PHOENIX — When Romelia Vargas was gunned down in the catering truck where she fried taquitos, police had few answers for her husband. Maybe the mother of twin baby boys got into trouble selling drugs — that was the best they could offer.
Alvin Hogue never accepted that explanation, but when a detective called months later with a better one, he was stunned.
Vargas and her cook, Mirna Palma-Roman, were victims of the "Baseline Killer,' a serial predator who police say has killed eight people and sexually assaulted 11 other women and girls in the Phoenix area in just more than a year.
His targets have been random and vulnerable, like the two women working alone one February morning near a construction site.
After arresting two suspects in another serial killing case this month, authorities have ramped up their efforts to find the Baseline Killer, named for the south Phoenix road near where the earliest crimes occurred. The investigation is revisiting hundreds of unsolved cases in hopes of tracking the killer down.
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Phoenix police will not discuss their lab work but say they have tried to connect cold cases to those already linked to the Baseline Killer using state and federal forensic databases.
Although the search has not netted the Baseline Killer, it has provided some answers for victims' families and shed light on other investigations.
In one case, Phoenix investigators linked the Baseline Killer to a killing in Tempe that had been blamed on another man.
Police say they are still getting a high volume of calls from tipsters, despite the focus on the Aug. 3 arrests of suspects in Phoenix's other serial-killings case — the "Serial Shooter" case. Samuel John Dieteman and Dale S. Hausner pleaded not guilty Monday to two counts of murder and 14 counts of attempted murder in that case.
The Baseline Killer's most recent attack was nearly two months ago, when police say he carjacked 37-year-old Carmen Miranda and later killed her.
TV stations continue to broadcast a police sketch of what the Baseline Killer might look like, though investigators say they still do not really know.
He is thought to wear disguises. He strikes quickly, in the dark, and generally targets people who are alone.
