Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer’s first victim – NBCNews.com (blog)

Mike Albans / AP file

In this Dec. 17, 1993 file photo, Joel Rifkin, right, is led to the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola, N.Y., for a suppression hearing. New Jersey State Police said Wednesday, March 27, 2013, that 25-year-old Heidi Balch likely was the first victim of Rifkin, who is in prison in New York after admitting he killed 17 women in the early 1990s.

By Ellen Wulfhorst, Reuters

A human head discovered on a New Jersey golf course 24 years ago has been identified and is believed to be the first victim of serial killer Joel Rifkin, according to police.

The head belonged to Heidi Balch, who was murdered and dismembered at age 25 in New York, according to a statement issued on Monday by the Hopewell Township, New Jersey police.

Detectives had long suspected a link between the head and Rifkin after he was arrested in 1993 and questioned but they had been unable to identify the head until now, police said in the statement.

During questioning, Rifkin said he dismembered his first victim, a prostitute, and put her head and legs in streams in New Jersey, police said.

Rifkin was convicted of nine murders and is believed to be responsible for at least 17 deaths, most of them prostitutes. He is serving a 203-year prison sentence.

Police periodically tried to identify the New Jersey head and in 2011 obtained a list of prostitution arrests in New York City, from which they found one whose description matched the victim, according to the statement.

They found a missing person report that matched her description but had been ruled out because it said the woman had been last seen in 1995, six years after the head was discovered.

Police met with the person who filed the missing person’s report and now believe the sighting date in the report was erroneous.

DNA samples from the missing prostitute’s parents confirmed the identity of the head, police said.

Rifkin will not be charged with Balch’s murder in New Jersey, the statement said.

Her head was found along the edge of a stream at the Hopewell Valley Golf Club in March 1989 and human legs, found to match the head, were discovered later that spring, police said.

When police stopped Rifkin, who lived in East Meadow, New York, in 1993 for missing a license plate, they found the body of a dead woman in the car truck.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer’s first victim – NBCNews.com (blog)

Mike Albans / AP file

In this Dec. 17, 1993 file photo, Joel Rifkin, right, is led to the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola, N.Y., for a suppression hearing. New Jersey State Police said Wednesday, March 27, 2013, that 25-year-old Heidi Balch likely was the first victim of Rifkin, who is in prison in New York after admitting he killed 17 women in the early 1990s.

By Ellen Wulfhorst, Reuters

A human head discovered on a New Jersey golf course 24 years ago has been identified and is believed to be the first victim of serial killer Joel Rifkin, according to police.

The head belonged to Heidi Balch, who was murdered and dismembered at age 25 in New York, according to a statement issued on Monday by the Hopewell Township, New Jersey police.

Detectives had long suspected a link between the head and Rifkin after he was arrested in 1993 and questioned but they had been unable to identify the head until now, police said in the statement.

During questioning, Rifkin said he dismembered his first victim, a prostitute, and put her head and legs in streams in New Jersey, police said.

Rifkin was convicted of nine murders and is believed to be responsible for at least 17 deaths, most of them prostitutes. He is serving a 203-year prison sentence.

Police periodically tried to identify the New Jersey head and in 2011 obtained a list of prostitution arrests in New York City, from which they found one whose description matched the victim, according to the statement.

They found a missing person report that matched her description but had been ruled out because it said the woman had been last seen in 1995, six years after the head was discovered.

Police met with the person who filed the missing person’s report and now believe the sighting date in the report was erroneous.

DNA samples from the missing prostitute’s parents confirmed the identity of the head, police said.

Rifkin will not be charged with Balch’s murder in New Jersey, the statement said.

Her head was found along the edge of a stream at the Hopewell Valley Golf Club in March 1989 and human legs, found to match the head, were discovered later that spring, police said.

When police stopped Rifkin, who lived in East Meadow, New York, in 1993 for missing a license plate, they found the body of a dead woman in the car truck.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer’s first victim – NBCNews.com (blog)

Mike Albans / AP file

In this Dec. 17, 1993 file photo, Joel Rifkin, right, is led to the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola, N.Y., for a suppression hearing. New Jersey State Police said Wednesday, March 27, 2013, that 25-year-old Heidi Balch likely was the first victim of Rifkin, who is in prison in New York after admitting he killed 17 women in the early 1990s.

By Ellen Wulfhorst, Reuters

A human head discovered on a New Jersey golf course 24 years ago has been identified and is believed to be the first victim of serial killer Joel Rifkin, according to police.

The head belonged to Heidi Balch, who was murdered and dismembered at age 25 in New York, according to a statement issued on Monday by the Hopewell Township, New Jersey police.

Detectives had long suspected a link between the head and Rifkin after he was arrested in 1993 and questioned but they had been unable to identify the head until now, police said in the statement.

During questioning, Rifkin said he dismembered his first victim, a prostitute, and put her head and legs in streams in New Jersey, police said.

Rifkin was convicted of nine murders and is believed to be responsible for at least 17 deaths, most of them prostitutes. He is serving a 203-year prison sentence.

Police periodically tried to identify the New Jersey head and in 2011 obtained a list of prostitution arrests in New York City, from which they found one whose description matched the victim, according to the statement.

They found a missing person report that matched her description but had been ruled out because it said the woman had been last seen in 1995, six years after the head was discovered.

Police met with the person who filed the missing person’s report and now believe the sighting date in the report was erroneous.

DNA samples from the missing prostitute’s parents confirmed the identity of the head, police said.

Rifkin will not be charged with Balch’s murder in New Jersey, the statement said.

Her head was found along the edge of a stream at the Hopewell Valley Golf Club in March 1989 and human legs, found to match the head, were discovered later that spring, police said.

When police stopped Rifkin, who lived in East Meadow, New York, in 1993 for missing a license plate, they found the body of a dead woman in the car truck.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer’s first victim – NBCNews.com (blog)

Mike Albans / AP file

In this Dec. 17, 1993 file photo, Joel Rifkin, right, is led to the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola, N.Y., for a suppression hearing. New Jersey State Police said Wednesday, March 27, 2013, that 25-year-old Heidi Balch likely was the first victim of Rifkin, who is in prison in New York after admitting he killed 17 women in the early 1990s.

By Ellen Wulfhorst, Reuters

A human head discovered on a New Jersey golf course 24 years ago has been identified and is believed to be the first victim of serial killer Joel Rifkin, according to police.

The head belonged to Heidi Balch, who was murdered and dismembered at age 25 in New York, according to a statement issued on Monday by the Hopewell Township, New Jersey police.

Detectives had long suspected a link between the head and Rifkin after he was arrested in 1993 and questioned but they had been unable to identify the head until now, police said in the statement.

During questioning, Rifkin said he dismembered his first victim, a prostitute, and put her head and legs in streams in New Jersey, police said.

Rifkin was convicted of nine murders and is believed to be responsible for at least 17 deaths, most of them prostitutes. He is serving a 203-year prison sentence.

Police periodically tried to identify the New Jersey head and in 2011 obtained a list of prostitution arrests in New York City, from which they found one whose description matched the victim, according to the statement.

