Police say they believe the man charged with the weekend murder of a teenage girl, may be the suspect they've been searching for the past two years after two other similar murders in Avondale.
Forty-year-old Anthony Kirkland is at the Hamilton County Justice Center being held on $5.3 million bond.
Police say he's been on a crime spree the past couple of weeks. Given his violent past, many are asking why he was even walking the streets at all.
Kirkland's criminal record is long.
Back in 1987, he murdered his girlfriend, set her on fire and took a plea deal. After serving 16 years in prison, he was released in 2003.
He has since fathered two children. In May of 2007, he was is in court after holding a sharp, three-prong grilling fork to the neck of his then 18-month-old son.
He served 115-days in jail for that.
About a month after he was released, he exposed himself to a 13-year-old girl, who fled to save herself.
He then served a year in prison and was ordered to register as a sex offender.
He didn't register and was wanted for that.
Then, earlier this month, police say Kirkland stabbed a man who lived on Ridgeway Avenue with scissors.
Kirkland, police say, has been busy the past two weeks.
He also allegedly held a knife to the throat of the mother of his children.
Police have been searching for Kirkland, but say he's been on the run, living in the woods.
Then, this past weekend, police say 13-year-old Esme Kenney became his latest victim. She too, was also burned.
Kenney's body was found in a wooded area in the 5900 block of Winton Road at about 3:30 a.m. Sunday morning. She left home to go for a jog about 12-hours earlier.
Police found Kirkland in the same woods, holding Kenney's iPod.
The similarity between this case and the murder from 1987 has police looking at Kirkland as a suspect now in two unsolved murder cases from 2006.
Fourteen-year-old Casanya Crawford, whose burned body was found in May of 2006, and then weeks later, another burned female.
The body of Mary Jo Newton was also found in Avondale, not far from Kirkland's ex-girlfriend's house.
Those two gruesome murder cases have haunted officers.
They remained unsolved for more than two years, but now they may have finally found their man. Unfortunately, not before another life was taken.
City councilman Chris Monzel is using this case to renew his call to shut down a sex offender treatment center in Over-the-Rhine.
Kirkland was supposed to be under the supervision of that facility, the Volunteer's of America's Pogue Center on McMicken Avenue.
"This is the straw that breaks the camel's back," said Monzel. "We need to shut it down."
"Sex offenders are sent here from all over the state and it doesn't belong in the city, especially when there's a history of security problems at the center," said Monzel. "We're sick of being the dumping place for sex offenders."
Kirkland was living at the Pogue Center until a week-and-a-half ago. He was kicked-out after getting into a fight.
Monzel says Kirkland was kicked out Friday, but his parole officer wasn't notified until Monday.
Later that week was when he allegedly held a knife to his ex-girlfriend's throat, and then stabbed a man with scissors.
Then, sometime late Saturday, allegedly killed 13-year-old Esme Kenney.
Kenney was a student at the School for Creative and Performing Arts.
A memorial service for Kenney sponsored by the School of Creative and Performing Arts will be held at the Aronoff Center Downtown at 7 p.m. The public is invited.
