Thank you for listening to this Podcast One production, available on Apple Podcasts and Podcasts.

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

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

He called the police.

This is Detective Mani de la Toriente.

He was called to investigate.

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 had appeared to be wearing

some kind of a mesh shirt and shorts, and they were burned.

They were burned 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 of homicide and was able to identify the victim.

Her name was Vita Hicks. She was 42 years old and lived in the neighborhood.

Detective De La Toriente returned to the area where Vita 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.

...