Tips for a Safe Night Out

NEW YORK, July 28, 2006 — -- They were young. They were attractive. They were out for a good time. Instead they attracted sexual predators, and they wound up dead.

The recent murders of two young women in the New York area, both allegedly by sexual predators, have sparked concern about the safety of young female partygoers.

The victim latest is 18-year-old New Jersey resident Jennifer Moore. On July 20, her naked body was found in a Dumpster. She had been beaten and strangled after being followed from a Manhattan nightspot.

The attack on Moore came just months after graduate student Imette St. Guillen, 24, was allegedly raped, murdered and dumped in a vacant lot by Darryl Littlejohn, a nightclub bouncer at a popular Manhattan bar called the Falls.

The young women were assaulted and murdered following a long night's drinking and partying in popular Manhattan clubs.

Underage drinking and partying is a well-known problem -- according to figures from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 80 percent of high school seniors report that they have used alcohol and 64 percent report they have gotten drunk. Less well known is how to prevent tragedy from striking partygoers.

ABCNEWS.com talked to several experts on the risks that young people can face while drinking and partying.

According private investigator Steve Davis, a former New York Police Department captain, nightclubs and bars are particularly risky because young partygoers often go planning to meet strangers, and because clubs are often ill-equipped to monitor their customers' behavior.

Regardless of how nice the other person may seem, Davis said, it's important to remember the person is still a stranger -- and after a night of drinking your judgment becomes impaired.

If you are interested in the person, Davis recommended exchanging phone numbers or e-mail addresses and making plans to get together later on. If the person persists, tell the manager or bartender and alert your friends, he said.