MIAMI, June 3 -- Miami police Monday arrested a suspect in a series of brutal serial killings in which the female victims were beaten to death and their upper torsos set on fire. Investigators have charged Francisco del Junco, of Miami, in the deaths of at least four women since last August.
According to authorities, del Junco had been identified by a street woman as a suspect in the slayings that first captured attention after the third victim's body was found on fire in a historic Miami cemetery. Police indicated del Junco had confessed to the killings but they did not release any other details of the arrest. A news conference was scheduled for Tuesday to provide more information about the case. Police publicly had been circulating a composite drawing of a man known only as 'Dread' who was wanted for questioning in the case. Dread was given his street name because he wore his hair in long dreadlocks. Del Junco was a white, Latin man and not 'Dread,' police said. They offered no other information on how Dread fit into the investigation, other than witnesses claimed to see the man with the third victim shortly before she was found dead. All four victims were slain in similar fashion: beaten in the face and head, then the upper part of their bodies set on fire with a flammable liquid. All apparently were lured into having sex with their killer by the promise of crack cocaine. The killer had slain his victims on a fairly regular basis, the first last August, then in October, January and April. Originally, police thought the killer might be a homeless man, but as the slayings shifted to new parts of town, investigators concluded he was mobile, therefore, they readjusted their investigation.
