The womanwho had been missing since earlier that dayhad been strangled, stripped naked and stuffed into a dumpster, where her eight-month-pregnant body was covered in a flammable accelerant and then set ablaze. Inquiries: Lmonroe@onlyinyourstate.com . She was so badly burned by the time police found her, they needed dental records to confirm her identity. After being kicked out of his home as a child he had assaulted his sister Pedro Lopez grew up on the streets of Colombia. While the term serial killer usually conjures up images of people like Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy . We haven't stopped. A drawbridge is seen as boats ride over the Chicago River in Chicago, Illinois, on July 1, 2021, with an inset of a police officer and a body bag. The most famous victims connected to suspected serial killer Antonio Angles died in 1992: That, reported La Vanguardia, is when Antonia Gomez, Miriam Garcia, and Desiree Hernandez were attacked, raped, and killed while on their way to a high school party in the Alcasser region of Spain. Diamond Turner, police announced in January 2020, had been killed by a man shed had a relationship with. Data from the Cook County Medical Examiners office shows a majority of drowning investigations are ruled accidental," with 61% labeled as such since 2018. Any tips should be directed to Investigator Ida Lopez, or given via Crime Stoppers. Chicago Serial Killer Brutally Murders 11 Women And Then Steals Their Shoes Between 1993 and 1998, a Chicago serial killer preyed upon women in the Englewood community. have not confirmed these strangulation cases are connected and say there's not enough evidence yet to verify that a serial killer or killers are in fact committing . In late 2021, law enforcement released a new sketch of the killer. [The neighbors] would say no police ever came, says Figueroa. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Some have theorized in viral social media posts that the mens deaths are not isolated or accidental, rather they are the victims of a single suspect: A theory that, at this time, officials say there is no evidence to support. The nonprofit Center for Homicide Research in Minneapolis also released a report debunking the Smiley Face Killer theory due to a lack of physical evidence of a serial killer, no signs of torture or blunt-force trauma on the bodies that could point to the deaths being homicides. Hargrove also noted that anyone arrested for any of the 51 murders should be considered a suspect, like the man who killed Turner. As of now, Gannon told Newsweek that there are 681 cases in their database that they suspect may be connected. The time of year these bodies are found has also been suspicious to Gannon. Good Luck Sleeping Tonight: Serial Killers Plague Almost All Cities. The medical examiners office tells NBC 5 the cause and manner of death in Ordunos case is still under investigation. Law enforcement issued an appeal for any witnesses or surveillance camera footage that might have caught the suspect or the attacks, and by the end of April, they posted the footage to their YouTube channel. Gannon said this is a "well-structured, organized group with cells in major cities around the United States." February 07, 2023 11:01 AM ET. The medical examiners office determined Rucker had taken his own life, and the primary cause of death was ruled as a "drowning.". Or is something even darker at play? It has all the makings of a scary future true-crime documentary. The bodies of at least ten people have been dragged out of the waters surrounding Chicago in the last year, all with chilling similarities, according to . DNA evidence was the key to solving a murder spree by a serial killer on the South Side in the late 1990s. In May, University of Illinois Chicago students Daniel Sotelo and Natally Brookson were both found just weeks apart in Lake Michigan. John Wayne Gacy, (born March 17, 1942, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.died May 10, 1994, Statesville, Illinois), American serial killer whose murders of 33 boys and young men in the 1970s received international media attention and shocked his suburban Chicago community, where he was known for his sociability and his performance as a clown at charitable events and childrens' parties. Like that of 20-year-old Amy Martinez, whose body was discovered by firefighters in May 2013, strangled and burning in a dumpster on Chicagos Northwest Side. The brains of murderers look different from those of people convicted of other crimesdifferences that could be linked to how they process empathy and morality. But bodies are washing up again in Chicago, and this time folks really believe a serial killer could be in play. The killer fell silent for a bit until stabbing a 43-year-old woman 15 times