Reinaldo Rivera, 37, faces charges in the killings of four young women and an attack on another. He has not been connected to rapes and killings outside the local area. FILE/STAFF

A year earlier, her mother's decayed body was discovered in a lot in downtown Fayetteville. Patricia Lapinskes, 50, died of asphyxiation, authorities ruled. Hers is one of seven unsolved prostitute deaths in Cumberland County, N.C., in the past 13 years.

Newspaper accounts saying Reinaldo J. ``Rey'' Rivera had once been arrested in an assault on a prostitute, and is charged with raping and strangling his victims, caught Ms. Evans' attention.

Nearly five months after Mr. Rivera was captured and linked to the deaths of four women and a near-fatal attack on another, law enforcement officials in many cities where he once lived have been unable to connect him to any of their own unsolved rapes or killings, despite his claim in a statement to police that he had sexually assaulted 150 to 200 women.

``I would love for them to be punished, whoever did it. But I would hope that they would get the right person,'' said Ms. Evans, 36, who lives in Lumberton, about 30 miles south of Fayetteville. ``It's just a funny feeling. It's different with a death where you don't know anything.''

While the slayings in the Augusta area have crushed countless lives, the arrest of the 37-year-old former sailor and tire plant worker raised hopes among investigators and victims' families in other places. Serial killer experts said they doubted a man would suddenly begin a pattern of assaults in his mid-30s, and Mr. Rivera had lived in several communities during his time in the Navy and after his less-than-honorable discharge.

The FBI entered his criminal profile into its Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, or VICAP, so interested police from scattered jurisdictions could compare notes. While Mr. Rivera's DNA profile cannot legally be entered into the FBI's database unless he is a convicted sex offender, the Richmond County Sheriff's Office offered to share charts and graphs from their sample - which was obtained through a search warrant - with any investigators who got a hit through VICAP.

So far, the department has had no such requests, said Maj. Ken Autry, the head of criminal investigations. Based on investigators' interviews with the suspect, he said, he isn't too surprised because he doubts the rapes Mr. Rivera spoke of were reported.

The 150 to 200 figure came out in a pretrial hearing Tuesday in Richmond County Superior Court. In some of those, the sex involved women who had fallen for the photographer-in-search-of-models ploy, Maj. Autry said. Most, however, were apparently prostitutes whom Mr. Rivera said he ended up paying.

Compounding the problem has been Mr. Rivera's refusal to give names of rape victims, apparently not wanting to embarrass them, the major said. Mr. Rivera told police he realized he had unusual drives when he was in his teens, and began acting on them while in his 20s.

Nowhere to start

At least one such incident allegedly happened in Fayetteville, where Mr. Rivera lived briefly in 1996 after his military discharge. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation has been trying to pinpoint that assault, but it's going to take a while because they lack a victim's name, criminal specialist Mark Brewington said. It's become a matter of going through cases by hand and looking for similarities, he said.

City of Columbia Police Department Investigator Harold Chambers has a different problem - a victim's name, but no physical evidence. For years, he has been searching for clues in the disappearance of Dail Dinwiddie, 23, who was last seen near the Five Points area after a U2 concert in 1992.

Finding out Mr. Rivera was a student at the University of South Carolina at the time made for a promising new lead, Investigator Chambers said. However, unless defense attorneys allow him to interrogate the suspect, he's left in a ``holding pattern.''

``I wish I had something to tell you, but I don't,'' Investigator Chambers said.

Police have said Mr. Rivera maintained that he had nothing to do with the death of Jessica Carpenter, an Aiken teen-ager slain in her home while Mr. Rivera lived in the area. His DNA samples didn't match up, nor did those of an unrelated suspect authorities are now looking at.

Mr. Rivera also insists that Melissa Dingess, 17, who died in July 1999, was the first person he killed, an FBI agent testified last week. Steven Egger, professor of criminal justice at the University of Illinois at Springfield and author of The Killers Among Us, said the assertion is more believable when scores of preceding rapes are factored in.

Bobbie Joe Long, a Florida serial killer executed in 1985, reportedly raped 50 women before killing 10 prostitutes in the Tampa Bay area. Over time, psychologists say, sexual sadists often escalate their violence as they fulfill their fantasies.

``It's all about power and domination,'' Mr. Egger said. ``Between rape and murder, there's not a whole lot of difference in the motivations.''

While at first it seemed there was a good chance Mr. Rivera might know something about her daughter's disappearance, Jean Dinwiddie, Dail's mother, said she now has no reason to believe he is responsible. During the past eight years, she and her husband have endured numerous false leads. Prank calls often come in the middle of the night. Jail inmates claim to have information. Wells are dug up. Investigators take trips to Nevada and New York.

``I think each time something happens like this, it's devastating,'' she said. ``You'd think there'd be some conclusion to this story, but there isn't.''

Even though Mr. Rivera had already moved to South Carolina by the time her mother died, Ms. Evans said she hasn't completely given up on the idea her killer is already behind bars.

``Maybe he went to visit,'' Ms. Evans said. ``It doesn't take that long to get from Fayetteville to Columbia, or to Georgia.''

Reach Johnny Edwards at (706) 823-3225.