Deaths of Male College Students

[shadowraiths]

http://www.crimerant.com/?p=520

The above is another possable victim.

I wasn't aware of that case.

Imho, very odd they would rule it suicide so fast. Esp considering where he was found. The bit about the red head is interesting as well...

 

[shadowraiths]

Completely forgot about this guy!

The Happy Face Killer
Crime Library

 

[PrayersForMaura]

Does anyone see a bit of a pattern to these killings??

I am wondering if the dates these young men went missing play any role in the killer's (or killers') plan?

Perhaps the dates have something to do with business trips? The murderer is seeing these young men around college campuses and bars. Could he be a traveling salesman? A trucker? A speaker at school events?

 

[PrayersForMaura]

So young men may have been missing since 1997, linked to these cases.
Seems to be a serial killer like a BTK or Dahmer.

Doesn't seem like any of the victims from MI and WI have been missing in the months of
March
May
July
August
December


Dates men were reported missing, from http://kstp.com/article/stories/s421937.shtml?cat=63

1) Charles Blatz 28 yrs---------Missing-9/28/97 La Crosse, Wisc.
2) Anthony Skifton 19 yrs------Missing-10/10/97 La Crosse, Wisc.
3) Nathan Kapfer 20 yrs--------Missing-2/22/98 La Crosse, Wisc.


14 months pass

4) Jeffrey Geesey 21 yrs.-------Missing-4/11/99 La Crosse, Wisc.

24 months pass....

5) Ken Christiansen 19 yrs.------Missing-4/13/01 Duluth, Minn.
6) Christopher Nordby 27 yrs.---Missing-11/07/01 Minneapolis, Minn.

10 months pass

7) Craig Burrows 23 yrs.--------Missing-9/29/02 Eau Claire, Wisc.
8) Christopher Jenkins 21 yrs.---Missing-10/31/02 Minneapolis, Minn.
9) Michael Noll 22 yrs.----------Missing-11/06/02 Eau Claire, Wisc.
10) Joshua Guimond 20 yrs.------Missing-11/09/02 Collegeville, Minn.


2 months pass


11) Nathan Herr 21 yrs.----------Missing-01/10/03 Sheboygan, Wisc.
12) Jeremy Stienkeoway 24 yrs.--Missing-01/20/03 Hinckley, Minn.


15 months pass


13) Jared Dion 21 yr.--------------Missing--4/10/04 La Crosse, Wisc.

10 months pass


14) Scot Radel 21 yrs.------------Missing-02/02/05 St. Cloud, Minn.

15) Joshua Snell 22 yrs.-----------Missing-6/12/05 Eau Claire, Wisc.
16) Patrick Kycia 19 yrs.----------Missing-9/23/05 Moorhead, Minn.


3 months pass


17) Cullen Fortney 21 yrs.-------Missing 1/08/06 La Crosse, Wisc.
18) Kenji Ohnri 20 yrs.-----------Missing-01/28/06 Madison, Wisc.
19) Lucas Homan 21 yrs---------Missing-9/30/06 La Crosse, Wisc.

 

[PrayersForMaura]

My guess is we're looking for a white male
who's been doing this since the late 90s
May be mid 40s
Someone who has business in both WI and MI
Possibly trucker or cab driver

May even be a professor or student teacher.
Murders seems to be void during the time most students are off campus...
Spring Break, summer vacation and in between semesters for the Christmas/December break.

 

[PrayersForMaura]

Late September (last week),
early April (second week),
January and October seem most often target times

 

[PrayersForMaura]

If there are missing guys in Ohio, Chicago or other northern-central states that may fill in the gaps, we can plot a map out.
I wonder how many of those have the "smiley face"

This is looking to be more like a trucker, bus driver or traveling business person.

 

[crypto6]

The smiley faces were discovered by the two Detectives and were not released until this week...so there could be no copy cats using this as a "signature".

