Robert Hayes, a Bethune-Cookman University criminal justice graduate, was arrested in the Palm Beach County killing of Rachel Bey and DNA evidence has tied him to serial killings in Daytona Beach.

DAYTONA BEACH — A man police are calling a serial killer accused of murdering four prostitutes in Daytona Beach starting 14 years ago was a criminal justice student and a cheerleader at Bethune-Cookman University during the time when three of the women were slain.

Records show that Daytona Beach police twice interviewed Robert Hayes, 37, of West Palm Beach, about a .40-caliber handgun he owned, during their investigation of the murders in 2005 and 2006.

Hayes, was arrested on Sunday at his West Palm Beach home and charged with first-degree murder, accused of also slaying a prostitute discovered 50 feet off the Beeline Highway west of Jupiter. DNA found on the South Florida victim, Rachel Bey, 32, killed three years ago, matched DNA recovered on two of the Daytona Beach victims, police said.

Hayes, who was arrested for the March 7, 2016, killing of Bey, appeared before a judge in Palm Beach County on Monday and was ordered held without bail.

Authorities were surprised to learn that DNA identified Hayes, an African American, as the suspected killer in Daytona Beach, since investigators had been focused on finding a white killer. That was based on a criminal profile developed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, officials disclosed at a press conference on Monday.

[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]

Palm Beach County sheriff's investigators said a road crew discovered Bey's nude body dumped on the side of the highway. She had been severely beaten, suffering a broken jaw and teeth and was strangled to death. Bey had defensive wounds, indicating she fought her killer, investigators said.

Officials at Bethune-Cookman University, in a statement released Monday, said they were taken aback by the news that Hayes was a former student.

“While the B-CU community is relieved to know that law enforcement has made an arrest in this matter, we are surprised to learn that the suspect attended our university," said B-CU spokeswoman Sara Brady. "We have confirmed that he attended B-CU from 2000 to 2006, where he graduated with a degree in criminal justice."

During his time at B-CU, Hayes — who stands 6-feet-4 and weighs 220 pounds — was also a cheerleader. Hayes is pictured several times in B-CU's 2006 yearbook as both a cheerleader and with his criminal justice classmates.

Hayes' DNA was found on Laquetta Gunther, 45, the first prostitute shot in the head in Daytona Beach. Her body was discovered on Christmas Eve 2005 in a kneeling position between two buildings at Madison Avenue and Beach Street, investigators said.

DNA from Hayes was also found on Julie Green, 34, another Daytona Beach prostitute who was found dead in a ditch near a construction site on LPGA Boulevard on Jan. 14, 2006. She was also shot in the head, according to police.

Police said Green, a mother of four, had left her home on Tomoka Road to go use a pay phone and never returned.

At a press conference on Monday morning, Daytona Beach police Chief Craig Capri said Hayes bought the Smith & Wesson firearm he used in the killings at Buck's Gun Rack in Daytona Beach, just off campus and only blocks from where Hayes lived.

Investigators said Hayes bought the firearm at the beginning of December 2005 and is suspected of shooting and killing Gunther weeks later.

Although Hayes' DNA was found only on Gunther and Green, ballistics tests also connect Hayes to the killing of Iwana Patton, 35, Capri said. The evidence is not as good in the case of a fourth victim, Stacey Gage, 30.

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

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.

Capri said the Gage killing — her body was found Jan. 2, 2008 — will be tough to prove because her body was so decomposed when it was found.

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }

Hayes came up early in the investigation, Capri said, and he was one of hundreds of people police interviewed at the time.

In March 2006, Daytona Beach police questioned Hayes about his .40-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol. Hayes told them he had given the handgun to his mother, who lived in West Palm Beach, reports state.

Then in December 2006, police had contact with Hayes again when he reported that his firearm was stolen from his vehicle in Riviera Beach, documents show.

The chief and State Attorney R.J. Larizza said the case is ongoing and they will make sure it is solid before bringing charges.

"We're tying up loose ends. We'll bring charges when appropriate," Larizza said Monday.

Chitwood, while Daytona Beach police chief, inherited the murders that started in December 2005 and added two more victims in 2006. Capri credited Chitwood with bringing the technology and the science needed to the department that helped solve the Daytona serial killer case.

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

In this case investigators used genetic genealogy. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Daytona Beach police and retired investigators worked together for years on the case, which is still under investigation.

"It was a team effort to get closure for these (victims') families, to get this killer off the street," Capri said.

In the Palm Beach case, DNA taken from Bey's body was entered into a database and in December 2016 "led to a hit with three cases in Daytona Beach," according to Capt. Michael Wallace from Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office in a press conference there Monday morning.

Investigators in Palm Beach County followed up by having Hayes under surveillance. They collected a discarded cigarette Hayes was smoking and sent it to a lab. The DNA on the cigarette matched the DNA found on Bey and both the DNA profiles matched those found on Gunther and Green, an arrest report said.



Hayes lived in the Palm Beach area when Bey was killed. Police believe Hayes used Bey's phone after her death and the phone usage was traced to the area around his home. Palm Beach deputies are investigating now to discover where he lived in the years between the killings in Daytona Beach and Palm Beach, Wallace said.

While in college, Hayes lived at 427 Jefferson St. in Daytona Beach, and investigators say he targeted women in the area where he lived, investigators said.

Detectives, who informed the Daytona Beach victims' families, said emotions ran high when they learned of Hayes' arrest.

Daytona Beach police Detective David Dinardi spoke to the families of the four murdered victims, the closest of whom lives in Orlando.

"They were all very ... I spoke to them over the phone, their emotions ran from they were happy, in a state of disbelief, shock, one of them broke down crying," Dinardi said.

Chitwood said he was pleased to know that the families will have justice and he also feels the part of the job he left undone as Daytona's police chief now has been accomplished.

“For the ten-and-a-half years as the police chief, I think the only thing I left unfilled was to [solve these cases],” Chitwood noted. “I just can’t tell you how proud I am of Chief Capri and how proud I am of the men and women of the Daytona Beach Police Department.”

GateHouse Florida's Olivia Hitchcock contributed to this report.

DON'T MISS AN EPISODE, SUBSCRIBE: iTunes | Google Play