Serial killer? 3 found dead worked as escorts

DETROIT?? Three of four women recently found dead in car trunks had promoted themselves as escorts through the same website, Detroit police said Monday.

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Chief Ralph Godbee said the deaths could be connected but cautioned that police were "stopping short" of calling it the work of a serial killer.

The Detroit Free Press reported that three of the victims had profiles on backpage.com, a site used to buy and sell things but that also carries personal ads.

Police discovered the badly burned bodies of two women in the trunk of a 1997 Buick LaSabre early Sunday following reports of a car fire. The bodies of two other women were found just blocks away in the trunk of a 2009 Chrysler 300C on Dec. 19, the Free Press reported.

All four women were in their 20s.

Their causes of death remain under investigation.

However, Godbee said that given "the way the females were found and the attempt to hide their bodies," homicide detectives were treating the cases as suspicious deaths.

Godbee added that "deciding to meet unknown persons via the Internet can be extremely dangerous."

The Associated Press, Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45794835/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

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