Police Say Suspect in Recent Florida Slayings Confesses

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A carpet cleaner confessed to killing two young women, police said Sunday, and his arrest relieved residents shaken by the latest murders in their university town.

Alan Robert Davis, 29, was jailed without bond Sunday on two first-degree murder counts after police said he admitted strangling the two University of Florida students.

Davis, who lives with his wife and her four children in nearby Newberry, was picked up for questioning by authorities Saturday evening and confessed during nearly six hours of interrogation, police said.

Davis cleaned the victims’ apartment and then killed them, investigators said. They said the motive remains unclear.

Davis is charged in the deaths Thursday of Eleanor Anne Grace, 20, of Ft. Myers, and Carla Marine McKishnie, 22, of Brandon. Grace was a sophomore studying psychology and McKishnie was a graduate student majoring in education.

Authorities have emphasized that the killings were not connected to the August, 1990, serial murders of four women and a man.

Davis appeared Sunday in court, where a judge appointed a public defender to represent him. Davis’ wife, Tammy, 30, attended the arraignment but had no comment.