Authorities do not describe the crimes, commonly thought to be the work of a serial killer, as cold cases. A break can come out of the blue, criminologists say.
"We continue to expend both time and resources" pursuing the investigation, the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office said in a statement last Friday.
Despite a lack of closure, relatives of the victims say they're carrying on, or trying to. But they can't risk more sorrow by discussing the murders again.
"We really don't talk about it anymore. We just want to move on," said Miguel Santos of Pembroke Pines, Fla., whose wife, Maria, was the sister of Kim Raffo, the first victim found.
"Every time it's brought up again, it just makes it tough for her," Santos said.
Raffo's estranged husband, Hugh Auslander, said he thought of his wife often and had created a "mini-shrine" in her honor. He's reluctant to share his grief with others, however.
"I've been going through a healing process, but I know it's all just a test through God," Auslander said. The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., resident was married to Raffo for 16 years.
Raffo, 35, was found Nov. 20, 2006, three days before Thanksgiving, facedown in a drainage ditch behind the Golden Key Motel in the West Atlantic City section of Egg Harbor Township.
Two women noticed her body while walking on the trash-strewn no-man's-land behind some motels on the Black Horse Pike near the eastbound Atlantic City Expressway. Though dressed, Raffo was shoeless. Her head was pointed east, toward Atlantic City's glittering skyline.
Within hours, police found the badly decayed bodies of three more women less than 100 yards away. The other victims, similarly positioned and all shoeless, were identified as Molly Jean Dilts, 20, Barbara Breidor, 42, and Tracy Ann Roberts, 23. Their bodies are believed to have been there for several weeks.
Forensics experts said Raffo and Roberts, whose bodies had been in the ditch the shortest time, had been strangled. The other corpses were too decomposed for a cause of death to be determined, though authorities believe foul play was involved.
Three of the women had a high level of drugs in their systems when they died, according to autopsy reports.
As the identifications were made, friends and relatives recounted the victims' life stories, how poor choices may have led them to addiction and prostitution.
The Prosecutor's Office has steadfastly declined to discuss leads, but at least two suspects have been discounted.
The most high-profile person of interest was Terry Oleson, a handyman who briefly lived and worked at the Golden Key. He was held for six months on unrelated charges while detectives investigated him in the murders.
Oleson was arrested in Salem County on charges that he had videotaped his girlfriend's 15-year-old daughter naked in the bathroom of the Alloway Township home the couple shared. The tapes were discovered when murder investigators searched the home.
Oleson submitted to DNA tests. In October 2007, he pleaded guilty to invasion of privacy in the other case and is on probation.
Prosecutors never revealed the DNA test results, but Oleson's attorney, James Leonard, said, "What they're not saying speaks volumes."
"In our opinion, the DNA exonerates him," Leonard said, although he doesn't expect prosecutors to publicly clear his client. "The problem is if they do that, the next question would be, 'OK, who do you move on to?' That's where they draw a blank."
|
|
|
|
|
|
MOST POPULAR PHILLY.COM PHOTOS
Daily Headlines
Subscribe now! Daily Headlines Newsletter
Philly.com news blogs
Philly.com Promotions
