Suspected serial killer is Florida's 15th execution of the year

The 25th Execution of 2026

A Florida man convicted in one of a series of suspected killings that became known as the “Hog Trail Murders” in the 1990s was put to death on September 10, 2026, becoming the state’s 15th person executed this year, reported The Associated Press.

Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. after receiving a three-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He had been sentenced to die for the 1996 kidnapping and strangling of Richard Allen Montgomery, whose mutilated body was found in a wooded southwest Florida area where authorities found the remains of at least six people over a three-year span.

Conahan was already strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm when the curtain to the death chamber went up at 6 p.m. A spiritual adviser was at his feet and prayed throughout the process.

The team warden asked Conahan if he had any final statement, and Conahan replied, “No sir.” The deadly drug cocktail began to flow at 6:01 p.m. Conahan began to pant and then twitch briefly before going still. Several minutes later, the warden shook Conahan and shouted his name but there was no response.

A medic entered the death chamber at 6:11 p.m. to check for vitals, and Conahan was declared dead a minute later.

Conahan died in the nation’s busiest death chamber. Florida has carried out more than half the 25 total executions in the U.S. so far this year under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who leaves office in January.

Conahan was identified by authorities as a person of interest in the other deaths, but he was never charged. He argued the evidence against him in Montgomery’s death was circumstantial.

Multiple bodies found in popular hunting area

Conahan was arrested in July 1996 after local and state law enforcement officials spent more than two years investigating a series of homicides in which mutilated and decomposing bodies were discovered in a wooded area of Charlotte County, north of Fort Myers.

As the number of bodies increased, so did media coverage. The deaths eventually were dubbed the “Hog Trail Murders” because of the swampy, wooded locations where the bodies were found. The case has been featured many times over the past three decades on true-crime television shows, YouTube channels and podcasts.

Hunters found the first body in February 1994, and at least five more were discovered over the next three years. While most of the remains were severely decomposed, investigators believed Montgomery was found within 24 hours of his death. Investigators eventually determined the killer was targeting homeless men.

Investigators found similarities in cases

Detectives started looking into Conahan in 1996 after a man in prison for stealing Conahan’s car claimed Conahan had lured him to a remote area and offered to pay him to pose for nude photos. The man said he drove off in the car after seeing a knife.

Later, detectives learned about a case with similarities in Fort Myers, in which a victim claimed a man who offered cash for nude photos had tied him to a tree and attempted to strangle him. Conahan was arrested and charged with attempted murder, and several months later was also charged in Montgomery’s death.

Conahan waived his right to a jury trial and was convicted by a judge of murder and kidnapping in August 1999.

Conahan was never charged with any other homicides, but a sheriff’s office report about the investigation concluded that all of the victims discovered within a 10-mile (16-kilometer) radius were likely killed by the same person.

In 2007, a land survey crew discovered eight bodies in Fort Myers. The four victims identified by authorities were homeless, and officials said they all suffered similar injuries to the Charlotte County victims. Investigators at the time publicly identified Conahan as a person of interest, but he was never charged.

One relative of a Hog Trail victim says her family would celebrate Conahan’s death

According to corrections officials, 11 victim family members attended Thursday’s execution, but the officials wouldn’t say if they were relatives of Montgomery or of Conahan’s other suspected victims.

Joan Rodemann, the sister of a Hog Trail victim named William Melaragno, released a written statement saying that her family would celebrate Conahan’s death.

“Finally, the gates of HELL will open and you can join the other soulless spawns of the devil. Sadly, you won’t feel the pain or fear you horrifically brought onto your victims,” Rodemann said. “Our prayers are for the victims and their families.”

Florida leads the way in executions

A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida led the way with 19 lethal injections, a state record since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

In July, Florida executed two prisoners in one day, the first state in nearly a decade to do so. Another Florida execution is planned shortly, that of Curtis Wilkie Beasley, 77, on Sept. 29. Beasley was convicted of beating a woman to death with a hammer and stealing her car in 1995.

All Florida executions are by injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.

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Ted Bundy executed 27 years ago claims another victim

The late Ted Bundy, one of the most famous and prolific serial killers in U.S. history, has claimed another victim, reported The Associated Press.

New DNA testing confirmed Bundy was responsible for the 1974 killing of a 17-year-old Utah girl who disappeared after leaving a party alone on Halloween night, the local sheriff’s office said Wednesday.

Laura Ann Aime was found dead on the side of a highway in American Fork Canyon about a month after her abduction. She was bound, beaten and without clothing.

Investigators long suspected that Bundy killed her — police said he confessed without providing any details before his execution in Florida in 1989 — but the case remained open until they could be certain.

“It’s really quite amazing that people are even still interested in Laura’s case,” her sister, Michelle Impala, said at a news conference Wednesday. “Know I speak for my family when I thank you, and thank you media, too, for even caring.”

Bundy was linked to the deaths of at least 30 women and girls across several states in the 1970s. His murders — which occurred in sorority houses, parks and elsewhere — set the nation on edge. Bundy’s arrest drew widespread fascination, in part because many considered him to be charming and handsome.

Investigators had carefully preserved the evidence from Aime’s case, and forensic analysts were able to identify portions that seemed most likely to have usable DNA samples, Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason said.

The state crime lab got new technology in 2023 that allows investigators to extract DNA from samples even if they are small, degraded from age or contain DNA from multiple people, he said. That technology allowed them to identify a single male DNA profile, which they submitted to a national law enforcement database.

Bundy’s DNA was a match, Mason said.

That profile can now be used by other law enforcement agencies who have long suspected Bundy of additional unsolved killings, he said, adding that more families could get similar closure.

“Laura Aime is the quintessential daughter of Utah County,” Sgt. Mike Reynolds said. “We felt the pain the family feels when she was taken. We felt the pain that you felt this whole entire time, and we’ve had the desire to deliver to you some type of healing.”

Impala was only 12 when her older sister died. Even with a five-year age gap, she said they were very close and did everything together. They shared a bedroom on the family’s farm in Fairview, Utah, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Provo.

Impala reminisced Wednesday about riding horses with her sister and watching Aime feed her horse red licorice nibs.

“When she died, he would not eat those anymore,” she said.

It’s not known when Bundy first began his attacks, but by 1974, young women — many of them college students — began disappearing in Washington state. Authorities were still investigating those cases when Bundy moved to Salt Lake City and began killing in Utah, Idaho and Colorado.

At the time of Aime’s killing, Bundy was studying law at the University of Utah.

In August 1975, he was arrested for the first time in connection with the attacks. Police pulled him over and found incriminating items in his vehicle including rope, handcuffs and a ski mask.

He was found guilty the following year of kidnapping and assaulting a teen in Utah who had managed to get away. Bundy was sentenced to 15 years in prison for that crime, and while imprisoned he was charged in connection with the earlier death of a nursing student.

