is this really happening?!!?

bizarre-o, folks. tried to put stuff in purple that seems more psycho than the rest (although, the whole situation is quite freakish)

Speculation About Foot Fetishist in Killings
By SERGE F. KOVALESKI
Published: December 14, 2006

When four prostitutes were found slain in a marshy ditch on the outskirts of Atlantic City three weeks ago, each was barefoot, a detail as intriguing as it was mystifying.

So on Monday, after managers and several guests at an Atlantic City hotel where two of the victims had sometimes stayed read an account of a man described as being obsessed with women’s feet — which appeared on a private group’s Web site — they said they recalled a peculiar man who took a room there for three weeks this fall.

What led people at the hotel to wonder about a connection between that man — who registered using an address in Phoenix — and the obsessed man described on the Web site as a serial killer, was one chilling theory in the site’s unofficial account: “He has an extreme foot fetish and has a collection of women’s shoes and the shoes of his victims,” the document said.

It went on to speculate that “he may even be known for offering women foot massages.”

Officials declined to comment about the theory on the Web site or about whether they were seeking anyone who fit such a description.

The speculation about such a man could be a lead in a case that has baffled investigators since the bodies of the four women were found on Nov. 20 in a ditch behind several seedy motels on the Black Horse Pike in Egg Harbor Township, just outside Atlantic City.

On Tuesday afternoon, investigators showed up at the hotel, the Fox Manor, on Pacific Avenue, after learning that there might be a lead there on a suspect, the general manager, Manny Trivedi, said.

Yesterday Mr. Trivedi said in a telephone interview that the hotel guest he was thinking of kept six to eight pairs of women’s shoes in his room. Mr. Trivedi described that man as being of medium height and weight, with blue eyes, thinning brown hair and a mustache.

Mr. Trivedi and another manager at the hotel, who said he saw the shoe collection, and who spoke on the condition that his name not be used because of his concern about the continuing investigation, said that during the man’s three-week visit, a woman staying at the hotel told him that the man had mentioned to her that he was interested in caressing her feet.

Mr. Trivedi said that after the woman, whom he would only identify as Michelle, read the Internet description of the theorized killer — which was produced by an independent group in New Jersey that profiles serial killers on a Web site called Stalk Inc. and has no links to the police in this case — she became alarmed and told him about her odd encounters with the hotel guest. He added that on Tuesday the police spent about two hours interviewing the woman, who has been staying at the hotel for about five months.

“He also told this woman, Michelle, that he was an ex-marine and knew tae kwon do or something like that and could kill someone in a minute,” Mr. Trivedi recalled her telling him.

The hotel managers said that the man they described had spent time with a man from the area who is believed to drive a white van, the type of vehicle some prostitutes on Pacific Avenue say might have been involved in the killings.

Mr. Trivedi said that on Monday, a uniformed officer from the Atlantic City Police Department gave him a copy of the partial profile on the Stalk Inc. Web site and that the next day an investigator from the Atlantic County prosecutor’s office came to get a copy of it, as well as a copy of the former hotel guest’s driver’s license, which the hotel had on file.

The Atlantic County prosecutor, Jeffrey S. Blitz, said yesterday that no one from the task force looking into the case had been distributing the Web-based profile. Asked yesterday about the man with the women’s shoes, Mr. Blitz declined to comment.

The task force includes representatives from the prosecutor’s office, the Egg Harbor Township and Atlantic City Police Departments, the state police and the F.B.I.

The victims, who the medical examiner said were left in the ditch over a period of several weeks, were found barefoot, their heads all facing east toward Atlantic City. One victim was strangled, another died of asphyxiation and the bodies of the two others were too badly decomposed to determine the causes of death.

The description on the Web site asserted that the “lethal predator” responsible for the four deaths was from the area and was familiar with the site where the bodies were left.

“He has not killed every prostitute he has come in contact with,” the document theorized. “There are prostitutes who know him for the sexual gratification he gets from their feet.”

The description theorized that the killer probably had a record of sexually or physically abusing women. It was released by John Kelly, the president of Stalk Inc., who described himself as a social worker and addiction specialist. He said he had compiled criminal profiles in several well-publicized murders, including the Green River Killer case in Washington state and another in which the bodies of four women — all former heroin-addicted prostitutes in Worcester, Mass. — were found over the last several years.

Mr. Kelly described his theory about the Atlantic City killer this way: “He can relive his fantasy through the shoes, which serve as somewhat of a trophy.”

He said that he told the police in Egg Harbor Township three weeks ago that he had come up with a partial profile of the person who could be responsible for killing the four women. They referred all questions about the investigation to the county prosecutor.

“We told them to watch the Web site for updates,” he said. “A profile always continues to evolve. But it’s only a tool. It’s up to the police as to what they want to do with it.”

Nate Schweber contributed reporting.