A judge Monday denied bail to Robert Hayes in the March 2016 death of Rachel Bey, whose body was found along the Beeline Highway.

WEST PALM BEACH - The so-called "Daytona Serial Killer" has eluded Daytona Beach police for more than a decade by living - and killing - in Palm Beach County, according to law enforcement.

Robert Tyrone Hayes, 37, was arrested Sunday at his West Palm Beach home on a first-degree murder charge in the March 2016 killing of Rachel Bey.

DNA found on Bey’s body matched evidence left at the scenes of the murders of two women in Daytona Beach in December 2005 and early 2006, central Florida authorities said. Hayes is expected to face charges in those killings as well as in a third woman’s death, authorities say.

Hayes will remain jailed in Palm Beach County on charges in the Bey case as it moves through the court system, a judge ordered Monday.

"Had we not done this, we’re pretty certain he would have killed again," said Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw during a news conference Monday.

Hayes is accused of strangling Bey, then 32, and dumping her body off the Beeline Highway west of Jupiter. Construction crews found her body March 7, 2016.

Bey struggled with a drug addiction and was known to work as a prostitute in West Palm Beach, about a mile from Hayes’ home, sheriff’s records state. Investigators aren’t sure how the two met.

The M.O. is similar to the one used by the Daytona killer, authorities said. Three of the four women were known to work as prostitutes. The fourth used drugs.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement authorities credited genetic genealogy for helping to solve the case, though the sheriff’s office did not elaborate on how the match to Hayes was made.

An arrest report indicates authorities took DNA from a cigarette butt thrown to the ground Friday and by Saturday had matched it to Hayes.

"I can't be more happy we got this killer off the streets," Daytona Beach Police Chief Craig Capri said at a news briefing Monday morning.

Daytona’s serial killer

In Daytona Beach, law enforcement said it expects to file charges against Hayes in the murders of Laquetta Gunther, 45, Julie Green, 34, and Iwana Patton, 35.

Though 30-year-old Stacey Gage’s killing was "eerily similar" to their deaths, authorities said they have no physical evidence tying Hayes to her killing. Gage’s body was found in January 2008.

At the time of the three killings, Hayes was 23 and studying criminal justice at Bethune-Cookman University, the college said in a statement.

By the time Gage’s body was found in January 2008, he was a father living in Palm Beach County, court records show.

After the first three women’s bodies were discovered, law enforcement interviewed Hayes because he recently had bought the same caliber pistol as the one used in the murders.

That appears to have been the end of the questioning until Bey’s case brought his name up again.

Hayes in Palm Beach County

Years of court filings documented through paternity and child support cases suggest that Hayes lived most of the time between 2008 and his arrest Sunday in central Palm Beach County.

Court records indicate that Hayes lived with his child and the child’s mother near West Palm Beach between May 2007 through June 2008.

His child’s mother declined to speak with The Palm Beach Post, citing concerns for their child.

In August 2012 he asked the court to lower the amount of child support he would pay because he lost his salaried job and was working as a line cook.

He was cited for running a red light in 2014 in Riviera Beach and told officers he lived in Charlotte, North Carolina. He gave the same address during a 2017 traffic stop in Boca Raton.

By April 2018, Hayes was unemployed, court records show. His mother, who hung up on a reporter when reached by telephone Monday, was helping him pay his bills.

In June of that year, he indicated he was working at Howley’s Restaurant on Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach. A manager refused to speak with The Post when reached by phone Monday.

By July 2019 Hayes was unemployed again and had three dependents, according to court filings. He was living in a home on North Flagler Drive, the same home at which he’d be arrested Sunday.

A woman who identified herself as Hayes’ significant other told a Post reporter that Hayes was arrested Sunday at the home on Flagler. She declined to speak further about the allegations, beyond saying that she’s cooperating with law enforcement.

Bey’s brothers attended the news conference Monday at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office but declined to speak with reporters.

Looking toward the men, State Attorney Dave Aronberg said, "You remind us that this is all about Rachel Bey."

Staff writer Eliot Kleinberg contributed to this story.

ohitchcock@pbpost.com

@ohitchcock