GA - Katherine Janness, 40, walking dog, both fatally stabbed, Piedmont Park, Atlanta, 28 July 2021

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swedeheart said:
Park cameras weren’t working night of deadly Midtown stabbing, friends say
Click to expand...

This part of the article jumped out at me:

"The grisly scene, described by police as “gruesome,” is believed to be the first homicide in the park since the May 2009 death of 43-year-old Patrick Boland.


"Boland was stabbed in the chest during an early morning attack near the park’s lake, investigators said at the time. While the homicide was initially believed to be the result of a robbery, investigators later said they thought the man may have been “cruising” for sex when he was killed.

"The man’s murder was the first to occur inside Piedmont Park in 20 years. More than 12 years later, his homicide remains unsolved, the department confirmed Friday."

Upon more googling, it seems Boland was gay. His murder may have been a hate crime too: maybe Boland flirted with or propositioned the killer and this drove the killer into a hateful murderous rage.

The fact that Boland's killer got away with stabbing a member of the LGBT community in that very same park and could still be living in the area doesn't escape me.
 
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scriabina said:
This part of the article jumped out at me:

"The grisly scene, described by police as “gruesome,” is believed to be the first homicide in the park since the May 2009 death of 43-year-old Patrick Boland.


"Boland was stabbed in the chest during an early morning attack near the park’s lake, investigators said at the time. While the homicide was initially believed to be the result of a robbery, investigators later said they thought the man may have been “cruising” for sex when he was killed.

"The man’s murder was the first to occur inside Piedmont Park in 20 years. More than 12 years later, his homicide remains unsolved, the department confirmed Friday."

Upon more googling, it seems Boland was gay. His murder may have been a hate crime too: maybe Boland flirted with or propositioned the killer and this drove the killer into a hateful murderous rage.

The fact that Boland's killer got away with stabbing a member of the LGBT community in that very same park and could still be living in the area doesn't escape me.
Click to expand...

Wow. Great catch! Perhaps that's another reason the FBI is now involved.
 
scriabina said:
This part of the article jumped out at me:

"The grisly scene, described by police as “gruesome,” is believed to be the first homicide in the park since the May 2009 death of 43-year-old Patrick Boland.


"Boland was stabbed in the chest during an early morning attack near the park’s lake, investigators said at the time. While the homicide was initially believed to be the result of a robbery, investigators later said they thought the man may have been “cruising” for sex when he was killed.

"The man’s murder was the first to occur inside Piedmont Park in 20 years. More than 12 years later, his homicide remains unsolved, the department confirmed Friday."

Upon more googling, it seems Boland was gay. His murder may have been a hate crime too: maybe Boland flirted with or propositioned the killer and this drove the killer into a hateful murderous rage.

The fact that Boland's killer got away with stabbing a member of the LGBT community in that very same park and could still be living in the area doesn't escape me.
Click to expand...
Yes, I agree, it's a very similar crime, except more escalated now.

This is also the second brutal attack against a gay person in Atlanta this month.
Man found beaten and unconscious in Buckhead beginning to breathe on his own

Joshua Dowd, 28, remains in the hospital in a coma after suffering a severe brain injury on July 11.
Atlanta police launched their investigation after a stranger found Josh badly beaten and unconscious on train tracks in the Lindbergh area of Buckhead.
Police haven’t identified a suspect and are working to determine a motive.
Josh was last seen on surveillance video partying with friends at The Heretic on Cheshire Bridge Road. What happened after he left the bar remains a mystery.
“We honestly don’t know at this point because we don’t know who they were and what their intentions were when they came across him,” Kelly said.

While police continue their investigation, some people in the LGBTQ community say they are shaken by what happened.
 
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Katie was captured on camera walking across the intersection of 10th and Piedmont. I presume that she entered the park at the nearest entrance to that, which would be here:

Google Maps

There are apartments that butt right up beside that entrance. I wonder if anyone in the apartments heard anything. Surely the dog would have been barking loudly if he had a chance. If the dog was attacked first, in order to neutralize him, then I would expect that Katie would have screamed.

The main entrance to the park is further along 10th.
Has anyone seen exactly where her body was found and where the dog was found?


ETA: It seems that her body was found near the main entrance at 10th and Charles Allen Blvd, and not the entrance I linked above. That is based on this news item:
Atlanta Police, along with several other agencies, combed through the grass near the front entrance of the park at 10th Street and Charles Allen Drive. Investigators say the woman’s body was found several yards from the park entrance.
Click to expand...

