Baltimore police have learned the most recent victim in a rash of strangling deaths of women was working as a prostitute before she was killed, according to departmental reports.
Friends of Brenda Hatfield, 45, whose naked body was found behind the New Psalmist Church on July 8, told investigators she was working as a prostitute along Patapsco Avenue and Hollins Ferry Road in South Baltimore near the time of her death ? a known areafor prostitution, the reports show.
The friends told detectives Hatfield had several “regular” customers, whom police are now seeking for questioning.
Hatfield has never been convicted of prostitution, court records show. The four other women who were strangled have previous convictions for prostitution, bringing the total to five women linked to the sex trade who have been slain since April.
Police still do not know if the any of the women were working as prostitutes when they died, or if the cases are linked. Sources said police have “persons of interest” in at least two of the five cases but have not found DNA evidence or any witnesses linking the killings.
Police spokesman Sterling Clifford did not immediately return a call for comment.
Hatfield?s naked body was found in a trash-strewn alley near a deserted back parking lot in the 4500 block of Old Frederick Avenue, four miles from the neighborhood friends said she called home.
Investigators found Hatfield?s pink underwear and white bra discarded just yards away. A blue arm sling was found pulled over her head.
An anonymous phone call from a pay phone on the 900 block of Poplar Grove Avenue reporting the location of Hatfield?s body prompted police to confiscate the phone for fingerprint analysis.
In addition to the five women strangled since April, records show three more slayings of convicted prostitutes in the past five years remain unsolved.
The additional killings mean a total of eight cases of woman linked to prostitution who were stabbed, strangled or beaten to death since 2003 remain open.
The news of Hatfield?s death was met with dismay Thursday afternoon by a man who said he knew her.
“She would not get into somebody?s car she didn?t know,” said Earl Garrison, a disabled veteran who hangs out at a convenience store at Patapsco Avenue andHollins Ferry Road. “If she did, I?d remember the license plate number and watch out for her.
“She wasn?t like the other people around here; she was always friendly,” Garrison said. “She was always kind.
“This is just wrong.”
