Eastbound Strangler: Serial killer stays in shadows as boogeyman with no face but at least 4 victims

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Josh Zeman, a filmmaker and producer who investigated the Gilgo Beach case for a documentary in 2016 and 2017, discusses the potential connections between serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann and the other victims in the area.

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Four women’s murders and the meticulous way their bodies were staged has the feel of a ghost story, not an actual criminal case.

In the fall of 2006, a serial killer hunted women in Atlantic City, and at least four women — Kim Raffo, Barbara Breidor, Molly Dilts and Tracy Ann Roberts — lost their lives. 

Their bodies were left along Black Horse Pike in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, and positioned with their arms stretched out in the water and their heads pointed east, giving birth to the sinister moniker “Eastbound Strangler.” 

But the killer remains a shadowy boogeyman nearly two decades later. Various theories that attempted to give this phantom a face have fallen apart. 

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STALK – System To Apprehend Lethal Killers – offered a $25,000 reward that leads to the capture of the killer.  (STALK)

An A&E special, appropriately titled “Will the Identity of the Eastbound Strangler Ever Be Revealed?” aired in February. 

Criminal profiler John Kelly, whose team at STALK Inc. has an open $25,000 reward for this case, said his team still gets tips, including a couple the team is looking into, but his “level of confidence is not high.”

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“When this first happened, there was a frenzy and panic that was taking place,” Kelly told Fox News Digital. “You had a guy who was pretty much killing a girl a week or a girl every 10 days. It was like, ‘Wow, he got a live wire here.'”

A couple of women accidentally stumbled upon 35-year-old Raffo’s remains behind the since-demolished Golden Key Motel in November 2006. 

Law enforcement found the remains of Roberts, 23, Breidor, 42, and Dilts, 19, in the same pit. The women were individually discarded over a five-week period in a pit with a creek behind the motel, nicknamed the “Motel from Hell.”

The Golden Key Motel in Egg Harbor Township, N.J., Nov. 21, 2006. (AP Photo/Mary Godleski)

Each victim was fully clothed except for their feet, which the killer used to anchor them to the side of the ditch so they didn’t float away. They were placed about 320 feet apart in the water with their arms stretched out and their heads pointed east. 

That led Kelly and his team at STALK — System To Apprehend Lethal Killers — to theorize they were looking for a man with a foot fetish and/or someone who killed as part of some kind of religious ritual. 

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“To me, this was someone who was concerned about DNA, concerned about some ritual and concerned about possibly coming back, which most (serial killers) do to relive the situation,” Kelly said. 

“It was not about somebody trying to hide the bodies, because if you really wanted to hide bodies in that area, you’ve got a lot of places you can hide them. And all the women were found with nothing covering them.”

The full Eastbound Strangler criminal profile put together by John Kelly and his team at STALK.  (STALK)

‘Eastbound Strangler’ and Long Island Serial Killer are not the same

Because the victims’ bodies were out in the open and diligently displayed, Kelly and his team ruled out a popular theory that the Eastbound Strangler and LISK, the Long Island Serial Killer, were the same person.

That became a popular theory after the bodies of the “Gilgo 4,” all sex workers, were found on Gilgo Beach along Long Island’s south shore in late 2010. 

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But the methods never matched. The victims on Gilgo Beach were covered in burlap and hidden, so Kelly ruled LISK out in 2011 or 2012. 

Even after the alleged Long Island Serial Killer was identified as Rex Heuermann, who was charged with the murders of the “Gilgo 4,” there’s nothing definitively tying him to the Atlantic City victims, according to Kelly. 

The Suffolk County District Attorney also said there’s no evidence connecting Heuermann to the Eastbound Strangler murders. 

Rex Heuermann appears inside Judge Timothy P. Mazzei’s courtroom with Atty. Michael Brown at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. (James Carbone/Newsday via Pool)

Kelly’s profile: Eastbound Strangler is ‘narcissist’

The Eastbound Strangler may not have a face, but Kelly worked up a personality profile based on the evidence. 

“This lethal predator is a local male, who is familiar with the Atlantic City area and the disposal site of his victims,” he wrote in his most recent update on his website. 

“He has a very organized personality which influences his personal and everyday activities, including his work. He is very rigid and structured in his everyday life.”

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He likely has a foot fetish with a collection of women’s shoes and socks, nonsocial and narcissistic, according to Kelly. 

“In his pre-offense mode, he may have spoken about the sinful nature of prostitution, or he may have voiced economic concerns about prostitutes destroying Atlantic City’s value or reputation,” he wrote. 

“In his post-offense mode, he would say things like, ‘They got what they deserved’ or ‘Good riddance.'”

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The killer likely follows news about his murders, has a prior record of sexual or physical abuse toward women and is likely detached from his father and abused as a child, according to the profile.

But no crime scenes that Kelly studied matched the victims’ purposefully thought out placement, Kelly told Fox News Digital. And there hasn’t been any update on potential DNA recovered from the scene or if it was tested using the latest advancements. 

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What’s even more troubling is Kelly’s belief the killer likely killed before these four victims were found and likely killed others after. 

“This was not his first rodeo,” Kelly said. “I truly believe he killed before because it’s rare for somebody to evolve that quickly, very rare. And so I have to believe he killed people somewhere else.

“And I would believe that there’s a really good chance that he killed after. And why I’m not saying definitely killed after is because we have seen some of these guys go through a cooling-off period.”

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Why the killings stopped could be for any number of reasons, Kelly said, ranging from a suspect not wanting to get caught to settling down in a relationship with someone the suspect genuinely cared about. 

That’s assuming the homicides are driven by substance abuse, like serial killer Ted Bundy, who killed essentially every time he drank, Kelly said. 

This is the distance between Atlantic City, where the Eastbound Strangler’s killers were from, and where they were found.  (Google Maps)

Tip could be best bet to catch Eastbound Strangler

Killers like the Eastbound Strangler would often solicit sex workers, Kelly said, which could be in Atlantic City, somewhere else in New Jersey or in a different state. 

That doesn’t mean he would’ve killed every prostitute, but they would “routinely habituate” sex workers, according to Kelly, which would likely be the key to unlocking this particular case. 

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“They are constantly with prostitutes, and somebody out there knows him,” Kelly said. “And you know, if it’s because they all have a fetish, whether it’s a foot fetish or something ritualistic, it could be how he’s caught.”

Tips can be sent to johnkelleyprofiler@gmail.com, your local police department or the Atlantic City Police Department at (609) 347-5780. 

Chris Eberhart is a crime and US news reporter for Fox News Digital. Email tips to chris.eberhart@fox.com or on Twitter @ChrisEberhart48.