Beyond The Boardwalk

Harold Dow Reports On Four Grisly Killings In Atlantic City

(CBS)  As investigators learn more about the troubled lives of Kim, Barbara, Tracy, and Molly, a picture of their final days during the fall of 2006 begins to emerge. The timeline is a heartbreaking history.

On Sept. 9th, while Kim Raffo’s boyfriend Kenny is in jail for shoplifting, her ex-husband Hugh Auslander arrives in Atlantic City. Hugh’s goal: to find, and maybe rescue, the mother of his children.

Asked what steps he took to get her out of this world, Hugh tells Dow, “Well quite simply, I just came up there and I said, ‘Look, here's your opportunity. I'm more than happy to help you out of here. And get you re-established to being a normal person.’”

Kim said yes, and just before she left, she recorded a message for her friend, bartender John Pesce. “Hi John, it's Kim. I'm gettin' the hell out of dodge. I would really like to say goodbye. Thanks for everything, and I love you,” she said in the recording.

Kim spends the next several weeks clean and sober with Hugh in Long Island.

In the meantime, women back in Atlantic City started to disappear. On Oct. 7th, 20-year-old Molly Dilts called her family and then vanished.

Molly’s uncle Sam Taylor points out that she had no prostitution arrests. But several people on the street, including Papa Joe, say she’d fallen into the life.

Asked to talk about Molly, Papa Joe tells Dow, “Molly, a new kid on the block. She got here in the summertime. She was here about four or five different times with some of the girls.”

On Oct. 17th, Barbara Breidor left the house in nearby Ventnor where she was living with a friend. When she never returned, her sisters Fran and Val eventually tried to file a missing persons report. They say they got the run-around, especially after police discovered a past prostitution arrest.

Val thinks it would have made a difference had police taken it seriously. “Had it been put out in the newspaper it could have scared [the killer] away. I believe that there was enough time to maybe save the last two victims,” she says.

Sometime in mid-November, a street hustler named Dante said he went clothes shopping with Tracy Roberts. She bought the outfit she was wearing when her body was found.

“She said, ‘I'll be back in like a hour,’” Dante remembers. “She never came back.”

As the days pass, Kristen started to worry. “It's not like her. So we knew something was wrong,” she recalls.

During this time, Kim Raffo, unaware of what was happening, made a tragic decision to leave Hugh and return to Atlantic City for good. Kim stayed for a while with John Pesce, but quickly found herself back on the track.

Papa Joe may be the last person to see her, early in the morning on Sunday, Nov. 19th. He says he saw Kim get into a car. “I literally threw her out of here after I fed her and opened the car door. And she said hi to the guy, whatever. And he said hello. And then, they left,” he recalls.

Sources tell 48 Hours that Raffo went with a john to the Taj Mahal, but then left him around 5:00 a.m. to score drugs. The very next day, Kim and the other women were found, barefoot and facing east in the drainage ditch.

That scenario fits the toxicology reports, which revealed large amounts of cocaine in the Kim and Tracy’s bodies, alcohol in Molly, and a potentially lethal dose of heroin in Barbara. That raised the theory that the killer sedated his victims with alcohol or drugs.

[formerNJresident]

I saw this program the other night, and was horrified by what happened to these four women. I'm originally from NJ, and am pretty familiar with the stories about drugs and street crime in Atlantic City. I'm now a PA resident, having lived in PA since about 1992. Molly Dilts was from Black Lick, PA, not too far from where my father grew up; my dad was originally from Vestaburg, PA, which is also a defunct coal town, with hardly any jobs or industry. I am only sorry that Molly did not get the help she needed or she'd be with us today, and with her little boy, Jeremiah. It's truly awful what happened to these women. I pray for their children and their families.

[ZepZoSoRox]

Why did they just look at him and not the other people who were staying at that hotel???

Oh, I dunno.
Maybe because none of the other people were perverts caught taping a naked under age minor???
Just a guess here!

