ditch. Could our killer have climbed the billboard during the day and checked his "work"?
View attachment 107279

Y'know, as many times as I've looked at that location I've never really noticed the road on the other side of the ditch. When I checked it out on Google maps there was actually some type of utility vehicle on it. Looks like there's a turnaround spot on the easternmost edge where it ends by the lake.

That other road that you've pointed out is even more private than the one on the motel side. He could have parked at a motel, walked back to that road and sat up on that billboard all day without anyone really noticing.

 

[euggrie]

From the S.T.A.L.K website 'Perhaps so he can look across the bay, at a defined landmark, where these women were posed into subservient positions. Also, perhaps, where he could live out his demented sex, power and control fantasies.'

This got me thinking about landmarks, look at that billboard! Then I started thinking about the access road to the billboard and train tracks. Someone from a billboard maintenance company wouldn't look suspicious driving or parked on the dirt road on the OTHER side of the ditch. Here's a Google look at the view from the billboard, you can see right down into the ditch. Could our killer have climbed the billboard during the day and checked his "work"?
View attachment 107279

There is definitely something special about that place for the SK, because there were places with deeper water to hide the bodies.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[LR1]

Hey, do you have any idea who the two men from Queens were or who the crack dealer was that was staying with Kim Raffo?

December 23, 2006 The New York Times By SERGE F. KOVALESKI ...Steven Cicero, a friend of Ms. Raffo’s, said that he was interviewed by the authorities late last week and that they asked about a crack dealer who had been sleeping in the living room of her Ocean Avenue apartment, and about two men from Howard Beach. Mr. Cicero, who is from Ozone Park, Queens, said the investigators indicated that they had been to Queens over the last two weeks. “They showed me pictures of two guys from Howard Beach, one scruffy guy and one with big ears,” Mr. Cicero said. “They said these guys are from your neck of the woods. They asked me if I knew Lenny’s Clam Bar in Howard Beach. I hate to say it, but it doesn’t sound like they really got anything right now.” The owner and manager at Lenny’s Clam Bar said on Friday that no detectives had come to inquire about the Atlantic City killings...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/23/nyregion/23slay.html

Thanks for the article that's not been posted in this thread, here's a link to it.

Clearly there was no shortage of potential suspects.

 

[Rachel1]

Thanks yes I hadn't read that article before.

 

[cynical_1]

Here's an interesting article from Nov 23, 2006 a few days after the discoveries of the bodies. Of note is the quote from one of the country's foremost criminal profilers, Vernon J. Gerberth.

Vernon J. Geberth, a retired lieutenant commander in the New York Police Department and author of several homicide forensics textbooks, said the deaths looked like the work of a serial killer, most likely a local or someone very familiar with the area.

"The killer has picked this area for his dumping ground, and it means that he is very comfortable being in the area," Geberth said in a telephone interview from Florida. "The information so far tells me the person is from the area and is very familiar with it, and this was a convenient spot for him to dispose of the bodies but far enough away from where he actually lives to not make him an immediate suspect."
http://www.practicalhomicide.com/current/11262006.htm

Another profiler, John Kelly, responsible for the STALK website theorized that the individual was a local as well.

This lethal predator is a local male, who is very familiar with the Atlantic City area, and the disposal site of his victims.
http://stalkinc.com/profile2.htm

 

[cynical_1]

Expanding on the information from my previous post that this individual may be a local, I was intrigued by a part of Mr. Gerberth's statement. Namely: "The information so far tells me the person is from the area and is very familiar with it, and this was a convenient spot for him to dispose of the bodies but far enough away from where he actually lives to not make him an immediate suspect."

I should state that Vernon Geberth is an individual for whom I have the highest respect and whose opinion is of tremendous value. It made me wonder about the whole “heads facing east” thing. Could it be that the killer positioned the bodies in the direction of AC to point investigators in that direction and away from where he actually lives?

If that is the case then perhaps this individual resides west (opposite) of where the bodies were pointed in a town on the mainland, someplace like Mays Landing, NJ. In a recent NJ.com article it reveals newly released information concerning Kim Raffo's last client (a N. Jersey doctor) and the calls he made to her after she went to buy drugs.

The man's calls to Raffo were routed to a cell tower on the Black Horse Pike, not far from where the bodies were discovered.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2016/11/10_years_later_the_atlantic_city_serial_killer_rem.html

Depending on whether or not Ms. Raffo was alive at the time of the calls, the calls pinging off the tower on the BHP might indicate that Ms. Raffo was at the killers home with him at the time of the calls or that she was already in the ditch and the killer was sitting someplace that was serviced by that tower.

The immediate area that I can think of as being serviced by that tower is Pleasantville, Northfield, Linwood or Somers Point NJ. A small clue as to the location of the bodies is that the location is approx. 400 yards outside the border of AC proper. Jurisdictional issues arise because of it, something that may have not been coincidental.

