Did anyone watch Nancy Grace regarding Robert Browne? He confessed sorta in letters of killing 49 other women all over US...He had no names but had described the address where he found the girls. I hope police can connect where he was during the years from 1980 and see what states vs the missing to see if they can solve some of these cold case's. I live in Tennessee and we had Jennifer Wyant missing during that time and the picture they showed of him in 1980 sure looks alot like someone I saw during that time. I just hope they can connect him to the unsolved ones and put an end of the not knowing to some of these family and friends:
Story on Nancy Grace, CNN as follows:
Robert Browne was convicted in 1995 on his guilty plea of killing a 13-year-old girl right outside of Colorado Springs in 1991. That was the end of his spree, if you will, or his self-proclaimed spree. He`s in prison now, but investigators are starting to patch together a past that is pretty frightening, to say the least.
GRACE: Out to Sheriff Terry Maketa, El Paso County sheriff. Sheriff, thank you for being with us. How did he go from being convicted of killing 13-year-old Heather Dawn Church, a babysitter outside Colorado Springs, how did he go from that to now being suspected as the most prolific serial killer in the country?
SHERIFF TERRY MAKETA, EL PASO COUNTY SHERIFF: Well, basically, I would say it`s because he began sharing information with our detectives. And I would have to say they deserve some credit. They spent a lot of time with him. This was a very lengthy investigation.
GRACE: Why did he start talking? And when did he start talking, Sheriff?
MAKETA: You know, it started with the exchange of letters originally in 2000, but it really picked up in 2002, and providing information in these letters. And at first, that`s the only way he would communicate.
Eventually, he allowed our detectives to come down to the prison he was serving his sentence in, and he began giving bits and pieces of information, but almost to a point where he was basically making the detectives work for it.
GRACE: But who was he writing the letters to?
MAKETA: He began writing letters to the sheriff`s office and then, more specifically, he began writing letters to the detectives.
GRACE: Now that you`ve been taking a look at it, Sheriff, do you see a similarity between the various victims? This is unheard of. You`re behind bars on one crime. Did he have the death penalty for that crime against Heather Dawn Church, the 13-year-old babysitter?
MAKETA: No, that was part of the original plea agreement when he pled guilty for Heather Dawn Church that the state would not seek the death penalty. So he got life in prison without the possibility of parole.
GRACE: Well, isn`t Colorado a death penalty state, or am I wrong about that?
MAKETA: No, you`re absolutely right. Colorado does have the death penalty.
GRACE: OK, Sheriff, help me out. I`ve got a feeling you may be on my side. All right, you kill a 13-year-old babysitter, a little girl -- did you see those glasses?
MAKETA: Oh, yes.
GRACE: And you don`t get the death penalty, all right. What happened?
MAKETA: You know, basically, I think the suspect, Robert Browne, knew that he could potentially face the death penalty. And probably, as a strategic move, went ahead and took a plea of life in prison without parole. And the district attorney at the time, they chose not to go with the death penalty.
In retrospect, to some degree, I`m glad they didn`t. I think we had a good case, but we wouldn`t have the information we have today and we wouldn`t have the sense of closure that we have at least brought to two people, that being the husband and daughter of...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Yes, that`s a really good point, Sheriff. To Detective Jeff Nohr, El Paso County sheriff`s office -- he`s been handling this case -- Detective, first of all, we`ve got the 13-year-old girl, Heather Dawn Church. He`s convicted of killing her. Then there`s another girl, another teenager -- let me see if I can find -- Rocio Sperry, vanished in 1987. And those remains were not found for many, many years. He got rid of her remains. Now, how did this guy open up to start confessing?
DET. JEFF NOHR, DETECTIVE HANDLING THE CASE: With Mr. Browne, when he started providing information in regards to Rocio Sperry, he only gave bits and pieces of the information, such as a white Grand Am and young Army soldier. He did not know Ms. Sperry`s name. He provided an address of where she had lived and where he was employed. Ms. Sperry would come into his store.
GRACE: Oh, wait a minute, Detective, I`m sorry to interrupt you, but we just put up a -- you`ve got to hear this. I`m sure you`re familiar with it.
