Unsuspecting Serial Killer Caught with DNA Sample Provided in a Bid to Get Parole, Say Cops

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) A Yonkers, NY cold case detective says he finally got his man after "nine long years" of looking at over 100 suspects in connection with the deaths of three women who were raped and strangled in 1989, 1991, and 1996 - and he owes it all to one convict's desire to be let out on parole.

Yonkers Detective John Geiss, the only Yonkers officer working full-time on cold cases, says the killings were linked to each other by DNA and other evidence, but that Francisco Acevedo was never even a suspect until he submitted a DNA sample after a drunk driving arrest last year, apparently as part of an application for parole.

Two of the victims, Maria Ramos, 26, killed Feb. 5, 1989, and Tawana Hodges, 28, killed March 28, 1991, lived in the Bronx and the third Kimberley Moore, 30, killed May 24, 1996, lived in Westchester.

All were found naked, bound at the hands and facing up.

Acevedo, who was already imprisoned upstate on the DWI charge, apparently had no idea detective in Yonkers, located just north of New York City`, were finally closing in on him and seemed surprised when he was arrested in an upstate prison on the murder charges.

"He wasn't very happy to see us," Geiss said at a news conference in police headquarters.

Geiss also said several police departments from the areas where Acevedo is known to have lived are now looking at him in connection with their own unsolved cases. Geiss said Acevedo had lived in many other jurisdictions over the years in Westchester, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Florida and most recently in Suffolk County, N.Y., where the DWI arrest occurred.

Acevedo was indicted Wednesday on six counts of murder, three of which also allege rape. He pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison with no hope of parole.