Post #86..."Greetings all, this is my first post to this site, but I have been lurking it for quite a while…It is often stated here that it is desirable to see this case from a fresh viewpoint, and I believe that I have one that none here have, as no matter how cynical you may be, you are all ‘good people’, while I am not really: I am a sociopath and a sexual sadist – while I have never harmed anyone, and no longer have any intention of doing so, that is only because of intervention, therapy and monitoring before I had escalated past the ‘trolling’ stage. I have in the intervening years developed my sense of empathy to the point where I desire to see justice for victims of violent crimes, however I still do have the old fantasies and urges sitting in my head, and that is the viewpoint from which I am looking at this case, under the old ‘it takes a thief’ concept…
Please forgive the length of this analysis/scenario, which I will be using multiple posts for, and also for taking the time to point out/explain certain things that have already been discussed, as I find it convenient to talk about those things within the same body of work rather than attempting to dig up links to previous posts on those matters…
First off, we need to get rid of the assumption that the perp was known to the victims or otherwise had to enter through the front door just because there was no sign of forced entry and Sherrill was security conscious. As has been noted multiple times, there was a unique circumstance that night that may have negated the ‘all doors and windows locked’ scenario: Sherril was varnishing furniture that night, which means that there was a need for windows to be open to properly ventilate the home (central air wouldn’t work for those purposes), and even if she had decided to just ride out the fumes in her room with the door shut, the girls would not have had that option due to Suzie’s room having no interior door, and they very likely would have opted to open the sliding glass door to air things out (remember, teens think nothing bad could ever happen to them) – either way, you have a viable means of entry that would not show the next day, as the perps could have simply shut the door/window before leaving. And before anyone argues about window screens, unless you are talking about new, expensive all-in-one window setups, screens are very easy to pop out of the way without leaving signs of tampering if you know what you are doing.
When I look at this scenario, it SCREAMS serial killer or some other form of sexual predator – specifically an organized, sociopathic sexual-sadist, very likely working alone. To be rather crude, this initial crime scene is a sexual predator’s wet dream…as my analysis progresses, I think that you will see why I say this.
When the FBI ‘profiler’ stated that ‘this case is like no other that we (the FBI) have seen’, he was either grandstanding or an idiot, because this initial crime scene bears strong resemblance to a number of other cases – it is only in the exact combination of all details that it is unique, and that can be said for a large number of homicide/missing persons cases. A convenient way of getting across my point is to use Dennis Rader (the BTK killer), who was a home invasion style serial killer, as a reference point (there are multiple reasons for this choice). Essentially, this scenario is what you would end up with if you gave Rader a brain (LE was amazed and a bit chagrined at how stupid he turned out to be – they overestimated him to a gross degree, not an uncommon thing as people tend to confuse cleverness with intelligence) and a secure locale to ‘play’ in. In fact, this scenario is near identical to his ‘ideal’ fantasy – the only reason Rader made his kills ‘on site’ is because he did not have a secure location to remove his victims to…and with the exception of the Bright murder (when he screwed up by not bringing his own bindings), Rader had things in hand to have been able to have removed his targets with NO SIGN OF STRUGGLE, and in at least two cases (the Otero and Wegerle murders) no sign of forced entry (granting of course that his trademark cutting of the phone lines and panty raiding would immediately raise suspicions).
Let us take a quick look at aspects of some of Rader’s crimes and see what they can tell us about how this one may have proceeded. Rader was able to quickly gain control of all of the victims with no struggle and little trouble through a combination of a gun and his sociopathic lying skills, reassuring his victims that if they allowed him to bind them he wouldn’t harm them. Most of the time he told them that he was on the run from the law and just needed some food and the car, and was going to tie them up so they couldn’t call the cops on him. In the Fox and Viand cases, he told her that he was a sexual deviant that was just going to tie her up and take some pictures and then rape her, but had no intention of otherwise harming her. In all cases they bought it long enough for him to render them defenseless, even though he had to juggle holding the gun and binding them. This tells us that it is quite easy for even a coward like Rader (who was scared of a teen boy half his weight) to single handedly take control of a number of individuals to the point that he can do whatever he wishes with them pretty much from the outset. Keep in mind that in the Otero case the father was a big guy that had been in the Special Forces, and the entire family other than the youngest boy had lots of self-defense and martial arts training, even 11 year old Josie.
With the exception of one acquaintance, none of Rader’s victims knew him, yet through careful stalking after his trolling found a potential target, he knew their routines quite well with only the limited observation of regularly driving by the residence at a variety of times of day. He also did test runs on the targeted houses to find out what the security/points of entry looked like. Neither of these are unusual techniques, being used by burglars and other home invaders, and would account for the Van/car sightings in the preceding weeks, along with the reports of suspicious activity in the immediate neighborhood that evening if the perp was cutting through yards to check out the vulnerable back end of the house without being seen from the street. This last follows Rader’s technique of parking nearby and making way to the home on foot. This also opens up the possibility that the perp was just doing a test run that night, but then found that the circumstances were just too tempting to resist (easy point of entry because of fumes, an additional hot teen to grab, nearest neighbor is out of town), and decided to make it a go (a very large percentage of serial rapists/killers have the materials needed to ‘do the job’ on hand at all times, starting at a point long before they do their first hit, and especially when prowling).
With regards to why the trolling perp would decide to go into stalk mode with this residence, I need only point out that a household with an attractive teen daughter, no male residents, and fencing/hedges obscuring various parts of the house is an ideal target.
Another bit of info that we can get from Rader’s confessions is that an assailant can, once the victims are bound, conceivably strangle them into unconsciousness and buy enough time to pretty much do whatever one wants, which in our perps case can be going to retrieve the van, leaving the women alone without having to worry, and then loading them into it without a struggle to draw attention, rendering them unconscious again as needed. It is also conceivable that if the perp just gets off on the killing itself, the women could have been strangled to death in a short period and then their bodies taken off site for disposal, as Rader did in his last two attacks. Rader’s attacks took relatively little time, usually less than an hour, including goofing around with the victim’s cars, telling us that our perp had more than enough time to do a simple grab and go.
The final clue that we can get from Rader is that, contrary to the assumptions made in profiles, a serial killer does NOT necessarily have any prior criminal record, unstable marriages or other outward signs of being a sociopath or whatnot, and that when that is the case, if they only go after strangers, about the only way to catch them is through their own stupidity (which is a bad sign for us if I am right in my scenario)"