on April 11, 2021. News Serial Killer Chicago Midwest Police. Photo: Chicago Police. The Killer Clown. And Joel Orduno, 24, was last seen at his Logan Square residence on Feb. 17 before his disappearance was reported to Chicago police. By Emily Shapiro and Meredith . Chicago police discovered the body on a Monday night in November 2007, but they couldnt identify her as 21-year-old Theresa Bunn until Thursday. Between 1999 and 2018, 75 women between the ages of 18 and 58 were strangled to death in Chicago. They wanted to speak with Darren Vann, a serial killer who, in 2018, was sentenced to life in prison after he pleaded guilty to murdering seven women in Northwest Indiana. At the time, police were still refusing to say that there was a serial killer at work in Chicago but did ultimately admit that was a distinct possibility. "Chicago is an icebox.". A $25,000 reward has been issued for information leading to the killer's arrest, which can be shared with any local law enforcement bodies. CHICAGO - A new documentary called "The Hunt for the Chicago Strangler" focuses on the murders of 51 women - mostly Black women - over the course of 20 years.. 6. He targeted women at their homes while wearing a construction-type vest that may bear an Amazon logo, police said. This is the fate of the rapist. According to the FBI, there are no known connections between the victims, and no witnesses have come forward to shed light on what happened to the women in their last moments. The Chicago Stranger could certainly be a individual serial killer. Peter Krocka/Shutterstock. Starting with the death of 32-year-old Jose Cicero Henrique, they were said to be casualties of the killer dubbed the Rainbow Maniac, with law enforcement saying that he saw himself as responsible for killing men he didn't believe deserved the continued gift of life. Duarte said all of the young men were popular, athletic and good students who they believe were targeted. All roads lead to a potential serial killer on the loose, she said. Authorities in Waukegan, Illinois have ended their search for missing sailor Seamus Gray almost a week after he failed to return to his naval base. One person tweeted,"the amount of men in their early-mid 20s that have gone missing this year is insane. "To date, we have not developed any evidence to support links between these tragic deaths or any evidence substantiating the theory that these deaths are the work of a serial killer or killers. Sadness and anger turned to intrigue and fear. In 2007, two women were found murdered within 48 hours of each other. Chicago authorities have maintained there is little reason to suspectfoul play in any of the recent deaths that are reviving serial killer rumors. Someone was arrested in connection with the murders, and at a glance, it seemed like there was a pretty good case against them. Whatever the truth is, it's entirely possible that one day, it will still come out. Salvino, a doctoral student at Northwestern University, had gone missing the night of Saturday, December 17th while walking home from a party. Two bodies have been pulled from Lake Michigan just in December 2022 alone. In serial murders, by contrast, the victim and perpetrator are almost always relative strangers to one another, creating more challenges to investigators. We won't stop.". Gannon said that the autopsies could be key to understanding whether these deaths are accidents or homicides. It would be irresponsible [of Chicago police] not to consider these linked, says Thomas Hargrove, founder and chairman of the Murder Accountability Project, a nonprofit organization that maps homicide patterns nationwide. Law enforcement said that at the time, there was definitely no shortage of suspects. At this time, there is no evidence suggesting there is a connection between these drowning deaths, a spokesperson for the Chicago Police Department told NBC 5. McCarthy used his speech in NYC to slam President Joe Biden for doing "nothing" to address the nation's financial crisis. To Thomas Hargrove, founder of the Murder Accountability Project (MAP), the murders in Chicago are more than random violence. Dives deep into unsolved murders of women that have been found strangled across Chicago. Karen Conti . While there are some loose similarities to the cases, both the medical examiners office and Chicago Police Department told NBC 5 there are no known connections. They are equal opportunity killers and they hate almost anybody.". Join us as we visit Chicago, IL in search of serial killer H.H. In the spring of 1995, kids exploring an empty house a few blocks from the Dunn crime scene discovered a woman's dead body. Every time we talked to [a detective], they know less about the case, said Riley Ford, Angela Fords father. They were also all killed with a .22 caliber bullet. They've also released what they believe might be the key to catching him: A description of the gun. In 2017, the city's clearance rate fell to 17.5 percent, according to an analysis by the Chicago Sun-Time s . AFP via Getty Images/LightFieldStudios/DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images/LightFieldStudios/DANIEL SLIM, It's Not the Role of Government to Protect Us From Apps, Don't Put Tiktok Out of Business Based on Hypotheticals, Biden Admin Uses Trump's Own Words to Blast McCarthy's Wall St. "The fact that you have so many of them in such a short period of time, I have to say that I would say they are connected," he said. He confessed to killing as many as two or three people a week, and in 1980, his estimated death toll in Ecuador alone was around 110. Many were dumped in the desert, many bore signs of trauma and abuse, and it didn't stop: In 2019, there were 1,006 victims added to a list and those are just the ones law enforcement knows about. Any arrest they make among these 51 strangulations should be and Im sure will be aggressively reviewed for the possibility that they are in fact linked to other killings, he said. In 2008, the FBI debunked this theory after receiving information about "young, college-aged men who were found deceased in rivers in the Midwest. Hargrove noted that the killings stopped in 2014, only to pick up in 2017. All the victims of the so-called "West Mesa Bone Collector" weren't identified for another 11 years. Alfred Twu/Wikimedia Commons Chicago's South Side, with Washington Park at the center. CWBChicago (@CWBChicago) December 21, 2022, Its been reported that many of the victims disappeared in the late evening or early morning, predominantly on weekends. On November 20, 2006, two women who were out for a walk made a grisly discovery: The bodies of four women had been neatly discarded behind the Golden Key Motel in a suburb outside of Atlantic City. Examining brain scans of more than 800 incarcerated men, new research co-authored by a leading . Investigators identified the victim as homeowner Dorota Dziubak, a single mother with a 5-year-old . 9 Currently Active Serial Killers: Unsolved Cases in 2022. The Tribune's initial story ran in 2018, and even as law enforcement balked at the idea of a serial killer, four more women turned up dead in the same manner. John Wayne Gacy was a serial killer who murdered more than 30 young men and boys. He even told police that hed killed people in Illinois. Crime News is your destination for true crime stories from around the world, breaking crime news, and information about Oxygen's original true crime . And today, the H. H. Holmes house is the site of an unassuming post office. We have no doubt.. However, at this time, theres no connection between him and the 51 murders in Chicago. Reported drownings in Cook County during the winter months of December through February have slightly decreased since 2018-2019. Let's look at who's out there hunting in 2023. Jumping to December 2022 through February 2023, there have been eight reported drownings countywide, including four drownings ruled as accidental, two ruled as suicides, and two ruled as undetermined.. South Side serial killer. It is, at least, one heck of a coincidence. We know this is a series, Hargrove said. Theyre the work of a single killer. To him, this highly suggests that a single killer was briefly incarcerated and unable to kill. When more bodies turned up during his investigation and he connected them with evidence given in the earlier murder cases, he claimed that something was, indeed, rotten in Louisiana. There is a serial killer in Chicago targeting young men. Those emotions illustrate the feelings for some after several recent examples of young men who were reported missing, then discovered days later drowned off the coast of Lake Michigan or in the Chicago River. Did OJ Simpson's Son Jason Kill Nicole Brown & Ron Goldman? Richard Speck is actually considered a spree killer as opposed to a serial killer, but either way he has gone down in history as one of the worst serial killers from Chicago and one of the evilest murderers to ever step foot in the Windy City. Thats pretty unusual. There is a serial killer on the loose in Chicago killing men who visit river north bars and then dumping them in the Chicago river or lake Michigan. Gannon said the odorless, tasteless drug could be slipped into a victim's drink when people are leaving the bar. They met with Hargrove in 2017 and have looked over his data. Between April 8 and May 7, 1992, six people were shot and killed along a stretch of I-70. Gannon, Duarte, and Gilbertson also created a docuseries on Oxygen about this theory, called 'Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt For Justice. Jason Hahn. Mahmud Hasan was one of the first on the scene when a body was discovered on January 26, 2019, and later said, "strangest was the note that hung around his neck. The women were fully clothed (except for their shoes and socks) and had been positioned, face-down, in a line behind the motel. The case of the Chicago Strangler, a potential serial killer operating in the city for two decades, is far different. Police in Stockton, California are working directly with Chicago police to determine whether a serial killer in Stockton is the same man who shot and killed two people in cold blood in Chicago's . Between 1972 and 1978, he raped, tortured and murdered at least 33 teenage boys and young men, in . According to Gacy himself, the deranged killer committed all the murders in his ranch house in Illinois. Is That Normal? Last year, 11 bodies, mostly men in their 20s or early 30s, were removed from the Chicago River and Lake Michigan's shoreline according to the Cook . If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Thats what MAP does identify potential serial killers and Hargrove believes that his algorithm has found a definite pattern in the case of the Chicago Strangler. The body of 25-year-old Northwestern University student Peter Salvino was found on Tuesday, days after he was reported . Murderers of the 1920s (Part 3) - YouTube . He made it clear that he was not only keeping the case open but that he would be re-conducting interviews and reexamining evidence including claims of corruption. On Friday (April 7), U.K. documentarian Trap Lore Ross uploaded a video titled King Von: Rap's First Serial Kille r on his YouTube channel, which has nearly one million subscribers. Samus Gray has not yet been found and Waukegan authorities recently ended a days-long search effort. Maps and charts showing where and when homicides took place in the city during 2022, with race, sex and age of the victims. According to The Toronto Sun, Breidor had been missing for about a month before the bodies were discovered, while Raffo had been seen the day before she was found. That's kind of difficult to define. Angela Ford, the earliest unsolved case, vanished after leaving home to pick up her childrens report cards in 1999. So, here's some good news for anyone who suffers from regular nightmares that involve being stalked by a serial killer: They're on the decline. Both women were strangled. FBI Look To Get An Arrest Warrant For Paul Runge. Most recently, on Wednesday, another adult male body was found in the Chicago River in Bridgeport, according to the Chicago Police Marine Unit. Chicago residents are scared that a serial killer may be in their midst as authorities pulled another body from the Chicago Waterways on Sunday. Brain scans of incarcerated men reveal reduced gray matter in homicide offenders. The bodies of at least ten people have been dragged out of the waters surrounding Chicago in the last year, all with chilling similarities, according to multiple reports from local area radio and news outlets. Gacy stabbed one victim and strangled the others between 1972 and 1978. And, given the uniquely gruesome way their bodies were incinerated in garbage receptacles, investigators acknowledged the possibility of a serial killer at work. It was something that the area reportedly saw happen back in 1993. Starting in the mid-1990s, hundreds of women began turning up dead. But a less sinister culprit was blamed in April as it was thought that the folks were simply and sadly drowning victims who stayed in the ice during frigid temps and then began to pop up as the waterways thawed out. Font Size: Chicago residents are scared that a serial killer may be in their midst as authorities pulled another body from the Chicago Waterways on Sunday. This one, later identified as 52-year-old Hazel Lewis, suffered an eerily similar fate. jsTikTok.type = 'text/javascript'; ET: This article was updated with comment from Gannon. Was it really Angles? Alfred Twu/Wikimedia CommonsChicagos South Side, with Washington Park at the center. Heide Villareal Fye went missing in 1983, and her remains turned up a few months later in an area of Texas now ominously known as The Killing Fields. Investigators have collected 21 pieces of DNA from about half the crime scenes and the DNA is different in each case. The footage was dark, grainy, and gave no identifying markers away, and in spite of a $20,000 reward promised for anyone who could give information leading to the suspect's apprehension, he remained at large. Gilbert called 911 after meeting a client, Joseph Brewer, at his home in Oak Beach, a small residential community near Gilgo Beach. Each one was at least shot in the head, and each was dumped with a note tied around their neck. 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