ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 25, 1996 TAG: 9607250072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE
MEMO: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.
A Portsmouth man whose body was found on a grassy road shoulder may be the 12th victim of a serial killer who has dumped men's nude bodies in rural areas of southeastern Virginia since 1987, police say.
The victim, Andrew D. Smith, 38, was found Monday about 8:40 a.m. by a Virginia Power worker driving along an access road to one of the utility's substations, said Chesapeake police spokeswoman Elizabeth Jones.
She would not discuss the cause of death or the condition of the body except that it was nude, like most of the serial killer's victims.
Most of the previous victims were described as loners with ties to the gay community. Jones said police know little about Smith.
His death is the first suspected of the serial killer since the nude body of Jesse Spencer was found along a rural Chesapeake road on Jan. 27.
The killer has struck at uneven intervals over the past nine years, skipping three years at one point.
Eight of the previous 11 victims were found in Chesapeake, two in Suffolk and one in Isle of Wight County. |- Associated Press
Authorities said they believe the killer picks up victims in a vehicle, kills them and dumps the bodies some distance from the scene of the killing. Several of the victims have had traces of cocaine in their bodies.
Eight of the previous 11 victims were found in Chesapeake, two in Suffolk and one in Isle of Wight County.
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB