Frustration grows in a neighborhood stalked by a killer

Word that the Guardian Angels joined the hunt for the Kensington Strangler after police essentially linked a third murder to the same killer last week has left residents like Merina Andre frustrated.

“[Police] need to catch him before I catch him,” the 27-year-old woman said while waiting for the bus at Kensington and Allegheny yesterday. She admitted she started going to a gun range and plans to get a permit to carry a firearm because of the attacks.

“That’s how scared we are. … This is something outrageous.”

Other residents expressed similar frustrations at a Saturday morning town-hall style community meeting with police, where some criticized investigators for not doing enough during the month-long search.

Last Wednesday, authorities found 27-year-old Casey Mahoney strangled and sexually assaulted in a vacant lot along Tusculum Street. They are awaiting autopsy results to officially determine whether Mahoney was killed by the same person who murdered Nicole Piacentini and Elaine Goldberg.