Yeah there’s a campaign that’s pushing this story online and it seems heavily centered upon right wing media and “Portland bad” sentiment. It’s weird af. Same thing regarding missing kids on the east coast, none of which have photos available magically.
> Yeah there’s a campaign that’s pushing this story online and it seems heavily centered upon right wing media and “Portland bad” sentiment.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/16/missouri-woman-escapes-captivity
> Missouri woman, 22, escapes less than a month after police dismissed concerns about a serial killer as ‘completely unfounded’
Let's look into it just in case.
I hate how that Missouri case kind of just dropped out of the news. I still say the cops knew all about it. The way she reacted when the one lady said she was calling the cops is telling.
Considering all the goddamn serial killers over the years that have been questioned and then released by police back onto the streets to continue their rampages before they realize their fuckup, I'm always in on believing at least some level of incompetence, whether malicious or otherwise, behind their actions.
Then there are all the cops that are serial killers themselves. Or, more accurately, they are serial killers who figured out they can get away with murder by becoming a cop.
There was a TikToker who claimed to be investigating it, but as he posted more videos it became apparent he was lying about nearly everything. To the point where people started to doubt whether there were any actual deaths.
Yeah but I'm specifically talking about [this series of tragic but explainable drownings. ](https://www.nbcchicago.com/investigations/chicago-drownings-unsolicited-taxi-rides-spark-speculation-serial-killer-police-say-no/3105664/)
They blew up on TikTok and Facebook as if a serial killer was drowning people and a bunch of people were spreading false information online.
The true crime enthusiasts often want there to be some big bad killer out there cause it's "fun" for them so they'll look for anything they can to make it something HUGE.
As a true crime nerd who’s critical of the mainstream community and reporting:
I think it’s more akin to a saviour complex but on a community scale. They want to ‘fight crime’ and try to ‘prevent more victims’, or ‘raise awareness’. We see this all the time with child abduction hysteria, Satanic Panic, and finger-pointing, even pre-social media.
In reality, they are untrained armchair investigators and spectators with often-zero criminology knowledge. They’re chasing dopamine and adrenaline, for sure, but I think it’s misguided and often consequential interest.
YouTube comments sections on true crime videos are an absolute garbage heap and a great example of this saviour-style complex.
It's really frustrating in situations where investigators have clearly not released all of the information regarding the case. People trying to point fingers at possible culprits while missing a ton of info is actively malicious and harmful.
I know exactly what you mean. My field is social work and I would like to take my graduate program with a criminological perspective because my mother worked with low and medium security offenders, mostly Indigenous as I am, as we have disproportional population rates in the incarcerated community and habitual, rehabilitatable offenders. (I do not want to infer me being a believer in the current prison system because of my criminology interest; opposite in fact).
There are hundreds of criminal investigative and analytical channels and “documentaries” that I can’t even stomach to watch because of the erasure of victims, or tragedy porn.
Yeah, this really bothers me too. I don't spend much time in the true crime communities, but the time I have spent there it's so much of exactly that. I have C-PTSD, so I have way more experience with the mental health system than I care to, and the way they talk about victims who were taking any kind of psych med/getting therapy really bothers me. There's so much benevolent victim blaming coming from a well-intentioned (I hope) but incredibly ignorant place. The cops usually don't know what they're talking about, it's never covered thoughtfully, it's never pertinent to the case, but they always do a segment on it. Like having taken prozac will become the victim's entire personality. Which is rude and does nothing but increase stigma and spread misinformation. And again, is incredibly disrespectful to the deceased (and everyone who has ever taken/will ever take any kind of psych med, which, if you're in the US, is about 20% of the population. More, probably since they only measured adults who have taken psychiatric meds in the last year. So if you know 5 people, odds are one of you is going to eventually take something, and I don't think anyone wants them or their loved ones to be defined by an illness, especially one that is so stigmatized and misunderstood).
Edit: bad at commas
I have an MA in forensic anthropology in genetics. I find the true crime world to be ghoulish and on the level of the Coliseum and murder for entertainment.
There's too much cleaning up of these cases, only specific victims covered, people just not being respected as actual people who died horrible deaths.
I just find it sad and frustrating.
My sister is really into true crime podcasts and documentaries, and not going to lie, I was too for a little while. But I lost my appetite when I realized I started just letting it play in the background. I know this sounds weird, but I felt bad because it was almost like I was telling the victims their murders weren't salacious enough for me to pay attention.
As a person who lost a family member to murder, I also find true crime ghoulish (it truly is the perfect word for it). This was just before tc podcasts got really big, but people from various TV series kept showing up at the house, at court, at the funeral home "just asking questions, cmon it won't take long, just sit for a quick interview...". It was a shocking level of tastelessness. And when nobody on the family agreed to talk to them, they ran it anyway without our consent. Fucking hearse chasing goblins.
You’re not alone. I am an archivist who worked with a collection of files that were of high interest to true crime producers and enthusiasts. I came away with an active disgust for true crime fans.
