Two Women May Be Serial Killer Victims

The bodies of eight young women have turned up in recent months along wooded highways near this port city. And David Amaral’s sister is missing.

Family members and investigators fear that she and another missing woman are the ninth and 10th victims of an apparent serial killer.

“She had her problems, but she wouldn’t just walk off,” Amaral said of his 25-year-old sister, Sandra Botelho. “I’m sure she’s dead. And every time they find a body, it starts all over again.”

The most recent body was found March 31 and identified last week as that of Mary Rose Santos, 26.

Botelho, the mother of two young children, has been missing since August. Like the eight women whose remains have been found within a few miles of each other since the summer, she was a drug user who spent time in the city’s less savory quarters.

Points to Same Person

The district attorney says evidence indicates the slayings are the work of the same person or persons, but he has declined to reveal details of the investigation.

Until recently, the investigation seemed at a standstill, but an anonymous tipster alerted officials to the killer’s eighth victim. Last week, after Santos’ body was found, the tipster responded to a plea to contact police again, but officers would not say what information he or she provided.

New Bedford police heard from a string of families with missing wives or daughters beginning in May, 1988, and the first body was found in July. But it was not until the first victim was identified in December as a New Bedford woman that the investigation really kicked into gear.

Say They Are Powerless

Amaral recalled that when his sister disappeared last summer, police told him “she was over 21, and there was nothing they could do.”

Police defended the delay in beginning the investigation in earnest.

“We’re a police department for everyone, wherever you stand on the social level,” Capt. Carl Moniz said. “But when you’re talking about drug addicts or prostitutes, there’s always the possibility that they’ve just wandered off.”