The biggest reason that killers of two or more people can still live free is the problem of "linkage blindness," Hargrove said.
Homicide detectives are assigned single cases, and unless one happens to chat with a colleague who has a very similar case on his or her docket, those cases are unlikely to be linked, he said.
Despite an advent of forensic DNA databases, there is still no central clearinghouse for homicide cases or serial killer cases, said retired FBI profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole, who worked on several serial killing cases during her career.
If it were, she said, it might be easier to connect homicide cases. In the Golden State Killer case, proper storage of forensic evidence plus advances in technology seem to be the key to cracking the murders. It's possible to process very old forensic evidence with new methods, O'Toole told Live Science. Unfortunately, if technology opens new doors for solving serial murders, a lack of money may slam them shut. Insufficient funding for detectives and technicians keeps police from solving many murders, Hargrove said.
According to FBI estimates , only 59 percent of homicide investigations in the U. The numbers are even worse for rape Other reasons may also explain the low rate of arrests, including a high bar for making an arrest as well as what some call an increasing no-snitch culture, especially among some minority groups who are reluctant to come forward as witnesses, according to experts interviewed by NPR.
Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. Several of them knew each other, one pair of victims even being cousins. Perhaps more bizarrely was that all of the victims acted as police informants, several of whom actually reported on other Jeff Davis victims before their own murders.
The investigation into murders of the Jeff Davis 8 never identified a legitimate suspect, but it led to wild allegations of misconduct amongst Louisiana police. Muddling the case further, an investigative reporter later stated the person or people responsible for these killings were most likely part of law enforcement. The fact that the perpetrator or perpetrators could be investigating their own crimes makes the Jeff Davis 8 a particularly disturbing case.
Today, the case is known as a possible example of police corruption. In February , a woman out for a walk with her dog discovered what she believed to be human bones on a mesa near Albuquerque, New Mexico. Police soon investigated, and to their shock, they subsequently discovered the remains of eleven women in total along the same stretch of land.
The women ranged between ages and were all involved in the sex trade. Most were of Hispanic descent and one of the women was pregnant at the time of her murder. While the case remains unsolved, police do have two major suspects. However, one of them is in prison on an unrelated charge and the other is dead.
Lorenzo Montoya lived in a trailer a few miles from where the victims were found, but was killed in by a sex worker and most likely his next victim. The case is still open today. The Rainbow Maniac was a serial killer in Carapicuiba, Brazil who targeted gay men.
Over the span of 18 months between and , the Rainbow Maniac killed 13 people execution-style with bullets to the head, all of whom were killed in Paturis Park and then dumped in nearby bushes with their trousers around their ankles. One of his victims he beat to death and his twelfth victim was shot a grand total of twelve times. However, at the time of the murders, several ultra-conservative groups were highly vocal of their intolerance towards homosexuality.
In , a suspect was arrested and trialed in relation to the killings, but was found not guilty by the deciding jury. Back in , a curious motorcyclist made his way into Soka forest in Ibadan , Oyo State, Nigeria, and what he found was like something from a HP Lovecraft story. He found a small colonized area of decrepit buildings, and inside there were over twenty rotten corpses and severed human skulls, and most terrifyingly, ten live people chained to slaughter benches.
Other buildings had piles of clothes, boots and passports inside them. Police have attempted to trace the owners of the passports but have been unable to find them. Photo via thenationalonlineng. Exactly who might be responsible for such horrors is still unconfirmed, but rumors state that the place may have been a den for religious zealots to indulge in ritual sacrifice and flesh-eating.
Nigeria is a very religious country, and such cannibalistic acts have deep primal associations. Since the discovery of the forest, many Nigerians with missing relatives have flocked to the area to search for their loved ones. All drowned after getting intoxicated. However, the kicker is that these drownings happening in 11 different states. Despite the distance between them, some detectives think that drownings are actually the work of a serial killer or group of serial killers.
This is dubbed the Smiley Face Murder Theory. Allegedly, detectives claim that smiley faces have been found near the sites where at least twelve of the men have drowned. Firstly, date-rape drugs were found in the systems of some of the victims — enough to render them completely unconscious. The victim profile is very similar in every case — male, white, athletic, successful, popular. Lastly is the condition of the bodies. One victim had been missing for 40 days, but the deterioration of his corpse was nowhere near consistent with someone who had been in water for 6 weeks.
