Some disturbing news yesterday from the AP:  Since 2005, nine women who lived at the edges of the poor community in this small North Carolina city have disappeared. Six bodies were found along rural roads just a few miles outside town, most so decomposed that investigators could not tell how they died. At least one of the women was strangled, and all the deaths have been classified as homicides. Three women are still missing.

It’s scary that these murders are occurring only an hour from Raleigh, scarier that Rocky Mount P.D. seemed content to sit on this thing forever (i.e. not asking for state/federal help until the SIXTH body was found) and not commenting even though their citizens are screaming about a possible serial killer.

Take a second, though, to distract from the horrific nature of these killings and ask yourself if this sounds familiar:

Rumors swirl about the identity of the killer, if there is just one. Some say he is an ex-military man or an ex-police officer because he leaves no evidence. Others believe he is exacting revenge on local women after contracting HIV from a prostitute.

…

Vivian Lord, chairwoman of the criminal justice department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, said that if one killer is responsible, he is likely trying to cleanse the world of prostitutes or deliberately picking victims he knows won’t be missed.

So…a meticulous killer who leaves no evidence behind AND deliberately targets prostitutes? Is life imitating art in Rocky Mount?

[AP] Residents on edge as 9 women vanish from N.C. city