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Associated PressFive of the victims died during a 2-month series of attacks.
JACKSONVILLE - A cabdriver stalked Jacksonville streets, engaging in a two-month string of killings that left five young women strangled, Sheriff Nat Glover said Tuesday. Two of the victims were pregnant, and some of them were his passengers.
Paul Durousseau, 32, was charged with five counts of first-degree murder in the killings that occurred between Dec. 19 and Feb. 5. He is also suspected in a killing six years ago in Columbus, Ga. Authorities said DNA evidence, fiber analysis, cab records and cell phone calls linked Durousseau to the slayings.
Durousseau, a married father of at least two children, was arrested Tuesday afternoon at the Duval County Jail, where he had been held without bail since Feb. 6 for violating probation on a sexual assault conviction. He was to have his first court appearance today on the new charges.
Glover said the killer used a "peculiar slipknot" on the ligature he used to strangle some of the victims. In one case, a coaxial cable was used; in another, an extension cord.
The sheriff said authorities spent months piecing together the evidence with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Durousseau had been "the likely suspect in these murders" since his February arrest, Glover said, "but there was not sufficient evidence at that time to charge him."
About 20 family members of the victims came to the news conference. One woman held an 8- by-10 picture of her daughter. Some began sobbing when Glover read the details of the deaths. They left without commenting.
Durousseau's employer, Gator City Taxi and Shuttle, refused to comment.
The arrest was the talk of Durousseau's neighborhood late Tuesday. Most of his neighbors in the far north Jacksonville neighborhood described him as quiet person who kept to himself.
"I didn't think he was that kind of person," said Shawn Pickles, 18.
But Marie Thompson, 25, said she had known him for years and found him to be unsavory.
"He was just nasty. He did things to young girls he shouldn't do," she said.
No one answered the door at Durousseau's one-story brick house.
The first Jacksonville victim was Nicole L. Williams, 18, who was found Dec. 19 in a ditch, wrapped in a blanket.
Two weeks later on New Year's night, Nikia Shanell Kilpatrick, who was 19 and pregnant, was discovered bound and strangled in her apartment. Her two small children were found unharmed.
On Jan. 10, 20-year-old Shawanda Denise McCalister, who was also pregnant, was found bound and strangled in her apartment in the same neighborhood.
Two more victims, Surita Ann Cohen, 19, and Jovanna Tyrica Jefferson, 17, were found together Feb. 5 in a vacant lot. They were last seen alive with a cabdriver.
A search of Durousseau's previous residence turned up a bedsheet that contained DNA from Jefferson, police said. Jewelry belonging to Cohen and Jefferson was found in his car, and the victims' cell phone records showed they had placed calls to him, police said.
The Georgia victim was Tracy Habersham, 26, whose nude body was found Sept. 7, 1997, by someone walking a dog. She had been seen two days earlier at a party at a Fort Benning, Ga., club. Durousseau was in the Army in Georgia at the time, investigators said.
Durousseau was linked to Habersham's slaying shortly after his February arrest through DNA evidence, Columbus police Maj. Russell Traino said. He wouldn't describe the evidence or say whether Habersham was sexually assaulted.
Glover said police will continue checking whether other slayings can be linked to Durousseau.