If you have issues viewing or accessing this file, please contact us at NCJRS.gov. Investigative Case Management for Missing Children Homicides Christine O. Gregoire Attorney General of Washington & U.S. Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Cooperative Agreement 93-MC-CX-K006 by Kenneth A. Hanfland Robert D. Keppel Joseph G. Weis Project Staff Dr. Robert D. Keppel, Ph.D., Project Director Dr. Keppel is Chief Criminal Investigator with the Washington State Attorney General's Office. He has over 23 years of homicide investigation experience. He received his Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Washington in 1992. He founded the Homicide Investigation Tracking System (HITS) in Washington State. Dr. Joseph G. Weis, Ph.D., Research Manager Dr. Weis is the Director of the Center for Law and Justice and a Professor of Sociology at the University of Washington. He was the past Editor of Criminology, the official journal of the American Society of Criminology. His research interests include the etiology of juvenile crime, delinquency prevention, the measurement of crime, violent crime, and the measurement of violence. He has authored numerous articles in the field of criminology. Kenneth A. Hanfland, B.S., Project Coordinator Mr. Hanfland is Violent Crime Investigations Supervisor with Homicide Investigation and Tracking System of the Criminal Justice Division of the Washington State Attorney General's Office. He was a Crime Analyst for 5 1/2 years at the FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime. He was a Police Officer for over 16 years, the last six years of which he worked as a Crime Analyst and supervisor. Table of Contents Project Staff ................................................................................................................................. i Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................ v Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1 Methodology ................................................................................................................................ 3 Identifying Potential Cases ................................................................................................... 3 Case Criteria ......................................................................................................................... 4 Design of the Data Collection Instrument ............................................................................ 4 Data Integrity ........................................................................................................................ 5 The Data ................................................................................................................................ 6 The Victims .................................................................................................................................. 7 Initial Police Involvement ..................................................................................................... 8 The Victim of Child Abduction Murder ............................................................................... 9 Gender ................................................................................................................................... 10 Age ........................................................................................................................................ 10 Lifestyle of Victims .............................................................................................................. 11 Victim-Killer Relationship ................................................................................................... 11 The Killers ................................................................................................................................... 13 Killer Attributes .................................................................................................................... 13 Marital Status ........................................................................................................................ 14 Employment .......................................................................................................................... 14 Occupations .......................................................................................................................... 14 Residential Status .................................................................................................................. 15 Killers' Lifestyles .................................................................................................................. 16 Killers' Prior Crimes ............................................................................................................. 17 Killers' Custody Status ......................................................................................................... 18 The M.O. (Modus Operandi) and Motivation ....................................................................... 18 Sexual Motivation ................................................................................................................. 19 Pornography .......................................................................................................................... 20 Crises and Stressors .............................................................................................................. 20 Choosing and Controlling the Victim ................................................................................... 20 Binding of the Victim ........................................................................................................... 21 Cause of Death ...................................................................................................................... 22 Unusual Acts ......................................................................................................................... 23 Body Disposal ....................................................................................................................... 23 Post-Offense Behavior .......................................................................................................... 24 The Investigation ..........................................................................................................................26 Police Refusal to Accept A Missing or Runaway Report .....................................................26 Multiple Police Agencies ......................................................................................................26 Unknowing Witnesses ..........................................................................................................26 Neighborhood Canvass .........................................................................................................26 Area Search ...........................................................................................................................28 Who Discovered the Body of the Victim? ............................................................................29 Investigative Steps in the First 48 Hours ..............................................................................29 Police "Contact" With The Killer .........................................................................................30 Physical Evidence .................................................................................................................30 The Polygraph .......................................................................................................................31 The News Media ...................................................................................................................32 "Outside Forces" That Created Problems for the Investigation ............................................33 "Red Herrings". ....................................................................................................................33 Murder Incident Sites ...................................................................................................................34 Components of the Murder Incident .....................................................................................34 Separation of Components by Time and Distance ................................................................35 Body Recovery Site ..............................................................................................................36 Murder Site ...........................................................................................................................37 Initial Victim-Killer Contact Site .........................................................................................38 Victim's Last Known Location .............................................................................................39 Series Cases .................................................................................................................................41 Similarities Between Series And Non-Series Cases .............................................................41 Victims' Gender ....................................................................................................................41 Victim-Killer Relationship ...................................................................................................42