Two years later, four Atlantic City prostitute deaths unsolved

ATLANTIC CITY - Two years after the bodies of four prostitutes were found dumped behind a seedy motel just outside this gambling resort, those who called them daughter, sister, wife, friend, or even mother would prefer not to recall the murders, which brought more heartbreak into their lives.

Authorities do not describe the crimes, commonly thought to be the work of a serial killer, as cold cases. A break can come out of the blue, criminologists say.

"We continue to expend both time and resources" pursuing the investigation, the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office said in a statement last Friday.

Despite a lack of closure, relatives of the victims say they're carrying on, or trying to. But they can't risk more sorrow by discussing the murders again.

"We really don't talk about it anymore. We just want to move on," said Miguel Santos of Pembroke Pines, Fla., whose wife, Maria, was the sister of Kim Raffo, the first victim found.

"Every time it's brought up again, it just makes it tough for her," Santos said.

Raffo's estranged husband, Hugh Auslander, said he thought of his wife often and had created a "mini-shrine" in her honor. He's reluctant to share his grief with others, however.

"I've been going through a healing process, but I know it's all just a test through God," Auslander said. The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., resident was married to Raffo for 16 years.

Raffo, 35, was found Nov. 20, 2006, three days before Thanksgiving, facedown in a drainage ditch behind the Golden Key Motel in the West Atlantic City section of Egg Harbor Township.

Two women noticed her body while walking on the trash-strewn no-man's-land behind some motels on the Black Horse Pike near the eastbound Atlantic City Expressway. Though dressed, Raffo was shoeless. Her head was pointed east, toward Atlantic City's glittering skyline.

Within hours, police found the badly decayed bodies of three more women less than 100 yards away. The other victims, similarly positioned and all shoeless, were identified as Molly Jean Dilts, 20, Barbara Breidor, 42, and Tracy Ann Roberts, 23. Their bodies are believed to have been there for several weeks.

Forensics experts said Raffo and Roberts, whose bodies had been in the ditch the shortest time, had been strangled. The other corpses were too decomposed for a cause of death to be determined, though authorities believe foul play was involved.

Three of the women had a high level of drugs in their systems when they died, according to autopsy reports.