He was brought to Aspen, Colorado, for a hearing in that case in 1977, and he escaped custody by climbing out a second-story courthouse window when he was left alone for a time. He was caught after about a week, but escaped again six months later by breaking through the ceiling of a jail.

Bundy fled across the country, eventually making his way to Tallahassee, Florida. On Jan. 15, 1978, he entered the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University, bludgeoning two women to death with a large branch and leaving two more badly injured. He then went to another house nearby, badly injuring another woman.

Less than a month later, he abducted, sexually assaulted and killed a 12-year-old girl in Lake City, Florida. Kimberly Leach was believed to be his last victim before he was arrested again and executed by electric chair years later.

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New York Post: New England serial killer fears warrant ‘review and investigation’ as body count reaches 7 across 3 states, expert says

NEW YORK POST 

Anna Young

April 17, 2025

The eerie discovery of seven decaying corpses across three New England states warrants "review and investigation" after police shut down growing fears the deaths are linked to a serial killer, an expert said.

The eerie discovery of seven decaying corpses across three New England states warrants “review and investigation” after police shut down growing fears the deaths are linked to a serial killer, an expert said.

Matthew Mangino, a Pennsylvania-based defense attorney, said police in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island should be working together after the human remains uncovered in nearby coastal towns between March and April fueled online theories of a ruthless lone-wolf on the loose.

“Whether it’s coincidental or not, I think it merits review and investigation, at least,” Mangino, former Lawrence County District Attorney, told Fox News Digital.

Seven decaying corpses were discovered across coastal towns in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Wangkun Jia – stock.adobe.com

“Collaboration between the different jurisdictions to determine whether or not there is some threat out there to individuals – that may be going on as we speak. We don’t know that, but I think it does merit that kind of scrutiny.”

The decaying bodies were discovered in New Haven, Groton, and Killingly, Connecticut, Plymouth and Framingham, Massachusetts, and Foster, Rhode Island – with authorities identifying the remains of three women.

The causes of death have not been released.

“These different jurisdictions need to get together and compare notes and reports,” Mangino added.

“Were these homicides? I mean, we may find that these are natural deaths or…it could be a suicide, it could be accidental. So, the number one issue: is there enough to determine the cause and manner of death?”

Paige Fannon, 35, was found on March 6 in Norwalk River. Facebook

The body of Paige Fannon, 35, of West Islip, New York, was found on March 6 in Norwalk River, the outlet reported. On the same day, a human skull was located in a wooded area of Route 3 in Plymouth, Boston 25 News reported. 

On March 19, the remains of what appeared to be an adult female between the ages of 40 and 60 were discovered near a cemetery in Groton. Two days later, Denise Leary, a 59-year-old missing mother-of-two, was found in New Haven.

The body of Michele Romano, 56, a missing woman from Warwick, New York, was found on March 26 in the woods in Foster, Fox News reported.

Human remains were then discovered in Killingly on April 9, with another body found in Framingham off the Massachusetts Turnpike the next day, according to FOX 25 Boston.

“There is no information at this time suggesting any connection to similar remains discoveries, and there is also no known threat to the public at this time,” Connecticut State Police said in a statement to Fox.

“The investigation is in the early stages and remains active and ongoing.”

Denise Leary, 59, was a mother of two. Her remains were discovered March 21. Facebook

The startling discoveries prompted a wave of online discussions in a private Facebook group called “New England Serial Killer.”

The group, which has nearly 62,000 members, garnered more than 10,000 new members last week and over the weekend, as MassLive.com first reported.

Romano’s family also dismissed comments her death was the cause of a serial killer.

“In light of the recent comments being made, we know that Michele’s passing is in no way related to any type of serial killer,” the family wrote in Facebook group “Justice for Michele Romano.”

“We have faith in the Rhode Island State Police and our Private Investigator that the person responsible will be brought to justice sooner rather than later!”

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CREATORS: Has The Death Penalty Become Arbitrary and Capricious?

 Matthew T. Mangino
CREATORS
August 19, 2025

Those who write about the death penalty often do so from a certain bias. I wanted to take a crack at writing about the ultimate punishment without bias. McFarland & Company helped me make that effort a reality.

My book "The Executioner's Toll, 2010" examined every execution in 2010. One of those executions was that of Cal Coburn Brown. His perspective on the death penalty was both disturbing and provocative.

Brown was executed by the state of Washington. He had brutally sexually assaulted, tortured, and murdered a young woman. He left her body in the trunk of a car at the Seattle-Tacoma Airport.

Brown then jumped on an airplane and went to meet a woman in Palm Springs, Calif. He was torturing her when she managed to escape and notify the police.

Brown spent more than 16 years on Washington's Death Row. As he lay strapped to a gurney awaiting lethal injection, he protested what he perceived to be the unfairness of his sentence. He complained that criminals who had killed many more people, such as "Green River killer" Gary Ridgway, were serving life sentences while he was about to receive the death penalty.

Ridgway is a serial killer, both diabolical and prolific. He was convicted of murdering 49 women in the northwest between 1982 and 1998. Ridgway's victims were women in vulnerable circumstances, including underage runaways. Ridgway strangled his victims and dumped their bodies in secluded areas, often returning to the bodies to engage in acts of necrophilia.

In his final words, Cal Brown said, "I only killed one victim ... I cannot really see that there is true justice. Hopefully, sometime in the future, that gets straightened out."

There does seem to be some inconsistency in the application of the death penalty. Let's start with the fact that 23 states don't have the death penalty, and another 10 that have not carried out an execution in the last 10 years.

For instance, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer escaped death at the hands of the government because Wisconsin had outlawed the death penalty in 1853.

David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam killer, escaped the death penalty in New York. Berkowitz killed six people in New York City in the 1970s. He terrorized an entire city, and for that matter, an entire nation.

Berkowitz was not sentenced to death. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder; as a result, the death penalty was not an option under New York's sentencing scheme. It didn't matter — New York had not executed a killer since 1963.

Charles Manson, responsible for ten murders, including the gruesome murder of pregnant movie star Sharon Tate, was sentenced to death but never executed. Manson's sentence was commuted to life in prison after the U.S. Supreme Court declared the imposition of the death penalty arbitrary in 1972.

Those serial killers who didn't escape the executioner include John Wayne Gracy who murdered 33 women in Texas between 1972 and 1978; Ted Bundy who murdered as many as 30 women across the country, often sexual assaulting them and engaging in necrophilia with their dead bodies; the "Freeway Killer," William Bonin, responsible for 14 killings and the rare female serial killer Aileen Wuornos who was executed for six murders in 2002.

There seems to be no explanation for sparing the life of the diabolical modern-day mass killer — Byran Kohberger.

Kohberger was offered a plea bargain to life without parole, without being required to explain his motive for killing four young college students in Idaho. It is not as though Idaho doesn't have, or use, the death penalty. Just this year, the state adopted the firing squad as its primary form of execution.