Police search for evidence in brutal stabbing at Piedmont Park

The corrected location is here:

Google Maps
 
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I live in Midtown Atlanta, less than a mile from where this happened. Through friends who are closer to the situation, I was told more specifics of the crime that are not being released, at least not yet. Obviously I'm not going to divulge that because I don't have definitive confirmation and I don't want to spread information that may turn out to be false. But I will say that if accurate, it definitely changed my original perception of this crime, which was initially "another example of the general crime increase most cities are seeing". If the things I was told are true, this is a completely different animal and seems more serial killer-ish than targeting a specific person.

I've seen multiple posts saying this seems like a hate crime. It is certainly possible, but if I had to put $ on it, I'd say no. Midtown is a major hub of the LGBTQ community, and the specific part of Midtown where this happened is the epicenter of it. If you were going to pick a random person to kill there, it's a very high % (or at least much higher than the national average) that the person would just happen to be gay.

You also notice on the picture of her walking, there is a rainbow crosswalk. So it's not just an area where a lot of LGBTQ people happen to live.... it's a place where, when you're walking through it, the entire area is a celebration of the LGBTQ community. The reason that's important IMO is that someone who hates LGBTQ people enough to actually murder is not someone I could imagine being okay with living in that specific area. Kind of like if you hated Chinese people enough to murder a Chinese person, would you be okay with living in Chinatown? I guess it's possible, just seems unlikely. Of course you could argue it was someone who just drove into the area from elsewhere to commit the crime, but again, that would require a lot of brazenness to drive into an area where you're greatly outnumbered by the group you hate as opposed to killing someone of that identity closer to where you live which would be a safer bet. Doesn't make it impossible obviously, but it just doesn't seem like the most likely explanation. I guess we'll see.

I walked over there yesterday and being where it actually happened is very surreal and heartbreaking. My first question was how someone, even in a park that may not have had many people in it at midnight, could've made it through the park without being seen as he must've been covered in blood. But looking at the layout, his (assuming it was a man who did this) ability to get through the park without being seen wouldn't be difficult. The path from the entrance to the lake is lit, but it splits and goes around the lake, and there's a large median between that split that he could've walked through to get to the lake. Which is what i'm assuming he did since the police were searching the lake area. Fortunately, getting out of the park would be a lot tougher. It's surrounded on all sides by major roads that would have cameras up and down them.

Hopefully that's where they'll be able to get footage of whoever did this.

(and sorry for the long post.... this case has really been bothering me and I needed to get some of this out of my system).
 
Snoopster said:
Katie was captured on camera walking across the intersection of 10th and Piedmont. I presume that she entered the park at the nearest entrance to that, which would be here:

Google Maps

There are apartments that butt right up beside that entrance. I wonder if anyone in the apartments heard anything. Surely the dog would have been barking loudly if he had a chance. If the dog was attacked first, in order to neutralize him, then I would expect that Katie would have screamed.

The main entrance to the park is further along 10th.
Has anyone seen exactly where her body was found and where the dog was found?


ETA: It seems that her body was found near the main entrance at 10th and Charles Allen Blvd, and not the entrance I linked above. That is based on this news item:


Police search for evidence in brutal stabbing at Piedmont Park

The corrected location is here:

Google Maps
Click to expand...
Hey Snoopster, I live nearby and walked over there yesterday. The footage you may have seen of the memorial with people leaving flowers, cards, etc. is right at the entrance of the park. The spot where her body was actually found is also marked and is maybe 50 yards away from the entrance inside the park (I'm terrible at estimating distances, so that's just my guess). There is a vase of flowers there, not as much as the memorial at the entrance, but I haven't seen any footage of that spot on the news. Where her dog was found I'm not sure, I didn't see anything there marking that spot.
 
cheshire11 said:
Hey Snoopster, I live nearby and walked over there yesterday. The footage you may have seen of the memorial with people leaving flowers, cards, etc. is right at the entrance of the park. The spot where her body was actually found is also marked and is maybe 50 yards away from the entrance inside the park (I'm terrible at estimating distances, so that's just my guess). There is a vase of flowers there, not as much as the memorial at the entrance, but I haven't seen any footage of that spot on the news. Where her dog was found I'm not sure, I didn't see anything there marking that spot.
Click to expand...
Welcome to Ws cheshire11, thanks for chiming in with those tidbits!
 
cheshire11 said:
I live in Midtown Atlanta, less than a mile from where this happened. Through friends who are closer to the situation, I was told more specifics of the crime that are not being released, at least not yet. Obviously I'm not going to divulge that because I don't have definitive confirmation and I don't want to spread information that may turn out to be false. But I will say that if accurate, it definitely changed my original perception of this crime, which was initially "another example of the general crime increase most cities are seeing". If the things I was told are true, this is a completely different animal and seems more serial killer-ish than targeting a specific person.

