Four convicted prostitutes have been strangled in Baltimore since April, raising concerns of advocates desperately trying to get women out of the profession.
Col. John Bevilacqua, the city police?s chief of detectives, ordered a review of every strangulation case in the past decade ? including the four recent cases ? after Nicole Sesker, 38, the stepdaughter of former police Commissioner Leonard Hamm, was found strangled Friday.
Baltimore police spokesman Sterling Clifford said the recent killings did not appear to be related.
Sesker was the third woman who had been convicted of prostitution to be strangled in June, police records show.
Amanda Bishop, 22, was strangled on June 22 on the 1300 block of Nanticoke Street in South Baltimore. Elizabeth Garrett, 25, died of asphyxiation on June 11 on the 3500 block of Buena Vista Avenue in North Baltimore.
On April 8, Yolanda Brown, 36, was found strangled in Southwest Baltimore on the 3600 block of Winterbourne Road.
All four cases are open ? nearly half of the nine unsolved strangulation killings of women police are reviewing that occurred since 2003.
All four also have convictions for prostitution on their criminal records.
Sources said police had suspects in two of the four killings and have found no link among the crimes.
The recent string of deaths has alarmed advocates for sex workers, who say violence is a constant threat.
“The dangers that women face on the streets is serious,” said Sidney Ford, executive director of You Are Never Alone, an organization that provides food, clothing and occasionally shelter to prostitutes. “Many of these women are living with pain. The drugs help alleviate the pain. Unfortunately, the pain often leads them into danger.”
Ford said an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 women are working as prostitutes in Baltimore.
Johns Hopkins criminologist Darrell Stephens, a former police chief in Charlotte, N.C., said he saw similar problems during his time as police chief in Newport News, Va.
“It?s one of the most high-risk occupations that you can get into,” he said of prostitution. “A lot of them are on the streets to take care of a drug habit. Part of any city?s homicide numbers are going to be street-level prostitutes who are running into the wrong person.”
Stephens cautioned the public not to assume the killings are related, though he said other cities ? such as San Francisco, Seattle and Charlotte ? have seen one suspect prey on multiple prostitutes.
Sesker?s body was found under a porch on the 3500 block of Garrison Avenue in Northwest Baltimore.
“These types of things happen to the sisterhood,” said a man who would identify himself only as Ron, who added he knew Sesker. “When it happens, it?s usually about money.”
Ford, meanwhile, said she was planning to meet with outreach workers from groups across the city.
“I think we will meet with all the organizations that serve woman who are caught in this trap and try to get the word out.”