They found a missing person report that matched her description but had been ruled out because it said the woman had been last seen in 1995, six years after the head was discovered.

Police met with the person who filed the missing person’s report and now believe the sighting date in the report was erroneous.

DNA samples from the missing prostitute’s parents confirmed the identity of the head, police said.

Rifkin will not be charged with Balch’s murder in New Jersey, the statement said.

Her head was found along the edge of a stream at the Hopewell Valley Golf Club in March 1989 and human legs, found to match the head, were discovered later that spring, police said.

When police stopped Rifkin, who lived in East Meadow, New York, in 1993 for missing a license plate, they found the body of a dead woman in the car truck.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer’s first victim – NBCNews.com (blog)

Mike Albans / AP file

In this Dec. 17, 1993 file photo, Joel Rifkin, right, is led to the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola, N.Y., for a suppression hearing. New Jersey State Police said Wednesday, March 27, 2013, that 25-year-old Heidi Balch likely was the first victim of Rifkin, who is in prison in New York after admitting he killed 17 women in the early 1990s.

By Ellen Wulfhorst, Reuters

A human head discovered on a New Jersey golf course 24 years ago has been identified and is believed to be the first victim of serial killer Joel Rifkin, according to police.

The head belonged to Heidi Balch, who was murdered and dismembered at age 25 in New York, according to a statement issued on Monday by the Hopewell Township, New Jersey police.

Detectives had long suspected a link between the head and Rifkin after he was arrested in 1993 and questioned but they had been unable to identify the head until now, police said in the statement.

During questioning, Rifkin said he dismembered his first victim, a prostitute, and put her head and legs in streams in New Jersey, police said.

Rifkin was convicted of nine murders and is believed to be responsible for at least 17 deaths, most of them prostitutes. He is serving a 203-year prison sentence.

Police periodically tried to identify the New Jersey head and in 2011 obtained a list of prostitution arrests in New York City, from which they found one whose description matched the victim, according to the statement.

They found a missing person report that matched her description but had been ruled out because it said the woman had been last seen in 1995, six years after the head was discovered.

Police met with the person who filed the missing person’s report and now believe the sighting date in the report was erroneous.

DNA samples from the missing prostitute’s parents confirmed the identity of the head, police said.

Rifkin will not be charged with Balch’s murder in New Jersey, the statement said.

Her head was found along the edge of a stream at the Hopewell Valley Golf Club in March 1989 and human legs, found to match the head, were discovered later that spring, police said.

When police stopped Rifkin, who lived in East Meadow, New York, in 1993 for missing a license plate, they found the body of a dead woman in the car truck.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer’s first victim – NBCNews.com (blog)

Mike Albans / AP file

In this Dec. 17, 1993 file photo, Joel Rifkin, right, is led to the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola, N.Y., for a suppression hearing. New Jersey State Police said Wednesday, March 27, 2013, that 25-year-old Heidi Balch likely was the first victim of Rifkin, who is in prison in New York after admitting he killed 17 women in the early 1990s.

By Ellen Wulfhorst, Reuters

A human head discovered on a New Jersey golf course 24 years ago has been identified and is believed to be the first victim of serial killer Joel Rifkin, according to police.

The head belonged to Heidi Balch, who was murdered and dismembered at age 25 in New York, according to a statement issued on Monday by the Hopewell Township, New Jersey police.

Detectives had long suspected a link between the head and Rifkin after he was arrested in 1993 and questioned but they had been unable to identify the head until now, police said in the statement.

During questioning, Rifkin said he dismembered his first victim, a prostitute, and put her head and legs in streams in New Jersey, police said.

Rifkin was convicted of nine murders and is believed to be responsible for at least 17 deaths, most of them prostitutes. He is serving a 203-year prison sentence.

Police periodically tried to identify the New Jersey head and in 2011 obtained a list of prostitution arrests in New York City, from which they found one whose description matched the victim, according to the statement.

They found a missing person report that matched her description but had been ruled out because it said the woman had been last seen in 1995, six years after the head was discovered.

Police met with the person who filed the missing person’s report and now believe the sighting date in the report was erroneous.

DNA samples from the missing prostitute’s parents confirmed the identity of the head, police said.

Rifkin will not be charged with Balch’s murder in New Jersey, the statement said.

Her head was found along the edge of a stream at the Hopewell Valley Golf Club in March 1989 and human legs, found to match the head, were discovered later that spring, police said.

When police stopped Rifkin, who lived in East Meadow, New York, in 1993 for missing a license plate, they found the body of a dead woman in the car truck.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer’s first victim – NBCNews.com (blog)

Mike Albans / AP file

In this Dec. 17, 1993 file photo, Joel Rifkin, right, is led to the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola, N.Y., for a suppression hearing. New Jersey State Police said Wednesday, March 27, 2013, that 25-year-old Heidi Balch likely was the first victim of Rifkin, who is in prison in New York after admitting he killed 17 women in the early 1990s.

By Ellen Wulfhorst, Reuters

A human head discovered on a New Jersey golf course 24 years ago has been identified and is believed to be the first victim of serial killer Joel Rifkin, according to police.

The head belonged to Heidi Balch, who was murdered and dismembered at age 25 in New York, according to a statement issued on Monday by the Hopewell Township, New Jersey police.

Detectives had long suspected a link between the head and Rifkin after he was arrested in 1993 and questioned but they had been unable to identify the head until now, police said in the statement.

During questioning, Rifkin said he dismembered his first victim, a prostitute, and put her head and legs in streams in New Jersey, police said.

Rifkin was convicted of nine murders and is believed to be responsible for at least 17 deaths, most of them prostitutes. He is serving a 203-year prison sentence.

Police periodically tried to identify the New Jersey head and in 2011 obtained a list of prostitution arrests in New York City, from which they found one whose description matched the victim, according to the statement.

They found a missing person report that matched her description but had been ruled out because it said the woman had been last seen in 1995, six years after the head was discovered.

Police met with the person who filed the missing person’s report and now believe the sighting date in the report was erroneous.

DNA samples from the missing prostitute’s parents confirmed the identity of the head, police said.

Rifkin will not be charged with Balch’s murder in New Jersey, the statement said.

Her head was found along the edge of a stream at the Hopewell Valley Golf Club in March 1989 and human legs, found to match the head, were discovered later that spring, police said.

When police stopped Rifkin, who lived in East Meadow, New York, in 1993 for missing a license plate, they found the body of a dead woman in the car truck.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer’s first victim – NBCNews.com (blog)

Mike Albans / AP file

In this Dec. 17, 1993 file photo, Joel Rifkin, right, is led to the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola, N.Y., for a suppression hearing. New Jersey State Police said Wednesday, March 27, 2013, that 25-year-old Heidi Balch likely was the first victim of Rifkin, who is in prison in New York after admitting he killed 17 women in the early 1990s.

By Ellen Wulfhorst, Reuters

A human head discovered on a New Jersey golf course 24 years ago has been identified and is believed to be the first victim of serial killer Joel Rifkin, according to police.

The head belonged to Heidi Balch, who was murdered and dismembered at age 25 in New York, according to a statement issued on Monday by the Hopewell Township, New Jersey police.

