Serial Killer Essay

Introduction Without the use of DNA evidence that exists today, serial killers have the skill of avoiding capture. Serial killers like Jack the Ripper often use prostitutes because they are more likely to not be noticed as missing and the public outrage will not be as strong due to their low social status. Serial killers' lack of remorse and psychopathic nature can allow them to avoid the police. They can seem like pleasant people and hide their inner demons. The more they manage to kill, the smarter they can become at leaving less evidence. This allows them to kill many victims without getting caught. Some bodies can take a long time to be found leading to skeletal remains that can be difficult to identify. The Green River Murderer, Gary

Most of the victims (75%) were identified by dental identification. Difficulties in identifying the bodies were found in what seemed like every step. Skeletonized remains proved difficult to determine the time of death. The average undiscovered body time was 10.5 months. If the serial killer was worse at hiding bodies like when he hid them in a Green River, then identification would have been a lot easier. Animal activity was seen through tooth marks, skeletal disarticulation, defleshing, and more. This especially became a problem when pubic symphysis or ischiopubic ramus was no longer available to sex the body. Also, missing teeth made it difficult to identify some of the individuals. Victims were determined to be from 15 to 36 with a mean age of 20. Younger victims’ dental records often had a mix of deciduous teeth and adult teeth even though the victim only had adult teeth making it difficult to match. Another key difficulty is that many of his victims were runaways or from foster homes. These individuals are more likely to have no contact with their parents, acquaintances, or no dental history allowing their disappearance to go unnoticed. Some individuals had gone missing before, so police figured they would just show up again in the future. This stigma attached to prostitution made some families not want to share that part of their loved one’s life with authorities. With all these challenges, it is crucial to have forensic anthropologists on your side. It is also important to continue to acknowledge missing people that could be used to match the evidence. This is where computer systems come into effect to narrow down possible individuals (Haglund et al., 1987). This journal was written before Ridgeway was identified. A lot is working against individuals trying to identify a victim. Forensic anthropologists can only use what they have at their disposal to figure out sex, age, race, and