Is a Serial Killer Murdering Women in Houston?

Nov. 5, 2010— -- Carol Flood died where she slept, in a dark Houston alley.

Police found Flood, 62, naked from the waist down behind an abandoned YMCA building on Oct. 10. Her body was beaten and her neck, swollen and streaked, displayed the classic signs of strangulation.

Cops believe Flood's death may be related to two other recent murders, raising the specter that downtown Houston has a serial killer preying on women in its midst.

All three victims were black women. Two were homeless and found within blocks of each other. The other victim, the first to be killed, was younger and not homeless but her body was found near a homeless shelter.

All were killed the same way, strangled with a ligature, like a rope or wire.

Houston cops won't say definitively that the women were killed by a lone serial killer, but they won't rule out the possibility either.

"We don't have any evidence that points to just one suspect," said John Cannon, a spokesman for the Houston Police Department.

"The two most recent victims were both homeless and were strangled a couple blocks away from each other," said Cannon. "When we started looking for other similar cases, that's when we noticed similarities with another woman found in June. We thought: we can lump these together," said Cannon.

Cannon said police are processing DNA, but would not say where or if biological evidence had been found on all three victims. He said there was no conclusive evidence of sexual assault in any of the cases.

The two homeless women were both killed near where they slept and are believed to have been attacked while still asleep.

Police say Flood had been living on the streets for years. Often she would spend her days at the Houston Public Library, but when she could scrape enough money together, she would watch a movie at Edwards Greenway Palace Theater. It was there that she was last seen, taking in a triple feature at 3:45 p.m. on Oct. 9, the day before her body was found, according to police.