Detectives had long suspected a link between the head and Rifkin after he was arrested in 1993 and questioned but they had been unable to identify the head until now, police said in the statement.

During questioning, Rifkin said he dismembered his first victim, a prostitute, and put her head and legs in streams in New Jersey, police said.

Rifkin was convicted of nine murders and is believed to be responsible for at least 17 deaths, most of them prostitutes. He is serving a 203-year prison sentence.

Police periodically tried to identify the New Jersey head and in 2011 obtained a list of prostitution arrests in New York City, from which they found one whose description matched the victim, according to the statement.

They found a missing person report that matched her description but had been ruled out because it said the woman had been last seen in 1995, six years after the head was discovered.

Police met with the person who filed the missing person’s report and now believe the sighting date in the report was erroneous.

DNA samples from the missing prostitute’s parents confirmed the identity of the head, police said.

Rifkin will not be charged with Balch’s murder in New Jersey, the statement said.

Her head was found along the edge of a stream at the Hopewell Valley Golf Club in March 1989 and human legs, found to match the head, were discovered later that spring, police said.

When police stopped Rifkin, who lived in East Meadow, New York, in 1993 for missing a license plate, they found the body of a dead woman in the car truck.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer’s first victim – NBCNews.com (blog)

Mike Albans / AP file

In this Dec. 17, 1993 file photo, Joel Rifkin, right, is led to the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola, N.Y., for a suppression hearing. New Jersey State Police said Wednesday, March 27, 2013, that 25-year-old Heidi Balch likely was the first victim of Rifkin, who is in prison in New York after admitting he killed 17 women in the early 1990s.

By Ellen Wulfhorst, Reuters

A human head discovered on a New Jersey golf course 24 years ago has been identified and is believed to be the first victim of serial killer Joel Rifkin, according to police.

The head belonged to Heidi Balch, who was murdered and dismembered at age 25 in New York, according to a statement issued on Monday by the Hopewell Township, New Jersey police.

Detectives had long suspected a link between the head and Rifkin after he was arrested in 1993 and questioned but they had been unable to identify the head until now, police said in the statement.

During questioning, Rifkin said he dismembered his first victim, a prostitute, and put her head and legs in streams in New Jersey, police said.

Rifkin was convicted of nine murders and is believed to be responsible for at least 17 deaths, most of them prostitutes. He is serving a 203-year prison sentence.

Police periodically tried to identify the New Jersey head and in 2011 obtained a list of prostitution arrests in New York City, from which they found one whose description matched the victim, according to the statement.

They found a missing person report that matched her description but had been ruled out because it said the woman had been last seen in 1995, six years after the head was discovered.

Police met with the person who filed the missing person’s report and now believe the sighting date in the report was erroneous.

DNA samples from the missing prostitute’s parents confirmed the identity of the head, police said.

Rifkin will not be charged with Balch’s murder in New Jersey, the statement said.

Her head was found along the edge of a stream at the Hopewell Valley Golf Club in March 1989 and human legs, found to match the head, were discovered later that spring, police said.

When police stopped Rifkin, who lived in East Meadow, New York, in 1993 for missing a license plate, they found the body of a dead woman in the car truck.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer’s first victim – NBCNews.com (blog)

Mike Albans / AP file

In this Dec. 17, 1993 file photo, Joel Rifkin, right, is led to the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola, N.Y., for a suppression hearing. New Jersey State Police said Wednesday, March 27, 2013, that 25-year-old Heidi Balch likely was the first victim of Rifkin, who is in prison in New York after admitting he killed 17 women in the early 1990s.

By Ellen Wulfhorst, Reuters

A human head discovered on a New Jersey golf course 24 years ago has been identified and is believed to be the first victim of serial killer Joel Rifkin, according to police.

The head belonged to Heidi Balch, who was murdered and dismembered at age 25 in New York, according to a statement issued on Monday by the Hopewell Township, New Jersey police.

Detectives had long suspected a link between the head and Rifkin after he was arrested in 1993 and questioned but they had been unable to identify the head until now, police said in the statement.

During questioning, Rifkin said he dismembered his first victim, a prostitute, and put her head and legs in streams in New Jersey, police said.

Rifkin was convicted of nine murders and is believed to be responsible for at least 17 deaths, most of them prostitutes. He is serving a 203-year prison sentence.

Police periodically tried to identify the New Jersey head and in 2011 obtained a list of prostitution arrests in New York City, from which they found one whose description matched the victim, according to the statement.

They found a missing person report that matched her description but had been ruled out because it said the woman had been last seen in 1995, six years after the head was discovered.

Police met with the person who filed the missing person’s report and now believe the sighting date in the report was erroneous.

DNA samples from the missing prostitute’s parents confirmed the identity of the head, police said.

Rifkin will not be charged with Balch’s murder in New Jersey, the statement said.

Her head was found along the edge of a stream at the Hopewell Valley Golf Club in March 1989 and human legs, found to match the head, were discovered later that spring, police said.

When police stopped Rifkin, who lived in East Meadow, New York, in 1993 for missing a license plate, they found the body of a dead woman in the car truck.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer’s first victim – NBCNews.com (blog)

Mike Albans / AP file

In this Dec. 17, 1993 file photo, Joel Rifkin, right, is led to the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola, N.Y., for a suppression hearing. New Jersey State Police said Wednesday, March 27, 2013, that 25-year-old Heidi Balch likely was the first victim of Rifkin, who is in prison in New York after admitting he killed 17 women in the early 1990s.

By Ellen Wulfhorst, Reuters

A human head discovered on a New Jersey golf course 24 years ago has been identified and is believed to be the first victim of serial killer Joel Rifkin, according to police.

The head belonged to Heidi Balch, who was murdered and dismembered at age 25 in New York, according to a statement issued on Monday by the Hopewell Township, New Jersey police.

Detectives had long suspected a link between the head and Rifkin after he was arrested in 1993 and questioned but they had been unable to identify the head until now, police said in the statement.

During questioning, Rifkin said he dismembered his first victim, a prostitute, and put her head and legs in streams in New Jersey, police said.

Rifkin was convicted of nine murders and is believed to be responsible for at least 17 deaths, most of them prostitutes. He is serving a 203-year prison sentence.

Police periodically tried to identify the New Jersey head and in 2011 obtained a list of prostitution arrests in New York City, from which they found one whose description matched the victim, according to the statement.

They found a missing person report that matched her description but had been ruled out because it said the woman had been last seen in 1995, six years after the head was discovered.

Police met with the person who filed the missing person’s report and now believe the sighting date in the report was erroneous.

DNA samples from the missing prostitute’s parents confirmed the identity of the head, police said.

Rifkin will not be charged with Balch’s murder in New Jersey, the statement said.

Her head was found along the edge of a stream at the Hopewell Valley Golf Club in March 1989 and human legs, found to match the head, were discovered later that spring, police said.

When police stopped Rifkin, who lived in East Meadow, New York, in 1993 for missing a license plate, they found the body of a dead woman in the car truck.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer’s first victim – NBCNews.com (blog)

Mike Albans / AP file

In this Dec. 17, 1993 file photo, Joel Rifkin, right, is led to the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola, N.Y., for a suppression hearing. New Jersey State Police said Wednesday, March 27, 2013, that 25-year-old Heidi Balch likely was the first victim of Rifkin, who is in prison in New York after admitting he killed 17 women in the early 1990s.

By Ellen Wulfhorst, Reuters

A human head discovered on a New Jersey golf course 24 years ago has been identified and is believed to be the first victim of serial killer Joel Rifkin, according to police.

The head belonged to Heidi Balch, who was murdered and dismembered at age 25 in New York, according to a statement issued on Monday by the Hopewell Township, New Jersey police.

Detectives had long suspected a link between the head and Rifkin after he was arrested in 1993 and questioned but they had been unable to identify the head until now, police said in the statement.

During questioning, Rifkin said he dismembered his first victim, a prostitute, and put her head and legs in streams in New Jersey, police said.

Rifkin was convicted of nine murders and is believed to be responsible for at least 17 deaths, most of them prostitutes. He is serving a 203-year prison sentence.

Police periodically tried to identify the New Jersey head and in 2011 obtained a list of prostitution arrests in New York City, from which they found one whose description matched the victim, according to the statement.

They found a missing person report that matched her description but had been ruled out because it said the woman had been last seen in 1995, six years after the head was discovered.

Police met with the person who filed the missing person’s report and now believe the sighting date in the report was erroneous.

DNA samples from the missing prostitute’s parents confirmed the identity of the head, police said.

Rifkin will not be charged with Balch’s murder in New Jersey, the statement said.

Her head was found along the edge of a stream at the Hopewell Valley Golf Club in March 1989 and human legs, found to match the head, were discovered later that spring, police said.

When police stopped Rifkin, who lived in East Meadow, New York, in 1993 for missing a license plate, they found the body of a dead woman in the car truck.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer’s first victim – NBCNews.com (blog)

Mike Albans / AP file

In this Dec. 17, 1993 file photo, Joel Rifkin, right, is led to the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola, N.Y., for a suppression hearing. New Jersey State Police said Wednesday, March 27, 2013, that 25-year-old Heidi Balch likely was the first victim of Rifkin, who is in prison in New York after admitting he killed 17 women in the early 1990s.

By Ellen Wulfhorst, Reuters

A human head discovered on a New Jersey golf course 24 years ago has been identified and is believed to be the first victim of serial killer Joel Rifkin, according to police.

The head belonged to Heidi Balch, who was murdered and dismembered at age 25 in New York, according to a statement issued on Monday by the Hopewell Township, New Jersey police.

Detectives had long suspected a link between the head and Rifkin after he was arrested in 1993 and questioned but they had been unable to identify the head until now, police said in the statement.

During questioning, Rifkin said he dismembered his first victim, a prostitute, and put her head and legs in streams in New Jersey, police said.

Rifkin was convicted of nine murders and is believed to be responsible for at least 17 deaths, most of them prostitutes. He is serving a 203-year prison sentence.

Police periodically tried to identify the New Jersey head and in 2011 obtained a list of prostitution arrests in New York City, from which they found one whose description matched the victim, according to the statement.

They found a missing person report that matched her description but had been ruled out because it said the woman had been last seen in 1995, six years after the head was discovered.

Police met with the person who filed the missing person’s report and now believe the sighting date in the report was erroneous.

DNA samples from the missing prostitute’s parents confirmed the identity of the head, police said.

Rifkin will not be charged with Balch’s murder in New Jersey, the statement said.

Her head was found along the edge of a stream at the Hopewell Valley Golf Club in March 1989 and human legs, found to match the head, were discovered later that spring, police said.

When police stopped Rifkin, who lived in East Meadow, New York, in 1993 for missing a license plate, they found the body of a dead woman in the car truck.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer’s first victim – NBCNews.com (blog)

Mike Albans / AP file

In this Dec. 17, 1993 file photo, Joel Rifkin, right, is led to the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola, N.Y., for a suppression hearing. New Jersey State Police said Wednesday, March 27, 2013, that 25-year-old Heidi Balch likely was the first victim of Rifkin, who is in prison in New York after admitting he killed 17 women in the early 1990s.

By Ellen Wulfhorst, Reuters

A human head discovered on a New Jersey golf course 24 years ago has been identified and is believed to be the first victim of serial killer Joel Rifkin, according to police.

The head belonged to Heidi Balch, who was murdered and dismembered at age 25 in New York, according to a statement issued on Monday by the Hopewell Township, New Jersey police.

Detectives had long suspected a link between the head and Rifkin after he was arrested in 1993 and questioned but they had been unable to identify the head until now, police said in the statement.

During questioning, Rifkin said he dismembered his first victim, a prostitute, and put her head and legs in streams in New Jersey, police said.

Rifkin was convicted of nine murders and is believed to be responsible for at least 17 deaths, most of them prostitutes. He is serving a 203-year prison sentence.

Police periodically tried to identify the New Jersey head and in 2011 obtained a list of prostitution arrests in New York City, from which they found one whose description matched the victim, according to the statement.

They found a missing person report that matched her description but had been ruled out because it said the woman had been last seen in 1995, six years after the head was discovered.

Police met with the person who filed the missing person’s report and now believe the sighting date in the report was erroneous.

DNA samples from the missing prostitute’s parents confirmed the identity of the head, police said.

Rifkin will not be charged with Balch’s murder in New Jersey, the statement said.

Her head was found along the edge of a stream at the Hopewell Valley Golf Club in March 1989 and human legs, found to match the head, were discovered later that spring, police said.

When police stopped Rifkin, who lived in East Meadow, New York, in 1993 for missing a license plate, they found the body of a dead woman in the car truck.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer’s first victim – NBCNews.com (blog)

Mike Albans / AP file

In this Dec. 17, 1993 file photo, Joel Rifkin, right, is led to the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola, N.Y., for a suppression hearing. New Jersey State Police said Wednesday, March 27, 2013, that 25-year-old Heidi Balch likely was the first victim of Rifkin, who is in prison in New York after admitting he killed 17 women in the early 1990s.

By Ellen Wulfhorst, Reuters

A human head discovered on a New Jersey golf course 24 years ago has been identified and is believed to be the first victim of serial killer Joel Rifkin, according to police.

The head belonged to Heidi Balch, who was murdered and dismembered at age 25 in New York, according to a statement issued on Monday by the Hopewell Township, New Jersey police.

Detectives had long suspected a link between the head and Rifkin after he was arrested in 1993 and questioned but they had been unable to identify the head until now, police said in the statement.

During questioning, Rifkin said he dismembered his first victim, a prostitute, and put her head and legs in streams in New Jersey, police said.

Rifkin was convicted of nine murders and is believed to be responsible for at least 17 deaths, most of them prostitutes. He is serving a 203-year prison sentence.

Police periodically tried to identify the New Jersey head and in 2011 obtained a list of prostitution arrests in New York City, from which they found one whose description matched the victim, according to the statement.