This is part of his letter. "Seven sacred virgins, entombed side by side. Those less worthy are scattered wide. The score is you one; the other team" -- me, I guess, him -- "48. If you were to drive to the end of the zone in a white Trans Am, the score could be 9 to 48. That would complete your home and court sphere."
Detective, what kind of a freak are we talking about that would write something like that? Is that the white Trans Am you`re talking about?
NOHR: Actually, it was a Grand Am and he had written Trans Am. Mr. Browne, as far as, you know, writing his stuff, that came in a letter as being poetic, trying to taunt us with that information. That`s in the very beginning stages.
GRACE: Poetic? He thinks he`s poetic?
NOHR: Yes.
GRACE: OK, Detective, correct me if I`m wrong. You know this case like the back of your hand. He killed one lady with an ice pick. He knocked out one lady with ant killer, then finished her off with a screwdriver. He has forgotten a lot of his victims` names. They mean absolutely nothing to him. And he thinks he`s a poet?
NOHR: Well, in his writings, I guess so.
GRACE: Detective, how do you do this? You know, every day after day, you must have been working on this case a really long time.
NOHR: I had been assigned to this case approximately 17 months.
GRACE: Does it ever get to you when you read poetry like this and you realize this guy is talking about innocent people`s bodies and murders?
NOHR: No. What you`re looking at is obtaining the information for the victim and the victim`s families to bring them some closure.
GRACE: OK, I want to get back to the crime at hand. You know, Sheriff Maketa just said something I think is very correct, Detective. He said he`s glad it wasn`t the reverse. And, actually, I think he`s right, because if this guy had already gotten the death penalty for the death of a 13-year-old, we would never have all this information.
And is there anything in the prior deal, Sheriff Maketa, that precludes prosecutors from seeking the death penalty this time?
MAKETA: Actually, there is not. States like Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, they can file charges, and they can pursue the death penalty if their state law allows it. There was no deals offered in the original sentence with Heather Dawn Church, and there was none with this case.
GRACE: Let`s go out to Tiffany Koenig, defense attorney. Tiffany, no statute of limitations on murder. Now this guy has opened up and started writing these poems about his murders that he did in the past to the tune of about 49, Tiffany. Do you think some defense attorney is not doing a back flip over that?
KOENIG: Well, I don`t know if we`d be doing back flips, but certainly he`s not helping himself out by speaking at all. And if that`s -- it`s at least been my experience with serial killers that they just tend to keep talking and they like to have the attention. And it`s not really going to matter to him, because he`s in prison for life as it is.
GRACE: Take a look at this, Dr. Patricia Saunders. Robert Browne`s criminal behavior starts off with cruelty to animals, theft, auto theft, burglary, arson, homicide. The cruelty to animals things really sticks out.
You remember Jeff Dahmer, the cannibalistic killer, BTK killer, he was a dog catcher, Avery, that is soon to be tried for the death of a young girl, a photographer that came to his junk yard for AutoFinder, I believe it was. How does cruelty to animals fit in with later serial killers?
DR. PATRICIA SAUNDERS, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, there`s something called the McDonald`s triad that shrinks talk about, and it`s one of the best predictors we have of who`s going to turn out to be a psychopath and maybe that rare bird, the serial killer like this one. It`s three things: cruelty to animals; bedwetting; and arson as a child.
GRACE: But what`s the connection? I mean, I can read the stats, but what`s the connection between somebody that`s cruel to animals and then becomes a serial killer?
SAUNDERS: Power and the pleasure in having control, absolute control over a helpless victim. People like this have no conscience. They have no remorse. And very often, sex and violence and aggression are all mixed up for them.
GRACE: Back to you, Gary, veteran trial lawyer, speaking of all these poems that he`s been writing, if the bodies of these victims can`t be found and the poems give enough detail that only the killer would know, how do you get those writings into evidence at trial?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it`s going to be very difficult to get the writings into evidence.
GRACE: Can`t you get them in with a handwriting sample?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that`s one way. You`ll have to have a forensic handwriting expert at the trial.