Cincinnati Police Chief Tom Streicher called Willie Hodges, 44, a serial killer.

A warrant was issued for Hodges on charges of aggravated murder and rape, alleging Hodges killed Laverne Jansen in March 2003.

"Justice has been served," said Mike Stevens, Jansen's nephew. "I'm glad Cincinnati police kept on it until they found him."

Hodges is being held in the Escambia County Jail in Pensacola, Fla., where he was arrested in September 2003, on unrelated burglary charges.

In Escambia County, Hodges was charged with capital murder, accused of beating Patricia Belanger, 58, to death with a hammer on Dec. 19, 2001, in her Pensacola home. He is awaiting trial.

After hearing about the Florida case, authorities in Sumter, Ala., charged Hodges Sept. 8 with capital murder for the Nov. 26, 2001, homicide of Winnie Johnson, 66. Johnson was shot to death during a daytime burglary of her home, said Sumter County Sgt. Howard Rhodes.

Cincinnati police think Hodges followed Jansen home in March 2003 from a Glenway Avenue pony keg, where she bought a lottery ticket before walking the few blocks to her apartment on Clevesdale Drive.

Hodges stabbed, bit and raped Jansen in the daytime attack, according to police. Hamilton County prosecutors are expected to bring the case before a grand jury soon.

Cincinnati Police Detective Jenny Luke, who worked on the case with Dave Feldhaus and Jeff Schare, traveled to Alabama earlier this year.

That's when she suspected he was a serial killer, she said.

The victims were women, the attacks happened during the day and, authorities say, similar patterns were left on the bodies.

Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor Mark Piepmeier, who worked on the case with detectives, said there were bite marks on at least two bodies.

"We don't know if it's a trademark, or part of the offense," he said.

DNA testing on evidence left at each homicide connects the three cases to Hodges, Piepmeier said.

Hodges' hometown is Epes, Ala., but he traveled often, detectives said.

"He's a mover, a traveler, a bus taker, lemme-take-a-ride-with-a-truck-driver kind of guy," Luke said.

He has family in the Pensacola area. In Cincinnati he dated women he met after a stint at an alcohol and drug treatment center, according to Luke.

"I don't know every place this guy has been, I probably never will," she said. "But I know he's been places other than here, Alabama and Florida."

Different weapons were used in the three cases, but that also fit his profile, Rhodes said.

"He's an opportunist," Rhodes said. "He'll arm himself with whatever he can find."

Luke, who spoke with Hodges, said he has two sides to his personality - one that's deceptive and one that's outgoing and friendly.

Although he's often homeless, he's well-groomed, Luke said.

"He's not the monster you envision when you say the word serial killer," Luke said. "Most people would imagine a scary person with a deep voice. He's not like that."

Hodges spent a little over a year in an Ohio prison after he was convicted of robbery in Hamilton County in 1999. Hodges followed an older woman home from a bank and then stole her purse, according to Cincinnati police.

Cincinnati police say they suspect him in dozens of purse-snatchings, robberies and beatings of women on the West Side from 1998 through 2003.

Pete Witte, president of the Price Hill Civic Club, said Jansen's death left "an uneasiness in the gut of many people in Price Hill." People loved the outgoing woman and never stopped asking if her killer had been caught, he said.

"Many people will be happy that an animal like this was taken off the streets," Witte said.

E-mail scoolidge@enquirer.com and jprendergast@enquirer.com