Dark Side: Finding Similarities

 

Finding similar cases is just for investigative purposes, enabling detectives to network about their cases; getting them assembled to discuss similar cases to determine if investigating them in concert will lead to a killer sooner. It is not an attempt by detectives to conclusively link two or more cases together as in the case of signature analysis. Linking cases through crime scene and psychological signature analysis. When detectives finally do realize that a murder might be the work of a  serial killer, what drives these investigators to search for similar murder cases? Call it gut instinct or, perhaps, a sixth sense. Experienced detectives look for other cases because they hope that information from those distant cases may hold the key to solving their own. But at exactly what point does an investigator turn the switch and actively search for similar case(s)? And how is linking one case to another actually accomplished? The ability to recognize that another case is related depends on two factors. First, there are individual characteristics of murder that should reveal;

·       signs of prior killing and/or

·  that the killer will strike again.

 Secondly, the information sources available to detectives govern whether or not they will discover similar murders. I will deal with the characteristics of murder first. How do detectives recognize that the apparent single victim murder they have just responded to is the work of a serial killer? What are the differences between those killers who choose to kill one person versus those who choose to kill multiple victims over a period of weeks or longer? Certain signs at the crime scene tell detectives what kind of a killer they have. Those signs have been referred to as characteristics of symbolism or ritualism—not ritualistic in the satanic sense or indicative of a specific kind of religious or cult ceremony—but a kind of psychological ritualism or internal psychodrama directly related to an attempt to fulfill the killer’s perverted fantasies. This is a ritual the killer may carry out every time he kills. In this ritual he’s acting out or working out the elements of a script in his own.

 

Consider this scenario. The scene was riveting. Every police officer arriving to secure the crime location stared at the single, grim, motionless female stretched out upon the pavement in an outlandishly bizarre position after being severely beaten. The police had never seen anything like it before. Clearly, her body had been deliberately posed. There was no question in anyone’s mind that whoever committed this terrible atrocity hadn’t worried about spending considerable time with her corpse. The body had been displayed in a busy area—the killer obviously wanted his work to be discovered quickly—nude and arranged to bear an unmistakable message of sexual degradation. The victim was left lying on her back, with her left foot crossed over the instep of her right ankle. Her head was turned to the left and a Frito-Lay dip container lid rested on top of her right eye. Her arms were bent at the elbow and crossed over her abdomen with her hands gently touching, one inside the other. In one hand, detectives found a startling piece of evidence: a Douglas fir cone. What did this clue represent? What kind of message was being sent, and to whom?

 

Only the killer knew.

 The victim’s gold watch on her left wrist and her gold choker chain with a crescent-shaped white pendant around her neck were the only personal items left on the otherwise nude corpse. Noting that the especially aggressive predator had been meticulous in removing all of the victim’s clothing, police figured that he was either too pressed for time to strip her of her jewelry, or he didn’t see any value in the pieces and deliberately left them as adornments to the body. The postmortem examination revealed that the victim had been raped anally with a foreign object. Semen was also found in the victim’s vagina. Let’s break down the significant characteristics in the above example that are indicators that a serial killer is in operation. First of all, one must look at each characteristic individually and, secondly, in combination with other characteristics. For example, it may not be particularly significant that the victim was left out in the open for someone to intentionally find the body, because that occurs in about 10% of all murders.

 

Acknowledgements:

www.politie.nl  and a Chief Inspector – Mr. Henk van Essen©

www.aivd.nl       AIVD – Mr. Erik Akerboom ©

 

Bibliography:

 

1.    Criminal Investigations – Crime Scene Investigation.2000

2.    Forensic Science.2006

3.    Techniques of Crime Scene Investigation.2012

4.    Forensics Pathology.2001

5.    Pathology.2005

6.    Forensic DNA Technology (Lewis Publishers,New York, 1991).

7.    The Examination and Typing of Bloodstains in the Crime Laboratory (U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., 1971).

8.    „A Short History of the Polymerase Chain Reaction". PCR Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology.

9.    Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual (3rd ed.). Cold Spring Harbor,N.Y.: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.2001

10.   "Antibodies as Thermolabile Switches: High Temperature Triggering for the Polymerase Chain Reaction". Bio/Technology.1994

11.   Forensic Science Handbook, vol. III (Regents/Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1993).

12.   "Thermostable DNA Polymerases for a Wide Spectrum of Applications: Comparison of a Robust Hybrid TopoTaq to other enzymes". In Kieleczawa J. DNA Sequencing II: Optimizing Preparation and Cleanup. Jones and Bartlett. 2006

13.   Nielsen B, et al., Acute and adaptive responses in humans to exercise in a warm, humid environment, Eur J Physiol 1997

14.   Molnar GW, Survival of hypothermia by men immersed in the ocean. JAMA 1946

15.   Paton BC, Accidental hypothermia. Pharmacol Ther 1983

 

16.   Simpson K, Exposure to cold-starvation and neglect, in Simpson K (Ed): Modem Trends in Forensic Medicine. St Louis, MO, Mosby Co, 1953.

