European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 15, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse The Hunt for Fri profiles elusive murderers by Susan okie the Washington Post s he was baking a cake when her killer arrived. The ingredients and the mixing bowl were still on the Kitchen counter when her body was discovered hours later. Neighbors heard nothing of the bloody struggle that unfolded that afternoon last year inside the new two Story town House in a Small Southern City. When it was Over she had been raped and repeatedly stabbed. _ Quot she was what Law enforcement experts Call a Quot very Low risk victim Quot a Plain quiet Young woman with no enemies no old lovers Rio dangerous detectives on the Case ran out of leads they turned for help to a unit of the Fri that specializes in compiling psychological portraits of the country s most elusive murderers. Of the approximately 23,000 murders in the United states last year about 25 percent Are unsolved. Sooner or later Many of the most puzzling killings Are referred to the Fri s behavioural science unit 10 special agents who use evidence from the crime scene to piece together a Quot profile Quot of the Likely criminal. 1 Quot for someone to kill somebody is not the easiest thing in the world Quot said John Douglas the units chief. Quot it s an interaction Between two a Quot profiling Quot is an Odd mixture of detective work and psychology Sherlock Holmes style deduction spiced with unexpected insights drawn from years of experience tracking murderers. Several years ago in one of the most unusual research projects Ever undertaken by the Federal government the unit interviewed some of the country s most notorious killers a Richard speck Charles Manson Sirhan Sirhan a to learn details of Why and How they committed their crimes. The units collective knowledge continues to grow along with its caseload. The unit now consults on More than 1,000 homicides a year and also probes kidnappings child molestation terrorism and bombings. The profile so predictions used to devise strategies for tracking interrogating and prosecuting criminals have paid off in hundreds of cases sometimes with spectacular Success. The profiles Deal with the. Kind of oddball killings that homicide detectives Seldom encounter in an entire career. Park Elliott Dietz a psychiatrist who assisted in the governments prosecution of John Hinckley serves As a part time consultant to the Fri. He said systematic study of such cases has revealed some startling often enormously helpful patterns. For instance a sexual sadists usually Are also people who like to drive a lot. A a single neat feature such As a carefully cleaned Bathtub in a bloody murder scene makes it Likely the criminal was released from a mental Hospital within six months Quot the More �?Tbehavior1 there is at a crime scene the More helpful we can be a Douglas said. Quot the longer the killer stays at the scene stays with the victim the More forensic evidence he there was plenty of Quot behaviour at the scene Quot of the town House rape murder when four Fri agents a profiles Judson Ray and Thomas salp and profiles in training David Gomez and Greg Cooper a convened at Quantico va., to sift through the traces the killer had left behind. The evidence suggested the woman had been raped on her bed. The killer had then stabbed her at the top of the stairs wounding her in the neck Chest and arms. There was blood on the Wall and Steps. The agents puzzled Over a purplish ligature Mark around her neck finally concluding it had probably been made when the murderer grabbed her by the neck of her to shirt As she. Tried to flee. The first thing that struck the agents was that nobody in the town House Complex had noticed anything amiss. The Complex was still under construction workers had been in the area. Ray said that made him suspect a neighbor a worker a maintenance Man a Quot someone who had reason to be in the neighbourhood. His presence does t attract the killer took his time leaving. He carefully positioned the body. He stole a few selected items a a Towel the bed quilt some Cash the woman s engagement ring seemingly strangest of All he took a Shower in his victims bathroom. Quot time after time when we see that it Means Fri profiles Learned a lot from who May have killed As Many As 36 women. Something More than washing off the soils of crime Quot Ray said. While the significance is sometimes psychological he said More often it suggests the murderer must show up at work or face someone to whom he must account for his actions. The agents concluded that the killer had planned in Advance. He apparently brought a knife with him since no knife was missing from the town House he probably had a car to transport stolen items. The profiles agreed he had stalked his victim and knew in Advance she would be at Home alone. Quot when you see the time of Day the risk he a taking a he feels pretty comfortable in that area Quot salp said. The agents next considered Why the woman was killed. Did her attacker want to protect himself from being identified was the murder sexually motivated or did he react violently to something she said Orbid Gomez who it had reviewed the Case told Ray the victim was not a fighter. Relatives described her As gentle and submissive. Quot Why Alf this anger Quot Ray wondered aloud. Quot obviously there a a lot of anger in the Type number and severity of the wounds. My position would be that he needed this. There s a Good bet that a lot of this is lashing out at this girl provoked by her actions. Its Likely though that this girl would have died no matter what she slowly an image of the killer emerged. The quilt theft a potentially incriminating evidence a suggested to the agents this was not his first crime. Quot he certainly raped people before Quot Ray said. Quot he probably had a if so he added it was Likely he had recently been released from jail. Ray said statistics show that if a jailed rapist is going to strike again it usually happens within 90 Days of release. His age studies of similar crimes help the agonis specify a Likely Range. Quot i would be surprised if he were Over 30 or under 20,&Quot Ray said. Quot if i realty wanted to be cocky i d say 26.