Rogers’ Link to Slayings Doubted : Investigation: Blood type, Port Hueneme official says, does not match that found at scene where body was recovered.

Police have all but eliminated alleged serial killer Glen Edward Rogers as a suspect in three Ventura-area slayings.

The determining factor was Rogers’ blood type, which police said does not match that found at a crime scene most likely associated with Rogers.

“It’s a disappointment,” Port Hueneme Detective Jerry F. Beck said. “We were hopeful that we could link him to the killings even though the chances were very remote. Now the cases are still unsolved.”

Kentucky State Police on Wednesday faxed the Port Hueneme Police Department a preliminary blood profile for Rogers that shows him to be type A.

Rogers, a former Van Nuys resident who is accused of killing at least four people nationwide and is a suspect in other investigations, was arrested 12 days ago in Kentucky after a high-speed chase.

Beck had hoped Rogers could be linked to at least one of three unsolved killings committed during a three-month period in the summer of 1993.

Beck became suspicious of Rogers when he learned of his alleged method of killing about two weeks ago. Rogers is accused of strangling one of his alleged victims, and some bodies were found in bathtubs or in places that had been set afire.

Port Hueneme resident Cynthia Burger met a similar fate Aug. 5, 1993. The 44-year-old customer service manager at Gold Coast Acura in Ventura was sexually assaulted and strangled in her two-story condominium, which was then set ablaze. Investigators found Burger’s body in the bathtub.

But the killer’s blood, extracted from a semen sample found at the crime scene, was not type A, Beck said Wednesday.

Beck said he had seen some minor similarities between Rogers’ alleged method of killing and two other unsolved deaths from that violent summer: the strangulation of Norma Rodriguez, 32, and the rape and fatal stabbing of Beatrice Bellis, 87.

But now that the Burger case has been ruled out, Beck said that the possibility of linking Rogers to the other cases appears even more remote.

“We had the best chance of linking Rogers to the Burger murder,” Beck said. “We’re not as enthusiastic about the others.”

Nevertheless, Beck has still asked the FBI to send a sample of Rogers’ hair to Port Hueneme in the slim hope that it might match a small hair sample found at the Bellis crime scene. The hair sample will be checked for its color, coarseness and amount of curl, Beck said.