Chasing Exclusive: Eastbound Strangler

In 2006, a serial killer known as the Eastbound Strangler stalked the streets of Atlantic City, murdering prostitutes and depositing their bodies in a shallow ditch behind a seedy motel the next town over.

The killer has not been identified, and the person who murdered Barbara Breidor, Molly Jean Dilts, Kim Raffo and Tracy Ann Roberts remains at large.

In November 2006, the bodies of the women were found in a narrow ditch behind the Golden Key Motel in Egg Harbor Township with their shoes and socks missing, and their faces pointed eastward.

The women were all likely to have been killed within a months’ time span.

No one’s ever been arrested or charged with this crime. 

But could two investigations conducted by retired Trenton homicide detective Gary Britton and a criminal profile hold the clues to the resolution of this case? And why are law enforcement officials apparently so unwilling to consider other clues?

“I was working a missing person case back in 2008 for lady known as Danielle Nuttall, a known prostitute. Myself and my partner went to Atlantic City. In fact, there were a number of us that went down to Atlantic City. And then, possibly considered the idea that she have may come into the same individual who killed the girls in Atlantic City,” Britton said.

The Golden Key was demolished this past summer, but the lay of the land has the same ire feeling. 

Now, Nuttall’s body was never found and there’s no evidence she even made it to Atlantic City let alone crossed the path of the Strangler, but it’s still possible she could have been a 5th undiscovered victim.

The background of this is very important because of another case Britton was involved in 2 years later.

Britton was on an anti-gun federal task force when an Egg Harbor Township resident, Dennis Gaskill, was arrested in Kokomo, Indiana for stealing a gun at a gun show.

When Authorities executed a search warrant, they found over 70 guns he allegedly had stolen and stockpiled them in his home.

“I found this individual to be one of the most bizarre human beings that I’ve ever encountered. He had drawings that he obviously did with his hand that would depict himself with both male and female genitalia holding weapons,” Britton said. “His compulsive behavior, his obsessive compulsive behavior came out in the neatness in which he kept his notebooks. You could see everything was in order.”

Just days after he was told he was being extradited to New Jersey, Gaskill strangled himself with a piece of clothing inside his Indiana jail cell.

After reviewing the criminal profile of the Eastbound Strangler, there are parallels between this profile and the one of Gaskill.

Could Gaskill be the Eastbound Strangler? It's a possibility but further evidence and information is needed to crack this case.