With the one who survived, he did not know anything that happened after he left the bar. It is not clear in anything I read that he tested positive for drugs in his system. GHB does stay in the system only a short time, but I believe he would have still have tested positive. ......

I found only alcohol listed as an intoxicant. Interestingly the highest value of 0.12 grams per 100 ml doesn’t correlate with the heavy intoxication reported as Chris left the bar. Was he alive long enough to process some of his alcohol before being killed? Was another drug used and Chris only seemed so intoxicated due to that rather than alcohol?

I’m off to research the possibility that alcohol undergoes significant post mortem metabolism as an alternative explanation.

C6

 

[SuziQ]

I've been pondering if there is no serial killer(s), what would cause young men to just up and leave the place they are at so fast they don't tell anyone and head towards the water? Then I recalled that ecstasy causes extreme thirst and overheating of the body. I've heard of people drinking so much water from this that they drown from water intoxication, but never that anyone imersed themselves in water. So I started searching around and found the below link. The two vics did also have cocaine in their system so I'm not sure if ecstasy would cause this effect on it's own. Then there is the question of what would show up in the autopsy. I thought it was interesting though. Could this be a case of a bad batch of pills, made intentionally that way or not?

http://www.boardsie.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9118

(snip)
The post-mortem on their bodies found that both men had died from drowning with cocaine and ecstasy contributing as a cause.
The state pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy, who carried out the post-mortem examination, said that ecstasy can cause hype- thermal that heats up the body.
She said the young men may have decided to go into the water to cool down but due to the combination of cocaine and ecstasy, they did not realise the danger they were letting themselves in for

 

[SuziQ]

Regarding detection of GHB after death:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-Hydroxybutyric_acid

Determining conclusively whether someone's death was caused by GHB is very difficult because a lab test will always detect the presence of some GHB in the human body, and levels of GHB can vary in the same individual depending on what part of the body is tested. GHB is a naturally-occurring substance that is always present in everyone, but little research has been done on what levels are normal in what parts of the body at what times.

 

[shadowraiths]

Found the source regarding the young man who escaped "the riverman":

Friday, Jan. 13, 2006 E-mail gone wild in the Coulee Region
Here's my story from Saturday's Tribune about the river e-mail.
FW: THIS HAPPENED HERE THIS WEEKEND IN LA CROSSE!
By REID MAGNEY
La Crosse Tribune

“I am still a little numb. We almost lost Cullen early Sunday morning.”

That’s how it started, with a concerned mother’s e-mail to two close friends on Tuesday, in which she tells the twisted tale of her son’s escape from death in the Mississippi River the previous weekend.

At least one of those friends forwarded the e-mail to three other people, one of whom forwarded it to eight more.

It’s impossible to say how many people have seen the e-mail, but it was forwarded 11 times in 24 hours before it reached a La Crosse Tribune editor at midday Wednesday.

And who knows how many people have seen it since the story hit local media Wednesday afternoon.

[...]

Exactly what happened last Saturday night remains unclear. La Crosse police interviewed the family on Thursday and Friday, and issued a brief statement Friday:

“Through the assistance of Mr. Fortney, investigators have been able to determine that he did fall into the Mississippi River but did not go under water. Mr. Fortney was able to get himself out of the river on his own and walked to the hospital. The investigation has shown no indications of criminal activity involving this case.”

Full article: click here (scroll down)

 

[SeriouslySearching]

I find it odd that in other reports he says he doesn't remember anything. (I just read that email supposedly from his mother. Wow!)

 

[Blink34]

I found only alcohol listed as an intoxicant. Interestingly the highest value of 0.12 grams per 100 ml doesn’t correlate with the heavy intoxication reported as Chris left the bar. Was he alive long enough to process some of his alcohol before being killed? Was another drug used and Chris only seemed so intoxicated due to that rather than alcohol?

I’m off to research the possibility that alcohol undergoes significant post mortem metabolism as an alternative explanation.

C6

If it helps, we explored this in another case that was listed as a hypothermia death, it appears there is no further metab of alcohol in the blood to change BAC content at TOD..

