Police Search For Alleged Serial Killer's Missing Victim
UPDATED 05/18/11 7:09 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS/WBBM) -- Police were searching on the city's Far South Side Wednesday afternoon for the body of the third victim of accused serial killer Sonny Pierce.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Steve Miller reports, the search for the body of Mariah Edwards, 17, of Blue Island, is currently suspended at 130th and Doty, according to Blue Island Mayor Donald Peloquin.
The search was focused there because of information Pierce gave investigators, said Peloquin.
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"He gave us the idea that the body would be located in that general area. So we're trying to locate any body, if we can," Peloquin said.
Pierce allegedly strangled his victims after meeting them on phone chat lines.
Edwards' body is the only one that has not been found, but police found a videotape which they say shows Pierce engaged in sex with Edwards' lifeless body.
Police say they believe Pierce killed Edwards in July of last year. CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli reports from the scene of the investigation.
Pierce previously told police he invited Edwards to his home to rape her in front of other men, then beat her with the men until she was dead, prosecutors said.
Mayor Peloquin says authorities have been at 130th and Doty for a couple of days.
As for Pierce's other alleged victims, authorities said Windom and Coleman were both strangled about three weeks apart in August of 2009. Their bodies were discovered dumped in alleys in Blue Island and Chicago.
Investigators found 20 calls between Windom's cell phone and Pierce the night before her body was found, prosecutors said. He met her on a singles party line in August 2009, they said.
DNA evidence linked Pierce to Windom, and video evidence refuted his alibis for the times of the crime, Orland Park Police Chief and South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force head Tim McCarthy said.
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