A St. Louis-area suspected serial killer has been charged in two murders and could be tied to four homicides and two shootings across two states, authorities said Monday.
The suspect’s name was, Perez Deshay Reed, 25 years old, of Bellefontaine Neighbors, who was charged Saturday with two counts of first-degree murder, three counts of armed criminal action, and one count of first-degree assault. He is believed to have killed 16-year-old Marnay Haynes on Sept. 13 and 40-year-old Lester Robinson on Sept. 26.
Reed has denied hurting anyone, according to court documents.
Police are investigating whether or not Reed killed Damon Irvin, 35, and Daja Fairrow, 25, whose bodies were found earlier this month in an apartment complex in Kansas City, Kansas. Charges have not been filed in those killings. Meanwhile, St. Louis city police said Monday that they plan to seek charges against Reed in the recent shooting deaths of 49-year-old Pamela Abercrombie and 24-year-old Casey Ross.
The killer’s motive remains unknown but most of the victims were women, authorities said in court documents. Investigators do not believe the victims knew each other or their assailants. Within days of the shootings, authorities issued an alert warning that a gunman was targeting sex workers.
The FBI arrested Reed over the weekend while he was traveling from Kansas City, Kansas, to St. Louis. He was in possession of a .40-Caliber handgun that matched shell casings found at the scene of at least three of the killings, the FBI said. The weapon also matched casings found at the scene of several murders in St. Louis, investigators said. The case began to come together when authorities in Kansas City contacted their St. Louis counterparts after the two murders in their jurisdiction and they passed off information on Reed, whom they suspected of being involved, authorities said. The FBI said that on Friday, officers were watching Reed when he got on an Amtrak train from Kansas City bound for St. Louis. He got off at the first stop, in Independence, and was getting on a bus when he was taken into custody.
Authorities declined to label Reed a possible serial killer but the FBI defines serial murder as the unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender in separate events.
He was just recently caught by the FBI and The cases in the City of St. Louis is currently under investigation to ensure the most important goal is that justice is brought to the many victims and their families and the person responsible is held accountable for these heinous crimes, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner said in a statement.