And lastly, it's been reported that Ms. Raffo's ex-husband called her phone the day after the bodies were discovered and it was answered by someone. No one spoke as there was reportedly only background noise. It would be interesting to know what tower that phone call pinged off of.

As always, just my opinion.

 

[Skully]

Wasn't Burchell or Stallworth from Pleasantville?

 

[cynical_1]

Wasn't Burchell or Stallworth from Pleasantville?

Burchell has been described as a drifter.

Stallworth was residing in Pleasantville at the time of his most recent arrest on August 5th, 2014 for the murder of Tara Rogers-Alicia. He was previously arrested on 11-15-06 on a drug charge and released on the same day. He was also arrested 07-23-08 (violation of probation) and was jailed until 12-19-08.

 

[The Nomad]

Arrested in November '06... On a drugs charge...

 

[The Nomad]

I'll expand. If what you wrote about Stallworth is his complete record. Immediately i can see a few reasons why if it was him he'd go dormant.

-1st arrest mid november 06
-Bodies found less than a couple weeks later
-He was what 19? He'd feel like his world was closing in.. DNA should have been taken. Perhaps it was but wasn't processed.
-He might have felt like he was being watched by LE expecting a knock on the door at any moment.
-He was on probation. We don't know the terms of it. Perhaps it was not to enter certain parts of AC?

Could be completely wrong so JMO.

 

[cynical_1]

I'll expand. If what you wrote about Stallworth is his complete record. Immediately i can see a few reasons why if it was him he'd go dormant.

-1st arrest mid november 06
-Bodies found less than a couple weeks later
-He was what 19? He'd feel like his world was closing in.. DNA should have been taken. Perhaps it was but wasn't processed.
-He might have felt like he was being watched by LE expecting a knock on the door at any moment.
-He was on probation. We don't know the terms of it. Perhaps it was not to enter certain parts of AC?

Could be completely wrong so JMO.

He's had a few run ins with the law on mostly drug related charges. I don't believe the Nov. 06 arrest was a felony so I doubt DNA was taken. Subsequent arrest(s), most likely DNA had been taken.





Nov 15, 2006 was a pot bust, relatively minor. The third victim, Tracy Ann Roberts, was alleged to have disappeared around this time. Nov 19th, 2006 was Kim Raffo's last sighting alive.

As a POI he's a rather intriguing fellow. He's been locked up for over two years now with very little information about the Rogers-Alicia case. He's being held on $2 million cash bail which may be attributable to the fact that it appears that he hasn't lawyered up yet.

About 2 months after Ms. Rogers-Alicia's body was discovered in a suitcase a young lady by the name of Joyce Vanderhoff was found dead on the side of a road. That case is still open.

Of course the one thing that discounts Stallworth for the 2006 murders is that undoubtedly the authorities have his DNA and, to date, no match announced with the DNA found under Ms. Raffo's fingernails.

 

[jamie48b]

As you watch the show "Killing Fields" it is amazing to know that that "Outlaw" biker gang was considered involved in this matter and just overlooked. Lets look at Mansfileds brother Billy as well. He was exonerated only on his DNA not being at the scenes of the killings. He in turn got immunity for testifying against his brother. Was it in order to save himself and his parts of this matter?

 

[The Nomad]

As you watch the show "Killing Fields" it is amazing to know that that "Outlaw" biker gang was considered involved in this matter and just overlooked. Lets look at Mansfileds brother Billy as well. He was exonerated only on his DNA not being at the scenes of the killings. He in turn got immunity for testifying against his brother. Was it in order to save himself and his parts of this matter?

That was Daytona not AC.

 

[cynical_1]

It's hard to determine if the person responsible for these murders was an experienced killer or a novice just breaking into this deadly profession. A small clue may lie in the cause of death released by the medical examiners office concerning victim #3 and victim #4.

Victim #3, Tracy Ann Roberts, had her cause of death listed as “asphyxia by unspecific means”. Yet the cause of death for victim #4, Kim Raffo, was very specific: “Police said Raffo was strangled with a ligature.”
http://nypost.com/2006/11/23/victims-final-moments-eatery-witness-tells-of-230-a-m-meal-roadside-pickup-as-serial-strangler-fear-grips-atlantic-city/

The use of a ligature might be considered a step in the evolution of a serial killer.

“He initially strangled them manually. However, many victims inflicted wounds and bruises on his arm while trying to defend themselves. Concerned these wounds and bruises would draw attention, Ridgway began using ligatures to strangle his victims.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Ridgway

I would speculate that, based on the use of a ligature on Ms. Raffo, that Molly Dilts (victim #1) may have been this individual's first kill. - Just my opinion.