17.   Fitzgerald FT, Hypoglycemia and accidental hypothermia in an alcoholic population. West J Med 1980

18.   Stoner HB et al., Metabolic aspects of hypothermia in the elderly. Clin Sci 1980

19.   MacGregor DC et al., The effects of ether, ethanol, propanol and butanol on tolerance to deep hypothermia. Dis Chest 1966

20.   Cooper KE, Hunter AR, and Keatinge WR, Accidental hypothermia. Int Anesthesia Clin 1964

21.   Keatinge WR. The effects of subcutaneous fat and of previous exposure to cold on the body temperature, peripheral blood flow and metabolic rate of men in cold water. J Physiol 1960

22.   Sloan REG and Keatinge WR, Cooling rates of young people swimming in cold water. J Appl Physiol 1973

23.   Keatinge WR, Role of cold and immersion accidents. In Adam JM (Ed) Hypothermia – Ashore and Afloat. 1981, Chapter 4, Aberdeen Univ. Press, GB.

24.   Keatinge WR and Evans M, The respiratory and cardiovascular responses to immersion in cold and warm water. QJ Exp Physiol 1961

25.   Keatinge WR and Nadel JA, Immediate respiratory response to sudden cooling of the skin. J Appl Physiol 1965

26.   Golden F. St C. and Hurvey GR, The “After Drop” and death after rescue from immersion in cold water. In Adam JM (Ed). Hypothermia – Ashore and Afloat, Chapter 5, Aberdeen Univ. Press, GB 1981.

27.   Burton AC and Bazett HC, Study of average temperature of tissue, of exchange of heat and vasomotor responses in man by means of bath coloremeter. Am J Physiol 1936

28.   Adam JM, Cold Weather: Its characteristics, dangers and assessment, In Adam JM (Ed).Hypothermia – Ashore and Afloat, Aberdeen Univ. Press, GB1981.

29.   Modell JH and Davis JH, Electrolyte changes in human drowning victims.Anesthesiology 1969

30.   Bolte RG, et al., The use of extracorporeal rewarming in a child submerged for 66 minutes. JAMA 1988

31.   Ornato JP, The resuscitation of near-drowning victims. JAMA 1986

 

32.   Conn AW and Barker CA: Fresh water drowning and near-drowning — An update.1984;

33.   Reh H, On the early postmortem course of “washerwoman’s skin at the fingertips.” Z Rechtsmed 1984;

34.   Gonzales TA, Vance M, Helpern M, Legal Medicine and Toxicology. New York, Appleton-Century Co, 1937.

35.   Peabody AJ, Diatoms and drowning – A review, Med Sci Law 1980

36.   Foged N, Diatoms and drowning — Once more.Forens Sci Int 1983

37.   "Microscale chaotic advection enables robust convective DNA replication.". Analytical Chemistry. 2013

38.   Sourcebook in Forensic Serology, Immunology, and Biochemistry (U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, Washington, D.C.,1983).

39.   C. A. Villee et al., Biology (Saunders College Publishing, Philadelphia, 2nd ed.,1989).

40.   Molecular Biology of the Gene (Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, Menlo Park, CA, 4th ed., 1987).

41.   Molecular Evolutionary Genetics (Plenum Press, New York,1985).

42.   Human Physiology. An Integrate. 2016

43.   Dumas JL and Walker N, Bilateral scapular fractures secondary to electrical shock. Arch. Orthopaed & Trauma Surg, 1992; 111(5)

44.   Stueland DT, et al., Bilateral humeral fractures from electrically induced muscular spasm. J. of Emerg. Med. 1989

45.   Shaheen MA and Sabet NA, Bilateral simultaneous fracture of the femoral neck following electrical shock. Injury. 1984

46.   Rajam KH, et al., Fracture of vertebral bodies caused by accidental electric shock. J. Indian Med Assoc. 1976

47.   Wright RK, Broisz HG, and Shuman M, The investigation of electrical injuries and deaths. Presented at the meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Science, Reno, NV, February 2000.