Paul Holes and Billy Jensen spoke about this crime again on the most recent episode of their podcast,
Jensen and Holes: The Murder Squad.
I’m always interested to hear what Paul Holes has to say about a case, but I was especially interested to hear his thoughts about the autopsy report. I transcribed this portion of the podcast and thought I’d share.
(For anyone who may not already know -- Paul Holes is a retired forensics officer with the Contra Costa County DA’s office and the officer credited with identifying the Golden State Killer.)
Jensen and Holes: The Murder Squad
Season 3 Finale: Updates
Season 3 Finale: Updates - The Murder Squad
discussion begins at 23:51
Paul
So, the next update is from
Episode 23; our first recent cases episode. We discussed the murder of 40-year-old, Katie Janness. Katie was a bartender in the Atlanta area and had been in a 7-year-relationship with her partner, Emma Clark. The two had a three-year-old pit bull, Bowie.
Billy
On July 28, 2021, Katie told Emma she was taking Bowie out for a walk. By 1:00 AM, Katie was still not home. Emma was worried and used an app to find Katie’s location. The app led her to the entrance of PIEDMONT PARK, off 10TH STREET and CHARLES ALLEN DRIVE. The park was about a mile from Emma and Katie’s home. Just inside the gate to the park, she saw Bowie. She first thought he was hit by a car and then she started yelling for Katie. And then, she sees Katie about a hundred feet away.
Atlanta police called the scene gruesome and
“hard to stomach”. At that time, law enforcement said they found DNA in Bowie’s hair. It led them to believe that he was protecting Katie. At the time, there was speculation that markings were present on Katie’s body. Authorities released stills of surveillance footage looking for witnesses. On the footage, Katie and Bowie could last be seen on the crosswalk at 10TH STREET and PIEDMONT AVENUE. There was also neighborhood canvases conducted.
Since our coverage, Katie’s autopsy has been released. It turns out that she had been stabbed more than
FIFTY times in the face, neck, and torso. Fifteen of those wounds were to her head. And FOX5 Atlanta said that there were actually carvings in her torso, and the letters “F”, “A”, “T” were carved into her torso.
We have the autopsy report. Paul, is there anything you can glean from this in terms of who, you know, might have done this. You know, this does seem
incredibly over the top. Uh, obviously, every murder is over the top but this — this seems something like that. Is there anything else that you’re getting from this?
Paul
I’m getting a lot from this.
Um, you know, when I read this autopsy report — as I was going through it, um, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. And I actually sent this autopsy report to two investigators, two buds out of my old jurisdiction. Uh, because we have an unsolved series of crimes that, uh, several of the victims have almost identical types of injuries —
Billy
Really?
Paul
…to this, this woman. I mean, it’s specific enough to where I said this is worth a phone call.
Uh, in essence, you talk about how Janness has 15 wounds to her face. Those wounds were incisive wounds; they’re not stab wounds. None of those wounds penetrate deeper than — and let me just verify what the pathologist said — none of them penetrate deeper than 5/8ths of an inch. This is an offender using a knife and cutting this victim’s face over and over again. It’s not stabbing.
Additionally, you have, of course, stab wounds that are focused in on her breasts. You have her neck — in which, basically, her neck has been cut. Um, and then a lot of, uh, stab wounds to the back. But the most significant cluster is a cluster of 14 injuries to the lower back, in the region of a multicolored tattoo.
So, here you have a woman that has a tattoo on her lower back and the offender is purposely targeting the stab wounds. He is focusing the knife play into this tattoo area. And these tattoos, ya know, on the lower back on women — and I don’t know if this, like, covered the entirety of her lower back or if it was a very focused tattoo — but the offender took interest in that tattoo for whatever reason. Um, and if he knows her — which I don’t think — um, you know, that tattoo had significance to him and that could be an investigative lead. But, it also could potentially be something that he is sending a message to the victim and to those who are finding the victim’s body.
Um, this — the pathologist doesn’t note, you know, the amount of hemorrhaging in the wounds. Especially like — I was highly interested in the incisive injuries to the face. Like, I wanted to know if the pathologist had, um, observed hemorrhaging. Like the heart was still beating. There was still blood pressure, indicating that the victim’s face is being cut multiple times while she’s alive. THIS IS A SADIST. This is a sexual sadist.
You know, she does have, uh, stab wounds and incisive injuries to her abdomen, to the point to where you have internal organs, such as the intestines — some of the intestines — that are protruding out. Um, which is — overlaps with cases that I have worked. This guy is all about torturing this woman – hearing her scream, watching her writhe in pain. Um, and that is what he is getting off on. This — I’ve mentioned this before on this podcast. The sexual sadist is the worst type of offender to run across if you are a victim because the last moments of your life are horrific.
So, now I’m looking at this thinking… okay, you have a sexual sadist and he killed a dog. He killed Bowie and we don’t know
how Bowie was killed. Was it a single stab wound or did he do more to this dog? But this is a — this is a
VERY, VERY dangerous offender, in my opinion. And right now we don’t know if he has any relationship with the victim or if this is purely a stranger act, but the uh — the, the type of injuries that he’s inflicting on the victim — even though I think she’s fully clothed – but that doesn’t matter. Because what, you know — even though she’s fully clothed – this is a sexually motivated crime because the way that he is getting off is using his knife to inflict those sadistic acts.
Billy
So, we’re definitely going to be staying on this. We’re glad that they’re staying on it as we continue to get loud and continue to get loud for this case. Because this is one of those cases where we’re looking at a guy, and we’re saying this guy is going to do it again.
Paul
I think so.
Billy
It’s not like he’s, you know, uh — we’ve covered people that have, you know, that whole sort of one and done kill. And we’ve been looking at this a lot, and we’ve seen sometimes, um, when we’re looking at genetic genealogy, we find somebody that potentially only killed one time. And they all thought — everybody thought — that they may have killed multiple times, but they just killed one time.
THIS is a little different because we know that, um, she was most probably alive when these cuts were taking place. Like you said, these weren’t frenzied cuts. Um, these weren’t somebody jabbing in, you know, in a frenzy. This was something that was
very, very deliberate and deliberate to inflict. And the thing that he was getting was a reaction; that’s what he was all about.
Paul
Well, and the carving of the “F”, “A”, “T”. You know, it — she’s 5’6”, 155 pounds, you know. And this does not go anywhere in terms of, you know, what her body composition is. I’m not seeing any pictures, but he obviously is wanting to denigrate the victim. And, he basically – “F”, ”A”, “T” – he is deciding. He’s characterizing this victim from a physical standpoint, and that just correlates with his psychopathic, uh, aspects. He is – he is
tearing this victim up with a knife and he is also humiliating his victim by carving the “F”, “A”, “T” in her.
discussion ends at 32:17 
