On August 1st, 1995, in the Alapata neighborhood of Miami, a place tourists don't visit, an unfamiliar scent filled the air.

It was the smell of burning, and the odor attracted the attention of a man in the area.

He called the police. the

called the police.

This is Detective Mani de la Toriente.

He was called to investigate.

But when I arrived, the officers were here, there were a couple homeless people starting to gather about and there was a body of a black female right about here.

She appeared to be wearing some kind of a mesh shirt and shorts and they were burned.

They would burn so badly that the mesh pattern was actually burned into her body.

From A&E, this is cold case files. The woman was burned from the waist up and she'd been hit in the head.

The coroner ruled the death a homicide and was able to identify the victim. Her name was Vita Hicks. She was

42 years old and lived in the neighborhood. Detective Delatoriente returned to the area where Vida had been murdered to see if any witnesses can provide a lead in the investigation.

Unfortunately, no witnesses to the crime were found and no one suspicious was identified.

This is Detective de la Toriente again.

Nobody in particular stood out, so it had to either be one of the local people that frequent the area that can blend in with

or somebody who can look so much like a local that he could pass for one of them.

With no witnesses and no suspects the case quickly went cold. Two

months later another victim is found beaten and burned, making it evident that Alapata had a serial killer on its streets.

Here's Detective Frank Castillo, who investigated the second murder.

We responded there and observed the body of a black female laying in a spinal face up position.

And she appeared to have some injuries to the face and head area and appeared to have been set on fire.

The victim was identified as Diane Nelms, also a local woman.

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