A television drama “The Forgotten” helped identify a Jane Doe whose body was dumped along Interstate 70 in Englewood 22 years ago, possibly by a serial killer.

DNA tests confirmed that the body found in 1987 belonged to a 21-year-old Paula Beverly Davis of Kansas City, said Ken Betz, director of the Miami Valley Regional Crime Lab.

The victim’s sister called police after watching the ABC TV show “The Forgotten,” which deals with a fictional group of volunteers who help identify John and Jane Does. In each episode, a link to a missing persons database is shown. Stephanie Clack searched the database for her older sister. “The characteristics of my sister, her tattoos, led me to Ohio,” Clack said.

Now that they identified the body, Englewood police are pursing leads that might lead them to a suspect, possibly a convicted serial killer spending the rest of his life in a Missouri prison. Sgt. Mike Lang said the department has worked the death of Davis for the two-plus decades since her body was found along Interstate 70, although he said “We do not believe she was killed in Ohio”.

Davis’ body was found on a grassy slope near the Hoke Road entrance ramp to eastbound I-70. The victim had two fresh tattoos — a rose and a unicorn above each breast. She appeared well-nourished, her brown curly hair was held back by a blue bandana. She was partially nude and had no shoes. The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office ruled she died by ligature strangulation.

Lang said the crime lab is reprocessing all the evidence with the hope of finding biological evidence from which to extract DNA. There was no sign that Davis was sexual attacked, Lang said. “There was a serial killer in the Kansas City area at the time,” the sergeant said. “He was convicted two years ago, and there are some similarities between his victims and Davis. It’s worth a look at.”

Lorenzo Gilyard was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 for the murder of six women in the Kansas City area. Authorities have said they believe he was involved in the deaths of at least 13 women, most of them prostitutes. Many of Gilyard’s victims were strangled, found partial nude and without shoes. Lang noted the apartment Davis and her friend shared was within 2 miles of where some of the bodies were dumped. Further investigation will show if those two cases are connected.

-article by Doug Page, rewritten and adapted by admin-

Serial killer Peter Tobin is being investigated for his suspected part in a pedophile ring that abused children during the 1980s and 1990. A car driver (a witness who tipped police off) claims Tobin and at least two others carried out the attacks in Portsmouth.The inquiry is part of a wider probe into Tobin, 63, who has been convicted of the murder of three young women.

A police source said: “Along with Tobin, we have been given the names of two other members of this alleged pedophile ring. “The investigation is in the early stages but we are working quickly to establish whether the other members are still alive. Also whether they have convictions, did they know Tobin and if so, what can they tell us about him. We already know he raped and killed teenage girls as well as a young woman – but do we need to broaden our investigation to take in even younger victims?”

Peter Tobin, 61, was convicted in 2007 and is already serving life for three murders – Polish student Angelika Kluk, 23; Vicky Hamilton, 15; and Dinah McNicol, 18.

Police may make a fresh search of his former homes as part of their continuing probe. The source added: “Our task has been to find out as much about Tobin as possible. We established a timeline to see where he lived, worked, and who he mixed with. We still have a couple of major gaps, but these are being filled in all the time as new bits of information come in.”

In particular Tobin is now being linked to the disappearance of Louise Kay, 18, who went missing after a night out in Eastbourne, East Sussex, in June 1988. After jewelry found in Tobin’s belongings had not been claimed by his former wives, police strongly believe that they may be trophies he collected from other victims.

-articles by Laura Armstrong and Cara Sulieman rewritten and adapted by admin-

At present time, investigators with the Bureau believe there at least 15 cases along Interstate 4 could be connected to a serial killer. So a report has been issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigations offering details on a serial killing initiative the agency has been compiling since 2004.

Thanks to a highway serial database containing information from law enforcements agencies across the country, the FBI has gathered details on more than 500 victims and 200 suspects. So far, ten people have been arrested — all truck drivers — accused of more than thirty murders since 2004.

Most victims in these cases are women who lead high-risk, transient lifestyles and are often involved in drug use, the FBI said. “They’re frequently picked up at truck stops or service stations and sexually assaulted, murdered, and dumped along a highway,” according to the FBI’s report.

“The suspects are predominantly long-haul truck drivers,” reads the FBI’s website. “But the mobile nature of the offenders, the unsafe lifestyles of the victims, the significant distances and multiple jurisdictions involved, and the scarcity of witnesses or forensic evidence can make these cases tough to solve.”

In light of the new date, the FBI warns everyone to be smart when it comes to stopping along highways.
You can read the whole FBI’s report: Highway serial killings – New Initiative on an Emerging Trend

-article by Kelly Joyce rewritten and adapted by admin-

Baikuni, Babeh a.k.a B, a 48 years old man, has confessed to be a serial killer, in Jakarta Police station. One of his victims is a mutilated boy found around the East Flood Canal last Friday. The other victims are Adi, 12, and Arif, 6, who were both street kids.

To the police, B confessed that, after murdering and sodomizing, a 12 years old Adi, his body was cut in two and dumped in Klender market, East Jakarta. This first crime happened back in 2007.
A year after, B killed again, and this time, it was a 6 years old boy – Arif. The victim’s head was dumped around Warung Jengkol bridge, in Pondok Terate, Pulogadung, East Jakarta, while the rest of the mutilated body was dumped around Pulogadung terminal. B confessed that generally the victims were sodomized and mutilated. “Only Arif wasn’t sodomized becase B pitied him,” said Rangga, his attorney.

As for the mutilated boy found around East Flood Canal, police was unable to identify the body. “When found in a carton box, the victim had been mutilated parts and his head was missing. The victim wasn’t wearing clothes,” said Yudi to Kompas.com when interviewed at the crime scene, Friday. He explained that the body was that of a boy around 8 to 12 years old, with a height around 139 to 145 cm. “The boy has been circumcised. The height is still an estimate, assuming the head was there. He has clear light brown skin. The body had old scars on the back, and a 12 cm scar of a cut on its right arm. The belly button pops out and there’s a mole on the right leg.

According to the suspects attorney, his client experienced sexual pleasure while choking and mutilating his victims. Even though B couldn’t explain why he had an urge to do that. “I only said that he couldn’t control his overwhelming pleasure while choking and mutilating his victims.” He also said that B was a victim of sodomy when he was 12 years old as well.

Jakarta Police stated that they have gathered enough evidence for conviction; among them are the sharp weapon, the wood chopping board, and DNA of all three victims. They also stated that B must be punished hard and street kids should be taken care of. “If the punishment were light, then the people would think that crime toward children, including street kids, is a tolerable thing. The law enforcers must be strict and firm about this”

-article by Rabu rewritten and adapted by admin-

Ronald Janssen, a 38-year-old technical drawing teacher, believed to be Belgium’s latest serial killer, first confessed to the New Year’s Day murder of a young couple in his small home town of Halen. This latest confession has led both the media and the police to speculate that he might have been involved in the murders of 3 other young women, dating back to 1991, and possibly 15 other raped and murdered young women.

Ronald Janssen, described as quiet and withdrawn family type, father of 2 girls, confessed murdering a soon-to-be married young couple – 18 year old Shana Appeltans, and 22 year old Kevin Paulus. They had both been shot dead, and their car had been torched. Annick Van Uytsel, 18, went missing after a party in 2007. Janssen had attended the same party, and Annick’s bicycle was found close to an old apartment of Janssen’s. She was eventually found dead. Her body was later found dumped in a local canal, wrapped in a plastic sheet and weighted down with stones. She had been beaten to death.
Even though police suspected Janssen might be involved in the murder, they never had enough evidence to convince him, so it was not until he confessed that they could arrest him.

“Investigators fear particularly that it will not stop and that this is rather the beginning of a long list of Janssen’s crimes,” the De Standaard newspaper reported. Prosecutors across Belgium have now reopened the files for two unsolved abduction murders, of Ingrid Caeckaert, 27 stabbed in 1991 and Carola Titze, 16, murdered in 1996. Detectives have also reopened an investigation into the 2006 disappearance, and suspected murder, of Tamara Morris, 27. Media reports have linked him to up to 15 killings, usually the rape and murder of young women.

His crimes have already been compared to the notorious Marc Dutroux case, the serial killer who traumatized Belgium when he abused and murdered four girls aged between eight to 19 during the 1990s – he murdered 4 of them. Could another serial killer have been hiding behind a quiet teacher Ronald Janssen and how many people he actually killed, until further investigation remains unknown.

-article by Bruno Waterfield, rewritten and adapted by admin-