FORT WORTH, Texas -- An accused child molester questioned in a series of rapes and slayings that have left nine young women dead was released Saturday, but police said their investigation was continuing.
Remsen Newbold Wolff, 44, was released into the custody of his attorney at about 6:30 p.m. CST by Fort Worth police.
Wolff, who was arrested Thursday for investigation of aggravated sexual assault, had not been charged with any crime but had been held in lieu of $500,000 bond for investigation of aggravated sexual assault.
A 24-year-old rape victim picked him out of a police lineup Friday.
Nine young women have disappeared or been killed in southwest Fort Worth since September. An affidavit by police and prosecutors claimed that Wolff was believed linked to two of the slayings, one disappearance and seven rapes.
But Det. Ron Pendergraft said Saturday that there was no evidence to link Wolff, a free-lance photographer and Harvard graduate, to any killings, and five other rape victims earlier thought to have been attacked by him failed to identify him in lineups Friday.
By law, police were required to eitherfile charges or release him within 72 hours.
An affidavit used to request a search warrant for Wolff's apartment said police were looking for photographs of the victims.
The affidavit indicated police were searching for photographs of two dead women, Sara Kashka and Ginger Hayden, and of one missing woman, Angela Ewert.
Hayden, a neighbor to Wolff, was found dead, stabbed 57 times, on Sept. 5. Kashka, 15, of Denton, was reported missing while visiting friends in Fort Worth Dec. 30. Her body was found in Dallas New Year's Day.
Ewert has not been seen since Dec. 10.
Police have established a special task force to investigate the slayings and disappearances.
Other victims include Catherine Davis, 23, who disappeared in September and whose body was found Wednesday; Cindy Heller, 23, whose remains were found on the Texas Christian University campus earlier this month after her disappearance in October; Lisa Griffin, 20, who was found shot to death Jan. 9 one day after she disappeared; Marilyn Hartman, 29, who was strangled with men's ties and an electric cord in her home; Kathryn Jackson 32, who was strangled in her bathtub in November; and Regina Grover, 21, who was found strangled and drowned in a creek the same day her boyfriend was found bludgeoned to death in bed.
Wolff is scheduled to appear in court Monday for a pretrial hearing in an unrelated case on charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child. Court records show he was arrested Oct. 22, 1983, on charges of fondling and having oral sex with a 4-year-old boy.
Acquaintances described Wolff as quiet and polite.
Sharlie Douglas, 24, manager of a camera shop in Fort Worth, said Wolff often bought photographic supplies from her.
'He was a real normal customer,' she said. 'He came in, bought a few rolls of film, asked pretty intelligent questions. He was well-dressed.'
Wolff's father, Harold G. Wolff, was a nationally known neurosurgeon and Cornell University Professor who died in 1962. His mother, Isabel Bishop, 82, is a celebrated painter whose works are owned by the Dallas Museum of Art among others.
Her attorney, J. Howard Marshall of New York, told The Dallas Morning News, the family was shocked by the arrest.
'This is absolutely incredible,' he said. 'There is just no violence or rape or anything like that in him.'
