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June 23, 1999
Web posted at: 12:36 a.m. EDT (0436 GMT)

HOUSTON (CNN) -- Rafael Resendez-Ramirez, the suspected serial killer linked to eight vicious killings near train tracks, has become the focus of an ever-widening manhunt -- and authorities fear it could be only a matter of time before some else is killed.

The FBI command center in Houston leading the investigation has received more than 1,000 tips in the case, and authorities from Texas to Ohio to Wisconsin intensified the search Tuesday for the so-called "Railway Killer."

Despite the dragnet -- known as Operation Stop Train -- Resendez-Ramirez, a Mexican-born drifter who has hopped trains to crisscross the nation for more than 20 years, remains on the loose.

"What we want to do is work as fast as we can and as efficiently and effectively as we can so that we can catch this person so that we don't have him linked to any more homicides," said FBI Agent in Charge Don Clark.

Police searched a 75-car freight train in a residential neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio after getting a tip someone fitting Resendez-Ramirez's description was seen near the train tracks. Nothing turned up.

In northern Illinois, where the FBI had been investigating whether Resendez-Ramirez was involved in a double homicide, authorities ruled him out as a suspect and said a man who lived near the two victims was in custody.

Resendez-Ramirez has been linked to five killings in Texas, two in Illinois and one in Kentucky. All have taken place in the dark of night near railroad tracks. Some of the female victims were sexually assaulted after being killed. FBI sources tell CNN Resendez-Ramirez is suspected in at least a dozen other killings.

The FBI placed Resendez-Ramirez on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list Monday and reward of $125,000 is being offered for information leading to his arrest.

Police in Columbus, Ohio, comb areas around railroad tracks for Resendez-Ramirez

Officials fear the killing spree may be intensifying. Seven of the victims have been killed in the last seven months -- at least four in June alone.

"The thing that is fearful for the people in this country is that generally when you have a serial killer there is a preferential group of people that they look for," said John Douglas, a former FBI profiler. "The problem with a spree killer like this, he will kill anyone who comes across his path."

Since the mid-1970s, Resendez-Ramirez has traveled across the country by catching rides on freight trains, often working as a day laborer at various stops under numerous aliases, law enforcement officials say.

He has been deported to Mexico at least five times and jailed on several occasions, ranging from misdemeanors to serious felonies.

In September 1979, Resendez-Ramirez -- under the alias Jose Angel Reyes -- was sentenced to 20 years in prison for vehicle theft, burglary and aggravated assault in the Miami area, authorities say. He was released on parole in June 1985 after serving five years.

Authorities said that in the years since then, Resendez-Ramirez has been traced in various parts of the country, including Miami; St. Louis; San Antonio; Burlington; Vermont; Ann Arbor; Michigan; and El Reno, Oklahoma.

In November 1988, while in St. Louis, he voted in the presidential election under the name Jose R. Angel. A few weeks later, authorities said he opened a Charles Schwab Discount Brokerage account in Detroit with $5,000 in worthless checks.

Resendez-Ramirez, 39, is described as 5-foot-7 inches tall, 150 pounds with black hair, brown eyes and a faded snake tattoo on his left forearm. He has scars on his forehead, left arm and wrist.

Police think Resendez-Ramirez murdered the Sirnics with a sledgehamer as they slept in their home

On Monday, Illinois authorities charged Resendez-Ramirez in the deaths of George Morber, 80, and his daughter Carolyn Frederick, 51, killed in their home near Gorham in southern Illinois last week.

Morber had been shot in the head at point-blank range with a shotgun and his daughter was beaten to death and sexually assaulted. Resendez-Ramirez's fingerprints were discovered on Morber's pickup truck found in a school parking lot in Cairo, about 60 miles south of Gorham.

Resendez-Ramirez is also wanted for questioning in six killings: one in Lexington, Kentucky, the other five in Houston and Fayette County in Texas. Among them: