Another possible Wilder victim.
1983 slaying of young woman may have been work of serial killer
By Dan Herbeck | Published June 27, 2017 | Updated June 27, 2017
SHELBY Shari Lynne Ball's naked, badly decomposed body was found by a hunter nearly 34 years ago along Route 63 in Orleans County, in a soggy wildlife refuge known to locals as the Alabama Swamps.
But for more than three decades, no one knew who she was. She was listed in police reports as an unidentified "Jane Doe."
Then, in 2014, State Police had her body exhumed from the grave. A DNA sample was taken and compared with a national database. That enabled police to identify the victim as Ball, who had left her Florida home in 1983 at age 20 in hopes of pursuing a career as a fashion model.
And now, there is a growing belief that Ball may have been murdered by a suspected serial killer named Christopher Wilder, who struck up friendships with attractive young women, offered to help them find modeling jobs, and then raped and killed them.
"It's a possibility that absolutely cannot be ruled out, and it is very intriguing to us," said Christopher Weber, a senior investigator with the Troop A Major Crimes Squad in Batavia. "It certainly matches Wilder's method of operations. He portrayed himself as a professional photographer.
[...]
Police said they have no definitive proof that Wilder ever spent time in Western New York, but a Medina businesswoman told The Buffalo News she is "absolutely certain" that she met Wilder in Lockport on July 1, 1983 which would have been right around the time when Shari Lynne Ball was murdered and her body was left in the swamp off Route 63.
"I am absolutely certain that the man I met was Christopher Wilder," said the businesswoman, Shane Kurz Sia. "I was having a yard sale at my home in Lockport and he came zooming up in a flourish in a sports car with out-of-state plates. He hung around for about half an hour. He told me I was attractive, gave me his business card and told me he could help me get modeling jobs."
[...]
Sia said she found the encounter "kind of odd" and unsettling, but never gave it too much thought until about April 1984, when the FBI held a nationally televised news conference to announce that Wilder was a suspected serial killer and that he had been added to the agency's list of "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives."
"I said, 'That's the guy who came to the yard sale,' " Sia recalled.
http://buffalonews.com/2017/06/27/cold-case-files-woman-slain-1983-may-victim-serial-killer/
Much more to read at the link.
