NOTE: This article originally appeared in The Atlanta Constitution on March 10, 1995.
Three months have passed since the last prostitute was found strangled in an abandoned building in Atlanta, but time doesn't ease the anxiety of detectives awaiting lab results to see if they've put a killer in jail.
Hair and blood have been taken from at least five suspects for DNA testing against evidence found at the crime scenes, police said. Three suspects have been named publicly.
But a DNA match alone won't necessarily make a case, said Lt. Danny Agan, commander of the Homicide Task Force.
"There would have to be other facts and circumstances to go with that," he said. "The span of time between the last killing and now doesn't give me any security at all without factual information that he's in jail or dead."
Police have not yet determined if a serial killer is responsible for strangling seven crack-addicted prostitutes since 1993 - the last found on Dec. 9. Most were killed in abandoned buildings, some in vacant lots. At least two more slayings dating to 1989 match the pattern, according to a police memorandum.
While they wait for DNA evidence that is due any day, police are searching old assault and rape cases to question surviving victims attacked under similar circumstances.
A serial killer fantasizes the act of killing and doesn't stop, said Maj. Mickey Lloyd. "He may commit a spree of murders and psychologically that handles him for awhile, and then later on the fantasy surfaces again and he'll do it again," Lloyd said. "But it's very unlikely we're looking at one person who has committed these murders."
The fact that the victims are prostitutes further complicates any DNA findings because evidence from more than one person could be present on the body.
"There's not only the possibility, but the probability that there's going to be mixed samples," Lloyd said. "But that can be further broken down, and if there are similarities between cases, it will come out. DNA gives us direction."
Brian Coleman, an Atlanta hotel kitchen worker, was charged in one of the slayings after DNA evidence showed that he had had sex with the still-unidentified woman found dead off Piedmont Avenue on Sept. 20. He admits having sex with her but denies killing her, said his attorney, Dennis Scheib. A time slip bearing Coleman's name was found near the body.
Scheib said police failed to look for witnesses who saw the woman alive at a nightclub after Coleman had returned the night of Sept. 19. Coleman's DNA did not match evidence gathered at any other murder scenes, police said.
"There is so much political pressure put on by the mayor and chief of police to make cases and to put anybody in jail," Scheib said. "I think prosecutors have got a long way to go to convict this man."
Sherman Ridley, a labor pool construction worker, was charged with two counts of rape and aggravated assault after two women identified him as the man who attacked them in abandoned buildings after they went inside to smoke crack.
The Oct. 20 and Nov. 18 attacks were in the same area as some of the slayings, but Ridley was in jail when the last prostitute was found dead.
Proximity is all that links Ridley to the slayings, said his attorney, Larry Ellerbe. Ridley denies he raped the women.
"We have submitted to every [scientific] test," Ellerbe said. "He is not charged with murder and he maintains his innocence."
A third man, Richard Wilcher, is charged with one count of aggravated assault on a woman on Oct. 15 at Hayden and Baker streets. His attorney could not be reached for comment.
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