BATON ROUGE - Keys accidentally left in a door, possibly a friendly smile and possibly an unlocked door were open invitations to a man who has killed at least three women here in the past year.

Investigators revealed Tuesday that Pam Kinamore, the third victim of the as-yet-unidentified serial killer, accidentally left her keys in the door the night she was slain, so the killer apparently just walked in as she was getting out of the bathtub. They also revealed that they have partial fingerprints of the killer and that victim Gina Green was strangled in her bed.

The details were not previously told to reporters, but questions were raised after the television show America's Most Wanted portrayed the slayings in a segment aired Saturday night. Until Tuesday, reporters repeatedly were told that such information could not be released.

Kinamore "carelessly left her key in the back door," Detective Sgt. Ike Vavasseur told reporters at a briefing Tuesday. "We believe she was taking a bath or had just finished taking a bath when she was approached by the suspect" because the bathtub still was partially filled with water when investigators arrived at her home.

"From information gathered at the scene, there's a possibility that she was removed from the residence unclothed," Vavasseur said.

Kinamore's nude body was found July 16, three days later, by a highway survey team under the Interstate 10 Whiskey Bay bridge. Her throat had been slashed.

No signs of forced entry were found at the other crime scenes now linked to the serial killer, investigators said. They suspect either a door was left unlocked or the victims allowed the killer to enter.

An FBI profile suggests that the killer tries to befriend his victims.

The investigators confirmed that the television show correctly portrayed that Green, the first victim, was strangled in her bed. But they would not say whether they believe Kinamore was bound and gagged before being carried from her home, as shown on the program. Prior to the portrayal on television, police said only that Green was strangled.

"For the most part, it was fairly accurate," Cpl. Mary Ann Godawa, spokeswoman for the eight-agency task force that's investigating the deaths, said of the program. However, a few of the portrayed details were provided by the task force.

"America's Most Wanted was well done," Godawa said. "It got information out nationwide and provided some good information."

She said 60 calls came into the show's Washington, D.C., office and 75 more came to the task force's toll-free tip line in Baton Rouge - (866) 389-3310).

The tips from other states could provide leads showing the killer has been active elsewhere, Godawa said. But the task force is concentrating on Baton Rouge because "we feel he has ties to Baton Rouge."

Among the leads being followed is one that first appeared publicly in a Sunday story in The Times-Picayune, which reported that members of the victims' families recently gathered to discuss the cases and said the only tie they can find is that the three women have frequented The Caterie, a Baton Rouge eatery that's co-owned by Gannett Capital Bureau Chief John Hill.

Vavasseur said Tuesday that the families' information was "definitely something of interest" and that it was being "investigated as a lead."

Hill said: "When we read the story in the Picayune Sunday, we were stunned because we were never contacted by any law enforcement agency. So we called police and offered our complete cooperation. We were told (by police) that the dogs had been through the shopping center (where the restaurant is located) and The Caterie was cleared."

Hill said that The Caterie employees have no recollection of any of the women as customers and that no credit card receipts with their names on them could be found in the restaurant's records.

Kinamore, an interior decorator, was known to be a regular visitor of Interiors Market, which is located near the restaurant, so she could have occasionally been a customer. But Hill said he had no confirming evidence of that.

Godawa said the task force has called in a large number of people for questioning in the investigation. "We had people we looked at as suspects, some as witnesses."

So far, there's no definite suspect, she said.