To further complicate matters, the evidence against Kohberger was overwhelming. He had recently purchased a KA-BAR knife — the alleged murder weapon. His DNA was on the knife sheath. He was observed on video surveillance near the victims' apartment. Kohberger's cellphone put him in the vicinity of the murders. Even more surprising, no mitigating evidence was presented by his lawyers.

Kohberger dodging the death penalty supports, yet again, that the death penalty has become arbitrary and capricious.

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book The Executioner's Toll, 2010, was released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino

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Why did Bryan Kohberger Kill?

Bryan Kohberger's past tells us a lot about his motivations, experts say. During his childhood, he was isolated and bullied and eventually became addicted to heroin and struggled with his weight, reported the USA TODAY.

Experts interviewed by USA TODAY agree that we can conclude a lot about Kohberger's motives based on the evidence and his history: He was bullied, he felt rage toward women, he fantasized about violence and ultimately, wanted power more than anything, they say.

"A lot of killers feel powerless their whole lives and that’s why killers become serial killers. Because for the first time they feel like an all-powerful god," said Rachel Toles, a clinical psychologist and criminal expert based in Greenville, South Carolina. "He wanted to feel powerful for once in his life."

At some point Kohberger was able to kick the heroin habit, lose weight and get lean, according to the 2025 book, "The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy." 

"He grew up kind of bullied, kind of ostracized and he decided to change his life ... and I think he started viewing himself as a possessor of power. Before he was someone without power and now he possesses it," said John Delatorre, a psychologist based in San Antonio, Texas, who works on criminal cases.

Ultimately, "he viewed himself as someone who could take what he wanted whenever he wanted," Delatorre said. "I think what interested him was the idea that you could legitimately hold someone's life in your hands and take it away whenever you choose to do so."

Bryan Kohberger, who is accused of killing four University of Idaho students, is escorted to an extradition hearing at the Monroe County Courthouse in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, U.S., January 3, 2023. Matt Rourke/Pool via REUTERS

Toles added: "He probably also wanted revenge on a world that made him feel unwanted."

Kohberger's past addiction, weight gain and loss, Toles said, also show that he "clearly felt empty his whole life" and may have been attracted to studying criminology at the University of Washington because it "gave him a language for his alienation."

Kohberger seemed particularly interested in three killers: Ted Bundy, the BTK Killer and Elliot Rodger. Through them, he identified with a narrative arc that "rejection moves to resentment moves to obsession moves to control moves to violence moves to infamy," Toles said.

"It’s a storyline he could place himself in and one that made him feel more powerful instead of invisible," she said, adding that Kohberger may have thought: "Maybe I'm not a problem. Maybe I'm like them. Maybe I'm a predator."

Kohberger likely felt the urge to kill for years, Delatorre said, relying on fantasies and stalking before he ultimately acted on it.

"The idea of taking someone's life with a knife was probably something he was think about for quite some time, it just required a target," he said. "People don’t snap. People brew, they fester. The negative emotionality is over a long period of time to get them to a breaking point to act out."

What is happening with the case?

Kohberger, 30, pleaded guilty to the killings earlier this month after accepting a plea agreement that allowed him to avoid the death penalty and instead face four consecutive life sentences.

The agreement also means he'll avoid a lengthy and highly publicized trial.

He's scheduled to be officially sentenced on Wednesday, July 23. The families of the victims will be allowed to address the court at that time to talk about the impact of the crime and who their loved ones were.

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CREATORS: The Growing, and Impactful, Phenomenon of True Crime

Matthew T. Mangino
CREATORS
July 8, 2025

Recently, I was scrolling through some news articles and came across this headline, "Nearly 2 in 3 Americans Are Fans of Serial Killer Content." My first thought was, "Is that healthy?"

We'll get to the health impact of true crime, if any, in a moment, but true crime sure is lucrative. If you search the top podcasts, you will find that at least three of the top 10 podcasts are focused on true crime.

America has always had a fascination with crime and criminals. Real-life criminals like John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson were turned into folk heroes by the yellow journalists of the 1920s and 1930s.

Across the pond, there was Sir Author Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot. Crime dramas were a Hollywood staple. Cinematic jewels like "Anatomy of a Murder" or "12 Angry Men" or television's "Perry Mason", the original "Hawaii 5-0" and" Law and Order" always fascinated viewers.

True crime is different. This phenomenon is not literature, or drama or the making of a myth — true crime is an obsession. According to a 2022 YouGov Poll, half of Americans reported they enjoy true crime content, and one in three say they consume it at least once a week.

According to experts from the University of North Carolina schools of law and journalism, the fascination with true crime stems from several causes. First, "people are drawn to these sensational stories by curiosity about the motivations of the criminals," as well as "concerns about justice and the legal system and the thrill of solving a real-life whodunnit."

For purposes of full disclosure, I occasionally offer an opinion on live trials for Court TV or the Law & Crime Network.

However, if you want to understand the true crime phenomenon, you have to attend CrimeCon, the annual gathering of true crime enthusiasts. Thousands of true crime fans under one roof hanging on every word from the likes of Dateline's Josh Mankiewicz, Court TV's Vinnie Politan and Crime Online's Nancy Grace, among other notable purveyors of true crime.

True crime enthralls millions of people. Two recent trials, one televised every day and the other followed closely, revealed the extent to which true crime has captured the hearts and minds of many across America and abroad.

The first, the trial of Karen Read in Massachusetts. Read was accused of hitting her police officer boyfriend, John O'Keefe, with her car and leaving him to die in the snow.

The Read trial was a spectacle. Every day, she walked to the courthouse like it was the red carpet at the Oscars. Her fans — some extreme like the so-called "Turtleboy" who got charged with intimidating a witness — were enamored with Karen Read. No doubt the relentless support of her admirers had an impact — some jurors said as much after the trial. She was acquitted of all charges except operating while impaired.

Sean "Diddy" Combs' trial was also unique. He was charged federally with racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation for prostitution. The testimony about sex, drugs and violence was salacious. The Combs trial wasn't even televised, but the interest was extraordinary. Combs also beat the most serious charges filed by the government.

Binging on true crime has its drawbacks. The long-term effects of true crime consumption on mental health have not been fully studied. As we've recently observed, this growing genre of media is clearly having an impact on society and the legal system.

Some experts argue, too much true crime can be harmful. Chivonna Childs, PhD, a psychologist with the Cleveland Clinic, recently suggested, "It (true crime) can increase our anxiety because we become hypervigilant. We're always looking for the bad person. Every white van becomes the van of a killer or murderer."

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book The Executioner's Toll, 2010 was released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino.

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Florida serial killer's last words 'President Trump, keep making America great'

The 16th Execution of 2025

A serial killer used his last words on Earth to shout-out President Donald Trump on May 15, 2025, according to USA TODAY.

