Natalee and Stephanie Mo v Signature

By Sheryl McCollum

I tell my students that crime scenes tell a story. If you take it all in, almost as though you were watching a movie, the facts will appear, the story will be revealed.

The crime scene must be analyzed. Experts must know the who, what, how, and why and of the events of the crime. Once these answers are clear; cases can be linked together. This is where a solid understanding of MO and Signature are vital. For example, is the Natalee Holloway case linked to the Stephanie Flores case?

It’s important to remember, MO’s can change. For example, a car thief breaks out the driver’s side window to enter car, but, later down the road he acquires a slim Jim. His “MO” will change because the method of entering the car has changed. Criminals learn to work better, faster and without detection. Criminals, like any other professional, can develop better skills and techniques for their craft. The way a victim responds can also change the MO of a crime. For example, a rapist that has never harmed a victim in the past suddenly stabs a victim repeatedly. Maybe the victim was the first to resist or maybe the victim said something cruel to the offender. This scene may show rage where other scenes did not. However, it’s the same perpetrator.

The Signature of an offender differs from the MO in one very important way - the Signature is a constant with the offender. Unlike the MO, the Signature never changes. Often the offender goes beyond what is necessary to commit the crime. In a nutshell, the offender has characteristics and unusual behaviors based on what occurred at the scene. For example, excessive force is an aspect of signature. The signature can evolve. For example, an offender can mutilate a victim and down the road cause major post mortem injuries. He is evolving and gaining more confidence.

Stephanie Flores had her neck broken. You certainly do not have to go to that extent to steal money from a victim. What does this fact alone say to you about the killer? Is this a Signature or an MO? Let’s look at more details from both crimes to see if these crimes can be linked:

                          Natalee                                                  Stephanie

1. Date of crime: May 30                                          Date of crime: May 30
2. Met suspect at casino                                            met suspect at casino
3. Sus. got V away from friends                                Sus. got V away from friends
4. Sus. Last person seen with V                                Sus. Last person seen with V
5. There is a video of Sus and V                               There is a video of Sus and V
6. Drinking w/ V prior to crime                                 Drinking w/ V prior to crime
7. He said V did “coke”                                           Drugs found in her system
8. Uses a car that is not his                                       Uses a car that is not his
9. Said someone else did it                                       Said someone else did it
10. Sus claims he sold V then denies it                      Sus says he killed her – then denies it
11. Extorts money from Holloways                           Steals cash from victim
12. States he had sex with V                                    V’s pants were removed
13. Says he will tell where v is                                  Says he will tell what went on
14. He writes a book                                               Says he is getting married
15. Speaks V’s language (English)                           Speaks V’s lanuage (Spanish)
16. Appears to co-op w/ police                              Appears to co-op w/ police
17. Blames police                                                   Blames Police
18. Calls V a bitch                                                 Claims V hit him; invaded privacy

Do you see a pattern? Is there an MO or Signature in these two crimes? Do you believe law enforcement should be looking into other missing or unsolved murders in other countries?



Sheryl McCollum, MS
Director
Cold Case Investigative Research Institute

Who Holds the Bargaining Chips?

By Tad DiBiase

Joran Van Der Sloot is back in the news. 

Long suspected of murdering Natalee Holloway and now arrested for the murder of Peruvian Stephany Flores, Van Der Sloot supposedly has told police he will tell them where Miss Holloway’s body is in exchange for transferring him from a Peruvian prison to one in Aruba.  http://dailycaller.com/2010/06/13/van-der-sloot-willing-to-tell-where-holloways-buried-in-exchange-for-transfer-to-aruba/  

Having studied no body murder cases for several years, I‘ve observed an increasingly disturbing trend: more and more defendants are using the body of their murdered victim as a bargaining chip.  Van Der Sloot is far from the first.  

Hans Reiser was convicted of murdering his wife in California in 2008.  She had disappeared in 2006 and Reiser denied the murder for years and fought the charge at trial.  After a five month trial, an Oakland jury convicted the Linux inventor of first degree murder.     After the conviction, however, in exchange for a reduced sentence, Reiser led the police to his wife’s body which he had buried less than half a mile from his house.  Instead of facing a sentence of 25 years to life, Reiser’ s charge was reduced to second degree murder which carried a term of only 15 years to life.    

