Street prostitutes working to support an addiction may be "easy victims" because of their lifestyle, said Jim Hutchins, a retired Atlantic City vice squad captain.
Among heavy users, he said, if someone goes missing for a couple of days, no one takes notice. "The shame was that they were normal girls. Then drugs got them and they got killed."
For their survivors, painful reality may only recently have set in, said Jon'a Meyer, an associate professor of criminology at Rutgers University-Camden.
"It's very common for families and friends who were forthcoming when the incident happened to want to fade into the background. . . . They'll move, change phone numbers just to avoid the spotlight," she said.
"It's a coping mechanism that allows them and their loved one not to be re-victimized over and over," she said. "These were people who were once, and still are, loved by their families."
Auslander, Raffo's husband, was a high-profile advocate for finding the murderer, but he soon retreated to Florida and now shuns reporters. He spoke briefly last Friday in the hope that remembering the victims might draw attention to the case.
"I know there is somebody out there who must know something, and they've been letting sleeping dogs lie," said Auslander, 44.
He said he had heard nothing from investigators or the other victims' families. "I understand," he said, "but it's still not very comforting."
The four women took different roads to Atlantic City. Dilts fled poverty, leaving her 14-month-old son in the southwest Pennsylvania town of Black Lick after a run of bad luck.
Roberts, also a new mother, came from Bear, Del., to be an exotic dancer. When her drug habit left her so emaciated that clubs wouldn't hire her, she turned to prostitution.
Breidor, who had a 9-year-old daughter, went to Pennsylvania State University and dreamed of a law career. She grew up in affluent Huntingdon Valley and spent childhood summers in Margate.
She worked in the family's Boardwalk business selling trinkets to tourists, but began abusing prescription medications in the late 1980s. When Breidor moved on to hard-core drugs, her life fell apart. She became a prostitute to support her $300-a-day habit, relatives said.
Raffo's downfall may have been the most dramatic. Her sister, Maria Santos, has said the married mother of two was a "Martha Stewart" type and PTA mom until she had an affair with a student at a culinary school where she took classes. The man introduced her to crack cocaine.
Within three years, Raffo gave up custody of her children, left her husband, and worked as a waitress before drifting to Atlantic City and turning to prostitution to feed her drug habit.
Two years after Raffo's death, Miguel Santos said his wife was still dealing with the loss and would not take a reporter's calls. Raffo's father, Bob, of Brooklyn, N.Y., declined to comment on the murders.
Friends and family of Dilts, Roberts and Breidor also declined interview requests.
"She just doesn't want to talk about it anymore," Miguel Santos said of his wife, Maria. "She can't."
L. Urgo at 609-823-9629 or jurgo@phillynews.com.
