PALM BEACH COUNTY, FL. (THECOUNT) — Robert Hayes has been identified as the “Daytona Serial Killer,” a 37-year-old Florida man charged in the 2016 murder Palm Beach County woman, Rachel Bey.
Hayes is also suspected of being responsible for the murders of at least four women in Daytona Beach between 2005 and 2007.
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Hayes was arrested September 15, 2019, in the murder of 32-year-old Bey, authorities announced at a press conference on Monday, September 16. He was tied to that case by DNA. Investigators have also used DNA to identify Hayes as a suspect in two of the Daytona Beach murders and have tied him to a third murder through ballistic evidence, officials said at a press conference, reports Heavy.
Hayes has been charged with first-degree murder in Bey’s death. He didn’t resist when arrested Sunday by a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office tactical unit at his West Palm Beach home, the sheriff’s office said.
He is suspected, but not yet charged, in the Daytona Beach deaths of Laquetta Gunther in 2005, Julie Green in 2006 and Iwana Patton in 2006. Detectives are working to connect him to a fourth murder, of Stacey Gage, that occurred in Daytona Beach in 2008 and had many similarities to the first three killings. The four women in Daytona Beach and Bey had all worked as sex workers, according to police. The Daytona Serial Killer was known to target prostitutes and would leave semen at the crime scene, according to police.
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Geo quick facts: Palm Beach County stretches from Florida’s Atlantic coast into the state’s rural center and includes the northern edge of the Everglades national park. Its coastline has numerous golf courses and sandy beaches. Industrialist Henry Flagler’s grand 1902 mansion in the town of Palm Beach is now a museum. Some of the town’s other Gilded Age mansions have tunnels that lead to the shore – wikipedia.