Sheriff Mike Chitwood said the suspect committed a murder in Palm Beach two years ago and DNA taken from the victim, a prostitute, matched DNA found on two Daytona Beach murder victims years earlier.

UPDATE: Click here for the latest version of this story.

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An elusive killer, who authorities said for almost 14 years had Daytona Beach Police detectives working the brutal murders of three prostitutes shot in the head execution-style, was arrested Sunday in South Florida.

Palm Beach County sheriff’s authorities arrested Robert Hayes, 37, late Sunday in the March 7, 2016, killing of 32-year-old Rachel Bey, whose body was found about 50 feet off the Beeline Highway west of Jupiter.



Hayes faces a first-degree murder charge and appeared before a judge for a bail hearing Monday morning. Hayes was ordered held without bail.



The sheriff’s office, along with authorities from Daytona Beach Police Department, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the State Attorney’s Office for the Seventh Judicial Circuit will hold a news conference Monday morning to further discuss the case.

Sheriff Mike Chitwood said the suspect committed a murder in Palm Beach two years ago and DNA taken from the victim, a prostitute, matched DNA found on two Daytona Beach murder victims.

[READ MORE: 10 years later, serial killer who shot 3 Daytona prostitutes ‘still out there’]

[READ MORE: ‘Most Wanted’ show focuses on Daytona serial killings]

[READ MORE: Memorial to serial killer victim disappears]

Monday, Chitwood, Daytona Beach Police Chief Craig Capri and State Attorney R. J. Larizza were to announce the major breakthrough.

Chitwood, while Daytona police chief, inherited the murders that started in December 2005 and added two more victims in 2006.

"Physical evidence from that murder matches a couple of our Daytona murder victims," Chitwood said.

In Daytona Beach, the killer left his semen and a .40-caliber bullet from a Smith & Wesson pistol in two of the three women’s heads as his calling cards, officials said.

"We will have breaking news on several cold cases, a strong update in the DSK (Daytona Serial Killer) case," Capri said Sunday, deferring questions until the press conference.

The suspect first struck in Daytona Beach on Christmas Eve 2005. Police said that was the day Laquetta Gunther, 45, was shot and killed. Her body was found Dec. 26.

Gunther, who was known as a tough labor hall worker, was found in a kneeling position in a narrow space between two buildings off of Madison Avenue and Beach Street.

On Jan. 14, 2006, Gunther’s friend, Julie Green, 34, an addict and prostitute, fell victim to the same killer, police said.

Green was found shot in the head in a ditch near a construction site on LPGA Boulevard. Police said, Green, a mother of four, had left her home on Tomoka Road to go use a pay phone and never returned.

While police worked hard on tips they were getting to try and solve the two murders, the killer struck a third time, puzzling police even more.

On Feb. 24, 2006, Iwana Patton’s body was discovered in a desolate area of Williamson Boulevard. Patton, 35, was a nurse’s aide and police said she wasn’t a regular prostitute on Ridgewood Avenue like Gunther and Green but that she may have turned to the streets in desperation.

A fourth murder, that of Stacey Gage, 30, who was shot dead in a wooded area next to a shuttered church, may be linked to the serial killer, police said.

Although Daytona Beach police did not find any DNA on the remains of Gage, who had been dead a month, investigators said her death was “eerily similar” to the deaths of Gunther, Green and Patton.

GateHouse Florida's Olivia Hitchcock contributed to this report.

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