They found a missing person report that matched her description but had been ruled out because it said the woman had been last seen in 1995, six years after the head was discovered.

Police met with the person who filed the missing person’s report and now believe the sighting date in the report was erroneous.

DNA samples from the missing prostitute’s parents confirmed the identity of the head, police said.

Rifkin will not be charged with Balch’s murder in New Jersey, the statement said.

Her head was found along the edge of a stream at the Hopewell Valley Golf Club in March 1989 and human legs, found to match the head, were discovered later that spring, police said.

When police stopped Rifkin, who lived in East Meadow, New York, in 1993 for missing a license plate, they found the body of a dead woman in the car truck.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer’s first victim – NBCNews.com (blog)

Mike Albans / AP file

In this Dec. 17, 1993 file photo, Joel Rifkin, right, is led to the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola, N.Y., for a suppression hearing. New Jersey State Police said Wednesday, March 27, 2013, that 25-year-old Heidi Balch likely was the first victim of Rifkin, who is in prison in New York after admitting he killed 17 women in the early 1990s.

By Ellen Wulfhorst, Reuters

A human head discovered on a New Jersey golf course 24 years ago has been identified and is believed to be the first victim of serial killer Joel Rifkin, according to police.

The head belonged to Heidi Balch, who was murdered and dismembered at age 25 in New York, according to a statement issued on Monday by the Hopewell Township, New Jersey police.

Detectives had long suspected a link between the head and Rifkin after he was arrested in 1993 and questioned but they had been unable to identify the head until now, police said in the statement.

During questioning, Rifkin said he dismembered his first victim, a prostitute, and put her head and legs in streams in New Jersey, police said.

Rifkin was convicted of nine murders and is believed to be responsible for at least 17 deaths, most of them prostitutes. He is serving a 203-year prison sentence.

Police periodically tried to identify the New Jersey head and in 2011 obtained a list of prostitution arrests in New York City, from which they found one whose description matched the victim, according to the statement.

They found a missing person report that matched her description but had been ruled out because it said the woman had been last seen in 1995, six years after the head was discovered.

Police met with the person who filed the missing person’s report and now believe the sighting date in the report was erroneous.

DNA samples from the missing prostitute’s parents confirmed the identity of the head, police said.

Rifkin will not be charged with Balch’s murder in New Jersey, the statement said.

Her head was found along the edge of a stream at the Hopewell Valley Golf Club in March 1989 and human legs, found to match the head, were discovered later that spring, police said.

When police stopped Rifkin, who lived in East Meadow, New York, in 1993 for missing a license plate, they found the body of a dead woman in the car truck.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Decades old human head believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim - NBCNews.com (blog)

Hunting for Dead Serial Killers - Daily Beast

Hunting for Dead Serial Killers – Daily Beast

By day, she runs the sex-crimes division of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. In her spare time, she tracks down the DNA of dead rapists, murderers, and serial killers.

David Freund/Getty

Carol Burke is on a mission to cross off as many cold cases as she can by matching swabs of known felons with evidence from unsolved crime scenes. With Anne Marie Schubert, who is in charge of child-abuse cases upstate in the Sacramento DA’s office, Burke helps to run a project called Dead Man Talking, which has brought the pair closer than ever to bringing justice to the cases of some of the most sadistic serial killers in California history—even if the culprits themselves are long gone.

“It’s really rewarding,” Burke says of the project. “There is a lot of value to it, even though we can’t prosecute the offenders because they are dead. Families can at least have some closure. They finally know what happened to their loved ones.”

California has a DNA databank that stores close to two million felon profiles. It also contains some 25,000 pieces of crime scene evidence from murders, rapes, robberies, and burglaries—semen from a bed sheet, says, or a cigarette butt—that have never been linked to an offender.

Burke and Schubert believe that adding to the list of felon profiles could close countless unsolved cases. But a surprising number of known offenders are missing from the database. Schubert says that since 1984, close to 25,000 inmates have died in a California prison or on parole. Of those, nearly 19,000 were not swabbed for DNA before they died. Over 40 of them were death row inmates.

Finding traces of these men can be extremely difficult, especially for two women with full-time jobs and no staff. Burke and Schubert are focusing first on death row inmates, and then widening their net to offenders who were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Each has their own white whale. Burke is devoted to tracking down the DNA of notorious “Freeway Killer” William Bonin, so called because many of his victims were left by the side of freeways in Southern California. “He’s my No. 1 target,” Burke says. “He was a really bad guy. He was so prolific.”

Bonin was convicted of kidnapping, robbing, sexually assaulting, and killing 13 boys and young men in Los Angeles and Orange counties between 1979 and 1980. After he was arrested, Bonin, who had worked alongside various accomplices including a factory worker named Vernon Butts, confessed to killing 21 young boys and young men, some of them he picked up hitchhiking. Police believe his body count is closer to 30.

However, when Bonin was executed in San Quentin State Prison in 1996 before submitting a DNA sample, any hope of linking him to more killings died with him.

“I assumed they autopsied people in San Quentin. That’s not the case.”

“I originally assumed they autopsied people in San Quentin,” says Burke. “That’s not the case. They were only autopsying people who committed suicide or were killed in prison. So someone who died of natural causes or was executed like Bonin was not autopsied.”

Burke says Bonin’s court files and trial exhibits have been destroyed. Nor has she had any luck finding his blood, semen, or saliva with the Los Angeles or Orange County police departments or with the coroner’s office. An attempt to track down the DNA of Butts, who Bonin said was an active participant in many of the murders, almost came to fruition when she discovered that he had committed suicide in a Los Angeles county jail and was autopsied. But, she said, law enforcement personnel destroyed the forensic evidence in 2010.  

The dead ends can be frustrating. “Bonin is the most notorious and the one who most likely left unsolved murders in his wake,” Burke says. “It sure would be great to get his sample so we could solve some of the unsolveds out there.”

Recently, she found better luck in the case of Roland Comtois, who abducted two teenaged girls in 1987, killing one and sexually assaulting the other. The 65-year-old inmate died in a prison hospital from an infection in 1994, but was never autopsied. But Burke’s sleuthing uncovered a bloody shirt that had belonged to the killer—left when police shot him trying to escape arrest and stored as evidence. So far, his DNA has not been linked to any new murders.

Schubert, who created Dead Man Talking in 2008, started the project in part to solve some of Sacramento county’s most notorious serial killer cold cases that date back to the 70s.

“It was a killing field, and not just here,” she says. “The number of body dumps across the state was enormous.”

One of the killers high on her list is the “Original Night Stalker,” who is believed to be responsible for over 50 rapes that began in northern California and ended with multiple murders in 1986 in Santa Barbara, Orange, and Ventura counties.

“It terrified Sacramento and the region,” says Schuster, who was a child when the attacks began. “We still haven’t solved it. It’s highly likely that he has died in prison.”   

Schubert spent over a year searching for the DNA of serial killer Gerald Gallego, who along with his wife was responsible for the sex-slave murders of 10 young women in California and Nevada in the late 70s. Gallego, who was sentenced to death in both states, died in 2002 of rectal cancer in Nevada and was never swabbed.

Eventually, Schubert says, she found a saliva sample buried inside 14 boxes at a clerk’s office.  

“I can say he was suspected in multiple murders and not just the ones he was convicted of,” she says.

Last year, the pair had their first major success when they linked L.A. serial killer Juan Chavez to the unsolved murder of 60-year-old Lynn Penn. Penn was found strangled in his apartment in July of 1990.

Chavez committed suicide three months after he was convicted of killing five gay men. Schubert discovered that Chavez had been autopsied and a sample of his blood was still in evidence. His DNA was uploaded into the DNA databank and last February it was linked to saliva found on a cigarette butt that was discovered inside Penn’s apartment.  

“I think I screamed,” said Schubert when she learned of the DNA hit. “I remember where I was. It’s like how everyone remembers where they were when Elvis died.”

Schubert is hoping to expand the project statewide, and hire an investigator full-time. However, cold case grants are hard to come by. Last year, they were turned down for funding for the project.

“There are probably some people out there that are like, ‘These guys are dead, it doesn’t matter.’ I don’t think that at all,” she says. “It does matter. It’s about seeking justice for those who were harmed by these people.”

Hunting for Dead Serial Killers - Daily Beast

How to Shoot a Serial Killer - Slate Magazine

How to Shoot a Serial Killer – Slate Magazine

Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek as a killer and his young girlfriend in Badlands, 1973.

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Many moralists think violence should simply be swept away from American cinema because our citizens can’t tell the difference between fantasy and reality. However, in a country as violent as the United States, it’s natural that violent art is going to be produced in large quantities. Examining Terrence Malick’s 1973 masterpiece Badlands at a time when gun violence has once again become a topic of heated discussion, now that Criterion has issued a sparkling new edition, enables one to see its superiority to the wave of serial-killer chic that swept American culture in the ’90s and is still with us today. If a portion of American cinema is going to remain devoted to violence, it could learn a lot by revisiting Malick’s thoughtfulness.

Criterion’s edition of Badlands.

Badlands is told in the first person, through the eyes of an unreliable narrator: 15-year-old Holly (Sissy Spacek). In voice-over she tells us that her older boyfriend, the serial killer Kit (Martin Sheen), praises her for acting like an adult, but it’s hard to imagine a teenager more childish. When Kit commits murders and the couple goes on the lam through South Dakota and the Great Plains, she hovers passively on the sidelines. While she never participates in Kit’s crimes, she never raises any objection to them either. Malick’s writing of Holly’s voice-over is marvelous: He imagines a voice steeped in gossip magazines and romance novels and creates a style of purple prose to suit her. Kit is every bit as much a creature of pop culture. In an early scene, he looks like a young rebel in the mold of James Dean and Marlon Brando, clad in a white T-shirt and jeans with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. Inevitably, a cop points out the resemblance between him and Dean.

Malick’s film executes a tricky balancing act: It depicts murderers in love without romanticizing their actions. It comes closest to crossing that line in the beautiful section depicting their idyll in a tree house. (Last year, Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom even drew inspiration from this part of the film for its romantic portrait of tween runaways.) But even in that section they come off looking rather silly: Holly tries to make herself up like a movie star but falls well short of Hollywood glamour, and when they attempt a forest boogie, their movements are stiff and self-conscious. If Holly remains somewhat sympathetic, Kit comes off as a blowhard at best. He may fancy himself a rebel and dress the part, but he’s obviously overestimated his own intelligence and tends to spew platitudes. After killing Holly’s father, he shoots two bounty hunters in the back and goes on to shoot a friend for no apparent reason.

The film is based on the story of real-life serial killer Charles Starkweather—who, just like Kit, styled himself after Dean—and his girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate. The short TV documentary about Starkweather included as a bonus feature on the Criterion disc is pretty disposable, but it underscores how Badlands actually sanitized Starkweather somewhat in fictionalizing him; unlike Kit, the real murderer raped a woman and killed a 2-year-old. While Badlands doesn’t go that far, it consistently portrays Kit as an evil creep and a poser. His violent actions are never dwelled upon or sensationalized, but the film doesn’t shy away from depicting them explicitly.

The film fits into a long line of American films about outlaw couples on the run, which probably began with Fritz Lang’s You Only Live Once (1937) and Nicholas Ray’s They Live by Night (1948). Its most immediate precursor is Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde (1967)—a film that also undercuts its romance, rendering its dashing male hero impotent. But if Badlands was inspired in part by Bonnie and Clyde, its somber tone couldn’t be further from that film’s mix of humor and highly stylized gore.

That gore was featured in force in the ’90s, when serial killers seemed to be everywhere in American cinema, most notably in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Seven (1995), and, worst of all, Natural Born Killers (1994). Lifting the romance angle from Badlands, Oliver Stone’s 1994 film paid homage to its predecessor, but Stone must have misunderstood its lessons. Kit was an anti-hero, if not an outright villain, but Natural Born Killers turns its serial killers Mickey (Woody Harrelson) and Mallory (Juliette Lewis) into folk heroes. Although Stone makes fun of teenagers and the media for extolling the coolness of Mickey and Mallory, his film amounts to an elaborate version of the same thing. It’s the cinematic equivalent of a Charles Manson T-shirt.

The Silence of the Lambs may have been a bit more subtle, but its portrayal of Hannibal Lecter had the same effect. When it was released, few people, apart from critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, noted with any alarm that it turned a serial killer, Hannibal Lecter, into a kind of charismatic guru. Sure, he might dine on your liver, the film told us, but he’d do it with wit and sophistication, while revealing to you the secrets of your soul. Anthony Hopkins won an Oscar for his winning portrayal, and the movie was a blockbuster, the fourth biggest film at the box office that year.

Given the success and appeal of the character, it was perhaps inevitable that, in the sequel-crazy 2000s, Lecter would become the focus of one of one of the decade’s biggest franchises. The first sequel, Hannibal (2001), made it even safer to identify with Lecter, by making his adversary a pedophile—who’s going to root for a child molester?—and it became an even bigger hit than Lambs. Lecter continued to serve as the main attraction in two more sequels, Red Dragon (2002) and Hannibal Rising (2007)—just look at whose face dominates the posters. Coming this spring, the murderer will get his own TV series, Hannibal, premiering on NBC.

Just as happened in the mass media in Natural Born Killers, the serial killers had become the stars of the movies. Starting in 2004, the Saw series followed a similar pattern, treating its villain, Jigsaw, as another sort of guru. By torturing his victims, the films explain, Jigsaw shows people who’ve wasted their lives the error of their ways. Of course, Jigsaw had precedents in slasher cinema—Freddy Kruger and Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers—but none of them were treated as kindly as the Saw movies depicted Jigsaw. From the first film, Jigsaw was dying of cancer, so his time in the series was limited, but when he vanished from it, the films’ box office appeal diminished.

Thankfully, a few films have emerged to give the serial killer plot a smarter twist. Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder (2003) and David Fincher’s Zodiac (2005) are both based on real-life investigations of serial killers. Crucially, both cases remain unsolved, leaving no figure to glorify. The films instead track the web of psychic damage and obsession created by the murders. In this way Memories of Murder and Zodiac hold a mirror up to a culture fascinated by serial killers and show its ultimate emptiness, all without the self-righteous finger-pointing of a film like Michael Haneke’s 1997 Funny Games (remade in the United States a decade later), which was inspired by the Austrian director’s disgust with Natural Born Killers.

If Badlands encourages us to identify with any of its characters at all (and I’m not sure that it does), it places us in an unusual perspective: that of a killer’s lover, implicated in his crimes but not directly participating in them. In this way, the film humanizes both the killers and victims. If directors and writers of violent cinema walk away from it with one point to incorporate into their own films, that’s the best one. The difficulty of humanizing killers without romanticizing them may present a challenging problem, but Malick showed it’s not impossible to solve.

MySlate is a new tool that lets you track your favorite parts of Slate. You can follow authors and sections, track comment threads you’re interested in, and more.

How to Shoot a Serial Killer - Slate Magazine

Game-obsessed Sandy Hook gunman was trying to 'out-score' past serial killers ... - VG247

Game-obsessed Sandy Hook gunman was trying to ‘out-score’ past serial killers … – VG247

Add to My News

Story by Dave Cook

Mon, Mar 18, 2013 | 16:06 GMT

The gunman responsible for the Sandy Hook school shooting was so obsessed with video games, that he created a score sheet filled with the names of past serial killers in an attempt to out-score’ them. That’s the claim of a new report by the New York Daily Times.

Investigators researching the killer’s motives are said to have found a seven foot long, four foot wide spreadsheet filled with the kill tallies of past serial killers, the site suggests.

The details on the alleged sheet suggests the shooter placed extensive research into the study, and the New York Daily Times states quite explicitly that the document was a score sheet, as backed up by an unnamed ‘law enforcement veteran’.

The anonymous source supposedly said, “We were told (the shooter) had around 500 people on this sheet. Names and the number of people killed and the weapons that were used, even the precise make and model of the weapons. It had to have taken years. It sounded like a doctoral thesis, that was the quality of the research.”

The source then continued, “They don’t believe this was just a spreadsheet. They believe it was a score sheet. This was the work of a video gamer, and that it was his intent to put his own name at the very top of that list.

“They believe that he picked an elementary school because he felt it was a point of least resistance, where he could rack up the greatest number of kills. That’s what (the Connecticut police) believe.”

If true it really does paint a grim picture of the shooter’s mental state at the time, rather than the explicit, direct fact that he was a gamer.

Meanwhile, an ex-FBI profiler recently went on record in response to the killing spree, and said that video games do not directly cause violence. Check out what she said here.

What do you make of the statements above? Should games be distanced from the matter, or could there be some sort of link? Discuss below.

Thanks Gamespot.

Game-obsessed Sandy Hook gunman was trying to 'out-score' past serial killers ... - VG247

High court rejects serial killer's petition - Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

High court rejects serial killer’s petition – Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

Advertisement

The state Supreme Court has rejected a petition from Spokane serial killer Robert Yates.

The court today dismissed Yates’ petition, ruling none of his claims of error merited review or a hearing.

Yates’ petition raised 25 grounds for relief, including ineffective assistance of counsel, juror bias and numerous procedural issues.

Yates in 2000 was convicted of 13 counts of first degree murder and one count of attempted murder in Spokane County, and in a plea deal was sentenced to 408 years in prison instead of death. But the next year he was sentenced to death for two murders in Pierce County.

He is on death row at the Washington State Penitentiary.

High court rejects serial killer's petition - Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

Does the Pacific Northwest breed serial killers? - KPTV.com

Does the Pacific Northwest breed serial killers? – KPTV.com

PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) -

There is a tranquil beauty about the Pacific Northwest, but for decades the region has also hidden dark secrets.

Oregon and Washington have the dubious distinction of being home to some of the nation’s most prolific serial killers.

“We’ve got these serial killers and these ended up turning into very, very large cases,” said Dr. Nici Vance, a forensic scientist with the Oregon State Police crime lab.

Dr. Vance has analyzed forensic evidence found at the dumpsites of northwest serial killers, including the dumpsite of Dayton Leroy Rogers.

Rogers, known as the Molalla Forest Killer, was convicted of killing seven women.

“We have a lot of tools that are used for big scenes like that,” she said.

As far back as the 1960s, Jerome Brudos, dubbed the Shoe Fetish Slayer, killed women in the Willamette Valley.

Notorious serial killer Ted Bundy grew up in Seattle and hunted women in several states, including Washington and Oregon. One of his victims was snatched from the Oregon State University campus. 

The Northwest was also home to Robert Lee Yates, a serial murderer who operated in the Spokane area; the I-5 Killer, Randall Woodfield; and Gary Ridgway, known as the Green River Killer, who confessed to killing 49 women, mainly prostitutes.

A photographer spent two years documenting the dumpsites of northwest killers.  Stephen Chalmers traveled to more than 250 dumpsites in northern California, Oregon and Washington. He captured images that are simply titled with the victims’ names.

The photos are stark and evocative.

Chalmers, who once worked a an EMT in Portland, said the inspiration for the project came while he was on a date. The pair was hiking on a picturesque trail near Seattle and Chalmers later learned it was where a serial killer had dumped his victims.

“I hope the photos help people look at the scenes in a different light,” he said. “They’re a beautiful tribute to the victims.”

Chalmers used old newspaper articles, police archives and information from Freedom of Information requests to locate the sites. The project is now being considered for publication as a book.

As for why there seem to be so many serial killers in the Northwest?

Dr. Vance said it may be the region’s rural and wooded areas.

“It’s largely anonymous, all the open areas, up and down the I-5 corridor,” she said. “I think it’s a thoroughfare of humanity and it’s easy to be obscure when you’re there.”

RELATED: “Dumpsites” by Photographer Steven Chalmers

Copyright 2013 KPTV-KPDX Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.

