The Associated Press
Port Salerno, Fla. (AP) -- Martin County, Fla. Police are investigating whether a serial killer is stalking this city after the body of a woman was found in the same neighborhood that two other women were found strangled over the past 10 weeks.
Authorities did not say how Christal Dawn Wiggins, 29, died, but said her death could be linked to those of Jackie Bradley, a homeless woman found on March 31, and Carrie Ann Caughey, a teen runaway discovered Thursday.
Police began searching for Wiggins on Sunday, a day after her mother reported her missing. She was found Monday.
Wiggins, who would have turned 30 Tuesday, was a prostitute with a criminal record that included battery, burglary and drug possession charges, police and court records show. She was in the St. Lucie County Jail two weeks ago on drug charges and driving offenses.
She was the mother of two children, according to longtime friend Jodie Janata, who lives on Driftwood Street and said she last saw Wiggins about a week ago.
“She was a good girl, a nice girl,” Janata said. “She had her problems, but we all have our problems.”
Bradley and Caughey also led troubled lives, said Martin County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jenell Atlas.
“All these women had high-risk lifestyles,” Atlas said. “Living on the streets, running around late at night, hanging out with criminals.”
Bradley, 43, left her family in Indiana and became an alcoholic living in the woods of Martin County. Caughey, 18, used her parents’ home in Hobe Sound as a base but would disappear for days. She had a history of petty theft arrests and had been committed to a drug treatment clinic in Palm Beach County.
During the weekend, the sheriff’s office began visiting homeless camps, warning people about the murders and hoping somebody might know something, Atlas said.
Port Salerno is about 40 miles north of West Palm Beach.