'Potential Serial Killer' Charged With Murder: FL Sheriff

EAST ORANGE COUNTY, FL — A man is facing murder charges after authorities say he had sex with two women before strangling them to death, hopefully catching a budding serial killer.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office said Monday that Carlos Yadiel Baez-Nieves, 25, was a "potential serial killer" who targeted women who were transient and suspected of trading sex for money.

A month apart, Baez-Nieves was accused of picking up 41-year-old Fatia Flowers and 44-year-old Nichole Daniels. After fatally strangling them, he was accused of pushing their bodies out of his truck and returning home.

Authorities said Baez-Nieves confessed to the killings. He is being held in the Orange County Jail without bond on charges of suspicion of two counts of first-degree murder, authorities said.

“I’m confident that through their vigilance in these cases, our detectives have prevented Baez-Nieves from becoming a prolific serial killer,” Orange County Sheriff John Mina said in a news release. “... But our detectives knew that Fatia and Nichole’s lives were meaningful - and that they are worthy of justice.”

Mina said that due to the nature of the two Orange County murders, investigators are looking into any similar cases that Baez Nieves may have a connection to in Orange County, Florida or nationally, Spectrum News reported.

Both women's bodies were found in the same location, the arrest affidavit said, and they shared other similarities, including being transient in the East Orlando area, both having a history of narcotics usage and both were found nude or nearly nude.

Mina said in such cases, there's the possibility of other victims, and they're working to determine if Baez-Nieves was involved in any other incidents elsewhere in the country.

"He killed two women in a month's time, so to me, that is the definition of a serial killer. But I think this is a person who is clearly capable of doing this, and may have done it in the past, and the fact that he targeted women that he thought would not be missed leads you to believe as well that he is a killer and probably would have killed again," Sheriff Mina told FOX News.