By  Seamus McGraw   

(Continued)

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Expert says first two slayings "probably" linked

At a press conference last week Union County Sheriff Eddie Cathey raised the possibility that a serial killer was at large, noting that all three victims "worked the streets, lived on the streets (and) lived a high risk lifestyle."

For now, authorities are keeping the details of their investigation close to the vest. In a response to a series of questions posed in writing by Crime Library, officials from the Union County Sheriff's office declined to discuss the nature of the mutilation in the three cases, saying "specific information about the condition of the body is evidentiary in nature and cannot be discussed in a public forum."

But authorities have noted that there were differences in the type of mutilation in each of the three cases, which, according to law enforcement experts, while not conclusive, could possibly suggest that a single killer was at work, honing his technique over time.

Former FBI agent and nationally known criminal profiler Candice DeLong, who has worked on several high profile serial killer cases over the years, says she believes that few facts released about the cases could very well suggest that a serial killer is at work in the region, and added that the Stone's body was found 25 miles away from the location where the other two bodies were dumped does little to dispel that fear.

There is, DeLong told Crime Library, ample reason to suspect that the Pressley and Parker, whose bodies were found in the same area seven years apart were the victims of a single killer. "That's the same guy, probably," she said. It is less certain, however, that Stone was the victim of the same killer, she noted. On the one hand, "twenty five miles is not that far. He could have moved, or he could have decided that he needs to distance himself," she said. In fact, a similar thing happened when Gary Leon Ridgway, the infamous Green River killer in Washington suspected that authorities might be closing in on him. Rather than abandoning his killing spree, he changed the place where he dumped the bodies.

There is also the question of the mutilations, though without detailed information about the nature of the wounds, it is difficult to say without reservation that a single killer is at work, she noted. The fact that Tucker-Stone was beheaded, she said, could be particularly significant. "Here's the thing, a beheading is not common in this society," she said. "We do see it periodically among serial killers, certainly more than among other segments of killers, and it is usually premeditated in fantasy and then acted out."

Authorities have released few details about that aspect of Tucker-Stone's slaying but have not indicated that the killer made any unusual effort to conceal the dismembered head. "If her head and her hands were taken it could be so she wouldn't be identified (and that would mean) she knew the killer," DeLong said. "But her body was found so he didn't go to serious lengths to try to hide it."

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Contact Seamus McGraw at seamusm@ptd.net

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