Right but the comfort zone is dependent upon the killer's motivations. For clarification and to provide context, following is an outline that covers various areas that need to be sussed out in order to generate a viable profile. And even with answers to these, one can only get a general feel wrt psychological markers.
Defining Characteristics
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Victimology: This is a key component when profiling a crime. For example, did the victims live high-risk lifestyles? Did they have an internet presence (i.e., myspace, facebook, xanga, usenet, online classifieds)? Do they share physical appearance? Are they related or known to each other? Knowing the answers to these type of questions can help to narrow down the suspect typology.
Number of Crimes Scenes: This number can be as few as one. Multiple crime scenes might include where the victim met the unsub, where they were held/tortured/assaulted, where they were murdered, where their body was dumped.
Environment/Place/Times of Crimes: This area addresses when and where each part of the crime occurred. For example, was the victim assaulted at home, in the middle of the night? Were they abducted in the middle of a busy intersection in broad daylight? Do the body dumps indicate any sort of pattern? For example, are the crimes clustered close together or far apart? The goal of this section is to determine the unsub's degree of risk taking, as well as determine the unsub's comfort zone.
For example, if the crimes seem to be dispersed in a general pattern that indicates the dispersal is limited by travel distance, while having a "clear" area in the center, the killer's comfort zone would be no closer than x-feet/miles from their residence and no further than a distance they can drive in, say, a day. Whereas, if the crimes take place within and around the killer's residencs, the killer's comfort zone would be no further away from the residence than x-feet/miles. The prior indicates a larger degree of control and lower risk taking, whereas the latter indicates less control (they are compelled to be near the body) and higher risk taking.
Number of Offenders: Was the crime committed by one, two, or more individuals working together?
Organized or Disorganized: Does the crime scene indicate the unsub is organized or disorganized? Was the unsub very methodical, leaving little to no trace evidence... Or did they seem disorganized, leaving the crime scene in disarray, such as a blitz attack, with no attention paid to leaving trace evidence. Most crime scenes are a mix, btw. So the key here is to identify anything that notably deviates.
Physical (trace) Evidence: Were fingerprints, blood, or items left at the crime scene that could help to identify the unsub?
Weapons Used: What type of weapons were used? Were the weapons brought with, or did the unsub use whatever weapons were available? For example, did s/he bring a .45 calibur firearm as opposed to killing the victim with a knife that was in the victim's kitchen? Disorganized unsubs are more likely to use a weapon found at the scene. Also, knives are more up close and personal than firearms.
Body Disposition: How and where was the body disposed? For example, was the body weighted and dumped in a lake? Left at the side of a busy thouroughfare? Was the body posed? This determination helps to indicate the unsub's level of desire to hide their crime as well as possible motive.
Items Left/Missing: Was anything left at the crimescene (a calling card) or taken from the crime scene (a trophy)?
Staging (if applicable): Staging often refers to modifying the crime scene in a way to divert investigators. For example, a staged kidnapping to cover for a murder. Staging is not to be confused with "posing" the victim's body.
Posing (if applicable): Posing refers to arranging the body after death. For example, a sexual sadist may lay his victim on his/or her back, bend the knees and tilt them outwards and to the side, to "expose" his victim, in death, to the public. Posing tends to be a compulsive act (i.e., must be done to complete the ritual) and may be indicative psychological markers that can be used to narrow down the unsub pool. Furthermore, those who pose their victims will be more compelled to revisit the crime scene. Just so they can "admire" their work.
Cause of Death: How did the victim die? For example, were they stabbed multiple times (i.e., overkill), shot once through the head (i.e., execution style)? The cause of death can lend insight into the unsub's preferred killing habits.
Trauma: Exclusive of the cause of death, what other trauma did the victim suffer? Were they raped and/or tortured? Were they disemboweld? Did the trauma occur before or after death? The amount and type of torture as well as when it was executed indicates the degree sadistic personality characteristics.
Sexual Assault: Was the victim sexually assaulted? If so, was the assault before or after they died. What was the nature of the assault? If present, this indicates sexual motivation component of the murder.
When considering this case in the context of the above, you can see we (
the public) has very little information regarding this case. And why should we? After all, LE needs to be able to rule out cranks who call to confess to the murders. And, even if we did have more information, some cases remain unsolved. Consider Atlantic City, Daytona, Jennings, and Albuquerque. Then there are older cases, such as Zodiac and the Phantom. And recall how long it took to solve the Green River Killer & BTK? Though, the latter was not due to any sort of super sleuthing, rather a result of BTK's own arrogance and need to be recognized.
