DNA evidence credited with identifying serial killer who murdered three women 20 years ago

Over a 14-month span in 2000-2001, three South Florida women were brutally murdered and their bodies publicly and unceremoniously discarded. The cases made headlines but soon fell into the background along with other unsolved cold case files.  But thanks to the dedication and dogged determination of homicide detectives with the Broward Sheriff’s Office and the Miami Police Department, those three victims were never forgotten.

After 20 years of investigations and cooperation between government agencies that spanned two continents and the exhuming of the remains of a possible serial killer, officials were finally able to determine – thanks to DNA analysis – that one man was responsible for murdering the three female victims.  That man was identified as Brazilian national Roberto Wagner Fernandes.

Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony announced their investigators worked with Miami police to determine that Roberto Wagner Fernandes, a Brazilian national, was their killer.  “This suspect Roberto Fernandes was indeed responsible for the brutal murder of all three of these women,” Tony said at a news conference on Tuesday.  ~ CBS News

The story begins on June 22, 2000, in Cooper City, Florida, [Broward County] when the body of Kimberly Dietz-Livesey was discovered inside a suitcase along a roadway. Several weeks later, on August 9, 2000, the body of Sia Demas was found stuffed in a duffel bag along a road near Dania Beach. A year later, on August 30, 2001, the body of Jessica Good was recovered floating in Biscayne Bay in Miami. 

Suspicion for Good’s murder fell on Roberto Wagner Fernandes, a Brazilian citizen who lived in Miami in the late 1990’s and returned to Brazil after Good was killed. The three cases shared similar fact patterns, and as detectives from BSO and Miami Police worked together, clues began to emerge. DNA evidence collected from all three crimes pointed to a single as-of-yet unidentified culprit.

Additionally, fingerprints from the evidence collected at two crime scenes were a match. But the identity of the killer remained a mystery. 

A major break came in 2011 when DNA from the Miami homicide matched the unknown suspect DNA profile collected from the Broward County murders. Additionally, fingerprints taken from Fernandes following the death of his wife years earlier matched the fingerprints from the crime scenes. Investigators traveled to Brazil to attempt to take DNA evidence from Fernandes.

The investigation hit a roadblock when detectives learned that Fernandes left Brazil for Paraguay and  died in a plane crash there in 2005. 

Undeterred, detectives were not ready to accept that the suspect in these violent crimes would escape justice. Investigators worked closely with the Brazilian National Police, the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI to continue their investigation into Fernandes. Those efforts involved exhuming Fernandes’ body to determine if he truly was deceased and, if he was, whether he was a match to the evidence collected from the murders.

During late 2020 and early 2021, Fernandes’ grave was opened, and his remains were found inside. Most importantly for the victims’ families, his DNA profile was consistent with the unknown suspect profile collected from the crime scenes of Kimberly Dietz-Livesey, Sia Demas and Jessica Good. 

Following Roberto Wagner Fernandes’ identification as the killer of these three women, detectives feel that there is sufficient evidence to deem the Brazilian national as a serial killer. Officials also believe that there may be an untold number of additional victims yet to be discovered. Based on Fernandes’ violent behavior, he may be responsible for other murders committed in the U.S.  

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Zachary Scott at 954-321-4214 or contact Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS (8477) or online at browardcrimestoppers.org.

You can remain anonymous. 

For more on the story, see the video below, released just yesterday.

(Source: Broward Sheriff’s Office)
(Cover photo, Roberto Wagner Fernandes, Image credit: Broward Sheriff’s Office)

Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today   /   Follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter