Do Clues in Student Slaying Point to Serial Killer?

March 3, 2006 — - She was brutally raped, suffocated and mutilated, then dumped in a Brooklyn lot wrapped in a blanket. Now experts believe whoever killed graduate student Imette St. Guillen probably did it before -- and may strike again.

"This is one of the unusual kind of Hollywood-type cases that we don't see too often, which is why it's so extremely frightening to us," said Pat Brown, a criminal profiler and CEO of The Sexual Homicide Exchange.

"Most serial killers -- and I do believe this was a serial-killing crime -- are anger retaliatory killers. They tend to do crimes that are much quicker. … But this crime is what we call a sexually sadistic serial killer who very much enjoys the entire process of the torture and the murder," Brown said.

Police discovered the body of St. Guillen -- who would have turned 25 today -- Saturday night, bound with shoelaces and wrapped in a floral hotel bedspread, after an anonymous caller phoned 911. Her face, hands and feet were confined with packaging tape. Police believe St. Guillen was raped, strangled and, ultimately, suffocated.

Police sources told the New York Daily News that she was sodomized, her dark hair was chopped short, her genitals were sliced, a tube sock was jammed down her throat, and her face was covered with vertical strips of clear packing tape.

Brown said the level of torture was "too outrageous and too sexual" for the killer to be someone like an angry boyfriend. "He probably has killed before," she said. "This would not be his first killing. It's just too involved. … He's increasing his fantasy. He wants more and more excitement out of his fantasy so he's perfecting his work."

She said the way her face was taped also could indicate the killer wanted to watch her face as she died -- "a very, very high level of sadism."

Could a Cabbie Have Done It? Who he could be remains a mystery, but Dr. Michael Baden, chief forensic pathologist for the New York State Police and an expert witness in many high-profile cases, said police seemed to have good trace evidence -- tape, hair fibers, a rape kit, possible tire marks or shoe prints at the scene, as well as security tapes from areas near the Manhattan bars where St. Guillen was last seen alive. All could help lead to a suspect.

"Tape holds on to fingerprints, holds on to hairs and fibers and body fluids very nicely," Baden said. "Plus, you have a pattern of injuries on the body. There's some concern that it suggests that it could be somebody who could do this again … the kind of repeat offenders are the sexual offenders, especially this kind of sexual offense where the perpetrators spend time with the body."

Police also are investigating whether the case is related to a recent sexual assault of a woman at knife point by a man pretending to be a cab driver, police sources told the New York Post. The attack occurred Feb. 12 about a mile from where St. Guillen's body was found. The driver was described as having a dark complexion, possibly Middle Eastern, in his 30s, and about 5 feet, 6 inches tall. A composite sketch has been released.

Police are trying to track down the man who placed the 911 call from a phone outside of a diner. But Brown said, while there's a chance he is the killer, it is unlikely because he wrapped St. Guillen in a blanket and put her in a location that is somewhat hidden.

"He didn't pose her, make a spectacle," she said. "You would wonder why he would then turn around and turn it in. He wants to get away with it and do this again."

Dr. Cyril Wecht, a forensic pathologist and attorney, said investigators will need to check further with local, state and federal agencies to see if there are similar patterns in other killings in the region, as serial killers tend to function in a limited area. "It's good to have an open mind and to some degree a good imaginative expanse," Wecht said. "However, nowadays there can be a more concrete, tangible, forensic scientific ... basis for such conjecture."

Brown, whose Minneapolis-based group of profilers assists law enforcement, sees three different scenarios that could have played out after St. Guillen left a bar alone in the early hours of Saturday morning: It could have been a cab driver, she could have been attacked on an empty street, or a duo was working together to attack her, though that is not as likely. "Usually they are loners because nobody likes them," she said. "They're too psychopathic to get along with people."

Brown said that it only took five seconds to 10 seconds for a woman to be snatched and that her 5-foot-3 frame was just the size favored by serial killers because the women are easily grabbed. She praised police for quickly releasing detailed information to the public so the attacker can be found before he kills again.

"Serial killers do stop sometime in their lives -- they either get caught or get too old," Brown said. "We don't know when he's going to strike next. He did get to finish this crime, do what he wanted to do. It may be a week, a month, a year."

Read today that they have a guy in custody. He is a bouncer from the second bar. They have impounded his vans (one of which he had removed the back seats), forensics shows cat hair (he has two cats) and skin under her battered nails (he came to work with neck scratches the day after), cell phone records put him near the place where her body was found.

Also, other rape victims have come forward...apparently at least one recognized the van as the one in which she was raped.

The guy has a record so they have his DNA on file...a matter of time I guess.

Sad, scary story.

2 posted on 03/08/2006 4:56:37 PM PST by socialismisinsidious ( The socialist income tax system turns US citizens into beggars or quitters!)

I just wonder if there are more victims of the same guy, if it is the bartender. And I also wonder with his record, why he wasn't still in prison.

I don't know why Brown, the profiler, assumes that it was the killer who phoned in the tip about body. Anyone who came to that area later, for any reason, might have seen what looked like a dead body wrapped in a blanket, and called in the tip anonymously just to avoid publicity and the annoyance of police investigation that was sure to follow.

Yeah that is sad and scary. Off topic but a 6th grader in my daughters class had a myspace account and met a man, and got raped a few days ago and the guy cut up her face with glass. Police was school today. The world has gone mad!

"ayone who came to that area later, for any reason, might have seen what looked like a dead body..."

That area is a well known mob body dumping location, in my sick mind I've been thinking it was some mobster looking to drop another body, and found the spot already "taken" who phoned in the tip.

PS, the owners of the bar this gal was in also own their namebrand bar "Dorrians" where the Preppy Killer Robert Chambers picked up the unfortunate Jennifer Levin years ago.

So, don't drink in their bars ladies, would be my advice.

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