It's Unlikely Latest Murders Will Be The Last

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday December 14, 2006

Joseph Diaz Joseph Diaz, an expert on serial killers, is associate professor of criminology at Fayetteville State University, North Carolina. He has interviewed many notorious killers, including the Briton Dennis Nilsen, who is the subject of ...

The killer of five Ipswich women is growing ever more confident, writes Joseph Diaz.

THE first thing that struck me about this crime is the frequency with which the victims are being found.

It is dangerous to assume that when they were found was when they were killed, but if they are being killed this close together - five in six weeks - it would be extraordinarily unusual. It is more the act of a spree killer than a serial killer.

There are only 20 serial killers operating in the world at any time. They are almost uniformly sexually motivated, which these clearly are, as is evidenced from the occupation of the victims and the fact that their clothes were removed. And it is definitely a "him".

There are a couple of reasons why I believe this. First, the victims were, as far as we know, killed by hand and, having witnessed executions, I know that an individual fights to the death when being asphyxiated.

The victims will have been thrashing wildly about so it would have to be someone of significant size or strength to overcome them. There will be some physical evidence': probably the victim who had self-defence training has his skin cells under her fingernails.

Police will be looking for someone in his late 20s or early 30s. He has the restraint of an older man, as he is able to keep driving around the area until he finds an isolated woman.

But he will not be much older than that because he is getting excited very quickly. He seems to be losing control, just like a drug addict, who is needing his "fix" more often. He is growing ever more confident.

The likely outcome is that he will commit suicide, move from the area or get caught, but I do believe he will try to kill again. He will be very frightened about being caught so he will not be dumping the bodies close to home.

This makes me suspect we will find more victims dumped in other areas, perhaps even some years ago.

Clearly the killer is from the Ipswich area or commutes there, as he feels comfortable there.

A lot that can be read into the location of the bodies. The killer is dumping them in water, which suggests he is of above average intelligence. He knows that if a body floats for two days - as some of these have - physical evidence left by the killer will wash away. The water could also be significant symbolically, a washing away of sins.

It is possible he has previously had sex, or tried to, with some of these women. But he was almost certainly unable to develop an erection. Killing and sexual assault in this context are about power, sex and destruction. That is why, I would suggest, he has been placing his hands around the victims' necks. The police will be looking for someone who is not in a stable relationship with a woman, quite possibly a virgin or someone who has difficulty maintaining an erection.

The prostitutes are all quite young, but he will be a bit older than them because psychologically he needs to be stronger than they are.

He sees younger women as less threatening, which strongly suggests he had a dominant mother.

The big question now is, can he control his urges? It looks as if he is starting to escalate the killings, in which case he will get sloppy in the way he kills and the police have a chance.

Telegraph, London

IN BAD COMPANY

PETER SUTCLIFFE

Former grave-digger Sutcliffe was convicted in May 1981 of murdering 13 women and attacking seven more in the north of England from 1975 to 1980. Known as the

Yorkshire Ripper, he told arresting police in January 1981 that he was the tool of God's will. Four psychiatrists' reports diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia.

In 2003 it was revealed that when Sutcliffe was stripped of his clothing, he was found to be wearing a V-neck pullover under his pants; the arms had been pulled over his legs, so that the V-neck exposed his groin.

DENNIS NILSEN

Scottish-born Nilsen killed at least 15 men over a five-year period. A series of superficial, transitory relationships did not assuage the former army cook's feelings of profound isolation and loneliness. Like the American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, he

sought somebody "who wouldn't leave" - a corpse. He was arrested in 1981 after trying to dispose of body parts by flushing them down the toilet of his upstairs flat in a north London house, blocking the sewerage.

IVAN MILAT

In July 1996 Milat was convicted of the "backpacker muders". Seven travellers - two Britons, two Australians and three Germans - were killed between 1989 and 1992 and their bodies dumped in the Belanglo State Forest, south of Sydney.

There are 10 unsolved murder cases in which Milat is a suspect. Investigators found that he was brought up in what seemed to be a completely dysfunctional family and had trouble maintaining long-term relationships with women.

Nacton

December 10

Anneli Alderton, 24

Found dead in village

Levington

December 12

Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29

Found dead in open ground by roadside

Belstead

December 2

Gemma Adams, 25

Found dead in brook

December 8

Tania Nicol, 19

Friend of Adams found dead in same location

© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald

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