"President Trump, keep making America great. I'm ready to go," Glen Rogers, known as the "Casanova Killer," said as he lay strapped to an execution gurney seconds before three drugs coursed through his veins and ended his life at the Florida State Prison in Raiford.

His last words were reported by the Tampa Bay Times and the Associated Press, with reporters representing both outlets as witnesses to the execution.

Randy Roberson, whose mother Andy Lou Jiles Sutton was a victim of the Casanova Killer, witnessed the execution and said that Rogers' comment about Trump seemed to confuse people in the room.

"I was like, 'Where did that even come from?'" he said.

His wife, Amy Roberson − also a witness to the execution − said she thought: "What the hell?"

In addition to his support for Trump, Rogers expressed his love for his family. He also addressed the victims of his crimes.

“I know there’s a lot of questions that you need answers to," he said. "I promise you in the near future the questions will be answered and I hope in someway will bring you closure."

Here's what you need to know about Rogers and his victims, and what Trump has said about the death penalty.

Why was Rogers executed?

Glen Edward Rogers, 62, was executed Thursday by lethal injection for the murder of Tina Marie Cribbs, one of four single mothers in their 30s with reddish hair who fell victim to the so-called "Casanova Killer." Rogers was known both as the "Casanova Killer" for his good looks and ability to charm his future victims, and as the "Cross Country Killer" because the victims all lived in different states: California, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida.

"He's an animal," one of his victim's sisters said in court before Rogers was sentenced to death, according to an archived report from the Associated Press. "He's about the evilest thing I think I've ever imagined."

Soon after his arrest, Rogers claimed to have killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles in June 1994, and about 70 people overall. There was no evidence to back that up.

Rogers − a native of Hamilton, Ohio − was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m., becoming the 16th inmate executed in the U.S. this year and the fifth in Florida. Another three men are set to be executed in the U.S. next week, in Texas, Indiana and Tennessee.

Authorities connected five victims to the Casanova Killer. Four of them were mothers with reddish hair in their 30s. Three of the murders happened within a six-day period.

·         Mark Peters, a 72-year-old retired electrician in Hamilton, Ohio, with whom Rogers lived with briefly, was found dead in a shack owned by Rogers' family in January 1994 in Beattyville, Kentucky.

·         Sandra Gallagher, a 33-year-old mother of three, of Santa Monica, California, killed on Sept. 28, 1995 in Van Nuys. Her body was found in her burning vehicle. She had met Rogers in a bar the night of her murder.

·         Linda Price, a 34-year-old mother of two, found stabbed to death in the bathtub of her home in Jackson, Mississippi, on Nov. 3, 1995. Price briefly lived with Rogers, telling her mother: "He is my dream man," according to an archived story in the Dayton Daily News.

·         Tina Marie Cribbs, a 34-year-old mother of two, found stabbed to death in a Tampa, Florida hotel bathtub on Nov. 7, 1995. Like Gallagher, she had met Rogers at a bar on the night of her murder.

·         Andy Lou Jiles Sutton, a 37-year-old mother of four: three sons and a daughter who were 19, 17, 8, and 6 when she was found stabbed to death in her bed on Nov. 9, 1995 in of Bossier City, Louisiana. Sutton and Rogers met before her murder and are believed to have slept together.

What has Trump said about executions?

Trump is a staunch supporter of the death penalty and has called for the ultimate punishment to be carried out expeditiously for murderers languishing on death row for decades.

He has also said the punishment should be used for migrants who kill Americans, people who kill police officers, and drug dealers and human traffickers.

Earlier this year, Trump issued an executive order restoring federal executions.

"Before, during, and after the founding of the United States, our cities, States, and country have continuously relied upon capital punishment as the ultimate deterrent and only proper punishment for the vilest crimes," his order said. "Our Founders knew well that only capital punishment can bring justice and restore order in response to such evil."

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Is there a serial killer in New England?

 Bodies of potential victims found in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island

Speculation about a serial killer in New England is gaining significant traction online – specifically stemming from discussions in a private Facebook group called "New England Serial Killer," reported Fox News.

Members of the Facebook group and social media users on other platforms like TikTok and X are pointing to several recent discoveries of human remains in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island between March and April.

Authorities across all three states have identified remains in New Haven, Groton, Killingly and Norwalk, Connecticut, as well as Framingham and Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Foster, Rhode Island.

Three sets of human remains have been identified. New Haven police identified remains discovered on March 21 as Denise Leary, a formerly missing 59-year-old mother of two. Norwalk police also identified the remains of 35-year-old Paige Fannon of West Islip, New York, on March 6. Her remains were found in a swiftly moving Norwalk River after heavy rainfall the night before.

Rhode Island State Police identified remains found in a wooded area of Foster as 56-year-old Michele Romano, who had been missing since August 2024.Their causes of death have not been released as of Tuesday.

"There is no information at this time suggesting any connection to similar remains discoveries, and there is also no known threat to the public at this time," Connecticut State Police said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

CTSP further told police that troopers responded to Woodward Street in Killingly on April 9 regarding the discovery of possible human remains. Police later confirmed the remains, which have yet to be identified, and said there is no known threat to the public.

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The true crime phenomenon can be traced to Truman Capote's 1966 release of 'In Cold Blood'

In 1966, Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood all but created the true crime genre, reported Vox. Nearly 50 years later, radio journalist Sarah Koenig decided the case of a Baltimore high school student, Adnan Syed, convicted of murdering his teenage ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, needed a second look. 

With its high production values, conversational style, and a storyline unfolding in real time across episodes, 2014’s Serial fueled a new wave of interest in true crime and transformed podcasting. Its first season — with its piano-plinking earworm of an opening theme and endless parodies — was once the most downloaded podcast in the world at 300 million, a number that now feels almost quaint thanks to the influence Serial has had on the entire medium. 

But Serial’s most consequential effect was on the criminal justice system itself.

Before the landmark series, the main way we received our pop culture narratives about crime came through police procedurals like Law & Order and high-profile investigations like that of O.J. Simpson or JonBenét Ramsey, where the accompanying media circus often overshadowed the facts; serious deconstruction of individual cases was relegated to niche internet forums or the occasional prestige documentary. Even in more routine circumstances, police departments typically controlled the stories around criminal investigations, choosing what the public got to know and when they knew it. This grip on information often meant the media had no choice but to parrot the police narrative of a case — a framing mirrored by the onscreen “copaganda” of procedurals and other scripted shows.

Serial changed that by ushering in an age of increased scrutiny over the narratives we’re fed about policing and by making millions of listeners more fundamentally aware of the limits and flaws of the justice system. From that awareness has come serious action that arguably helped free Serial’s own subject.

