Fillmoe
11-23-2006, 04:41 PM
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/22/bodies.found.prostitutes.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey (AP) -- Prostitutes working in the shadows of Atlantic City's glitzy casinos say they are living in fear of a possible serial killer after the bodies of four women were found in a drainage ditch behind a row of seedy motels.
Several prostitutes interviewed Wednesday said that since learning of this week's grisly discovery they have armed themselves with pepper spray and are no longer going with "dates" to the busy road that passes near where the bodies were found.
"It scares the hell out of me," said Christine, a prostitute eyeing cars driving by a cheap motel on Pacific Avenue near several casino entrances. "We're all talking about it, and I'm still ready to jump in the first car that comes along. But I got anxiety, bad."
Like all the streetwalkers interviewed Wednesday, Christine would only speak if her full name was not made public.
Autopsies found that two of the women found Monday had been slain: one by strangulation with a rope or cord, one by smothering. The others were too badly decomposed to determine a cause of death, prosecutors said.
Authorities would not say whether they believe the killings were carried out by the same person, but noted that they were left within a few hundred feet of each other in the same ditch. The head of each victim faced east, toward the casinos.
Bunny, a prostitute and drug dealer who works out of the same Pacific Avenue motel as Christine, said she will no longer accompany clients to motels on the Black Horse Pike, locals' name for the seedy stretch of Route 40 in Egg Harbor Township where the bodies were found.
"That's just too dangerous," said Bunny, who plans to concentrate on selling drugs instead of sex this week. "You can't let your guard down, even for a minute."
The only woman authorities have been able to identify, 35-year-old Kim Raffo, died from strangulation. Her body had been in the ditch a couple of days, an autopsy showed.
It was less clear how long the other victims had been dead; up to a week for one, up to a month for another, and the fourth body was too badly decomposed to determine a time of death.
ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey (AP) -- Prostitutes working in the shadows of Atlantic City's glitzy casinos say they are living in fear of a possible serial killer after the bodies of four women were found in a drainage ditch behind a row of seedy motels.
Several prostitutes interviewed Wednesday said that since learning of this week's grisly discovery they have armed themselves with pepper spray and are no longer going with "dates" to the busy road that passes near where the bodies were found.
"It scares the hell out of me," said Christine, a prostitute eyeing cars driving by a cheap motel on Pacific Avenue near several casino entrances. "We're all talking about it, and I'm still ready to jump in the first car that comes along. But I got anxiety, bad."
Like all the streetwalkers interviewed Wednesday, Christine would only speak if her full name was not made public.
Autopsies found that two of the women found Monday had been slain: one by strangulation with a rope or cord, one by smothering. The others were too badly decomposed to determine a cause of death, prosecutors said.
Authorities would not say whether they believe the killings were carried out by the same person, but noted that they were left within a few hundred feet of each other in the same ditch. The head of each victim faced east, toward the casinos.
Bunny, a prostitute and drug dealer who works out of the same Pacific Avenue motel as Christine, said she will no longer accompany clients to motels on the Black Horse Pike, locals' name for the seedy stretch of Route 40 in Egg Harbor Township where the bodies were found.
"That's just too dangerous," said Bunny, who plans to concentrate on selling drugs instead of sex this week. "You can't let your guard down, even for a minute."
The only woman authorities have been able to identify, 35-year-old Kim Raffo, died from strangulation. Her body had been in the ditch a couple of days, an autopsy showed.
It was less clear how long the other victims had been dead; up to a week for one, up to a month for another, and the fourth body was too badly decomposed to determine a time of death.