Rory Enrique Conde

Rory Enrique Conde (born June 14, 1965), known as The Tamiami Trail Strangler, is a Colombian–American serial killer who killed six prostitutes in Miami, Florida, over a span of five months from September 1994 to January 1995, most of them on the Tamiami Trail.

Conde was sentenced to death for one of the murders, and received multiple life terms for the remaining five. His death sentence was overturned following Hurst v. Florida, and he is currently awaiting resentencing.

Personal life Conde was born on June 14, 1965, in Barranquilla, Colombia. His mother died of tetanus when he was six months old. Conde and his sister Nelly were then raised by their paternal grandmother, Maria Rojas. When Conde was twelve, they moved to Miami to live with Conde's father, Gustavo Conde, an airline worker who had recently remarried. By that time, Conde had dropped out of the Miami Dade College and started working at a lumber company, and the family eventually moved in with Carla's parents. He was last seen the previous night at the nearby Tradewinds Motel, where a search of his room led to the discovery of drug paraphernelia. Unlike the previous victims, Conde wrote "THIRD! (A happy face dotting the 'i') I will call Dwight Chan 10. (A reference to WPLG anchor Dwight Lauderdale) [See] if you can catch me. (Using two eyes instead of the word 'See')" on the back and buttocks. The letter was signed with the initials "NYR"—which were later determined to be the initials for Conde's daughter's first name, the Spanish word for "and", and the initial of his first name. The contents of the message were initially withheld from the public, but authorities said that it indicated a link between Nava and the previous victims. Unlike the previous victims, she had been asphyxiated, which caused investigators to initially consider the possibility that her murder was unrelated to the others. Schneider was homeless and had multiple arrests for prostitution. Following this murder, investigators officially acknowledged that there was a serial killer active along the Trail, now known under the moniker "The Tamiami Trail Strangler".

On January 12, 1995, police located the body of the final victim, 21-year-old Rhonda Dunn. Just a week prior to her murder, she had been repeatedly warned by police officers not to solicit clients in the Tamiami Trail area. He remained on the lam for five more days, until he was finally arrested at his grandmother's house in Hialeah. In later interviews, he claimed to have had sex with the body of one of his victims. This ranged from Conde peeping into the bedrooms of young women in the early hours of the morning to him dragging duffel bags with unknown contents to his car in the middle of the night.

Trial, sentence and imprisonment Following his arrest, Conde was charged with six counts of murder, two counts of rape and one count of theft. Prior to him going to trial, a Spanish-language newspaper named Exito! obtained court records concerning Conde's confession, in which it was revealed that he talked to his victim's corpses and would blame them for ruining his life.

Several attorneys later remarked that they would likely face difficulty defending Conde at trial due to his confession and the amount of strong evidence against him. Two of his attorneys later attempted to have his confession rendered inadmissible in court on the basis that Conde was supposedly insufficiently advised of his right to a lawyer. In response, prosecutors noted that detectives repeatedly treated Conde with cake, allowed him to call his family members and bathroom privileges before he himself decided to admit his guilt. He would later be found guilty of her murder, and was promptly sentenced to death. In 2001, he pleaded guilty to the remaining five murders as part of a plea deal - in exchange for receiving five life terms without the chance of parole, he was forbidden from attempting to vacate his sentences.

Current status Following his conviction, Conde has repeatedly attempted to have his death sentence overturned. In 2003, his appeal was denied by the Supreme Court of Florida.

In 2016, Conde's death sentence was overturned as a result of Hurst v. Florida. As of March 2025, he is still awaiting resentencing.