Much has been made of the ways in which the true crime podcasting boom may have normalized the more negative stereotypes of the genre: obsessed fans harassing suspects and thinking they know better than authorities, or boozed-up white women joking about murder as millions of fans laugh along without regard for victims or survivors. To be sure, thorny complications can arise, but little attention has been given to the positive outcomes of this kind of collectivism when it’s applied to an unjust system.

True crime podcasts, starting with Serial and the high-profile podcasts that followed, “have offered a critical lens through which to scrutinize the procedures and decision-making in the criminal justice system,” Kent Bausman, a criminologist and sociology professor at Maryville University, told Vox in an email. “They have enlightened the public consciousness about the convoluted machinations of the system and revealed with great clarity the human experience of miscarriages of justice.” Bausman noted that true crime podcasts frequently provide insight into “everything from the production and use of false confessions and the inherent problems that exist regarding the use of forensic evidence in the courtroom.”

Bausman pointed out that organizations like the Innocence Project have existed for decades, yet it’s only recently that they’ve become better known as a result of the true crime explosion. We’ve gained a broader cultural awareness of the factors that lead to the wrongful convictions that the Innocence Project and its peers help overturn — things like false confessions, police misconduct, bad forensics, and false testimony at trial. Additionally, terms like “Missing White Woman Syndrome” and “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women” have sprung up to encompass an entire range of police inadequacies when it comes to the racial and socioeconomic gaps between “perfect” victims and forgotten ones.

True crime has “revealed with great clarity the human experience of miscarriages of justice”

True crime fans are now loud advocates for thorough investigations. They’re more knowledgeable about shady criminal justice techniques, from entrapment and “Mr. Big” operations to Brady violations and the Reid technique. There’s an increased familiarity with nonprofits that help law enforcement solve cases, from Texas EquuSearch to the DNA Doe project, as well as those that seek criminal justice reform, like End the Backlog.

Several of these organizations build upon what is perhaps the biggest recent breakthrough in criminal investigations: forensic genealogy. The use of familial DNA to catch culprits has revolutionized crime-solving amid the true crime boom. In 2018, when forensic genealogy led to the capture of the Golden State Killer, the true crime world greeted the announcement like sports fans might celebrate winning the World Series — a comparison that captures the complicated nature of a genre that makes entertainment out of tragedy. Wider concerns about genealogical privacy and private companies sharing user information quickly followed.

That collectivity and the sense that a “true crime community” exists also largely came about because of Serial.  After Serial, millions of people became amateur detectives. Legions of fans have made themselves an invaluable part of the crime-solving process via social media, as well as longtime true crime forums like Websleuths. They’ve pored over cases until they’ve become nigh experts themselves, drummed up tips to law enforcement, generated new interest in cold cases, and often all but led authorities by the nose to conclusions they should have reached long ago; in one famous case, this latter scenario played out before the ears of millions of listeners after an amateur sleuth made his own podcast to draw attention to the Kristin Smart case and forced his local cops to pay attention. 

Journalist-led true crime podcasts have also had a direct impact on the cases they’ve investigated in the intervening years — like In the Dark, which helped free its season two subject, Curtis Flowers, from death row in 2019. In 2022, the runaway hit Murdaugh Murders helped catalyze the re-investigation of the death of Stephen Smith, which is widely believed to be connected to the byzantine crimes of Alex Murdaugh. 

Not all criminal investigations benefit from millions of newly minted amateur sleuths diving into the fray. Bausman warns it can in fact “commodify both offenders and victims for the public’s amusement.” He also pointed out that despite the renewed attention true crime podcasts can bring to stagnant investigations, the clearance rates for homicide cold cases have not increased due to this influence. 

Still, Serial continues to have an outsized impact on our cultural understanding of the criminal justice system, and this sea change ultimately came full circle back to Adnan Syed. 

Legions of fans have made themselves an invaluable part of the crime-solving process

In 2022, Syed’s hometown of Baltimore revisited dozens of convictions as part of a larger overall effort by Maryland to atone for decades of draconian sentences handed out to juvenile and young offenders, many of whom spent their entire adult lives in prison with no opportunity for parole. This is just one example of how prosecutorial divisions across the country are reexamining wrongful and unfair convictions through what are known as conviction integrity units and sentencing review units. These programs are part of the normalization of criminal justice reform that has come amid an enormous shift in attitudes about prosecutions in the decade since Serial aired.

It was a dogged pursuit of local criminal justice reform that allowed Syed to finally walk free, though the flashier “whodunit” aspects of his case that initially attracted Koenig also delivered a twist. Syed’s case review uncovered new evidence, including two new suspects, that cast reasonable doubt on his trial and conviction. Prosecutors dropped all charges against Syed just days later; they later walked this back on a technicality. Those nuances also reflect a post-Serial shift in public advocacy and focus: on the rights of victims and their families in cases like this one.

Although his case is still in limbo, Syed remains out of jail, his conviction stayed until Hae Min Lee’s family’s concerns can be resolved. It’s the kind of messy, satisfyingly unsatisfying conclusion that befits both Serial itself and the evolved criminal justice era we’re in — one in which answers rarely come easily, but for perhaps the first time, all of us are looking.

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Idaho botches execution of 73-year-old serial killer

For nearly an hour, Thomas Eugene Creech lay strapped to a table in an Idaho execution chamber as medical team members poked and prodded at his arms and legs, hands and feet, trying to find a vein through which they could end his life.

After eight attempts, the prison warden told them to give up. Creech, a 73-year-old serial killer who has been in prison for half a century, was returned to his cell — for how much longer, no one knows, reported The Associated Press.

The botched lethal injection was the latest in a string of difficulties states have had carrying out such executions since Texas became the first state to use the method in 1982.

Here’s a look at things to know about Creech’s case and what comes next.

What happened?

Creech, one of the longest-serving death row inmates in the U.S., had a last meal of fried chicken and gravy Tuesday night. He was wheeled into the execution chamber at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution on a gurney at 10 a.m. Wednesday, where he was to die for one of his crimes: the 1981 beating death of a disabled fellow inmate who was serving time for car theft.

Three medical team members tried eight times to establish an IV, Department of Correction Director Josh Tewalt said. In some cases, they couldn’t access the vein, and in others they could but had concerns about vein quality.

At one point, a medical team member left to gather more supplies. The warden announced they were halting their efforts at 10:58 a.m.

It’s not clear why they had trouble. A variety of factors can affect the accessibility of someone’s veins, including dehydration, stress, room temperature or physical characteristics. Creech’s attorneys have said he suffers from several illnesses including Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and edema. Those illnesses could impact circulation and vein accessibility.

Medical experts also say the experience of the professional inserting an IV line can help determine whether the procedure is successful.

The execution team was made up entirely of volunteers who, according to Idaho execution protocols, were required to have at least three years of medical experience, such as having been a paramedic. They were not necessarily doctors, who famously take an oath to “do no harm.”

