From: gln@cs.arizona.edu (Gary L. Newell)
Newsgroups: alt.true-crime
Subject: Re: True-crime ?
Date: 17 Dec 92 20:24:42 GMT
Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson

In article <xa27-171292085701@ura-bruce.uchicago.edu>, xa27@midway.uchicago.edu (Bruce Law) writes:
>  I agree that it sounds like they could be related. Here in the Midwest
> (you might have heard) there could be a episade working I-70 in a
> three/four state area. I find the arms, and maybe head showing up quickly,
> with the rest hidden of intrest. 

 I was also wondering about that. When I first heard about the case I expected
that it was probably an old boyfriend or someone who perceived himself to
be an old boyfriend but it became pretty clear that it was not when the
police did not have a single suspect in the first couple of days. I assume
that they carried out a pretty complete search of dumpsters in town in
an effort to find the remaining body parts but they did not. Her car
was found on the other side of town in a non-comercial area. She was 
identified because her mother had had her fingerprinted as a child (the
original reports claimed that the arms were a man's). She was a student at
the local community college, had two parttime kobs and was known to be a 
fairly normal young woman who did party at times but no more so than
most. The rest of her remains have yet to be found. I have read
nothing in the papers (what else is new in these cases - never any info)
to identify the car as the location of the murder nor has there
been any release as to whether the body was dismembered in a unique way
or with a unique tool (although there was some implication that this might
have been the case if I read between the lines correctly).
 
 The woman whose head was found in Phoenix I know little about (I'll try
to find some back articles). She was riding a bike and disappeared. A
jogger found her head stuck in a grate in a canal a few days later I 
believe. Again I assume searches were made to find the rest of her but I 
have not heard of anything in the case for sometime now.

 The woman's arms that were found in California were reported here with the
usual "police do not know if there are any connections between the two crimes"
stuff but it was mentioned that Tucson police were traveling (I think it might
have been the San Diego area? Anyone hear about a case like this??) there
which leads me to believe that they had some reason to suspect a connection.
These arms I believe (again I apologize for not having the specifics - students
keep me busy this time of year...) were found on the beach.

> Ted left heads where they could be found
> to play with the police, while keeping the rest and visiting (he said),but
> we know many others did as well. 

 Yes but I wonder if this is the case for "wandering" serial killers of the
Henry Lee Lucas type. That is, assuming that one man is responsible for
these three crimes (or even any two of the three), he has travelled
quite a bit in a month - a 300 mile radius at least. If memory serves,
haven't most of the "keep the corpse and spend time with it" folks 
tended to commit their crimes in or around a fairly well-defined area?
Bundy, The Green River Killer (it hasn't been proven but I believe there
was some speculation that the GRK visited some dumping sites for more
than another dump - wasn't there a skull that was found in Oregon from
a body in Washington??), The Genesee river killer and others tended to
be active in a single county or two rather than an area this large. I
do have to wonder where the hell the guy is dropping the rest of the 
remains. Bodies in the desert decompose very quickly and  I suspect that
the police are unlikely to ever find the remains but it must mean
something that the guy chose to drop off the arms in a dumpster in the
central part of town (not far from the University) and then in the
ocean where they would clearly be found. I've read about various
"water killers" that is, killers who tend to leave bodies (or parts)
in areas that are somehow related to water (the head in phoenix and the
arms in Calif would indicate this) but the dumpster these arms were found
in is not near any source of water moving or otherwise. 


> (Ted NOT being the best example of this
> sickness on any sub-topic thereof. Flame) Also, what did these women have
> in common besides being young, anything you remember? 

 No. I know nothing at all about the California case except that
they found a woman's amputated arms and chose to report it with the
above disclaimer (which made me suspicious). I'll check some
back papers to see what was given about the PHoenix victim.


> As you may have
> noticed, once these people start, they tend to become more frequent about
> it. One wonders when (if) the next will appear?, and where? 

 I'd give you a guess but I'm afraid that should one appear I'd be
visited by the FBI or whomever and trying to explain to them that my
guess was simply educated and based on reading about 30 true crime
books on serial killers probably wouldn't be fun. But in short, if
this is a true serial killing and if these three cases are connected, then 
I'd look for a victim in a college area of a relatively large SW
city (that is, you're not going to find a victim in say Santa Fe or
Yuma or someplace like that) and I doubt that it would be LA. I
can't help but wonder if any crimes like this remain unsolved in New
Mexico, Utah, or Nevada, or if there are similar victims
along the southern states. The path would seem to indicate a route to
California throuch Tucson and PHoenix which would indicate a path
through New Mexico and possibly Texas.
 
			gln
Newsgroups: alt.true-crime