Loretta Dyer

Do you know who killed Loretta Dyer in 2013?
Loretta Dyer, a 32-year-old white woman, was a familiar face in her Gainesville, Florida, neighborhood. Friends and acquaintances had seen her just the night before she was killed, a seemingly normal end to a Saturday. But by the next day, Loretta would be gone, her death adding another name to the city’s list of unsolved homicides and raising troubling questions about the safety of vulnerable women in the community.

On the afternoon of Sunday, May 5, 2013, a call for a medical emergency brought Gainesville Police Department patrol officers to a mobile home at 1628 SW 42nd Street. Around 12:15 p.m., they entered the residence and found it was not a medical situation but a crime scene. Loretta Dyer was deceased inside her bedroom. Investigators quickly determined she had been killed sometime during the night and left there by her assailant. An autopsy would later reveal the cause of death was strangulation. The medical examiner was unable to conclude whether a sexual assault had also occurred.

The Gainesville Police Department’s investigation began immediately. Police noted that Loretta lived what they described as a "risky lifestyle" and that her home was a "very transient residence," with people frequently coming and going. Investigators focused on her live-in boyfriend, Ricky Morrow, as a person of interest. Morrow, who had a lengthy criminal record dating back to the 1990s, claimed he was the one who discovered Loretta's body and insisted he had nothing to do with her murder. While he was considered a primary suspect, he was never charged in connection with her death.

The investigation into Loretta's death took a significant and permanent turn more than a decade later. On May 10, 2026, Ricky Morrow, then 53, was stabbed to death in what police described as an unrelated attack on Northwest 3rd Street. An arrest was made in his killing, closing the door forever on the possibility of prosecuting him for Loretta's murder, had he been responsible.

In the years since the killing, Loretta’s case has been examined by independent investigators and podcasters, who have raised the possibility that her death is connected to a string of other unsolved murders in Gainesville. Her case bears striking similarities to the homicides of Angel Harris in 2011 and Shelley Gatlin in 2007. All three victims were white women in their 30s who were known to be involved in sex work. Most disturbingly, investigators noted that Loretta’s body appeared to have been deliberately posed after her death, in a manner almost identical to the other two women. This rare and specific detail suggests the work of a possible serial offender.

This theory places Loretta’s murder within a potential pattern of violence against women in the Gainesville area. While her death occurred in a different part of the city and inside a home, unlike the other victims who were left outdoors, some believe this could represent an escalation or change in the killer's methods. One podcast investigation noted that a prominent suspect in the Angel Harris case, Danny Williams Jr., had been released from prison on parole just 31 days before Loretta was killed.

As of late 2026, the murder of Loretta Dyer remains unsolved and is considered a cold case by the Gainesville Police Department. With the primary person of interest now deceased, detectives are left with the lingering possibility that a serial killer may have been responsible. The City of Gainesville offers a reward of up to $10,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for its cold case homicides. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Gainesville Police Department’s tip line at 352-393-7700 or Detective David Blizzard at 352-393-7710.