DETROIT (WWJ) - Detroit police have deployed a squad of officers, assigned to search every open vacant home on the city's east side.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said they'll be looking for any additional victims of a suspected serial killer and rapist.

"One of the things that's troubling is that it had been days, and in one case weeks before the bodies were discovered," the mayor said, at a news conference Friday. "So that raises the possibility that there could be another vacant house on the east side that may have a victim."

Beginning at 11 a.m., Duggan said: "Forty neighborhood police officers are going to be deployed in teams of two across the east side. They are going into every open and abandoned house on the east side in the next two to three weeks, and going to make certain that we do not have any more victims."

After they search each home, they will board it up, Duggan said, beginning in the area where three women were found dead: one on Wednesday, one in May and one in March of this year.

In the first case, Detroit Police James Craig explained, investigators believed the victim died of a drug overdose before an autopsy found the cause of death was blunt force trauma.

While autopsy results are still pending for the other two victims, Craig said the cases appear eerily similar.

Although it's early in the investigation, Craig said it seems a single suspect is targeting prostitutes, luring them into vacant dwellings and killing them. "Of course there's a reason why we're linking the three," he said, although he would not elaborate.

Two of the victims were in their early 50s; one black and one white. The age of the most recent victim, whose decomposed, partially clothed body was discovered in a vacant house on Mack Ave., remains unknown as police seek tips to identify her.

She is described as African American, small in stature, around 5 feet tall and 100 lbs, with a short cropped, three-inch afro style haircut.

Craig is also asking for tips from sex workers who may have information that could help detectives; and also from anyone who lives near a vacant home who may have seen something suspicious.

While no description of the killer has been released by police, Craig said they're following up on a number of tips.

"People have said we're fed up, we're tired," the chief said. "So when I announced that I believe we had the makings of what appeared to be a serial killer, the community stepped up without hesitation."

Craig and the mayor stressed the importance of community involvement, pointing out that in many recent murder cases tips from the public led to an arrest.

"Our number one priority is the safety of all member of our community. Every member of our community," Craig said. "So for us to stand together, and the work that our community leaders are doing on the ground, again I just simply want to say thank you."

Anyone with information should call Detroit Police Homicide at 313-596-2260 or the Crime Stoppers anonymous tip line at 1-800-SPEAK-UP (1-800-773-2587).

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