4 girls whose lives led to a drainage ditch outdoors Atlantic Metropolis

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — The 4 girls whose our bodies have been present in a drainage ditch simply outdoors Atlantic Metropolis in November 2006, within the order that they have been recognized:

KIM RAFFO, 35. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she met her future husband, Hugh Auslander, after they have been each youngsters residing there. They acquired married and moved to a four-bedroom residence Florida within the Nineties, and had two children. She led what kin stated seemed to be a tranquil home life along with her husband, who labored as a carpenter. A sister described her as a “mother of the 12 months”-type. She volunteered with the Lady Scouts and PTA. A relative stated Raffo “was like Martha Stewart” earlier than rising tired of life as a housewife. She enrolled in a cooking class at a technical college, and met a drug person who launched her to cocaine and heroin. Her husband took the children and left; Raffo and her boyfriend settled in Atlantic Metropolis, the place she labored as a waitress earlier than turning to prostitution. She was clad in a Arduous Rock Cafe tank high when her physique was discovered after a number of days within the ditch. She had been strangled with both a rope or a wire.

TRACY ANN ROBERTS, 23. Grew up in New Citadel, Delaware. As a young person, Roberts dropped out of highschool and briefly studied to develop into a medical assistant. She lived in Philadelphia earlier than working in strip golf equipment in and round Atlantic Metropolis, however drug use took a toll on her look, and membership homeowners stopped hiring her. She started promoting intercourse on the streets, the place co-workers known as her “the younger one” or “the beautiful one.” She lived in the identical run-down space of seedy rooming homes as Raffo, whom she had befriended on the streets. Carrying a purple hooded sweat shirt and a black bra, her physique had been within the ditch wherever from a few days to every week. She had a younger daughter, grown now, who’s about to earn a graduate diploma in economics.

BARBARA V. BREIDOR, 42. Raised in Pennsylvania, rented a home in Ventnor, simply outdoors Atlantic Metropolis. A cousin recalled her as “a really enjoyable, completely satisfied lady” who was at all times smiling and joking round when she was younger. She ran her household’s Boardwalk jewellery retailer and labored as a cocktail waitress on the Tropicana on line casino earlier than a longtime drug drawback worsened and pushed her into prostitution. She and a boyfriend had a daughter in 1997, which they requested her kin in Florida to boost. Breidor briefly attended Penn State College and favored to observe the Historical past Channel. Prosecutors stated she had a “deadly” stage of heroin in her system on the time of her dying. Authorities have been unable to find out how she died. Carrying blue denims and a long-sleeve zippered shirt, she had been within the ditch not less than two weeks.

MOLLY JEAN DILTS, 20. Grew up in Black Lick, Pennsylvania. She, too, had a younger little one that she requested kin to take care of. A former fast-food cook dinner, she had by no means been arrested for prostitution in Atlantic Metropolis, though quite a few streetwalkers stated they noticed her working within the intercourse commerce as effectively within the quick time between her arrival right here and her dying. They stated she known as herself “Amber” or “Princess” on the streets. A buddy advised The New York Occasions that Dilts cried lots and spoke of contemplating suicide. Her physique confirmed no traces of medicine, however she had been ingesting simply earlier than her dying. Clad in a denim miniskirt, a bra and mesh shirt, Dilts was believed to have been within the ditch the longest, for as much as a month. “I need everybody to know Molly was a superb lady and a superb mom,” her father, Verner Dilts, advised a Pittsburgh newspaper shortly after her dying.

Supply: AP analysis, Atlantic County prosecutor’s workplace, Atlantic Metropolis Police Division.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .