Man confesses to 90 murders - Why did it take so long?

www.npr.org...

This story is just crazy. He says he killed 90 women.

He was arrested in 2012 and brought to California for a drug charge. He was tied to 3 murders due to DNA.
So here is where I am confused. Why only 3. If this guy really killed 90, which right now it seems like they have confirmed 34.
Three hits seem very very low.

Little was "nomadic," and the killings happened across the country, from California and through the South and Midwest to Florida, which may help explain why authorities had not connected them.

You are telling me that they can tell what color my eyeball is from a satellite in space, but they could not connect more than 3 women to this guy with the DNA technology they have today? The cases they had his DNA for were from the 1980's too!
Maybe I am naive, but isn't there a DNA database for cold cases / criminals that match these things up?

a reply to: JAGStorm

It really depended on the investigating agencies, and if they had the training/technology/funding to collect DNA. Depending also on where the murders were and IF they were ever found. Think how many 10’s of thousands go missing every year. Lots are never found. No body, no crime reported, other than missing person (if that, since I think it was lots of addicts, prositutes, homeless).

To be honest, I find it odd we don’t hear more of these horror stories with all the folk who go missing, never to be heard from again.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
www.npr.org...

You are telling me that they can tell what color my eyeball is from a satellite in space, but they could not connect more than 3 women to this guy with the DNA technology they have today?

Not in 1956 they couldn't, which is when he began. The guy was a drifter who preyed on prostitutes. Hookers aren't the most stable people either, often with no "home" to go to, so if one disappears, well, she just moved on. When a body is found, they often don't even know who she is. James Ridgway, the "Green River Killer," used the exact same M.O. and was convicted of 49 killings, confessed to 70, and probably killed 90, same as this guy. And Ridgway is a dummy with an IQ in the low eighties. Now you get someone like Ted Bundy, who was intelligent, and the number goes up.

I went to high school with Ted Bundy.

a reply to: JAGStorm

From what I understand, States maintain their own databases and they don't all communicate with each other.

And there isn't a single national database yet. Except maybe the FBIs, but I imagine that relies on what is sent to them from the states.

a reply to: schuyler

That literally fascinates me that you went to high school with Ted Bundy. I'm obsessed with Ann Rule's The Stranger Beside me because she worked with him.

a reply to: schuyler


My neighbor still has some "I'll buckle up when Ted Bundy does" re: the seatbelt law in Flori-Duh and anticipating "Lights Out" for Theodore...

a reply to: JAGStorm

Sad, but unfortunately a lot of it is money and resources. The amount of DNA that is just sitting in evidence boxes never tested in astounding.

DNA testing is expensive, takes months, and isn't one big giant database.

Some prosecutions wont test it simply because they don't think they had a solid case.

Some departments don't have access to the right database to cross reference the DNA.

Also, because of the amount of types of DNA (touch, transfer, blood, saliva) results vary.

It looks like he picked low interest victims. So sad that every case isn't investigated equally.

a reply to: headorheart

And just think... When Mother Earth goes into 'Etch-A-Sketch' mode and shuffles (again) This era's "Gilgamesh/Noah" can start the humanoids up again with DNA gleaned from everyone ARRESTED for serious crimes. This will make Mother Earth's cycles shorter...

I once splashed some fingerprint dust around a 'cold' auto burglary (Ca. P.C. Code 459 P.C.) and then got a Subpoena for a 459 p.c. case (91 counts) I received the Subpoena 6.5 years after I submitted the original case.
I also did a 261 P.C. (Forcible Rape) and received a Subpoena from Ca. to My retirement house in Flori-Duh. It was 12 years between incident/capture.

originally posted by: schuyler

I went to high school with Ted Bundy.

That is mind-blowing.


As for the OP. It's amazing that they even catch the ones they do. I have a friend that has worked at Detroit Wayne County morgue for 3 decades, and says lots of people are never ID, just given a number, then cremated.

Has he been executed yet? Of course not. 90 other person's right to life are less than his. He's a good boy.

originally posted by: watchitburn
a reply to: JAGStorm

From what I understand, States maintain their own databases and they don't all communicate with each other.

And there isn't a single national database yet. Except maybe the FBIs, but I imagine that relies on what is sent to them from the states.

This this this this this. How crazy is this!!!

