The site where Laquetta Mae Gunther was found

This is the alley where Daytona Beach Killer victim Laquetta Mae Gunther was found.

It is located beside 703 North Beach Street in Daytona Beach, Florida.

The alley is situated on the southern side of a store called BAC Imported Car Parts.

Murder

Gunther's body was found wedged between the buildings at 3:40 p.m. on December 26, 2005.

The 45-year-old was partially clothed and lying in the fetal position.

Her killer had shot her in the back of the head with a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson Sigma Series VE.

The medical examiner determined that she was murdered on Christmas Eve, which was the same day she failed to show up for dinner at a friend's house.

Gunther was a house painter and former cook who had moved to Daytona Beach from North Carolina in 1985. She was also a sex worker who struggled with substance abuse.

At the time of her death, the mother-of-two was living on nearby Madison Avenue.

Gunther left the home of her best friend, Stacey Dittmer, on December 24 and promised to return later that night, as the pair had a Christmas Eve tradition of cooking dinner together.

When she failed to show up, Dittmer assumed that she had gotten drunk at a bar or lost track of time.

Two days later, Dittmer went looking for Gunther at local bars and saw that the police had sealed off this section of North Beach Street. However, at the time, she had no idea it was her friend who had been found dead.

Following the murder, Dittmer and Gunther's other friends turned the small strip of land into a memorial by leaving flowers and candles.

Serial killer

Gunther was the first known victim of the Daytona Beach Killer. In the two months that followed, two sex workers named Julie Green and Iwana Patton were also found murdered in similar circumstances.

When news broke that a potential serial killer was on the loose, volunteers began approaching sex workers and homeless people to warn them about the situation.

Investigation

The murders remained unsolved for nearly 14 years.

In 2019, genetic genealogy identified a 37-year-old named Robert Tyrone Hayes as Gunther's killer. The DNA evidence also linked him to the murders of Julie Green and Iwana Patton.

Later, it came to light that the police had questioned Hayes in 2006.

Although investigators learned he had purchased a Smith & Wesson Sigma Series VE shortly before Gunther's murder, they did not consider him a viable suspect.

A criminal profiler for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement suggested the offender was likely white. This assessment may have led investigators astray, as some of them were reportedly shocked when genetic genealogy identified a Black suspect.

Hayes was found guilty of the crimes in February 2022. One month later, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.