By  Seamus McGraw

November 29, 2006

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CLARENCE, N.Y (Crime Library)  — Even killers, it seems, have mothers.

Or sisters. Or daughters. Or wives.

At least that's the operative theory behind the latest plea for help from the investigators probing the Sept. 29 slaying of jogger mom Joan Diver, allegedly at the hands of the elusive Bike Path Rapist

At a press conference Monday, authorities issued an appeal to any woman who might be close to the unidentified rapist and killer who has been linked to eleven attacks — three of them deadly — over the past two decades, to set aside any loyalty to the man and come forward with information that may lead to his arrest.

"They know this man," Amherst Police Detective Lt. Joseph Lacorte told Buffalo's WIVB television. "They need to look inside themselves, to think back. Every time there has been an attack, did he act strangely? Did he have the opportunity to be out every morning when these are happening?"

The plea, the latest call for help from the public in a series of cases that have stumped authorities for more than a decade, was targeted to any woman who might have a close relationship with the killer, and who might even have tried to suppress their own suspicions.

So far, authorities have provided few details about the suspect's appearance. They are awaiting completion of a new composite sketch being done by the FBI. The FBI is also working on a profile of the killer. He is believed to now be in his late forties or perhaps early fifties, and based on DNA evidence is believed to be Caucasian in appearance with about one third Native American blood.

But they also believe that he underwent some kind of significant physical change between 1992 and 1994 that left him unable to produce sperm — possibly as a result of an injury or a disease or even as a result of chemical treatment for some malady — and authorities are hoping that detail might trigger both the memory and conscience of some of the women who might be in the killer's life.

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Contact Seamus McGraw at seamusm@ptd.net

Seamus McGraw

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