In the fall of 2006, the dark streets of Atlantic City away from the glitzy casinos turned into a hunting ground for a serial killer the media nicknamed the "Eastbound Strangler."
On November 20, 2006, two women walking behind a motel spotted the body of Kim Raffo in a drainage ditch near Atlantic City's border. Hours later, law enforcement found three more female victims in the same ditch: Barbara Breidor, Molly Dilts and Tracy Ann Roberts.
Authorities determined that over the span of five weeks, the four deceased women had been dumped by their murderer, one by one, alongside Black Horse Pike in nearby Egg Harbor Townshop.
The victims were sex workers who likely met the serial killer in Atlantic City's red-light district, says John Kelly, founder of S.T.A.L.K. (System To Apprehend Lethal Killers), a New Jersey-based criminal profiling firm. Kelly's organization assisted law enforcement agencies in Atlantic City and Egg Harborduring the early stages of the investigation, he tells A&E Crime + Investigation.
Police officials believe whoever murdered Raffo, Breidor, Dilts and Roberts lured them away from Atlantic City to Egg Harbor, where they were killed and disposed of, Kelly says. Autopsies showed that two of the women died from asphyxiation. But the amount of time the bodies of the four women remained undiscovered hindered the homicide investigation, Kelly says. Medical examiners were unable to determine a cause of death for Dilts and Breidor because their bodies were so decomposed. They had been dead the longest.
Roberts had been asphyxiated, possibly by strangulation or other means. Detectives were only able to confirm that Raffo, who is believed to be the last victim to die, was strangled.
All four women were fully clothed except for their feet. They had been placed about 320 feet apart in the water, Kelly says.
"The killer positioned his victims with their arms stretched out and their heads pointed east, toward Atlantic City," Kelly says. "That's why some people call it the 'Eastbound Strangler' case. He anchored the bodies to the side of a ditch using their feet. He tried his best for as long as he could to keep them from being seen."
