Investigators are looking into whether a man suspected of killing a woman he met on the Tinder dating app in New York City may have killed others, police said.

Danueal Drayton, 27, was arrested last week in Los Angeles and charged with attempted murder after police said he sexually assaulted a woman, tried to strangle her and refused to let her leave her North Hollywood apartment.

After his arrest, he talked about killing at least five others in Connecticut and New York, officials said. Investigators are trying to determine whether his claims are true.

Danueal Drayton
Danueal Drayton (New York Police Department/AP)

The officials said Drayton did not admit killing Samantha Stewart, a nurse found dead in her New York City apartment, although police believe he is responsible.

Stewart’s body was found on July 17, wrapped in blankets on the floor of her bedroom in Queens, and it appeared she had been strangled and some of her teeth had been knocked out, police said.

Her brother found her body and called their father, who then called police, authorities said.

The officials said Drayton met Stewart on Tinder and then used her credit card to buy a plane ticket to California. Detectives tracked him to LA, where they found him holding a woman against her will in North Hollywood and arrested him.

Investigators also linked Drayton to a June 17 rape in Brooklyn, police said. The 23-year-old victim had met Drayton on Tinder and they spoke for a few hours before meeting, the officials said.

Drayton allegedly choked the woman when she said she wanted to leave and then raped her, according to the officials.

Investigators believe Drayton may be responsible for other attacks and believe he was using several dating websites and apps to meet women, said Dermot Shea, the chief of detectives in New York City.

Officials are using DNA testing to determine whether Drayton’s DNA turns up in forensic evidence collected from any unsolved homicides.

Drayton, who has history of violence against women, including arrests for unlawful imprisonment and strangulation in Connecticut, bought a one-way ticket to California almost immediately after Stewart was killed, Mr Shea said.

He was arrested on Long Island on June 30 and charged with choking his ex-girlfriend, breaking into her house and then sending her a threatening Facebook message that he was going to cut her car’s brake lines, set it on fire or blow it up, according to court documents.

The day she received the message, the woman said she saw Drayton outside her home slashing her tyres, the documents said.

He pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and rape in LA when he was arraigned on Monday.

Court documents say he held the woman against her will by using “violence, menace, fraud and deceit”.