The identities and qualifications of the medical team members were kept secret. They wore white balaclava-style face coverings and navy scrub caps to conceal themselves.

What’s next for Creech?

Creech’s death warrant, issued by Fourth Judicial District Judge Jason Scott, said his execution had to be carried out by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday. When the morning effort to execute him failed, his attorneys rushed to file a new request for a stay in federal court, before the state could try again, saying “the badly botched execution attempt” proves the department’s “inability to carry out a humane and constitutional execution.”

Tewalt, the correction director, quickly announced the state would not try again Wednesday, and the death warrant expired. The state will have to obtain another if it wants to carry out the execution.

“We don’t have an idea of time frame or next steps at this point,” Tewalt told a news conference.

Creech’s attorneys were prepared to keep fighting for his life. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected their last-ditch appeals Wednesday morning.

“This is what happens when unknown individuals with unknown training are assigned to carry out an execution,” the Federal Defender Services of Idaho said in a written statement.

Robert Weisberg, a law professor and the co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center, said Creech’s chances of convincing the Supreme Court justices that a second execution attempt would be cruel and unusual punishment are slim. The court ruled in 1947 that Louisiana could try again to execute a prisoner after an electric chair malfunctioned.

Creech’s attorneys could argue that he has medical conditions that would make lethal injection execution impossible, and that further attempts would be torture, Weisberg said.

Does Idaho have other options?

A number of pharmaceutical companies in recent years have restricted sales of their drugs for use in executions, making access a challenge for states trying to carry out the death penalty. Before Idaho’s last execution, in 2012, Tewalt — who was not yet the corrections department director — and a colleague flew to Tacoma, Washington, with more than $15,000 in cash to buy the drugs from a pharmacist.

The trip was was only revealed after University of Idaho professor Aliza Cover successfully sued for the information under the state public records act.

Against that backdrop, Idaho lawmakers passed a law authorizing execution by firing squad when lethal injection is not available. Prison officials have not yet written a standard operating policy for the use of firing squad, nor have they constructed a facility where a firing squad execution could occur. Both would have to happen before the state could attempt to use the new law, which would likely trigger several legal challenges.

Lawmakers also dramatically increased the secrecy about how the state obtains lethal injection drugs, and about the people or companies involved in supplying the drugs. The law requires that the identification of the execution team members be kept secret, and it prohibits the state’s professional licensing boards from taking disciplinary action against a person who participated in an execution.

“It’s really hard to know what went wrong here,” said Robin M. Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. “That, to me, is the very best argument against these secrecy laws.”

Creech’s attorneys have argued that Idaho’s refusal to say where it obtained the drug it planned to use on Wednesday violated his rights.

What’s happened in other states?

Lethal injection is the main method of execution for the federal government and the 27 states that have the death penalty, including some that now have moratoriums on its use. But there have been some prominent examples of botched efforts.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey paused executions for several months to conduct an internal review after officials called off the lethal injection of Kenneth Eugene Smith in November 2022 — the third time since 2018 Alabama had been unable to conduct executions due to problems with IV lines.

Smith in January became the first person to be put to death using nitrogen gas. He shook and convulsed for several minutes on the death chamber gurney during the execution. Idaho does not allow execution by nitrogen hypoxia.

In 2014, Oklahoma officials tried to halt a lethal injection when the prisoner, Clayton Lockett, began writhing after being declared unconscious. He died after 43 minutes; a review found his IV line came loose. 

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Inside the 'polygon' the Giglo Beach serial killer investigation

They called it the polygon.

Using phone records and a sophisticated system that maps the reach of cell towers, a team of investigators had drawn the irregular shape across a map of tree-lined streets in the Long Island suburb of Massapequa Park. By 2021, the investigators had been able to shrink the polygon so that it covered only several hundred homes, reported The New York Times.

In one of those homes, the investigators believed, lived a serial killer.

A decade before, 11 bodies had been found in the underbrush around Gilgo Beach, a remote stretch of sand five miles away on the South Shore. Four women had been bound with tape or belts or wrapped in shrouds of camouflage-patterned burlap, the sort that hunters use for blinds. They had worked as escorts and had gone missing after going to meet a client.

Each, shortly before she disappeared, had been in contact with a different disposable cellphone. Investigators eventually determined that during the workday, some of the phones had been in a small area of Midtown Manhattan near Penn Station, and at night they pinged in the polygon, mirroring the tidal movements of the 150,000 Long Island residents who head into Manhattan each day.

Last Friday, Suffolk County authorities announced that they had arrested a man who they believed had killed the four women: Rex Heuermann, a 59-year-old architect who had an office near Penn Station and lived on a quiet street right where they had expected to find him. He was charged with three of the murders, to which he has pleaded not guilty, and was named as the prime suspect in the fourth.

The arrest ended years of anguish for some of the victims’ families. But the investigation also raised an unsettling question: Could the authorities have solved the case years earlier?

The following account is drawn from a 32-page bail application and interviews with current and former investigators and Suffolk County’s top law enforcement officials.

The case had unfolded fitfully over more than a decade. But it took a new police commissioner and his task force just six weeks to uncover a crucial clue in the sprawling case file.

Working under Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison, the core group of about 10 investigators was drawn from his department, the sheriff’s office, F.B.I. and State Police and worked closely with District Attorney Ray Tierney of Suffolk County and his prosecutors.

They worked in a beige office, its walls covered with maps, photos and a giant timeline, scouring their suspect’s digital and daily life — email addresses, social media accounts, search history.

All the while, Mr. Heuermann was searching, too, asking Google the same question that so many of his neighbors had been asking each other for more than a decade: “why hasn’t the long island serial killer been caught?”

Picking up the trail of a serial killer is an exceptional challenge. The killer often has no personal connection to the victims. If the victims lived on society’s margins, months or years can go by before their disappearances are treated as serious matters — or even recognized as the work of a single murderer.

The realization that a serial killer was hunting on Long Island’s South Shore came in December 2010, when a Suffolk County police officer, John Mallia, and his canine partner, a German shepherd named Blue, were searching for a 24-year-old woman named Shannan Gilbert, who had gone missing in the area. 

Instead, over several days they found four other bodies near Gilgo Beach. They had been placed roughly 10 yards from Ocean Parkway, the main east-west thoroughfare that traverses a barrier island off the South Shore. After they discovered the bodies, investigators searched for evidence nearby with meticulous care — “sifting the sand like gold miners around each body,” one investigator recalled.

Ms. Gilbert’s corpse and other remains, including those that the authorities described as a man wearing women’s clothing and a toddler, would be found along the same roadway over the following year. The grisly discoveries riveted the region as the police speculated that the killings might be the work of more than one person.

But the first four bodies — all petite women in their 20s who had gone missing in the previous four years — seemed linked. Investigators surmised they had been killed by the same man, in part because of the way the bodies were wrapped and their proximity. And there was reason to believe that a witness might have gotten a look at the man.

