DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.
--
The serial killer who has struck four times in Daytona Beach is still at large and will be caught, Daytona Beach's police chief said.
"I'm sure he's still here in the area. I'm sure he's watching and listening to everything we do," Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood said.
Chitwood admits he is frustrated that a killer who has murdered four women since late 2005 hasn't been caught, but he is no less confident five months after the most recent victim, Stacey Gage, was shot to death, that eventually the community will rest easy.
"Sooner or later, he's going to make a mistake and we're going to get him, and if you look at the history of serial killers, somewhere along the line they make a mistake," Chitwood said.
Chitwood said the killer already made one mistake: leaving DNA at several of the crime scenes.
They've tested hundreds of recently collected samples against the killers'.
"DNA quite frankly is going to make or break this case. We have a lot of people. You get a lot of great information. You do a background. You say, 'This guy looks good,' and the DNA disqualifies them," Chitwood said.
A profiler has suggested women the killer meets on the streets are replacement victims -- their slayings are outlets for hidden rage in his own relationships, and they said that kind of anger doesn't just go away.
That is why the cold case squad and a serial killer task force are still dedicated to the case.
Electronic billboards are the latest effort to keep the victims in the public eye.
"The whole key to not having it become a cold case, is keeping it hot, keeping it a hot topic, keep on generating information because once the information dries up, we're out of business," Chitwood said.
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