To Probe A Beating Heart

by Wren, John B

  The trip to the Portage county site was uneventful. Rebecca was cowering in the back seat on the floor, unable to get up to a sitting position and to scared to do anything but cry. Averell pulled into the wooded area and parked in the clearing. Nobody was about and from the look of the grass, no one had been there for some time. He pulled Rebecca out of the back seat and stood her next to a tree. “I’m going to stretch you between these two trees, okay.”

  “Tell her the rest.”

  “I am going to check your insides with my new probes.”

  “And then?”

  “Yes, then, I am going to open you up and see your beating heart.”

  “There’s more.”

  “Oh and then we will remove your arms and legs.”

  “And finally?”

  “Yes, well finally we will kill you. Isn’t that absolutely exciting?,” he said as he broke into a sweat. He reached up and grabbed a branch of a tree, pulled it toward Rebecca’s hands and with another pull tie, he bound her right arm to the branch. As he started to cut the binding between her arms he positioned another tie to bind her left arm to another tree. With both of her arms bound to the trees and her ankles still secured together, Rebecca was unable to defend herself. She was completely at his mercy and she was terrified. He was talking to someone who was not there and he was breathing hard almost to a point of collapsing and sweating profusely.

  “Calm down, Averell. You have to be in control. Take a deep breath and relax. We have things to do.”

  “Yes, I have to calm down.”

  Averell paced for a minute until he was able to gain control of himself again. “Now, to work.” He picked up a probe and approached Rebecca. As he placed the probe against her mid section, she tried to scream but inhaled the cloth gag. She choked and was dead before Averell realized she was in difficulty.

  “Damn it, I wanted to see her heart.”

  He was furious and took his larger knife and hacked her apart. When finished he stood over her remains sweating and soaked in blood.

  “That was exciting, not very profitable, but exciting. We should find another subject to examine.”

  “I’m very tired right now and all I want to do is sleep.” He sat down and hung his head.

  “C’mon Averell, Let’s finish what we started and get out of here, we can sleep when we are home, or in Erie.”

  “Yes you’re right, Let’s finish up here.” With that Averell stood and walked to the car, took the shovel out of the trunk and found a spot to dig. The finished hole was about five feet deep and Averell placed the three bags evenly at the bottom . He threw in some leaves and rocks and filled the hole with the dug out dirt. He put more rocks at the top of the hole and covered the entire site with heavy brush. A trip to the stream and a thorough washing was all that he needed to reinvigorate him for the trip to Erie, and his motel room and bed.

  * * *

  Jim read the article about Rebecca in the Cleveland newspaper and noted the similarities: her hair, eyes, shorts and shoes all lined up. The mid week, afternoon timing also fit and finally, the interstate corridor. He made a few quick notes, sent an e-mail to Alex, and Sean listing all the similarities and was leaving for the station when the phone rang. He answered.

  “Jim, it’s Vince, come into the conference room when you get in. I have already contacted Alex and Sean. Also talked to Jeff and cleared it for Sean to join us today.”

  “Okay, I was just about to head out, so I’ll be there in a few minutes,” and he hung up, picked up his notes and hustled down to his car. Sean was in the parking lot, talking to Jeff, when Jim pulled in.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow Sean, don’t get used to wearing a suit, you’re still on my crew,” said Jeff and he went back into the building.

  “He has to juggle a few things before roll call, and we have to be upstairs. Are you ready?”

  Sean grinned, “Hell yes I’m ready, let’s go.” They went up to the second floor and met Vince in the conference room.

  “Good morning again guys, come on in and sit down. I think Alex will be in a little later and we will brief him on this then. Okay, now we have identified another incident that ties into the Shelton case and we want to revisit the neighborhood and run a new set of interviews. The two of you have to stay out of the way of most of the stuff, but I would like you to talk to the family. Are you good with that?”

  Both nodded and Jim said, “Yeah, sure, we can do that today.”

  “I added Rebecca Markum to the list. She lives in Sandusky. That puts her in the interstate corridor that I initially thought was a common factor for the first few and she is the eighth since Annette, that’s now eight in a four year span between Utica, New York and Goshen, Indiana That’s less than seven hundred miles of Interstate ninety. Now of those eight all are Caucasian, disappeared in the summer months of June, July or August, on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday and all in the afternoon between 12:20 and 7:30. When I figure in the physical characteristics, five are blond with blue eyes. These same five were wearing blue shorts and white shoes. If I tighten the times based on these five, the range reduces to 2:45 to 7:30, just under a five hour span and with Goshen being the farthest west at 7:30. We had a description of Annette’s abductor as a man about five eight, one fifty and dark hair, Linda’s abductor is about five ten, two hundred and dark hair. Both drove vans, different colors and four years apart.”

  “Okay, that may mean that we have more than one bad guy. It could also be the same guy several years apart, the descriptions are that similar and the van thing rings a big bell. If we continue to concentrate on these four similar cases, we may be dealing with the same predator. The Linda Young case could be our guy so I think we should I think we should start with contacting the other shops again and share what we have. Once again, they may be able to add something to our data base, just as we add to theirs. Jim, this is yours to set up, you know some of these guys and might as well meet the others.”