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Golden State Killer pleads guilty to 13 murders and 13 abductions--62 other rapes and abductions cannot be prosecuted

Wearing orange jail clothing and a clear protective face shield, Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. admitted guilt Monday to more than a dozen murders and scores of home invasion rapes and other crimes at a court hearing in a Cal State Sacramento ballroom, reported the Los Angeles Times.

As prosecutors read aloud the gruesome details of each crime, victims and their relatives stood in the audience.

Some looked DeAngelo in the eye. Others couldn’t bear to. But all wanted him to know: They were there. And they were not afraid.

“We don’t have anything to be ashamed of, so we can stand up, and he can take a look at us,” said Kris Pedretti, one of the earliest victims, who was 15 when she was raped in 1976. “We’re not afraid of him. I think that’s more powerful than us staying seated and being a Jane Doe. Because, if he looks out, he doesn’t know who is who. He will today.”

In a hoarse voice, DeAngelo pleaded guilty to 13 murders and 13 charges of kidnapping for purposes of robbery — the only crimes with which he is charged. He also admitted to some 62 other crimes of rape and abduction for which the statutes of limitations long ago expired.

Prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty — the main request made by DeAngelo’s public defenders. In return for his guilty plea, DeAngelo will be sentenced to prison for the rest of his life.

DeAngelo’s crimes ran from at least 1973 to 1986 and involved attacks on some 106 children, men and women in 11 counties, ranging from Sacramento to Orange. Some 50 women and girls were raped.

Frustrated detectives and the public dubbed the unknown assailant variously as the Visalia Ransacker, the East Area Rapist, the Diamond Knot Killer and the Original Night Stalker.

Detectives did not have a final named suspect until 2018, when they used crime-scene DNA and genealogy services to identify the killer’s cousin and then, finally, DeAngelo, a former police officer.

Sacramento County Assistant Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Thien Ho called the crimes “simply staggering” in scope.

“His monikers reflect the sweeping geographical impact of his crime,” Ho said during Monday’s hearing. “Each time, he escaped — slipping away silently into the night, leaving communities terrified for years.”

Ho said that DeAngelo, sitting in a Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department interview room hours after his arrest, spoke to himself, saying, “I did all those things. I’ve destroyed all their lives. So now, I’ve got to pay the price.”

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Detroit police arrest suspected serial killer

Prosecutors announced murder charges against a 34-year-old man in the slayings of four women in Detroit whose deaths authorities have characterized as the work of a serial killer, reported The Associated Press.

Deangelo Martin is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and four counts of felony murder in the killings of the women whose bodies were found in abandoned houses in the city as far back as February 2018, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said at a news conference.

Martin, who was arrested in June, was already charged in the stabbing and sexual assault of 26-year-old woman in May and the kidnapping and assault of a 51-year-old woman in June.

Police Chief James Craig has said he sees similarities between three of the slayings and the assaults of at least two other women who survived attacks.

“I think it’s pretty clear that we believe he is a serial killer,” Worthy said.

She named the victims as Annetta Nelson, 57, whose body was found Feb. 26, 2018; Nancy Harrison, 52, who was discovered March 19, 2019; Trevesene Ellis, 55, was found March 24; and Tamara Jones, 55, who was found June 5.

All the victims were found face down with a used condom beside them, she said. A coroner determined that Nelson and Harrison died of blunt force trauma but the cause of death for the other two couldn’t be determined because their bodies were too badly decomposed, Worthy said.

Police are investigating two additional possible homicide cases that might also be connected, she said.

The Associated Press left a message seeking comment from Martin’s appointed defense attorney in the assault and kidnapping cases.

Police have said they believe all the women were sex workers.

“Predators ... look for people who are seemingly vulnerable, left out and left behind,” Worthy said. “People that they think will not fight back, people that they think nobody cares about, people that they think won’t be missed. But they’re wrong.”

She continued: “We worked tirelessly to make sure that we can bring them some modicum of justice, of respect and of dignity, no matter what they were engaged in before, during, after they were reported missing.”

Martin was initially arrested in June in the rape and attempted murder of a woman who was able to escape the attack. At that point, police had already uncovered three homicide victims, and teams of police officers and other city workers were searching hundreds of vacant buildings for more bodies.

“This is the kind of case that creates so much fear in our community,” Craig said during the news conference. “We’re very diligent, relentless in how we approach these matters.”

Six years ago, Detroit had at least 30,000 empty houses and 20 square miles (50 square kilometers) of vacant land. Mayor Mike Duggan has said removing blighted houses is a priority in his efforts to revive Detroit since the city’s 2014 exit from the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Duggan this week announced plans to ask voters to approve the sale of up to $250 million in bonds to eradicate residential blight across the city. A proposed resolution to put the initiative on the March 2020 ballot has been submitted to the City Council.

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Jacksonville serial killer executed

The 13th Execution of 2019

Gary Ray Bowles, a serial killer who preyed on older gay men during an eight-month spree that left six dead, was executed by lethal injection August 22, 2019 at Florida State Prison, reported the Florida Times-Union.

The sentence was carried out at 10:58 p.m., according to the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Bowles received the death penalty for the November 1994 murder of Walter Hinton in Jacksonville Beach. Hinton was Bowles’ sixth and final known victim in a series of killings in an eight-month span in 1994 that terrorized the Interstate 95 corridor and won him the nickname the “I-95 killer.”

It began in Daytona Beach with the murder of John Hardy Roberts. In between, there were victims in Rockville, Maryland; Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta; and Nassau County, Florida. In each case, Bowles had a signature: He stuffed the victims’ throats with objects — towels, rags, toilet paper, dirt, leaves and even a sex toy.

Investigators say if he hadn’t been caught, he would have kept on killing.

“He probably enjoyed it after a while,” said Thomas Youngman, a Daytona Beach detective assigned to the Roberts murder. “Why do you kill people after the first one? The first one could be a mistake, maybe. But then the second, all right, I’ll maybe give you that. But the third, fourth fifth and sixth? When do you stop?”

It wasn’t hard for Daytona Beach police to figure out who killed Roberts , the first victim in March 1994: Bowles left a probation document at the scene and also was caught on an ATM camera trying to withdraw money from Roberts’ account. What proved more difficult was capturing him, something they were unable to do until after five other men in three states had been slain.

Bowles, 57, was raised in West Virginia, where he experienced drugs and violence at a young age. His father was a coal miner who died of black lung before he was born. His mother remarried multiple times, and his first two stepfathers were abusive, according to court records. His mother and brother testified that Bowles began drinking, smoking marijuana and huffing glue when he was 11 years old. When he was 13, he fought back against his second stepfather, smashing a rock in his head and nearly killing him, according to court records.

