NIAGARA COUNTY, N.Y. -- The discovery Tuesday night isn't the first time in recent years police in Niagara Falls have faced an investigation involving a dismembered body.
"I knew it was going to happen if they didn't put this person away," said Arthur Gates.
Loretta Jo Gates' father now suspects that fear has been realized, nearly three years after her death.
"We started getting messages this morning about the body that was found, on Willow Ave. The similarities of it matches, Loretta Jo's murder," Gates said Wednesday.
Gates' torso was found in the Niagara River in 2012. Several limbs were found in Hyde Park Lake. No arrests have ever been made.
"It's really close to home," Gates said. "Even if it's not the same, it's still in the family, sort of."
The victim in this latest crime, Terri Lynn Bills, 46, dated Loretta Gates' uncle for several years. Gates' family says she thought of Bills like an aunt.
"They were friends. They were family. They hung out and did the bad stuff, not the good stuff. It's just that area of illegal activity, I would say," said Arthur Gates.
Gates' family says Bills was very helpful in the search for answers after her remains were found. They also say she has two teenagers who, like Gates' three children, now face life without their mother.
"I do think it's the same person," said Gates. "Am I right? I hope not. 'Cause if it is, that means, the girl that passed away sacrificed, and the person not going to jail for what he's done. It's just a shame that it's taken so long."
Arthur Gates urges anyone who might have information about either crime to come forward, particularly because of one last similarity: Just like three years ago, he worries about what will happen if the killer isn't caught.