&Quot education Quot High school at most Quot salp said Job history probably unemployed or working As an unskilled or Semi skilled labourer. Marital status Quot i would think he is not in a Long term sexual relationship a ventured Gomez. Ray agreed. Quot not married on the Day he did this a but if he is married its fraught with All kinds of problems. He probably has a history of trying to dominate and control women. I would say he s not that experienced a killer. But i guarantee you one thing if we Don t catch him hell do it the teams predictions were used to help draft a formal Fri profile for detectives on the Case. Salp said a profiles accuracy depends greatly on the Quality and completeness of the local investigation. The Agency cautions police departments against being too ready to discount suspects who do not seem to Quot fit Quot the official Fri profile. Many of the agents comments sounded like snap judgments and Ray acknowledged that the predictions were a combination of intuition and past experience. Quot intuitiveness grows out of just looking at cases like this Quot he said. Quot we deduce from deeds what sort of personal Soto editor s note a Paula Soto was among five persons murdered in new York City on a single Day this Spring one of hundreds this year. Hers was a random death a shot without warning that months later still rings in the ears of those she left behind. By Leslie Dreyfous the associated press the shot echoed As a no. 4 Bronx subway train clattered along the elevated track Over Jerome Avenue. By the time it passed Paula Soto had collapsed on the softball Field below. At first her teammates thought she was kidding around. Quot come on Paula Quot they joked. Quot get then the Brief silence the knowing that something was very wrong. The Lehman College lancers had waited Days for a break in the springtime drizzle. The season s first game was just a week away. Paula a Short and sturdily built third baseman was warming up in the Outfield. She had her dads dark hair and her mom s Blue eyes much like her Brothers Jason 18, and Nelson jr., 17. Quot and she had a real spirit a warm heart a passion for people Quot teammate Adeline Ortiz said. She was 19 and leaning toward a teaching career. Some other professors hoped she would one Day lecture on the College level but her after school tutoring Job Maho her think cup might refer work inc with kids. Detectives at the 52nd precinct still Are looking for the shooter. No one saw where the Bullet came from or initially How much damage the Small Caliper slug had done. Paula was Down. That Sall her teammates knew. Quot i went Over and held her in my Lap until the ambulance came Quot said Adeline 23, Quot the grass was All wet and cold. It had rained that morning. I just held her hand and talked with random death is a Staple of evening newscasts and tabloid headlines in new York City turn the to off and the Story a forgotten. Turn the Page and its Over. But not for the sotos or for anyone whose life was touched by the few Brief slow motion hours that have stretched into could be a the Case remains yet unsolved. Many based on findings of a research program that began about seven years ago in which Fri profiles first studied the crimes of convicted killers and then interviewed them in detail Douglas said no one had Ever tried this before a perhaps because it was so frightening. The killer who probably taught the Fri the most was . Killer of perhaps 36 women who talked repeatedly with profile William Hagemeier Over several years. Quot Bundy was a thinking Man Quot Douglas said. Quot he could articulate and intellect Alize things that other serial killers would t. People spend time in different ways on death Row. One of the things he did was to study other Bundy would compare his crimes with those of other serial killers pointing out differences and explaining Why he made certain choices. During a Hunt for one such criminal he advised agents to stake out locations of the murderers former crimes predicting the killer would revisit them to relive the experience and look for a profiles have since used the techniques cases a and with Good results. Douglas said the expertise of the Fri unit often can recognize the work of a serial murderer today much More quickly than when Bundy was at Large in the 1970s. But he added that occasionally the behaviour of a killer does not seem to fit a coherent profile. This was the situation with serial killer Richard Ramirez the California a night his victims and killing methods were so varied said Hagemeier Quot you would never suspect one person of doing it was not a psychological profile that cracked the Case but a common footprint found at most crime scenes. Now faced with a growing caseload the Fri has set up a computerized data base for unsolved murders the violent criminal apprehension program or vicar. The system Aims to store Standard data on the estimated 50,000 unsolved murders from the past decade automatically search for similarities with new unsolved murders and generate up to 10 Quot Best matches Quot to Aid investigators ideally such a system could link crimes committed by the same killer in different regions of the country allow police departments to compare evidence and perhaps provide the breakthrough to crack some of the country a toughest murder cases. Many nights and Days without Paula. It was 3 30 . Lucy Soto was making Chicken cutlets and Rice for supper when the phone was Roxanne Paula s coach Quot she recalled. Quot All she said was that Paula had been Hurt but she was Fine and i needed to come Down to the Lucy Soto and Jason joked nervously in the car on the Short trip from their red Brick apartment Down to the College. She probably got hit by a Ball they said. Probably ruined All that expensive dental work. Surely she was of. Once in the gym mrs. Soto a pulse quickened. She raced through the deserted locker room got to the Bottom of the stairs. Quot then i see one of the girls and she says to me real serious Are you Paula smother a that s when i knew Quot she said. Quot that s when Jason and i ran out to the an ambulance and medics were already there. It seemed like a by gun or Pellet wound not much blood. Paula was Alert smiling asking teammates not to scare her mom. A Tell her i m line Quot she said. A i m going to be it was 4 . When the ambulance wove slowly in and out along Bronx arteries already clogged with Early evening commuters. They weren t moving Lucy Soto Felt the clock ticking. Faster. Faster. A i m in the front but i can hear her talking. I can hear her laughing Quot said mrs Soto who had promised the continued on Page 16 Page 14 a the stars and stripes monday july 15, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 15
