DNA will get ya every time. According to the Associated Press, Milwaukee resident Walter E. Ellis has been charged with the deaths of two women, with more charges likely to come later this week.
The 49 year-old was captured by police after an officer noticed his car at a motel, authorities said. Ellis was arrested days after police matched a DNA sample from his toothbrush to samples from the victims. The slain women, ranging in age from 16 to 41, were killed between 1986 and 2007 on Milwaukee’s north side. Investigators believe eight of the women were prostitutes and one was a runaway.
Ellis has a criminal history, but it wasn’t enough to make police believe he could be a serial killer. Police chief Edward Flynn said he pleaded no contest in 1998 to a reduced charge of second-degree reckless injury and served three years of a five-year sentence. It was only in recent years that developments in DNA technology allowed authorities to connect the cases to the suspect.
Flynn wouldn’t talk about why Ellis might have committed these heinous crimes. “I don’t think it’s possible for me to speculate what would cause someone to engage in these horrific acts,” he said. In addition, Ellis’ relationship to the victims is not yet known.
Comments
amanda
September 8th, 2009 - 10:38:19 AM
According to USA Today, the suspect was 49 years old, not 29. He obviously did not commit his first homicide at age 6.