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STUART, Fla. (AP) — A homeless man was arrested Wednesday in the serial killings of three women whose strangled bodies were found in the same neighborhood in a 10-week span this year, authorities said.
The slayings prompted nervous parents to keep a closer eye on their kids and led police to warn residents to keep their doors locked in Port Salerno, a coastal town about 100 miles north of Miami.
Eugene Wayman McWatters, 26, was charged with three counts of homicide and one count of sexual battery in the slayings of Jackie Bradley, Carrie Caughey and Christal Wiggins.
"We now have the long grueling task of presenting evidence in court and going through our system of justice to convict this individual," said Martin County Sheriff Robert Crowder.
McWatters' family said police had charged the wrong man.
"He's not the person that they're portraying him to be," Jacqueline Wayman, who raised McWatters since he was 2 months old, told The Stuart News. "I've seen my son high, and I've never, ever seen my son in a stage where he was going to go out there and kill somebody."
Bradley, who was also homeless, was found by a canal on March 31. The body of Caughey was discovered at a nearby pond early this month.
Wiggins, a mother of two, was found near the same pond June 7, the day before her 30th birthday.
Wiggins had been jailed two weeks before her death on drug charges and driving offenses and had a criminal record that included prostitution and burglary, police and court records show.
Bradley, 43, left her family in Indiana and became an alcoholic living in the woods, police said.
Caughey, 18, lived with her parents in neighboring Hobe Sound but often disappeared for days. She had a history of petty theft arrests and had been committed to a drug treatment clinic.
McWatters was being held without bond at the Martin County jail. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney. | 