I've seen multiple posts saying this seems like a hate crime. It is certainly possible, but if I had to put $ on it, I'd say no. Midtown is a major hub of the LGBTQ community, and the specific part of Midtown where this happened is the epicenter of it. If you were going to pick a random person to kill there, it's a very high % (or at least much higher than the national average) that the person would just happen to be gay.

You also notice on the picture of her walking, there is a rainbow crosswalk. So it's not just an area where a lot of LGBTQ people happen to live.... it's a place where, when you're walking through it, the entire area is a celebration of the LGBTQ community. The reason that's important IMO is that someone who hates LGBTQ people enough to actually murder is not someone I could imagine being okay with living in that specific area. Kind of like if you hated Chinese people enough to murder a Chinese person, would you be okay with living in Chinatown? I guess it's possible, just seems unlikely. Of course you could argue it was someone who just drove into the area from elsewhere to commit the crime, but again, that would require a lot of brazenness to drive into an area where you're greatly outnumbered by the group you hate as opposed to killing someone of that identity closer to where you live which would be a safer bet. Doesn't make it impossible obviously, but it just doesn't seem like the most likely explanation. I guess we'll see.

I walked over there yesterday and being where it actually happened is very surreal and heartbreaking. My first question was how someone, even in a park that may not have had many people in it at midnight, could've made it through the park without being seen as he must've been covered in blood. But looking at the layout, his (assuming it was a man who did this) ability to get through the park without being seen wouldn't be difficult. The path from the entrance to the lake is lit, but it splits and goes around the lake, and there's a large median between that split that he could've walked through to get to the lake. Which is what i'm assuming he did since the police were searching the lake area. Fortunately, getting out of the park would be a lot tougher. It's surrounded on all sides by major roads that would have cameras up and down them.

Hopefully that's where they'll be able to get footage of whoever did this.

(and sorry for the long post.... this case has really been bothering me and I needed to get some of this out of my system).
Click to expand...

Thanks for the insight. I think people might hear GA and think racist and homophobic. But you are right that does not remotely reflect this area. It does not seem likely it's just a local who hates the LGBTQ community.

I did wonder if whatever happened might have appeared to be directed at her sexuality. But we can only guess with no details. I just hope they find this person.
 
Thank you for the local details. Knowing this is a community celebrating the LGTBQ+ community, I guess you could argue someone who has hatred for that community would specifically go there to target someone who is gay. However, it just seems like a random place to go - a park after midnight? I suppose they figure they would escape easier and possibly unnoticed but unless they personally knew Katie, how did they even figure someone would be out walking there at that time of night?

I still haven't ruled out her happening upon something someone didn't want to see, startling them and them reacting to it. However, you'd think in that instance, they'd want to kill her quickly and get out of there. Hearing that this was very brutal, it seems personal IMO
 
MntnHiker said:
Thank you for the local details. Knowing this is a community celebrating the LGTBQ+ community, I guess you could argue someone who has hatred for that community would specifically go there to target someone who is gay. However, it just seems like a random place to go - a park after midnight? I suppose they figure they would escape easier and possibly unnoticed but unless they personally knew Katie, how did they even figure someone would be out walking there at that time of night?

I still haven't ruled out her happening upon something someone didn't want to see, startling them and them reacting to it. However, you'd think in that instance, they'd want to kill her quickly and get out of there. Hearing that this was very brutal, it seems personal IMO
Click to expand...

So I'll say that I've never been to the park that late, but from what I understand, it's never totally empty. Certainly less crowded, but if you were looking for a victim, it wouldn't be unusual to find one there. It would probably actually be the perfect balance of knowing someone would be there, but also knowing it wouldn't be so crowded that there would be witnesses.

Concerning whether she was specifically targeted, again it's certainly possible, but I'm leaning toward no. The primary reason is because of the details I know, which again in the spirit of not spreading disinformation, I won't go into until they're confirmed. But they aren't consistent with a rage killing, where you hate someone so much you just want to beat the hell out of them without much thought on how you do it. This has (again, based on the possibly untrue details I've been told) more the marks of a Jack the Ripper type crime.... very precise and surgical, not just blind uncontrolled rage. Like it was more about doing something specific to a body, regardless of whose body it was.

What is still odd to me that I'd be curious to get thoughts on is where the murder took place. If you don't want to get caught, there are a million places in the park that make more sense... dark corners near the edge of the woods, etc.. But he chose the entrance, one of the most well lit and risky places to do something like this. Right across the street from a neighborhood, very little tree cover, and one of the more well lit areas.

Even stranger, I observed a camera less than 50 yards from where the body was left. It appears to be pointing almost directly at the spot. Apparently the cameras weren't working that night, but even if that's true, would the killer have known that? So we have a very specific attack planned in a very specific area, which makes me draw 2 potential conclusions:

1.) He didn't do enough research to know a camera was there, meaning this wasn't very well planned
2.) He did know the cameras were there and intentionally picked a place that was highly visible, maybe to show off what he was doing. As if that was part of the point.
 
scriabina said:
This part of the article jumped out at me:

"The grisly scene, described by police as “gruesome,” is believed to be the first homicide in the park since the May 2009 death of 43-year-old Patrick Boland.


