Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 30, 1995 TAG: 9505300122
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium
Several law-enforcement agents have mapped the mind of the suspected Chesapeake serial killer, an unknown person who, since 1987, has preyed on men - most of them young and homosexual - in southeastern Virginia. Victims' nude bodies were dumped in streets or ditches.
``It doesn't solve cases; rather it gives the investigator a profile, for lack of a better word, of the person who would commit such a crime,'' said Larry McCann, a Virginia State Police special agent who specializes in tracking serial criminals. ``It's a template, and you overlay template on population. Then the fun begins. It will fit a half dozen people, and then we have to start working.''
The latest victim was found May 14 in Chesapeake. It was only then that police said they thought a serial killer was at work.
The art that agents like McCann practice was once called psychological profiling, rooted in the Behavioral Sciences Unit in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Quantico complex. Now, it is called criminal investigative analysis.
In its simplest form, practitioners study the lives and behaviors of past serial killers and use the patterns they find to help them develop profiles of active criminals.
Then, by studying details of a crime, agents develop a list of probable traits and characteristics of the person they are hunting.
``We first look at two things: What did they do, and who did they do it to?'' McCann said.
The Chesapeake killer, authorities say, has good verbal skills to gain control of his victims. They also say he ``gets better'' with each killing, meaning successive crimes show more efficiency, and has taken an active interest in the investigation and reads about it in the newspapers.
They say the suspect probably is outgoing, social and attractive. He is what profilers call an ``organized'' killer, displaying traits similar to those of serial killers Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy and Charles Manson.
Like several other serial killers, the Chesapeake suspect also has let some victims live, McCann speculates.
McCann said some intended victims may have sensed something odd and declined the stranger's invitation, or maybe a victim escaped when the situation turned uncomfortable. If a person who escaped calls police, McCann said, the cases could be solved.
``I'm sure he has interacted with a lot of potential victims over the years, but for one reason or another, didn't kill them,'' McCann said. ``As for why, we'll have to ask him when we catch him.''
by CNB