Rory Conde | Serial Killer
Rory Conde
Born: 06-14-1965
The Tamiami Strangler
American Serial Killer
Crime Spree: September 1994 to January 1995
Death:
The Tamiami Strangler, named after the Tamiami Trail, the final stretch of Highway 41 from Tampa to Miami, was the sinister moniker given to Rory Conde, who left a trail of terror in his wake.
Rory Conde was born on June 14, 1965, in Barranquilla, Colombia. His mother died when he was only six months old. He and his sister Nelly were then raised by their paternal grandmother.
When Conde was twelve, he and his sibling finally moved to Miami to live with their father, Gustavo Conde. Rory did not like his father and thought he was emotionally abusive.
Conde’s future wife, Carla Conde, thought that Rory’s father had sexually abused him, thus causing emtional troubles he could not control.
Rory and Carla were married in 1987, when he was 21 and she just 15 years. They had two children together. Rory was an abusive husband and spent a stint in jail in 1992 for a row he had with Carla over Rory bringing girls over. They later moved to a condo off the Tamiami Trail, but in July of 1994 Carla had had enough and moved to her parents’ home with their two children.
It was then that Rory Conde, recently legally separated, set out to claim six lives on his 5 month killing spree at the age of 29, in September of 1994.
The first was Lazaro Comesana, a cross-dressing male prostitute, discovered strangled to death on September 16, 1994, discarded by the roadside. Elisa Martinez became victim number two, found similarly strangled on October 8, 1994.
Charity Nava, victim number three, met her demise near the trail on November 20, 1994. Her killer left taunting phrases, like ‘Third’ and ‘if you can catch me,’ etched on her back. Wanda Crawford joined the grim list when her lifeless body was recovered on November 26, 1994.
Necole Schneider and Rhonda Dunn, the fifth and sixth victims, both met the same fate, strangled on December 17, 1994, and January 12, 1995, respectively. Miami police linked the six victims to an unidentified suspect through DNA analysis.
The case took a dramatic turn on June 19, 1995, when frantic cries for help emanated from Rory Conde’s residence. Inside, officers discovered Gloria Maestre, bound and gagged. Gloria identified her attacker through photographs in the house. Rory Conde was arrested on June 24, 1995, at his grandmother’s house in Hialeah.
During interrogation, Conde confessed to all six murders, attributing his actions to the emotional turmoil following his separation from his wife, Carla. He revealed that he killed Lazaro after discovering the prostitute’s true gender during a sexual encounter.
In each case, Conde strangled his victims at his home, engaged in disturbing post-mortem acts and then dumped their bodies on the Tamiami Trail.
On July 12, 1995, he was charged with six counts of first-degree murder. Separate trials were conducted for each murder, with the first focusing on Rhonda Dunn. In October 1999, the jury heard Conde’s confession and found him guilty. Judge Jerald Bagley concurred with the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Conde to death.
In April 2001, as part of a plea agreement, Conde pleaded guilty to the remaining five murders, receiving five consecutive life sentences in return. However, on September 4, 2003, Conde learned that his death sentence for the murder of Rhonda Dunn had been overturned, leaving him in a legal limbo, neither facing the death penalty nor life imprisonment.
Rory Conde remains in a Miami correctional facility.
source: murderpedia / wikipedia
