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Connecticut police believe they have captured a serial killer

Howell, a native of Virginia, will be charged with the murders of six other women whose bodies were all later discovered in various stages of decomposition behind a local shopping plaza, reported The Miami Herald.

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William Devin Howell, 45, will face a number of charges, including felony murder, according to police.

Howell is serving his stint for the manslaughter conviction of one of these seven victims.

Police have been investigating the case since 2007, when a hunter made the grisly discovery, finding several sets of human remains.

New Britain Police Chief James Wardwell said three of the victims had been sexually assaulted.

Howell was arraigned in New Britain Superior Court at 2 p.m. on Friday.

His lawyer urged the public to remember that Howell is innocent until proven guilty.

The bodies of six women and one man who disappeared in 2003 were found behind the mall in New Britain, 12 miles southwest of Hartford.

Howell pleaded guilty in 2005 to killing Nilsa Arizmendi, 33, of Wethersfield, Connecticut, although her body had not been found at the time.

According to a report in the Hartford Courant newspaper, Howell gave an especially grisly description of how he murdered one female victim, telling the informant that he raped and strangled her in the back of his van, but “she wouldn’t die”.

Howell also said that he had planned to continue his killing spree on a cross-country journey, but he got caught before he could kill again.

During multiple searches of the van, detectives also found a tape titled “Score Fantasy Girls” and five other videotapes, as well as a rock that appeared to have blood on it. All of the murder victims are women and they ranged in age from 29 to 53.

Howell is a landscaper who was born in Hampton, Va. Members of the serial task force returned to Hampton a few months ago to search the home Howell was living in when he was arrested for Arizmendi’s murder in 2005.

The search warrant indicated that the holes were “approximately 5 feet deep, and large in diameter”.

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Three bodies were found in the area behind the New Britain strip mall in 2007. Howell had been living in Connecticut in 2003.

William Devin Howell