In 2008, prosecutors in the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia (my old office) permitted Michael Dickerson to plead guilty to second degree murder and in exchange he agreed to lead police to where he buried the body of his girlfriend, Shaquita Bell.  Dickerson then led police and prosecutors on a futile two day search for Ms. Bell’s body which has never been found. Yet he was still sentenced to just 15 years in prison.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/11/AR2008111103085.html  

Just this past May in Tennessee, Douglas Whisnant was able to plea bargain into second degree murder charges by agreeing to show police where he buried his ex-wife’s body.  Whisnant was sentenced to 15 years.  Perhaps more galling, Whisnant is currently serving a 25 year federal firearms sentence and will get credit for his murder sentence, a state charge, will serving his federal time!  Thus, he does no additional time for the murder.  http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/may/17/details-net-reduced-sentence/  Also in May of this year, Lawrence Gaudenzi was permitted to plead guilty to second degree murder.  As part of the plea he was not required to reveal the whereabouts of his wife’s body. http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/052009/05072009/464607

Now there are clearly some good reasons to let a defendant take a plea in a no body murder case:  weak evidence, getting closure for the family and sometimes getting something is better than getting nothing.  But letting a defendant call the shots and use his victim’s body as a bargaining chip is particularly distasteful given that most of these murderers fit the classic profile of domestic abusers.

It’s all about control and they want to be the ones in control.  Letting murderers use their victim one last time to win themselves leniency is their final act of control and prosecutors ought to be loathe to let them do it.  

Winning a conviction in a no body murder case is difficult and dealing with a grieving and often angry family is equally difficult.  But letting a murderer run the show and determine what charges or sentence he faces is simply unacceptable.

A LIAR IS A FOUR LETTER WORD

By Michelle Simonsen

Five years ago, when I first heard of Joran van der Sloot, I prayed that the stories he told Aruban officials while being interrogated would actually lead to the truth—the location of Natalee Holloway. Every night I sat glued to the television and watched Joran take the Aruban Police, private investigators, the media and Natalee’s family on a wild goose chase in and around every dark crevice of Aruba to no avail. He smirked and took pleasure in telling investigators 20 different lies as to what happened that night of May 30 and what happened to Natalee.

By the end of the summer of 2005, I felt like a fool. I hoped that one of those lies would lead to Natalee. Instead, I witnessed the aftermath of what a pathological liar could do not only to a family, but to several countries, and millions of people across the world. We were all duped by an 18-year old psychopath.

Not only has Joran had five years to hone his craft, but he’s been able to roam the globe putting his monsterous techniques to use. Since he is a smarter and more experienced pathological liar and psychopath, he’s been able to dupe Peru as well.

On June 7, 2010, Joran confessed to murdering 21-year old Stefany Flores Ramirez on the same day he murdered Natalee Holloway in 2005. This time we had more information. The media reported she was found on the floor of Joran’s hotel room wearing only a t-shirt and underwear. She was beaten to a bloody pulp with an object, reportedly, a tennis racquet, causing blunt force trauma to her head, neck and torso. She sustained an intracranial hemmorage due to the force of the blows. Her neck was broken. And as reported by her brother, her eye was missing, stating she was “unrecognizable”.

However, Joran’s “confession” of striking Stephany a few times and grabbing her by her neck does not match up with her injuries.

Why were there bruises covering her entire body? Why was she only wearing a t-shirt and underwear? Why was her eye missing?

Try a new strategy Joran. The lies don’t fool anyone anymore, and your bogus confession does not add up.

If everyone in the world already knows how he operates, then why are Peruvian officials drinking the Joran van der Sloot “kool-aid”? Not once in five years has that waste of a human being ever told the truth. How can he continue to mesmerize smart people into believing his lies, false confessions and half truths?

Joran is going to spend a long time in a Peruvian prison no matter what story he spins now. However, just because Peru “has their man”, doesn’t mean they should accept his lies in order to close the case and drive the blood thirsty worldwide media out of town.

Don’t they owe it to Stephany?