That’s when Bowles left home. Investigators say Bowles survived by letting gay men perform sex acts on him for money, though he has maintained he is straight,

“I had a question about him being gay. He told me he was not, and I said, ‘What do you describe yourself as?’ He said, ‘A hustler,’” Youngman said. “He’d befriend these old guys and have sexual relations with them, but I think they performed on him. He said he did not perform on them.”

He also had a history of violence against women.

He was convicted of beating and raping his girlfriend while living in Tampa in 1982 and sentenced to eight years in prison. The victim had severe injuries, including tears on her vagina and anus. Former Savannah detective John Best remembers hearing details of the crime as he investigated the murder of 72-year-old World War II veteran Milton Bradley.

“The Tampa detective, I remember her exact quote, ‘I’ve seen better looking bodies in an autopsy,’” Best said.

Best still suspects that Bowles is bisexual and also believes he might have killed women. He said during an interview with detectives, Bowles freely admitted to killing his male victims, almost in a boastful manner, but when asked if there were female victims, he hemmed and hawed.

“He never gave us a yes or no answer,” Best said. “It was, ‘Let’s change the subject.’”

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Florida executes serial killer known as 'Classified Ad Rapist'

The 8th Execution of 2019

“I wanted to be the first person he saw,” said Noland, now a 52-year-old deputy at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office — the same agency that arrested her rapist, reported Washington Post.

Bobby Joe Long, one of Florida’s most notorious serial killers, died by lethal injection at 6:55 p.m. on May 23, 2019 after 34 years on death row. After his arrest in 1984, Long, 65, ultimately confessed to killing 10 women and raping dozens of others in the Tampa area between March and November of that year. He often preyed on sex workers and exotic dancers, or women selling furniture through classified ads in the newspaper, earning him the “Classified Ad Rapist” moniker. Of those he killed, all were between the ages of 18 and 28, all last seen while walking alone late at night or after leaving a bar, club or work.

He pleaded guilty to eight of the deaths. For charges including rape, kidnap and murder, he was sentenced to life 33 times and to death once, for the murder of Michelle Simms, a 22-year-old former beauty pageant contestant from California, working as a receptionist at a massage parlor in Fort Pierce, Fla., at the time of her death.

“If I could have had my way, he would have been executed for every person’s life he took,” said Algalana Douglas, sister of victim Chanel Williams, who was fatally shot in October 1984. She was 18.

Back in 1984, it was tiny red carpet fibers from the floor of a car that alerted police that they had a serial killer on their hands, and it was Nolan who led them to him.

It started in the spring of that year, when police found the body of Ngeun Thi “Peggy” Long, a 19-year-old from Southern California who had just quit her job at a Tampa nightclub to go back to college. Two boys walking in a vacant field near an interstate overpass were the first to find her in May, nude and strangled with a rope around her neck.

“Right at the scene we realized we had a problem,” Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Gary Terry told Congress in 1986, explaining how they managed to capture Bobby Joe Long. They decided to take the evidence from the scene to the FBI in Washington, and that’s how authorities detected the fibers that would later become the crucial piece of evidence.

The red fibers, apparently from a carpet, were also found on the next woman’s body. Two weeks later, Simms was found bound by ropes, her throat slashed, again in a field near an overpass. Then came the third body, the fourth and fifth and sixth — with little physical evidence pointing police to a suspect, except for the same red fibers.

But then there was Lisa Noland.

She was 17 and working a double shift at the Krispy Kreme on Nov. 3, 1984, the night Long snatched her off her bicycle as she rode past a church parking lot. She had left the doughnut shop around 2 a.m., and she had no plans to return. Noland said she had been molested for three years by her grandmother’s boyfriend and had been planning to end her life. The suicide note she had written the night before was on her mind as she pedaled home, she said at a news conference earlier this month.

But then suddenly, a hand was grabbing her, and the cold tip of a pistol was pressed against her left temple, she said.

She remembers screaming, and then saying, “God, whatever you do, just don’t kill me."

He dragged her to his car, a red Dodge Magnum. He ordered her to undress, bound her, blindfolded her and drove her back to his apartment. There, for hours, he raped her over and over.

At a certain point, Noland said, she asked him, “Why are you doing this to me?”

He told her: “To get back at women.”

An unemployed X-ray technician and 10th-grade dropout from West Virginia, Long had just came to the end of two bad relationships, as his parents would soon reveal to the St. Petersburg Times in 1984. He and his high school sweetheart were divorced, and then he found out his new girlfriend was seeing another man. His mother, Louella Long, remembered the day her son called and said, “I can’t find any decent girls in the world.” Two months later, the bodies started piling up.

Lisa Noland said she zeroed in on his bad experiences with women, trying to seem sympathetic to him, compassionate. She had invented a story about being the sole caretaker of a sick parent, so that he would feel sympathetic for her, the Tampa Bay Times reported. She doesn’t know why he let her go, but she guessed the story helped her case. “It saved my life,” she said of her sympathetic facade.

At 4:30 the next morning, he ordered her back into the car, still blindfolded but now clothed, and dropped her on the curb in her neighborhood. Once she made it home, she told her grandma and her grandma’s boyfriend she was kidnapped. The man thought she was lying. Police believed her, she said.

She started from the beginning, revealing only what she could glimpse by peaking underneath her blindfold. She knew she was inside a red car, the Dodge Magnum she had spotted as she pedaled past it that night. She knew the car had a red carpet, virtually the only thing she could see while tied up in the back seat — and immediately police perked up. Like many of the victims, Lisa Noland’s clothes also contained the same tiny red fibers.

But as police combed through registration records for hundreds of Dodge Magnums in the area, two other women, Virginia Lee Johnson, 18, and Kim Marie Swann, 21, would disappear and end up dead within the next few days that November. Police knew it was the work of the same man: The red fibers were there again, the Times reported at the time.

When police staked out the area where Noland believed she had been taken, authorities finally saw the red Dodge Magnum they believed they were looking for, beginning a 36-hour surveillance operation. On Nov. 16, 1984, police arrested Long for Simms’s death as he left a movie theater.

He had no explanation for what he had done.

“It was like A, B, C, D. I’ll pull over. They get in. I’d drive a little way. Stop. Pull out a knife, a gun, whatever. Tie ‘em up. Take ‘em out. And that would be it,” he told CBS News in a pretrial interview in 1986. “And the worst thing is I don’t understand why. I don’t understand why.”

Speaking after his execution Thursday, the families of the victims said the pain had dragged on for three decades, as they waited for Long’s execution. Noland said she wished she could have said something to him. She said she wanted to tell him, “Thank you.” From the time he kidnapped her to when he released her, she said, he had given her a reason to fight for her life, and to potentially save the lives of future victims. She later ripped up the suicide note.

“I wanted to look him in the eye,” she said. But she never got the chance. As he lay on the gurney, Bobby Joe Long never opened his eyes. He didn’t say anything.

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