The arrest of Rex Heuermann in the killing of three women found dead on Gilgo Beach, the speculation began.
Could this be the man who left the bodies of four women in a ditch off the Black Horse Pike in Egg Harbor Township's West Atlantic City section nearly 17 years ago?
It's unlikely, the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office said in a statement released Tuesday.
Prosecutor Will Reynolds decided to comment on the issue after weeks o "numerous inquiries and speculation from the media."
“At this point in time, after ACPO detectives recently met with Suffolk County detectives to compare timelines, dates, methodologies, etc. of both cases, there does not seem to be a connection between the suspect in the Gilgo Beach case and the Atlantic County homicides from 2006," according to the statement.
“The 2006 case remains an open joint investigation between ACPO and the Egg Harbor Township Police Department with continued assistance from our local, state and federal partners," the statement continued. "Authorities will continue to follow all leads until the perpetrator of those crimes is brought to justice. Given the open nature of the investigation, there will be no further comment on this case in order to minimize the possibility of controlled information getting out into the public that could ultimately jeopardize the investigation.”
Kim Raffo’s body was found Nov. 20, 2006, behind the Golden Key Motel.
The discovery of the 35-year-old mother's remains led to three more bodies: Barbara Breidor, 42; Tracy Roberts, 23, and Molly Dilts, 20.
While several media have said the women were all strangled, similar to the women Heuermann is charged with killing, that is not the accurate.
Raffo was strangled, the medical examiner concluded. Roberts was asphyxiated. But Breidor and Dilts, who was determined to be the first killed, were too badly decomposed to determine a cause of death.
Three of the women had large amounts of drugs in their systems, but not anything that they weren’t known to take normally. The youngest, Dilts, had alcohol, which was her known vice.
They were known to be sex workers.
There were three prostitutes who spoke to reporters about who they believe committed the crimes.
Pam Covelli said she was with three of the women shortly before they disappeared.
Melissa Bishop and Denise Hill each claimed a man told them he killed some people.
Bishop identified that man as Terry Oleson, who was a handyman at the now-razed Golden Key Motel.
In a prison interview June 1, 2007, she tearfully told this reporter that Oleson threatened her.
“I’m scared to death of that man,” she told the filmmakers who tracked her down on Coney Island and showed her Oleson’s photo. “That’s why I’m not in Jersey.”
He is still the only known person whose DNA was taken in the investigation, although he was never publicly accused nor cleared in the case.
“I'm absolutely certain that Terry Oleson had nothing to do with these murders,” his former attorney James Leonard Jr. previously told BreakingAC. “My belief in that position has not wavered once in the (time) he and I have known each other.”
On the 12th anniversary of the bodies' discovery, then-Prosecutor Damon Tyner asked for anyone with information to come forward.
“Somebody knows something about this case,” Tyner said in 2018.
“As an original supervisory member of the investigative team assigned to this case, I can confirm that these victims are not forgotten,” recently retired Egg Harbor Township Police Chief Raymond Davis said at that time. “All member agencies involved in this investigation — local, county, state and federal — remain diligent in our pursuit of the person or persons responsible. We urge anyone with information to contact law enforcement.”
One of the lead investigators in the case told BreakingAC in 2016 that he believed the crime would be solved.
There's always the one piece of information, said Dennis McKelvey, now retired.
He headed the Major Crimes Unit when the women's bodies were found.
“You don't know who's going to talk,” he said. “What piece of evidence is going to turn up.”
All the parts might be there in this case, he said, and it will just take that one piece to put it all together.
“That's why we don't close (unsolved) homicides,” he said. “Technology gets better and people talk. Just like police officers never forget open cases, I truly believe the bad guys never get over it too.”
Anyone with information regarding these crimes or other serious crimes is asked to call the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office at 609-909-7800 or go to the Prosecutor’s Office website or by clicking on the link ACPO.Tips to provide information by filling out the form anonymously on the Submit a Tip page.