 

[Blink34]

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59547

I subscribed to this thread for whatever reason when it came out, perhaps this may be related to the other men. Posting this thread on that one, hopefully it gets "ported" to new forum. If anyone has updates please post.

 

[crypto6]

Regarding detection of GHB after death:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-Hydroxybutyric_acid

Determining conclusively whether someone's death was caused by GHB is very difficult because a lab test will always detect the presence of some GHB in the human body, and levels of GHB can vary in the same individual depending on what part of the body is tested. GHB is a naturally-occurring substance that is always present in everyone, but little research has been done on what levels are normal in what parts of the body at what times.

Right. Looks like huge doses with tissue levels >180-200 micrograms per ml are not seen in natural postmortem states, but the range of "normal" is so scattered that lower values can be either intoxication or post mortem.



Fatalities have been associated with GHB use.[157, 222, 245-247] The DEA has collected investigative, toxicology, and autopsy reports from cases in which GHB was found in biological samples of the deceased. Since 1990, the DEA reports that they are aware of 68 deaths associated with the use of GHB, most of which have occurred in the last 4 years. Details of the cases are not given.[157] In an article discussing pre- and postmortem GHB blood and urine levels, the authors refer to four fatalities attributed to the use of GHB.[246] Three of the fatalities had postmortem blood GHB levels ranging from 52-121 mg/L. In a series of forensic samples submitted for laboratory analysis, blood GHB levels ranging from 3.2-168 mg/L were found in 15 of 20 autopsy specimens, although the deaths were not thought to be GHB related. Furthermore, GHB was not found in samples from living subjects who did not take GHB. Because of these findings, the authors suggest that GHB may be a natural product of postmortem decomposition occurring in blood.[246] Other investigators suggest that the magnitude of GHB levels found in many fatality cases is too significant to be attributed to postmortem decomposition.[247]
Link

Grab bag of references

FBI lab

 

[crypto6]

If it helps, we explored this in another case that was listed as a hypothermia death, it appears there is no further metab of alcohol in the blood to change BAC content at TOD..

Consistent with what I found. If anything, BAC increases post mortem.

C6

 

[SuziQ]

Shado, thank you for finding the info on Cullen.

We've discussed the possibility that the perp(s) could be truck drivers, cab drivers, traveling salesmen. How about the bands playing at the clubs and bars? Has LE taken a look to see if the same band is involved in any of these cases? To see if they were in the area at the time of the drownings?

 

[PrayersForMaura]

Shado, thank you for finding the info on Cullen.

We've discussed the possibility that the perp(s) could be truck drivers, cab drivers, traveling salesmen. How about the bands playing at the clubs and bars? Has LE taken a look to see if the same band is involved in any of these cases? To see if they were in the area at the time of the drownings?

Oh my gosh, my fiance asked the same question last night when I was telling him about this case.

 

[sunrise]

The band info is interesting. In Brian Shaffer case, the last his friends saw of him he left the table to talk to the band.

 

[DeltaDawn]

Could this be some sort of cult activity where they connect through the interent? I am reminded of the Son of Sam case where Berkowitz was arrested and charged. He is still in prison , but claims there were others involved. Infact , he doesn't want parole and doesn't want to name names due to fear for his family's safety. The case was reopened in 1996 and I beleive it is still open because lead detectives and the DA from the original case agreed that it was more then likely NOT just Berkowitz acting alone.

Which brings me to todays' techno savy revolution ..could there be a string of cults connected through internet activity that signal each other and carry out similiar crimes. The smiley face says to me that is their communication tool and their tool for taunting LE.

Also I think that some sort of drug is used to cause these vics to be controlled in the situation. I don't think anylonger that the torture was sexual in nature ..none of the vics that I could find info on were sexually assualted in anyway. So you were right on that part SS. But I am still thinking along the lines of a group or cult activity. Because to get these strong, active men into a cargo van would require atleast two people and a driver. Minimum of three people would have to be involved each time.