This was also the case for multiple other victims. Pedro Lopez was born Columbia in He was the son of a prostitute and as a child, was forced to watch his mother partake in extreme sexual acts. He himself was often molested too, and Lopez claimed that these events significantly affected his psyche.
By the early s, Lopez had begun to rape and kill young girls across South America. When an attempted abduction went wrong in , Lopez was apprehended by locals and handed over to police in Peru.
Once in custody, Lopez spewed out his colorful life story, including being captured by a native tribe and sentenced to execution for killing a young girl. Police were naturally skeptical of such a claim, but Lopez led police to a mass grave where they found the remains of 53 of his victims.
The details then a little hazy after this, with different sources reporting different stories, but what is confirmed is that Pedro Lopez was set free from prison in , despite racking up one of the highest body counts in known history. He was sent to a mental home for three years and was then set free.
In , Lopez was suspected of being responsible for a new murder. However, no one has been able to find him since There are five million vending machines across the country, making an average of one vending machine per every 23 people. Between April and November in Hiroshima, 12 people were killed as a result of paraquat poisoning and a further 35 were seriously injured. Around the same time, the company behind Oronamin C had launched a marketing campaign offering free bottles of the drink from vending machines whenever someone made a purchase.
Police soon pieced things together and found that someone had been lacing these Oronamin C drinks with paraquat and placing them back on top of the vending machine. It was almost impossible for the police to track down the person responsible since it was difficult to narrow down where a person had originally picked up the drink.
Most of the vending machines responsible were in quiet back streets with no CCTV around. Also known as the Danilovsky Maniac, the Maniac with Dull Eyes was a Russian serial killer responsible for at least seven murders between and Over in Cherepovets, Vologda Oblast , Russia, various bodies were found around the city, dumped in construction sites and in abandoned buildings.
Perhaps most creepily, however, is that with each scene the killer left a calling card. Police found crude pornographic drawings on the walls near where every body was found. After establishing that a serial killer was likely responsible for these seven murders, police also linked the Maniac with a series of murders dating back to He was also suspected in the murder of a young woman in His total assumed victim count is An ever-elusive bunch, serial killers are perhaps the most unsettling phenomenon of modern life.
Want to keep our site ad-free? Some of their comments….. Checking these comments…. You star your comment with whoever. So many opinions to labeling women who become victims, most ladies of the night are in some way addicts wether drugs or alcohol.
Unfortunately the chase for there drug has put them in some tough situations but never blame victims, these opportunist are predators who watch, follow and strike at most opportune time. We have to be mindful most of these victims have children, families, and they didnt want there life to turn out like this. Many serial killers kill gay men or prostitutes big all big a lot have.. Stop with the political nonsense already. It is not always making choices that make you more available to become a victim.
When I was young I would walk most everywhere I wanted to go, such as the beach or store or to get a burger at the local burger joint. I also locked my doors and windows and worked for law enforcement as a communications and operater. One night after getting off work I was showering, getting ready for bed when I heard this loud bang come from my apartment bedroom. I stepped out of the shower and observed a shadow move across the bedroom window which was now leaning up against the wall where the window had been.
I left the water running as I decided to face whoever was out there. Those thoughts were all the time it took me to make my decision to face my advisary. I stepped into my bedroom naked and wet. The man that was hiding in my closet stepped out and grabbed me. He got his arm around me from behind when I turned to run.
Intentionally or not, many killers vary their tactics, targeting people of different races and genders in different locations. With no way to draw comparisons between these seemingly unconnected cases, computers and humans alike are helpless to link them.
For years the popular media and even some academic researchers declared that serial murder claimed, on average, 5, victims each year in the U. Fox says that figure is grossly misleading, based on the false assumption that any homicide with an unknown motive — of which there are about 5, annually — is the work of a serial killer.
Regardless, those sensational claims enthralled the nation, and the world. And today, though their ranks have shrunk, serial killer fascination does seem to be returning.
In the Mindhunter series, which aired in and explores the origin of criminal profiling in the FBI, one of the two lead characters is based on aforementioned agent Ressler. And barring major advances in our ability to catch them, we cannot fully grasp their magnitude. Register or Log In. The Magazine Shop. Login Register Stay Curious Subscribe.
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