How on earth is there not a single database???

a reply to: schuyler

Not in 1956 they couldn't, which is when he began.

he has confessed to a total of 90 killings between 1970 and 2005,

I thought they started collecting in 1980 which seems like it would fit most of his victims

I went to high school with Ted Bundy.

A family members of mine dad was a serial killer. (he was caught and was sentenced to death) I've always been terrified that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I refused to eat anything
that person makes!

He slipped right thru Dexter's fingers while he was in FLorida.

a reply to: headorheart

Sad, but unfortunately a lot of it is money and resources. The amount of DNA that is just sitting in evidence boxes never tested in astounding.

I would actually pay higher taxes to go toward this. Not only would it solve some of these cases, it would probably prevent a lot too. Just look at this loser, he got away with that many. We don't know if that number is 90 either, it could be much much more.

I feel so bad for those women. I was on FB yesterday and a very liberal leaning post was basically glamorizing the stripping lifestyle. I was absolutely shocked at the amount of young girls saying to their friends that they should do it! I wish those girls would read stories like this and how money is not everything. I know stripping is not prostitution, but it sure is a slippery slope that can lead to some unsafe things. As a mom I just want to hug every one of those girls and tell them they are good enough and do not have to sell their bodies!!

As for that serial killer, I hope he dies the most painful death possible.

a reply to: JAGStorm

The FBI does maintain a database of convicted offenders but they must rely for the most part on the states to submit the data. For whatever reason, some states don't feel the obligation to test and submit on any sort of regular basis.

Most states have a forensic backlog for these types of evidence. A goodly number of departments don't have the training to collect and maintain the evidence properly. As one cop friend of mine commented recently, "They put more money into the anti-riot vehicles from the army than in evidence collection and maintenance."

A judge in our area recently threatened to drop all charges against an inmate due to the fact that the guy has been in jail for three years and the prosecution isn't "ready" to hold a trial because they haven't done the forensics.

a reply to: JAGStorm

That is crazy a lot of girls were encouraging that. Not only is it a slippery slope, but it is a high risk career. Even if they never drank on the clock, or excepted drugs, or turned to prostitution - many offenders, whether is be a drunk guy going to far or a career criminal, see them as easy targets.

I know that a lot of Innocence Project teams are crowd sourcing and fundraising just to start testing olds rape kits. The have caught killers recently this way.

Also, those DNA websites like Ancestory.com and 23andme.com are GREAT for this. While I would never give my DNA voluntarily to a website that then outsources it - it has caught several killers recently. The Golden State Killer being a huge one and one in the town next to mine just this year.

a reply to: JimNasium

12 years. Better late than never, but that is so depressing.

I can't only imagine the impact this has on people coming forward. The crime is back enough to live through let alone a 12 year rollercoaster to follow.

a reply to: JAGStorm

There is a national DNA database as well as CODIS. But some states have created a backlog and there is data that needs to be entered as well as samples to be processed.

Crime mostly affects the less rich so, oh well.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: schuyler

Not in 1956 they couldn't, which is when he began.

he has confessed to a total of 90 killings between 1970 and 2005,

I thought they started collecting in 1980 which seems like it would fit most of his victims

.

The FBI's CODIS, or Combined DNA Index System wasn't created until 1985. Until then there was no national database. In 1985, the idea of using DNA in criminal cases was brand new. In fact, the first person ever convicted by the use of DNA profiling wan't until 1986, in England. The English police undertook a mass testing of over 1000 men who lived or worked in the vicinity of the crime, a rape and murder. The structure of DNA wasn't discovered until 1953 or 54. The first Codon sequencing happen until 1965. The basic sequencing technique used RFLPtoday was invented in 1977. Technology has advanced and we can sequence DNA in 1 or 2 days using Polymerase Chain Reaction ammplification to amplify small samples and either RFLP (Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism) (older method) or STR (Short Tandem Repeat) (newer) analysis to develop a profile. Commercial Labs charge $3000 to $5000 to develop a profile. That, and bureaucratic laziness is part of the reason thousands of DNA samples remain untested. Most of these samples are part of rape kits. In New York City there are 17,000 untested kits. Houston has 6,000. In Detroit, Los Angeles and Memphis, there were more than 11,000 each. Some of the kits date from the 80s. These crimes would go unprosecuted in many states with statutes of limitations. Some states have no such statute for felonies (e. g. Kentucky) and other exclude things like first degree murder and rape from the SOLs (e. g. New York).