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Authors: John Douglas, Mark Olshaker
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Woody Clark and Sergeant Ed Petrick of the task force, came to meet with us in Quantico.If the prosecution could prove that the defendant had committed all six murders, rather than only that of Janene Weinhold, the number and nature of the crimes would qualify as “special circumstances” under California law, which would make it a capital case. They didn’t want this guy getting out again.
Looking at six cases now rather than just the original three, based on both MO and signature considerations, we concluded that all the murders were, in fact, related.
All six victims were white females. Except for Pamela Clark, all were brunettes between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one. As far as modus operandi, in each case the killer entered through an unlocked door or window, the crimes were all committed with a knife, and all occurred within the victims’ residences, four of which were apartments, and in five of the cases the assault period was late morning to early afternoon. In four instances, the knife was a weapon of opportunity taken from the victim’s kitchen. The first three victims were living in the same garden apartment complex in second-floor units, which indicated to us a level of comfort created by the attacker living close by and knowing the area well. There were no signs of forced entry, and in five of the six there was no ransacking, although jewelry was taken from the third, fourth, and fifth victims. This last fact would likely fall in the category of signature, assuming the initial purpose of the offender was not simple robbery.
And we certainly didn’t believe that to be the case since nothing apparently was taken from victims one, two, and six and they were all killed by relatively shallow stab wounds, very similar in five out of the six, concentrated in the chest area and indicative of focused anger and rage. The rage, however, was highly and unusually controlled. There was no frenzy as we often see in such situations, and other than the knife wounds there was little physical trauma. All of the victims were discovered face-up on the floor, nude or partially nude, with no attempt made to conceal the bodies.
Equally important as all of this, no other similar homicides occurred within the San Diego area anywhere near the time of this series and a review of our Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (VICAP) database didn’t identify any murdersmatching this wound pattern anywhere else in the country.
Of course, then we had to consider the differences within this supposed series. The last two victims, the Clarks, lived not in apartments but in a single-family house. Two of the six were sexually assaulted before being killed. Holly Tarrwas stabbed only once, while the most brutally assaulted one was stabbed fifty-two times. However, as we noted, the evidence at the crime scene suggested that the killer had been interrupted in the process. Most of the victims would be considered low-risk, but two could have fallen into the high-risk classification. Tiffany Schultz, the San Diego State English major who became the first victim, had taken a parttime job as a nude dancer in a San Diego nightclub shortly before her murder. The relative risk of a crime happening to a particular victim and the relative risk taken by each offender in the commission of a particular crime are useful indicators to us in determining both victimology and the personality of the UNSUB.
In the Tarr case, the offender attempted to clean up the scene and the victim was found covered with a sheet. This could have represented a change either in signature or MO, but it could also have been related to the way he felt about this particular victim. Most likely, it had to do with him being interrupted in the process.
Now this all might seem to be a statistical approach to crime scene analysis and it might seem that a computer could do the same thing Larry Ankrom did—crunch the numbers and make an evaluation. But a computer would be unable to
Looking at six cases now rather than just the original three, based on both MO and signature considerations, we concluded that all the murders were, in fact, related.
All six victims were white females. Except for Pamela Clark, all were brunettes between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one. As far as modus operandi, in each case the killer entered through an unlocked door or window, the crimes were all committed with a knife, and all occurred within the victims’ residences, four of which were apartments, and in five of the cases the assault period was late morning to early afternoon. In four instances, the knife was a weapon of opportunity taken from the victim’s kitchen. The first three victims were living in the same garden apartment complex in second-floor units, which indicated to us a level of comfort created by the attacker living close by and knowing the area well. There were no signs of forced entry, and in five of the six there was no ransacking, although jewelry was taken from the third, fourth, and fifth victims. This last fact would likely fall in the category of signature, assuming the initial purpose of the offender was not simple robbery.
And we certainly didn’t believe that to be the case since nothing apparently was taken from victims one, two, and six and they were all killed by relatively shallow stab wounds, very similar in five out of the six, concentrated in the chest area and indicative of focused anger and rage. The rage, however, was highly and unusually controlled. There was no frenzy as we often see in such situations, and other than the knife wounds there was little physical trauma. All of the victims were discovered face-up on the floor, nude or partially nude, with no attempt made to conceal the bodies.
Equally important as all of this, no other similar homicides occurred within the San Diego area anywhere near the time of this series and a review of our Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (VICAP) database didn’t identify any murdersmatching this wound pattern anywhere else in the country.
Of course, then we had to consider the differences within this supposed series. The last two victims, the Clarks, lived not in apartments but in a single-family house. Two of the six were sexually assaulted before being killed. Holly Tarrwas stabbed only once, while the most brutally assaulted one was stabbed fifty-two times. However, as we noted, the evidence at the crime scene suggested that the killer had been interrupted in the process. Most of the victims would be considered low-risk, but two could have fallen into the high-risk classification. Tiffany Schultz, the San Diego State English major who became the first victim, had taken a parttime job as a nude dancer in a San Diego nightclub shortly before her murder. The relative risk of a crime happening to a particular victim and the relative risk taken by each offender in the commission of a particular crime are useful indicators to us in determining both victimology and the personality of the UNSUB.
In the Tarr case, the offender attempted to clean up the scene and the victim was found covered with a sheet. This could have represented a change either in signature or MO, but it could also have been related to the way he felt about this particular victim. Most likely, it had to do with him being interrupted in the process.
Now this all might seem to be a statistical approach to crime scene analysis and it might seem that a computer could do the same thing Larry Ankrom did—crunch the numbers and make an evaluation. But a computer would be unable to
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