INVESTIGATING A SERIAL KILLER

For years, society has been fixated with serial murderers. remained an enduring source of fascination law enforcement investigators, academics, mental health experts, and the media have studied serial murderers and long attempted to understand the complex issues related to serial murder investigations.

Everywhere you turn these days, it seems like there’s a new—and wildly successful—book, podcast, or show devoted to a crime. Investigation Discovery, a hit from when it debuted in 2008, continues to top the ratings. From Serial and Dr. Death to In the Dark and Atlanta Monster, there’s no shortage of true crime podcasts. The genre is so huge that Netflix—whose offerings in this arena include The Keepers, Evil Genius, Wild Wild Country, Making a Murderer, The Staircase, and many more—even created a parody true crime series (American Vandal). Movies like the ‘Psycho’ and ‘Silence of the Lambs’; Television shows like ‘Wolf Creek’, and songs like ‘The Ripper’ by Judas Priest with its spine-chilling lyrics provide evidence of a widespread fascination with serial killers.

The trials and tribulations of Jack the Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy and Australia’s own Ivan Milat have captured the interest and attraction of many. The topic of serial murder occupies a unique niche within the criminal justice community. In addition to the significant investigative challenges they bring to law enforcement, serial murder cases attract an over-abundance of attention from the media, mental health experts, academia, and the general public.

The true crime genre gives people a glimpse into the minds of people who have committed what “a most fundamental taboo and also, perhaps, a most fundamental human impulse”—murder. In every case, there is an assessment to be made about the enormity of evil involved. This fascination with good versus evil has existed forever; that our fascination begins when we're young. Even as kids, we're drawn to the tension between good and evil, and true crime embodies our fascination with that dynamic.

We want to figure out what drove these people to this extreme act, and what makes them tick, because we'd never actually commit murder. We want some insight into the psychology of a killer, partly so we can learn how to protect our families and ourselves, but also because we are simply fascinated by abnormal behaviour and the many paths that twisted perceptions can take.

What we know is that there is no universal or single identifiable cause or factor that leads to the development of a serial killer. Rather, there are a multitude of factors that contribute to their development. The most significant factor is the serial killer’s personal decision in choosing to pursue their crimes.

In labelling a ‘serial murder’ police must first ascertain a specified a certain number of murders, varying from two to ten victims. This quantitative requirement distinguishes a serial murder from other categories of murder (i.e. single, double, or triple murder). A required period between the murders is also required. This break-in-time was necessary to distinguish between a mass murder and a serial murder. Serial murder required a temporal separation between the different murders, which can be described as: separate occasions, cooling-off period, and emotional cooling-off period.

Causality of serial murderers can be generally classified as:

• Predisposition to serial killing, much like other violent offenses, is biological, social, and psychological in nature, and it is not limited to any specific characteristic or trait.

• The development of a serial killer involves a combination of these factors, which exist together in a rare confluence in certain individuals. They have the appropriate biological predisposition, moulded by their psychological makeup, which is present at a critical time in their social development.

• There are no specific combinations of traits or characteristics shown to differentiate serial killers from other violent offenders.

• There is no generic template for a serial killer.

• Serial killers are driven by their own unique motives or reasons.

• Serial killers are not limited to any specific demographic group, such as their sex, age, race, or religion.

During my time in the Australian Federal Police, I was involved in many investigations into the abhorrent abuse and exploitation of children, including a particular gruesome serial killing of young girls aged between 8-12 years old in Central America. The string of homicides that occurred between 1998 and 2000, where a number of primary school girls were viciously abducted and murdered. The killer stalked the children of single parents from low-income families around markets, schools and community areas. He would befriend the victims with gifts and trinkets before enticing them to leave with him and taking them to remote areas.

There murders were gruesome and horrendous, with multiple stab wounds to their little bodies, in some cases more than 40 and in some cases body parts appeared to be surgically dismembered. Their autopsies revealed the girls had been numbed with alcohol and drugs. The killer or killers immobilized the little girls before using the scalpel to make intricate slices into the girl’s bodies, enough to seriously harm them but not to kill them. In his opinion the killer either had a medical background or access to surgical instruments which he was highly skilled at using.

Early findings revealed the suspect/s were paraphilic killers. Paraphilias include sexual behaviours society may view as distasteful, unusual, or abnormal A paraphilia is a condition in which a person's sexual arousal and gratification depend on fantasizing about and engaging in sexual behaviour that is atypical and extreme. A paraphilia is considered a disorder when it causes distress or threatens to harm someone else. A paraphilia can revolve around a particular object (children, animals, underwear) or a particular behaviour (inflicting pain, exposing oneself) but is distinguished by a preoccupation with the object or behaviour to the point of being dependent on that object or behaviour for sexual gratification. Most paraphilias are far more common in men than in women. The focus of a paraphilia is usually very specific and unchanging.

More than 20 years later this killer is still at large, somewhere in the world and potentially still plying his craft. Although I was unable to continue my role in this investigation, I’ve followed its progress and lack there of for decades. I often pause and wonder how much pain, and terror these tiny angels were subjected to, the impact and pain their loved ones are still feeling and the hollow feeling and despair the local police must suffer knowing they have yet to solve this horrific serial murder.