Tuesday June 6 2000 1:28 PM ET
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Reuters) - Law enforcement officials were
searching for more bodies on Tuesday after identifying a Kansas
man known on the Internet as the ``slavemaster'' as a suspect
in the deaths of two women whose remains were found buried
in 55-gallon drums over the weekend.
Law enforcement officials said they were not sure how many
more bodies might be discovered, if any, but they were planning
to drain a rural Kansas pond on Tuesday afternoon to look
for more victims.
``This could be a possible serial killer,'' Raymore, Missouri,
Police Chief Kris Turnbow told Reuters. ``We do suspect that
there may be more victims.''
Investigators had found at least three more large drums
with suspicious contents by Monday evening, but Turnbow would
not comment on local television news reports that human remains
were found inside. He did say that the barrels had been taken
to the Jackson County, Missouri, medical examiner's office
for analysis.
The suspect in the case, John Edward Robinson Sr., 56, was
arrested on Friday in Olathe, Kansas, and charged with sexually
assaulting two women he met on the Internet and with whom
he agreed to have sadomasochistic sex.
The women alleged Robinson went too far and brutalized them,
said a spokesman for the prosecutor's office in Johnson County,
Kansas, south of Kansas City. One woman also alleged that
Robinson stole several hundred dollars worth of sex toys from
her.
Robinson was being held on a $5 million bond in Johnson
County Jail in connection with the sexual assault charges,
the prosecutor's office said.
The allegations by the women triggered an investigation
of Robinson and led to the discovery of the bodies of two
women buried in 55-gallon drums on property Robinson owns
in Linn County, Kansas, south of the Kansas City area.
Robinson has not been charged yet in connection with the
deaths of the two women, whose identities have not been disclosed.
Officials also searched a Raymore, Missouri, storage locker
rented by Robinson. It was in that storage locker that the
three barrels containing the suspicious contents were found
on Monday and confiscated.
Officials were continuing to search Robinson's 16.5-acre
tract of property in Linn County on Tuesday, including the
pond on
the property, the sheriff's office said.
