08:07 AM CDT on Thursday, May 4, 2006

From 11 News Staff reports

Vicente Arenas' 11 News report

HPD made it official Wednesday that they believe they are dealing with a serial killer. 

The UPS driver is suspected of raping and killing at least three Houston-area women, and police said he knew all three of the women he's believed to have murdered.

Edward George McGregor is behind bars in Fort Bend County Jail charged with the 1990 murder of Kim Wildman in Missouri City.

Houston police said DNA evidence has linked him to at least two Houston murders, and they believe he could be responsible for more.

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Kim Wildman managed to call 911 before she died.

The Houston victims are 25-year-old Mandy Rubin and 28-year-old Danielle Subjects. McGregor knew both women who lived within blocks of each other in southwest Houston. Both women were found dead in their bathtubs. Rubin was killed on Feb. 4 in the 10000 block of Westbrae Parkway. Subjects, of 10965 S. Gessner, was was found dead on Aug. 5.

"For the investigators that work these cases, it was absolutely striking. The common things that we noticed in these cases.  That the suspect lived within very short distances, two houses down, the same apartment or three blocks away. The violence that occurred with these women was unprecedented," said HPD's Sgt. Jim Binford.

Police said the victims knew their attacker and he had tried to develop a relationship with one of the victims.

"The violence that occurred to these women was unprecedented and very, very, violent, very horrifying, horrific in nature," HPD Sgt. Jim Binford said.

HPD said he strangled, beat and positioned the women's bodies in bathtubs in a strikingly similar position.

Police said he also lived near Kim Wildman -- just two doors away.

Investigators in Missouri City called the Wildman case one of the most brutal murder scenes they have ever seen.

"This was a very savage, brutal killing that did involve an intrustion, sexual assault," Fort Bend Detective Andi Wiltse said. "Kim Wildman fought very, very hard for her life. Her, her murder was particularly brutal."

Wildman was raped and murdered in her Missouri City home.

She managed to call 911 and give them a description of her attacker before she died.

Her weak voice on the 911 tape gave dispatchers an idea of what had happened. The tape is rather disturbing, to say the least.

Wildman, 38 was a community theater buff.

Wildman: "911?"

911: "Yes.  What's the problem?"

Wildman: "I'm dying. Been stabbed."

911: "OK ma'am. Is the man who did it still there?"

Wildman: "I'm stabbed. No, he's gone."

911: "Do you know him?"

Wildman: "No."

911: "What does he look like?"

Wildman: "I'm dying. Come, come."

911: "Yes ma'am, I'll send an officer right over there."

Wildman: "I'm dying, help."

MISSOURI CITY P.D.

McGregor is being held on a $1 million bond.

Police said McGregor's DNA matched a sample taken from Wildman.

Officers with HPD and the Missouri City Police Department arrested McGregor on Monday night in southwest Houston.

He was arrested in his UPS truck at the intersection of South Gessner and West Bellfort.

Police say he was 17 when Wildman was killed and lived two doors down from her, but she apparently didn't know him.

McGregor is jailed on a $1 million bond.

A UPS spokesperson said the company runs a criminal background check on job candidates before they're hired.

Police now wonder what happened in the 15 or 16 intervening years.  They suspect that some women who may have been sexually assaulted by this man may have been afraid to come forward to report it.