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JACKSONVILLE - Gator City Taxi now faces three lawsuits filed by parents who contend that their daughters were murdered because the cab company failed to perform an adequate background check when hiring accused serial killer Paul Durousseau to drive a cab.
Durousseau, 32, is charged in the slayings of six young women, five in Jacksonville, since December and another in Columbus, Ga., in 1997. He was arrested in June while he was in the Duval County jail, where he was being held for violating probation in an unrelated case. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty.
"We believe that three of the five deaths were related to this guy having access to them because he was a cab driver," said Wayne Alford, the attorney for the parents of victims Shawanda McCalister and Surita Cohen.
All three suits seek unspecified damages in excess of $15,000.
McCalister, a 20-year-old nurse's assistant, was raped and killed Jan. 9, Durousseau's first day...