‘Potential serial killer’ killed sex workers, then dumped their bodies, Florida cops say

A “potential serial killer” strangled and dumped the bodies of women “he thought wouldn’t be missed,” a Florida sheriff said.

Now, 25-year-old Carlos Baez-Nieves faces two charges of first-degree murder.

In separate incidents in the span of a little over a month, the bodies of 41-year-old Fatia Flowers and 44-year-old Nichole Daniels were found at the same intersection in central Florida, Orange County Sheriff John Mina said during an April 29 news conference.

Mina said Baez-Nieves targeted the women because they were sex workers.

Baez-Nieves picked up Flowers around March 14 and Daniels on April 16 and engaged in sex acts with them, Mina said.

Then Baez-Nieves strangled the women to death and dumped their bodies from his truck, deputies said.

“He murdered them and dumped them on the side of the road like trash,” Mina said. “But our detectives knew that Fatia and Nichole’s lives were meaningful — and that they are worthy of justice.”

The night before Daniels was found dead, she was seen getting into a white pickup truck that detectives traced to Baez-Nieves, Mina said.

Authorities found him trying to sell his truck and arrested him on driving with a suspended license, deputies said. That’s when he told them about the killings of the two women, according to Mina.

The sheriff added his detectives stopped the man from “becoming a prolific serial killer.”

“The fact that he targeted women that he thought would not be missed leads you to believe as well that he is a killer and probably would have killed again,” Mina said.

Baez-Nieves has not been assigned a public defender, according to Orange County court records.

Orange County contains the Orlando metropolitan area.

This story was originally published April 29, 2024 at 3:57 PM with the headline "‘Potential serial killer’ killed sex workers, then dumped their bodies, Florida cops say."