  Alex came in about the same time and joined the group.

  They ran through everything again and decided to start with redoing the interviews in the neighborhood after contacting the other shops in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana as well as the FBI. If correct, this predator had crossed state lines in his taking of victims, whether he transported any of them across a state line was still an open question. Vince let Sean and Jim talk to the Shelton’s. Clare was there Dave was at work. Clare was obviously still shaken by the whole thing, but much more communicative than she was four years earlier. They learned nothing new from her and determined that they would come back that evening to talk to Dave. Vince left for Elyria and Sandusky to interview the Kinsey’s and the Markum’s. That would take the rest of the day and Sean and Jim sat down with Alex to rewrite the profile of their prime suspect.

  Alex began with, “What do we know today that we didn’t know yesterday and what do we know that we don’t know? Does that sound familiar? After we answer that, then we will move on to what do we think we may know.”

  “We know that five of the girls are enough alike to have been sisters,” said Jim.

  “And if the Linda Young case is also our guy, we have to be aware of what he did,” said Alex.

  Sean was pacing back and forth, “She was raped and strangled, then tossed aside. That does not fit our guy. He has yet to let us find any one of the four victims that line up. I really think that Linda is not one of ours.”

  Jim cleared his throat and said, “I am with you on that Sean, it just

  does not fit.”

  “Is someone else pursuing this from a ‘Linda’ perspective?” asked Alex. “I mean, each one of these little girls deserve the same kind of attention that we are giving Annette.”

  Jim looked at Sean with a tilt to his head and answered, “It’s time for another visit to the other cop shops in those towns. I think we start with phone calls, get what we can and give them what we have, then, if face time is needed, we hit the road.”

  T
he three of them looked at each other and almost in unison, “Let’s divvy ‘em up and make the calls.”

  Sean took Candice, Megan and Linda; Alex got Kathy and Rebecca; and Jim had Sandy and Allison. Jim and Alex went to their desks and Sean remained in the conference room. They each had the girls files, that they were to call and started to make the calls.

  * * *

  In January of the following year, 1996, a nine year old girl was abducted in Arlington, Texas. Her kidnapping was witnessed and the local police were notified almost immediately. Her body was found less than a week later, but the predator who took her was never found. The girl’s family formed an organization that worked to convince the state legislature to write tougher laws to protect children. Through hard work and the assistance of individuals and businesses, the local congressional representative was able to put proposed legislation in front of the congress resulting in the signing into law, the Amber Hagerman Child Protection Act in October of 1996. The outcome of this was the eventual establishment of a national alert system directed at finding missing children called the “Amber Alert”. Progress in this arena has been slow and establishing a national database to identify the numerous pedophiles and other predators that prey on children and even young adults is an ongoing, constant process. One that demands care and attention on a daily basis.

  The data base that Jim had started is but a small and brief exercise in the overall computerized network of information that exists today. It was useful in his hunt for that unknown predator who took Annette, but it’s useful life was just that, the duration of this specific case.

  * * *

  CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

  Procedure, follow the procedure . . .

  Averell had spent most of his efforts in the Ohio area and this may have been a mistake. He decided to spread out his hunting turf to include eastern up-state New York. He had to include the area where his ultimate goal was to be found. Until this year his trips into that part of New York did not stir his interest. He selected a time when he was supposedly on his way to Buffalo, made a reservation at a motel just south of the city, and included a late arrival possibility, “I may be having dinner with one of my clients,” he told the receptionist. He drove to Auburn New York and slowly cruised the residential areas. It was less than one hundred miles to Auburn and he was there around 1:30 in the afternoon. As he drove the neighborhoods in a residential area, he spotted a blond girl wearing a white top, blue denim shorts and white shoes. She appeared to be older than the last one, at least she was taller she may have been sixteen or seventeen. An older subject would more closely approximate Sarah in size and difficulty. Each one will be closer. He looked at Barbara, studied her and thought out loud, “Ah, perfect, almost, close enough,” and he positioned his car where she would walk right to him. It was also a place where very few people could see, even if they tried. He waited for her to come to him. She did and he captured her in a stealthy manner well practiced, quick, quiet and almost perfected.

  Barbara Harkin of Auburn, New York was taken on Thursday July 11, 1996. Averell took her to a heavily wooded area near one of the Finger Lakes where he found seclusion, privacy. He proceeded to describe his intentions and observe her eyes. He was obsessed with the eyes as he described what he intended to do. Barbara was frightened, but did not initially believe him. She learned as he pushed a probe into her side, and another through her arm. She felt the pain, but did not scream. Her eyes were wide and tears were spilling down her face as he penetrated her flesh with his probes, but she still did not scream . He remained calm as he pierced her slight body and watched her deep blue eyes lose their fire and life. He had four probes in her when she quietly stopped breathing and her heart no longer pumped blood. Averell maintained his composure even though she died too soon unlike his reaction with Rebecca when she died too early. He never cut her living body with his knife and now he did not want to see her heart.

