Loretta Daniels, a 38-year-old African American single mother of three, was found dead on February 2, 1998, in Springfield, Massachusetts. Her partially clothed body was discovered in an alley near the Mason Square post office. Investigators determined she had been strangled, and evidence suggested a sexual assault had occurred after death.

Authorities linked her killing to Alfred Gaynor, a handyman who targeted vulnerable women in Springfield between 1995 and 1998. DNA evidence connected Gaynor to the crime, and he was convicted of Daniels criminal homicide along with other murders attributed to the same offender.