The FBI and Miami police rushed to a house near the city's international airport yesterday after a doctor was found murdered in his bed. A man fitting the description of the suspect in the Gianni Versace killing, Andrew Cunanan, was seen running from the house, police said.
"The description is pretty close, (to Cunanan), the FBI is interested," said Ms Nelda Fonticiella, a police spokeswoman. A neighbour saw a "white male, slim build, well-dressed . . . running from the scene" in Miami Springs.
Police said they had not established a definite link between the two murders. The doctor, named by one TV station as Mr Silvio Alfonso (44), had been shot.
Local television stations quoted neighbours as saying yesterday's murder victim was homosexual. Police have called Mr Cunanan a male prostitute while others who have studied his life before he began what authorities suspect was a series of at least four murders say he was an upwardly mobile gigolo who preyed on wealthy gay men. He also has been described as highly intelligent and a master of disguise.
Mr Versace was shot and killed at the gates of his Miami Beach mansion last Tuesday. Police have said Mr Cunanan is their only suspect.
Earlier yesterday, a funeral home source said that Mr Versace "has been cremated and his ashes have been released to the family . . . They are taking a private plane from Miami this morning." The source said Mr Versace's body had been taken from the Riverside Gordon Memorial Chapel in North Miami Beach and cremated in nearby Fort Lauderdale.
Mr Versace's sister Donatella and brother Santo visited the Miami Beach mansion on Wednesday and were expected to travel back to Italy with the ashes.
A memorial service is to be held today in St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in Miami Beach.
Police said they did not know if Mr Versace, a homosexual, had any relationship with Mr Cunanan, although the Vanity Fair writer Maureen Orth said the two men had met at least once in San Francisco. The San Francisco Chronicle similarly reported there had been a meeting between them.