
She attempted to barricade herself in her bedroom, but Rolling broke through the door. Hearing the commotion, Paules went down the hall to Taboada's bedroom and saw Rolling. Rolling found Taboada asleep in one of the bedrooms and, after a struggle with the young man, eventually killed him. On Monday, August 27, Rolling broke into the apartment by prying open the sliding glass door with the same tools he had used previously. 23-year-old Tracy Paules was living with Manny Taboada, also 23, her roommate. Because the spree was happening so early in the fall semester, some students withdrew their enrollment or transferred to other schools. He then decapitated the body and posed her head on a shelf facing the corpse, adding to the shock of whoever discovered her.īy now the murders had attracted widespread media attention and many students were taking extra precautions, such as changing their daily routines and sleeping together in groups. As in the Powell murder, he forced her face-down and stabbed her in the back, rupturing her heart. After she had been subdued, he taped her mouth shut, bound her wrists together and led her into the bedroom, where he cut the clothes from her body and raped her. At 11 a.m., Hoyt entered the apartment and Rolling surprised her from behind, placing her in a chokehold. Finding she was not home, he waited in the living room for her to return. But, before leaving, he took a shower then left the apartment.Ī day later, on Saturday, August 25, Rolling broke into the apartment of 18-year-old Christa Hoyt, prying open a sliding glass door with a KA-BAR knife and a screwdriver. Rolling posed the bodies in sexually provocative positions. He then raped her and forced her face-down onto the floor, where he stabbed her five times in the back. Rolling then went back downstairs, taped Powell's mouth shut, bound her wrists together behind her back and threatened her with a knife as he cut her clothes off of her. Rolling murdered Larson, first taping her mouth shut to stifle her screams and then stabbing her to death. Finding Powell asleep on the downstairs couch, he stood over her briefly but did not wake her up, choosing instead to explore the upstairs bedroom where Larson was also asleep. In the early morning hours of Friday, August 24, Rolling broke into the apartment shared by 17-year-old university freshmen Sonja Larson and Christina Powell. He then posed them, sometimes using mirrors. He mutilated his victims' bodies, decapitating one. In August 1990, Rolling murdered five students (one student from Santa Fe College and four from the University of Florida) during a burglary and robbery spree in Gainesville, Florida. He was executed by lethal injection in 2006. Rolling was sentenced to death for the murders in 1994. In total, Rolling confessed to killing eight people. Rolling later confessed to raping several of his victims, committing an additional November 4, 1989, triple homicide in Shreveport, Louisiana, and attempting to murder his father in May 1990.
Gainesville serial killer victims serial#
"Danny Harold Rolling (– October 25, 2006), also known as the Gainesville Ripper, was an American serial killer who murdered five students in Gainesville, Florida over four days in late August 1990. Mugshot of Danny Rolling aka the Gainesville Ripper from Wikipedia Commonsĭanny Rolling’s Florida victims: (from left to right) Tracy Inez Paules, Sonja Larson, Manuel Taboada, Christa Hoyt, and Christina Powell from ģ4th Street Memorial from Wikipedia Commons Header Image Source: Photo by Jorge Vasconez on Unsplash
