In May 1995, a task force was established by the New Orleans Police Department, in conjunction with surrounding parishes and the FBI, in order to solve the killings. During a press conference in August, Chief Richard Pennington announced to the media that the current prime suspect was 33-year-old Victor Gant, a police officer working in New Orleans. During the investigations, it was established that Gant had an intimate relationship with one of the victims, Sharon Robinson. As a young man, he was a boxer and regularly went to the gym and did weightlifting, and closely matched the 1991 suspect sketch based on "Brenda"'s testimony. FBI agent Neil Gallagher later clarified that Gant was a suspect only in Robinson and Ivester's murders, and at present, they had no evidence tying him to any of the other killings. In response, Gant's attorney John Reed said that his client was innocent and the evidence was purely circumstantial.