[toleson1]

If he was a prime suspect then he would still be in jail huh?? There was over 50 people staying at those hotels at the time of the women being found. How is the fact that Terry was there coincidental?? Why did they just look at him and not the other people who were staying at that hotel??? I can give you all kinds of questions and possible circumstances you can look at it.

[toleson1]

I live with and have been living with the currently (Accused) killer. Here are some things to think about. First...why would the state of NJ let Terry out of jail if they for one second thought that Terry actually killed those woman?? Why did the judge lower the bail?? Why was he able to actually bail out of jail?? Why is he still out of jail?? I have the answers to all of it! BECAUSE HE IS INNOCENT!! Nothing ever came back on him being the killer. He has offered and gave DNA as well as everything else that AC wanted. I have been with this man for almost two years now. As I have known him from my past as well. Between the two of us we have 3 children. All of the kids love him, as well as our friends and family,. Yeah you can stick your nose up at him as you pass by, or walk faster when you see him walking. But you NEED to know that he is innocent. I love how all these TV shows do interviews on the woman's families and friends. Hell even people that didn't know them like owners of hotels and diners were all interviewed and asked what they thought. WHY didn't they contact Terry??? Why don't all these shows that want to show what a bad bad man he is contact him and interview him?? I know why!! Cause they don't want to make it look like they did wrong. All the news wants to show is who did this or that. Never in my life have I seen a show where they said "Oops...we made a mistake and we'd like to recant what we said!" NEVER and I believe we never will. If you have a question for him then post it. E-mail him he will answer what ever you'd like to ask!! He is innocent. But in the state of NJ you are not innocent till proven guilty. You are guilty and will ALWAYS be guilty in the eyes of the courts!!

[awinslow2]

Is the maintenance man who lived in the motel still a prime suspect? The fact he lived there at the time of the murders seems to be too coincidental.

[awinslow2]

Is the maintenance man who lived temporarily still a prime suspect? Was their evidence that a car was involved when the bodies were dumped? He would be a primary suspect for me unless the police believe a vehicle was used for each body.

[bozaptap]

I was in the hospital watching this piece. Seems to me no one mentioned the one glaring similarity all four women had in common. They were all mothers that left children behind? I mean what are the odds of one perpetrator "randomly" picking up 4 women on the street with that much age difference that all shared that one characteristic,they left their children behind. No one mentioned rape, all still dressed. Killer probably knew them. The Eastward facing position, no shoes, religious fetish?? Sounds more like facing toward home or removed the shoes so they couldn''t walk away again? I''m not a criminologist of any kind, but the profilers missed this one I think. Look for another street person or john that knew all four women, knew they left their children and that he was left by his mother and lived East of
Atlantic City.
Just a thought.

[bozaptap]

I was in the hospital watching this piece. Seems to me no one mentioned the one glaring similarity all four women had in common. They were all mothers that left children behind? I mean what are the odds of one perpetrator "randomly" picking up 4 women on the street with that much age difference that all shared that one characteristic,they left their children behind. No one mentioned rape, all still dressed. Killer probably knew them. The Eastward facing position, no shoes, religious fetish?? Sounds more like facing toward home or removed the shoes so they couldn''t walk away again? I''m not a criminologist of any kind, but the profilers missed this one I think. Look for another street person or john that knew all four women, knew they left their children and that he was left by his mother and lived East of
Atlantic City.
Just a thought.

[toeslayer2000]

If the perpetrater has taken shoes as trophies, then he (more likely male)is a restifist (shoe fetishist) and definately not a foot fetishist.

Believe it or not there is significant difference.

[bahbushkah]

Such a shame that anyone's life is taken so senselessly! And so scary that it is being said that a serial killer is on the loose, when Atlantic City is my backyard~ I am a single woman who often goes out to A.C. for dinner, a show, or even a drink by myself~ I am glad to have read this and will be in company in the future~ you just never know! Anything is possible~ I hope this guy is caught!! and soon!!