Editing Joseph Kappen (section)

==Murders==
In September 1973, Kappen picked up hitchhikers Geraldine Hughes and Pauline Floyd. He then raped both of them before strangling them to death and dumping their bodies by the side of the road.

In December of the same year, Kappen assaulted Sandra Newton, raped her and strangled her to death with her own skirt, hiding her body under a road culvert. This murder was not linked to the strangler case until a cold case investigation into the murders after Kappen's death, during which DNA evidence linked Newton's murder to the murder of Hughes and Floyd.

On 23 February 1976, Maureen Mulcahy was attacked during the night, raped and strangled. Her murder has never been solved, but Kappen is suspected.