  “You seem well contained, my friend.”

  “Yes, well this one was almost like a religious ceremony,” said Averell.

  “She was fascinating, amazing, just wish that she could have stayed with us a little longer, while we looked at her heart.” He slowly and deliberately dismembered he body and gently placed the pieces in the three separate black plastic bags. Averell very deliberately dug a hole for her remains, humming as he worked. It seemed effortless as he moved shovel after shovel of dirt. “This one was at a proper six feet,” he muttered.

  “Very nicely done.”

  After placing the three bags in the hole, Averell stood at the grave and bowed his head as if in prayer. After about five minutes, he took the shovel and gently started to cover her remains. As the hole became filled, his shovel took larger and larger amounts of dirt and when he finished, he placed as many rocks as he could find on top of the grave. Finished, he began to undress for his cleansing in the water. He removed his shirt and noticed very little blood. He thought about not going in the water, about not changing his clothes.

  “Procedure, follow the procedure.”

  “You are right my friend, little mistakes can be very expensive.” He took his clothes off and walked into the water till it was waist deep, then he submerged and stayed under as long as he could. He repeated this dip five times and walked out of the stream, dried off with a towel and dressed. He was very calm and quiet through the entire process. As he finished loading all his tools and his bag of clothes into the car, he stopped and looked out through the trees over the lake. “It is beautiful here, why has it taken us so long to find this place?”

  “Would you like to come here again?”

  “Yes, very much.”

  “Then we shall, next time.”

  “Yes, next time,” He started the car and drove slowly out of the wooded area and turned toward Buffalo.

  The next day as Averell was driving through town he spotted a car

  wash. He turned in and had the car cleaned thoroughly, “We should do

  this more often, I like the way it looks when they finish. It shines, like it

  was new.”

  “Yes, it is nice.”

  * * *

  Jim McClarry once again added to his database, Barbara made it six girls that matched the profile they were pursuing. The fact that Auburn is about twenty five or thirty miles east of Syracuse, stretched the range to match an earlier estimate. Jim wrote an e mail to Alex and Sean and spelled out the similarities. The problem continued to be the fact that there was no direct evidence to allow honing in on any individual, much less, arresting anybody. The crimes were unclassified. Were they kidnappings, were they murders, were they molestations, were they runaways, there was no evidence to indicate which applied to which case? In the five years since Annette went missing, none of the six girls had been found. No bodies, no evidence, no information on the predator’s identity other than a single vague description given by Mrs. Simpson. The team was discouraged but undeterred. Some of these people would never give up.

  A month later, on Tuesday, August 13, 1996 Janet Tyler, a six year old girl who lived in Toledo, Ohio, disappeared. Her remains were never found, so it cannot be categorically stated that she was murdered. She was walking home from school with a group of other children when the group stopped to watch a fight between two older boys. Janet was frightened by the hitting and kept on walking. She was somewhere in the four block area between the fight and her home when she disappeared. At the time of her disappearance, Averell was in Syracuse, New York having lunch with a manager of a distribution center. Jim McClarry added her to his data base and looked up a newspaper article to gain some more particulars. Janet was a brunette with brown eyes and was not dressed in the same mode as the group of six, she was wearing a dress and sandals. Jim gave her a rating of five, talked to Vince and sent a note to the team about her.

  * * *

  CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

  He is just as lucky as he is smart . . .

  Darlene Skinner lived with her parents and
two older brothers in Jamestown, New York. On Wednesday, June 25, 1997, this seven year old girl was abducted by two people from her front yard at 7:30 in the evening. When found about five weeks later, it was determined that she had been raped multiple times by at least two people and beaten to death. At the time of her abduction, Averell was preparing to head west from Sandusky, Ohio to his next stop in Toledo.

  Jim read about Darlene in the newspapers and added her to his data base. She lived in the interstate corridor around I-90 that fit his initial profile. Her age of seven years was younger than he would have expected, especially since she was shorter than the last two victims and her black hair and brown eyes were in conflict with the continuation of the profile. Never the less she was retained in Jim’s data base. Her clothing also was not consistent with the others and finally, the two abductors discarded her body in a ditch and she was easily found. This was unlike the other victims who in line with the profile were never found.

  On July eighth that summer, Averell took another subject, this time in Schenectady, New York. Her name was Emily Molin, she was sixteen years old and she was coming home from a summer school session. It was just before 2:30 in the afternoon, she was walking a little behind a gaggle of laughing children. She was moving very slowly, not paying attention to the others and therefore, she presented an irresistible target to Averell. Emily was tall, slender and looked older than her years, she could have passed for twenty one. He took a chance in grabbing this girl while there were so many witnesses only a block away. He took her from behind, clasping his hand with the gag and tape over her mouth and forcing her into his car. The abduction was almost silent, he had the pull ties in place that deftly found their way around her wrists and ankles and she was quickly covered with a blanket. Averell was behind the wheel and around the corner before the other children realized that Emily was no longer there.