Alabama inmate convicted in dancer’s 1982 rape and murder to plead guilty in 1980 Boston killing
An Alabama man convicted in the 1982 murder of a Sammy’s Go-Go dancer is set to plead guilty in a Massachusetts murder of a sex worker.
Steven Fike, 65, was expected to plead guilty this week to a reduced charge of manslaughter in the 1980 killing of Wendy Dansereau at a Boston motel.
However, “unrelated matters” in the plea agreement pushed to court proceedings to March, according to NBC Boston.
Fike was first linked by DNA in 2019 to Dansereau’s murder and then arrested for the crime in 2022.
Fike, a Birmingham native described as a drifter, was convicted when he was 23 years in the Jan. 30, 1982, rape and murder of Patricia Ann Culp, a dancer at Sammy’s on Third Avenue West in Birmingham.
He was sentenced to life in prison and is an inmate at Elmore Correctional Facility.
The 20-year-old Culp was last seen entering the Hiway Host Motel on Bessemer Super Highway.
Her body was later found in a ditch, in about six inches of water, alongside Interstate 59 in Tuscaloosa County.
An autopsy later showed Culp died from “a severe blow to the back of her head.”
The manager of the Birmingham motel testified that Fike and Culp arrived in the early morning hours of Jan. 30, 1982, at the motel in a red car. They registered and went to Room 330.
The next morning the housekeeper discovered that one of the beds in Room 330 had been stripped and all the linens, bedspread, and blanket were missing from the room. Traces of blood were found in various areas of the motel room, including on the mattress.
Several witnesses testified they saw Fike at the Omelette Shop near the Birmingham Airport about 10 a.m. Jan. 30. He was seen driving a red Mustang.
Later that morning, Fike bought some new shoes. He then went to the Ramada Inn near the airport around 1 p.m. where he was seen changing clothes in the men’s room at this time.
Fike gave a bag containing shoes and keys to the Ramada Inn desk clerk. He then had the driver of the Ramada Inn van take him to get cigarettes and drop him at the airport.
Later that day, one of the security officers for the Ramada Inn noticed a red Mustang with a broken window. When he looked inside the car, he found a tote bag which contained a sheer nightgown, panties, make-up and a pill bottle with the name Patricia Culp on it.
Photographs of Culp were found in the glove compartment. Blood was found in the trunk of the car, and a tire tool with hair fibers on it was also recovered in the trunk.
Fike was identified as the suspect after investigators composed a sketch of the suspect through witness descriptions and then police files.
A murder warrant was issued, and a nationwide alert sent to law enforcement agencies across the country. Fike was eventually arrested in Atlanta.
In Dansereau’s killing, Massachusetts authorities said an employee of the Hotel Diplomat in Boston’s South End discovered Dansereau’s body inside a hotel room on March 18, 1980.
She had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
A sample of DNA collected during the early stages of the investigation was entered into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) and was ultimately matched to Fike’s genetic profile.
His DNA had been entered into the national database as the result of his conviction for Culp’s murder.
In addition to DNA and physical evidence, police reports put Fike in New England the day before the victim’s body was found, Rollins said.
“Ms. Dansereau was 19 years old when she was murdered, and her family has waited nearly four decades to know what happened to her,’’ former Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins said at the time of Fike’s indictment.
“Today, we have not only the advances in forensic testing necessary to identify her killer, but a team of dedicated professionals – including Boston Police Detective Jack Cronin and SCDAO Civilian Investigator Emily Wood – who have worked to find answers for Ms. Dansereau’s loved ones,’’ he said, “especially her daughter, who was only four weeks old at the time of her mother’s death and has waited her entire life for accountability.”
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