text: Robert Tyrone Hayes (born March 12, 1982) is an American serial killer who has been convicted of three murders in the Daytona Beach, Florida, area between December 2005 and February 2006. DNA tests have also linked him to a fourth murder committed in March 2016. In addition, he remains the prime suspect in the murder of another woman in December 2007.
  The first three murders that were committed in Daytona Beach, Florida, garnered high media attention, and before Hayes' identification, the perpetrator was nicknamed The Daytona Beach Killer. Investigators were not able to close in on a suspect in time. In December 2007, the murder of a woman in the same area caused a re-investigation to be brought forward, but again, Hayes remained elusive. In December 2016, DNA tests on a woman found murdered in Palm Beach County in March 2016 matched DNA found on the original three murdered women.
  On September 15, 2019, authorities charged Hayes with one count of first-degree murder based upon DNA tests. On September 16, he was charged on three additional counts of first-degree murder. Additional testing after his arrest confirmed the link. Investigators had identified Hayes after identifying his family members through genetic genealogy, a tactic that has been used to solve numerous cold cases, most infamously the Golden State Killer. In February 2022, Hayes was convicted on three counts of first-degree murder and the following month was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.