Does the Pacific Northwest breed serial killers? - KPTV.com

Local man donates memorabilia to serial killer museum - Dodge City Daily Globe

Local man donates memorabilia to serial killer museum – Dodge City Daily Globe

When Bob George, a lifetime Dodge City resident, first wrote a letter to Charles Manson, he had no idea it would become a decades long fascination spreading to other mass murderers and serial killers.
“I was teaching psychology at the high school,” George remembers, “and we were about to start a chapter on cults. I had just happened to read in the paper that day that Manson was denied parole once again. I thought ‘what a great visual aid for this topic- a letter from Manson himself’.”
So, George wrote Manson a letter in 1997. He didn’t respond.
But George didn’t give up. He decided to write one more letter and hoped for a response.
Again Manson didn’t respond. But someone else did. At the time Manson was receiving over 60 letters a day in prison, so he had his own personal ‘secretary’, a man named Roger Dale Smith, a fellow prisoner. Smith just happened to be a born again Christian, and George had included a Fellowship of Christian Athletes card with his letter. Smith saw the card and wrote back to George.
George and Smith began corresponding for several years. The relationship ended only when Smith passed away in 2004.
Before he died however Smith convinced Manson to write to George as well, and George finally received his first letter from Manson. According to Wikipedia, Charles Manson is an American criminal and musician who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He manipulated members into committing brutal murders on his behalf. The letter, scrawled on yellow and pink paper and written in crayon, made no sense. Since then, George has continued to periodically receive more letters and drawings from Manson.
George was most fascinated with serial killers, out of all the topics he covered in psychology, this was the most interesting for him.
“I wanted to understand how their minds work,” George said. “How they can do horrific things to other human begins, and get pleasure from it.”
When Dennis Rader, BTK, was captured in 2005, George took notice.
George knew that Rader was being held in Sedgewick County Detention Center and began writing him immediately. He received about 10 letters as his trial approached. Before the trial, George asked if he was on the visitors list to see Rader. He wasn’t, but was allowed to visit anyway because he does jail ministry.
“I was so nervous when I was about to talk to him,” George said. “When Rader walked in he high-fived the glass between us, and within 30 seconds I was completely at ease.”
George went on to say that this is one of the talents of a serial killer, they can become whoever you want them to be. This is often how they get people to trust them before they attack.
Over the years George has become pen pals with several other serial killers including Son of Sam, Rock n Rolling Stewart, BTK, Charles Manson, Mikhail Markhasev and countless others. All the letters are carefully organized and preserved in his house.

Learning from their actions
George, although now retired from teaching, still lectures at the high school twice a year, and speaks at other meetings and events when asked.
“I want to teach others, especially women, that these people are out there. Everywhere,” George said. “I want them to know so they can better protect themselves, and prevent themselves from becoming the next victim.”
George brings several of his letters and artwork as visual aids to his lectures. And tells horror stories of what these people have done.
“I always tell people you can’t trust anyone,” George added. “BTK had a wife and family, was the leader of a Boy Scout troop, and active in the church. And look what he did in his spare time. Ted Bundy pretended to be handicapped to capture victims. You can’t trust anyone.”
To schedule a presentation with George call (620) 225-1612.

Looking inside Evil Minds
A few weeks ago George discovered a museum known as the Evil Minds Museum located at the FBI training Academy in Quantico, Va. The museum is not open to the public, only to FBI agents and other experts, including handwriting analysts, artwork experts, and serial killer researchers who may be able to provide insight into what makes a serial killer.
George has decided to donate his letters and other artifacts to the museum to try and help the researchers.
“I hope that my letters can help the experts find something, some link that connects the killers, so that in the future we can prevent things like this from happening,” said George.
So, after over a decade of corresponding with several killers what has George learned?
“I’ve learned that the more I study these letters and try and find patterns and similarities, the less I know,” said George. “I don’t think there’s one common link between people like this. I think you can have 100 people, all with personalities like Dennis Rader, but for one person one thing slightly different happens at some point in his life and his brain changes. What that one thing is, I have no idea. It’s probably different for each person.”

Follow Julia on twitter, @julia_dcglobe

Comment or view comments  »

Local man donates memorabilia to serial killer museum - Dodge City Daily Globe

Local man donates memorabilia to serial killer museum ... - Dodge City Daily Globe

Local man donates memorabilia to serial killer museum … – Dodge City Daily Globe

When Bob George, a lifetime Dodge City resident, first wrote a letter to Charles Manson, he had no idea it would become a decades long fascination spreading to other mass murderers and serial killers.
“I was teaching psychology at the high school,” George remembers, “and we were about to start a chapter on cults. I had just happened to read in the paper that day that Manson was denied parole once again. I thought ‘what a great visual aid for this topic- a letter from Manson himself’.”
So, George wrote Manson a letter in 1997. He didn’t respond.
But George didn’t give up. He decided to write one more letter and hoped for a response.
Again Manson didn’t respond. But someone else did. At the time Manson was receiving over 60 letters a day in prison, so he had his own personal ‘secretary’, a man named Roger Dale Smith, a fellow prisoner. Smith just happened to be a born again Christian, and George had included a Fellowship of Christian Athletes card with his letter. Smith saw the card and wrote back to George.
George and Smith began corresponding for several years. The relationship ended only when Smith passed away in 2004.
Before he died however Smith convinced Manson to write to George as well, and George finally received his first letter from Manson. According to Wikipedia, Charles Manson is an American criminal and musician who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He manipulated members into committing brutal murders on his behalf. The letter, scrawled on yellow and pink paper and written in crayon, made no sense. Since then, George has continued to periodically receive more letters and drawings from Manson.
George was most fascinated with serial killers, out of all the topics he covered in psychology, this was the most interesting for him.
“I wanted to understand how their minds work,” George said. “How they can do horrific things to other human begins, and get pleasure from it.”
When Dennis Rader, BTK, was captured in 2005, George took notice.
George knew that Rader was being held in Sedgewick County Detention Center and began writing him immediately. He received about 10 letters as his trial approached. Before the trial, George asked if he was on the visitors list to see Rader. He wasn’t, but was allowed to visit anyway because he does jail ministry.
“I was so nervous when I was about to talk to him,” George said. “When Rader walked in he high-fived the glass between us, and within 30 seconds I was completely at ease.”
George went on to say that this is one of the talents of a serial killer, they can become whoever you want them to be. This is often how they get people to trust them before they attack.
Over the years George has become pen pals with several other serial killers including Son of Sam, Rock n Rolling Stewart, BTK, Charles Manson, Mikhail Markhasev and countless others. All the letters are carefully organized and preserved in his house.

Learning from their actions
George, although now retired from teaching, still lectures at the high school twice a year, and speaks at other meetings and events when asked.
“I want to teach others, especially women, that these people are out there. Everywhere,” George said. “I want them to know so they can better protect themselves, and prevent themselves from becoming the next victim.”
George brings several of his letters and artwork as visual aids to his lectures. And tells horror stories of what these people have done.
“I always tell people you can’t trust anyone,” George added. “BTK had a wife and family, was the leader of a Boy Scout troop, and active in the church. And look what he did in his spare time. Ted Bundy pretended to be handicapped to capture victims. You can’t trust anyone.”
To schedule a presentation with George call (620) 225-1612.

Looking inside Evil Minds
A few weeks ago George discovered a museum known as the Evil Minds Museum located at the FBI training Academy in Quantico, Va. The museum is not open to the public, only to FBI agents and other experts, including handwriting analysts, artwork experts, and serial killer researchers who may be able to provide insight into what makes a serial killer.
George has decided to donate his letters and other artifacts to the museum to try and help the researchers.
“I hope that my letters can help the experts find something, some link that connects the killers, so that in the future we can prevent things like this from happening,” said George.
So, after over a decade of corresponding with several killers what has George learned?
“I’ve learned that the more I study these letters and try and find patterns and similarities, the less I know,” said George. “I don’t think there’s one common link between people like this. I think you can have 100 people, all with personalities like Dennis Rader, but for one person one thing slightly different happens at some point in his life and his brain changes. What that one thing is, I have no idea. It’s probably different for each person.”

Follow Julia on twitter, @julia_dcglobe

Comment or view comments  »

Local man donates memorabilia to serial killer museum ... - Dodge City Daily Globe