"Boland was stabbed in the chest during an early morning attack near the park’s lake, investigators said at the time. While the homicide was initially believed to be the result of a robbery, investigators later said they thought the man may have been “cruising” for sex when he was killed.

"The man’s murder was the first to occur inside Piedmont Park in 20 years. More than 12 years later, his homicide remains unsolved, the department confirmed Friday."

Upon more googling, it seems Boland was gay. His murder may have been a hate crime too: maybe Boland flirted with or propositioned the killer and this drove the killer into a hateful murderous rage.

The fact that Boland's killer got away with stabbing a member of the LGBT community in that very same park and could still be living in the area doesn't escape me.
Click to expand...

And might be someone who has been incarcerated on other crimes
 
Quick n' simple, lengthy profile refresher.. rbbm.
June 29, 2015
Serial Killers: Modus Operandi, Signature, Staging & Posing
''Organized Offenders
According to the offender and crime scene dichotomy, organized crimes are premeditated and carefully planned, so little evidence is normally found at the scene. Organized criminals, according to the classification scheme, are antisocial (often psychopathic) but know right from wrong, are not insane, and show no remorse.''
''With organized offenders, there are typically three separate crime scenes: where the victim was approached by the killer, where the victim was killed, and where the victim’s body was disposed of.''

Disorganized Offenders
"Disorganized crimes, in contrast, are not planned and the criminals typically leave evidence such as fingerprints or blood at the scene of the murder. There is often no attempt to move or otherwise conceal the corpse after the murder. Disorganized criminals may be young, under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or mentally ill. They often have deficient communication and social skills and may be below average in intelligence.

The disorganized offender is likely to come from an unstable or dysfunctional family. Disorganized offenders often have been abused physically or sexually by relatives. They are often sexually inhibited, sexually uninformed, and may have sexual aversions or other pathologies. They are more likely than organized criminals to be compulsive masturbators.''

"They are often isolated from others, live alone and are frightened or confused during the commission of their murders. They often do not have reliable transportation, so they kill their victims closer to home than organized offenders.

Significantly, disorganized killers will often “blitz” their victims—that is, use sudden and overwhelming force to assault them. The victim’s body is usually left where the attack took place and the killer makes no attempt to hide it. Jack the Ripper is a classic example of the disorganized serial killer.''
 
dotr said:
Quick n' simple, lengthy profile refresher.. rbbm.
June 29, 2015
Serial Killers: Modus Operandi, Signature, Staging & Posing
''Organized Offenders
According to the offender and crime scene dichotomy, organized crimes are premeditated and carefully planned, so little evidence is normally found at the scene. Organized criminals, according to the classification scheme, are antisocial (often psychopathic) but know right from wrong, are not insane, and show no remorse.''
''With organized offenders, there are typically three separate crime scenes: where the victim was approached by the killer, where the victim was killed, and where the victim’s body was disposed of.''

Disorganized Offenders
"Disorganized crimes, in contrast, are not planned and the criminals typically leave evidence such as fingerprints or blood at the scene of the murder. There is often no attempt to move or otherwise conceal the corpse after the murder. Disorganized criminals may be young, under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or mentally ill. They often have deficient communication and social skills and may be below average in intelligence.

The disorganized offender is likely to come from an unstable or dysfunctional family. Disorganized offenders often have been abused physically or sexually by relatives. They are often sexually inhibited, sexually uninformed, and may have sexual aversions or other pathologies. They are more likely than organized criminals to be compulsive masturbators.''

"They are often isolated from others, live alone and are frightened or confused during the commission of their murders. They often do not have reliable transportation, so they kill their victims closer to home than organized offenders.

Significantly, disorganized killers will often “blitz” their victims—that is, use sudden and overwhelming force to assault them. The victim’s body is usually left where the attack took place and the killer makes no attempt to hide it. Jack the Ripper is a classic example of the disorganized serial killer.''
Click to expand...
Does anyone any information on what kind of killer is likely to kill with a blade? Man or a woman, Repeat offender or Are they likely to know their victim or not.? I know it’s out there somewhere and I tried to Google it but could not find it.
Also I am curious to know if there are any similarities in offenders who kill with a knife and then commit post Mortem offenses, are they likely to know the victim or not.
 
I think Katherine may not have entered the park on her walk. She could’ve been on the sidewalk and lured to the park or pulled into the park maybe? She was killed so close to the sidewalk that it is possible she was lured a few yards in.
 
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