PHOENIX — A 24-year-old bar worker has been arrested on suspicion of killing six prostitutes since July and dumping the bodies of four of them alongside his neighbor's house, police said Sunday.
The body of a fifth victim had been found a few blocks away, but it was the discovery of a sixth body Saturday, in a pickup camper parked in a backyard, that led police to the arrest of the suspect and a collective sigh of relief in a neighborhood gripped by the mystery of the dumped bodies.
The last body was discovered by the property owner who, while investigating the source of a foul odor, opened the camper that was used occasionally by his nephew and made the grim finding and called police.
Authorities found a woman's body inside the camper and arrested Cory Deonn Morris at a nearby bar, where he operated its karaoke machine.
"He made statements about his involvement in these matters," said Phoenix Police Det. Tony Morales. "He pretty much confessed to the killings.
"The victims were all prostitutes who he was meeting in the area," Morales said. "They agreed to go with him back to the RV for sex, drugs and money. During that time, they were killed."
Morales said he could not discuss how the victims were killed. "High levels of cocaine contributed to the deaths," he said, "but there was something else."
Morris' arrest shocked neighbors and his employer.
"He would always come to work early and stay late," said Jimmy Seagrave, owner of Fat Cats. "He even took the trash out at night so the girls wouldn't have to go outside. He was a gentleman, and never picked up on girls. This just doesn't make sense.
"The only issue I had with him was his hygiene," Seagrave said. "He had a strong, bad odor."
Jessie Collins, who lives next door to Morris and alongside whose house four of the bodies were found, said she would occasionally talk and wave to her neighbor, who had moved in with his camper less than a year ago.
"He was friendly and outgoing," Collins said. "And now to think he was walking out the gate of his backyard and leaving bodies next to our house. That's terrifying."
The deaths had confounded police for months because at least four of the victims had died of apparent cocaine overdoses, and there were no apparent signs of trauma to suggest how else they may have died.
Until Saturday, police were not sure whether the cases were related. Some investigators discounted murder-by-cocaine because it is an expensive and imprecise way to kill.
