HOUSTON – A woman who was found nude and fatally stabbed in a vacant field in southeast Houston Thursday has been identified.
Investigators with the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences identified the victim as Melanie Denise Tanner, 37.
Some neighborhood residents found Tanner's body in a ditch Wednesday morning as they walked through a vacant field at 6900 Madrid Street near Idaho.
They went to her father's job at a nearby grocery store and told him. He and dozens of relatives and friends showed up at the emotional scene.
Police and residents said at least three women have been killed in the same manner and their bodies left in fields or ditches in the South Park area in the last two years. Residents have suspicions that a serial killer is on the loose. A police sergeant with HPD homicide said he could not rule it out.
"This isn't our first woman in a ditch in this area in the last two years," said Sgt. Matthew Brady of the Houston Police Department's Homicide Division.
Police said Tanner had no ID on her, or around her.
"She was naked except for some shoes and it appears she had suffered multiple stab wounds to various parts of her body," Sgt. Brady said.
Anyone with information in this case is urged to contact the HPD Homicide Division at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
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