Detroit police: Killer may be targeting escorts

DETROIT — Detroit police fear that a killer may be targeting escorts after finding that three of four women found dead in car trunks within blocks of each other this month had placed sex-related ads on the same website.

Attorneys general for 45 states had raised concerns earlier this year about how the site, Backpage.com, polices ads for adult services.

Police Chief Ralph Godbee said authorities find the link "disconcerting." The deaths could be connected, Godbee said, though he has said police were "stopping short" of calling it the work of a serial killer.

"The link between the three females and this website specifically dealt with prearranged adult dating services," Godbee said Monday.

The latest victims were found Christmas morning, when Detroit firefighters discovered their badly burned bodies in the trunk of a car that had been set ablaze in a garage. They were identified as women ages 28 and 29, and police were awaiting a determination from the medical examiner's office on the exact cause of death.

Meanwhile, the families of Demesha Hunt, 24, and Renisha Landers, 23, whose bodies were found Dec. 19 in the trunk of a car parked in the driveway of a vacant home on the city's east side, prepared for a joint funeral Thursday. The Detroit women had been reported missing by relatives after they didn't return from a night out and police said there were no outer signs of trauma to the bodies.

"This is a tragedy for our family," Hunt's mother, Denise Reid, told WJBK-TV. "It could be a tragedy for yours one day, so if you know something, then just speak up."

Relatives of Hunt and Landers did not immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press.

The names of the latest victims hadn't been released Tuesday. Police also haven't said which three of the women had had promoted themselves as escorts on Backpage.com, which is used to buy and sell things but that also carries personal ads.

A Backpage.com lawyer didn't immediately respond to email and phone messages seeking comment.

Paul DeCailly, a Tampa, Fla.-based attorney who represents escort services in court, said he doesn't believe that Backpage.com could be held liable for providing a service that brings people together. He said that that a newspaper, for example, wouldn't be held liable for a personal ad placed in its pages.

"I don't think that throwing in the term 'escort' in this particular situation changes the outcome of potential liability," DeCailly said.