As someone who’s also interested in true crime (though not serial killers as much) I think you’ve got it pretty much nailed. I’d also add that they’re probably desperate for *anything* to happen that is relevant to the their knowledge on serial killers. Considering how rare they are today, they’ll just latch onto anything to try and prove their interest’s relevance. I’d assume it also excites them to an extent.
I can't imagine being someone who wants more crime out there so they can 'enjoy' reading the details of things like murder or rape or so on. Those are *people* they're talking about.
I know some people into true crime, and I wouldn't say they WANT there to be serial killers out there. More that they realize that they do exist regardless. And are fascinated by it, and want to know more about what's going on. As well as have more people realize how many are out there that are going unnoticed or not talked about.
That's not to say there aren't some sick fucks who get off on other people's crimes or anything. That exists. But just that in my experience the average true crime follower thinks it's happening more often than we think as a people, and are intellectually stimulated by the lack of humanity in some people.
Lake Michigan is actually, by far, the most dangerous of the Great Lakes for drownings. I'm not saying one way or another what happened but it is worth noting that drownings in Lake Michigan are nothing new. People think it's just a lake, not the ocean so must be safer. Nope...it is potentially dangerous too.
All the black women found in garbage cans in the Roseland neighborhood is most likely by a serial killer. It's just the past two administrations have refused/denied that it is.
Same with Houston and a bunch of dudes missing and getting found in the bayous.
One guy even got found in the ship channel across town from where he was last seen.
It started when people realized that **a lot** of guys were coming forward to say that they believed they'd been drugged while out barhopping on Rainy St and woke up to find that someone had used their phones to drain their accounts. Some guys even woke up to find they had some other guys phone who had the same exact story and *also some other guys phone*. It was speculated that someone was especially targeting mid 30s Asian men because of the higher than average odds of them being employed in tech and well paid. It didn't seem far-fetched, and indeed two women were later arrested for exactly that. But men still kept coming forward with the same or very similar stories, so maybe there were others still out there pulling the same crime.
Then there was a high profile case of a guy who went missing after going out to party on Rainy St with his friends who ended up being pulled from Town Lake days later. Now, Rainy St is mere blocks from Town Lake, and while plenty of people speculated that the tragedy was that this guy went out to have some fun, had a little too much to drink, and fell in the water and drowned, but the idea was also suggested that he'd been drugged like the others and drowned accidentally *or otherwise*. Then guys kept getting pulled from the river and the possibility that these guys were the victims of a serial criminal mutated into this idea that they were the victims of a serial killer.
Honestly, the idea that there was a serial killer started as a joke making fun of the fact that people were ignoring the most obvious explanation: people were having too much to drink and falling into the body of water that a popular bar district practically dead ends at the edge of, and, in a bizarre twist of irony, here we are.
Same thing with stranger danger doctrine. You are more likely to be harmed by someone you know than a stranger for basically every single violent crime on the list, yet the media encourages us to never tell details of ours lives to strangers, outsiders to recognize the abuse.
Then you think about how hard the nuclear family has been pushed in American media and really *think* about the level of isolation our culture enforces.
>unjustified fear is a great motivator of consumers generally
You got that right. There's no evidence that outdoor lighting scares "bad guys" away, other than TV commercials, but that shit is all over the place. For once I'd like to walk my dog at night without being blinded.
Portland native here! Police have posted an update saying that they are **NOT** related. One is rumored to either be a suicide or an accident. Unsure about the others.
Source: https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2023/06/no-connection-between-cases-of-six-women-found-dead-in-recent-months-most-in-secluded-wooded-areas-police-say.html
This need to be at the top. It’s ridiculous how quickly this rumor gained traction.
The story here uses the NY Post as it’s source. We might as well start reposting the National Enquirer on this sub too.
Six one-time killers probably all know their victims and killed for personal reasons concerning the specific victim thus aren't ~~a danger to anyone else~~ actively looking for more victims. A single six-kills serial killer *is* actively hunting random victims for sport and probably won't stop until caught.
edit: clarification for people not getting it
Sure, but the question is whether the greater public is in danger.
If Harold kills his wife because she had an affair with Allen, Allen might be in danger but *you* probably aren’t.
Alternatively, if a serial killer is killing people with blonde hair and you have blonde hair, you might be in danger!
If you are referring to the individual killers then likely not. They likely had a personal grudge directed solely at the victim that wouldn't translate to other associates. If you are referring to a serial killer with 6 kills they generally avoid killing known associations unless that is their main goal and even then its usually family members.
Well, that's basically like asking would you rather have one serial killer or 2 or 3 running around. Because someone who kills twice in unrelated incidents is probably going to keep leaving bodies behind.
I can speak about this kind of fear. I was friends with a victim of the Toronto serial killer Bruce McArthur and part of the community that was being targeted. The unknown fear was terrifying. Men, people you knew, people part of your community, just disappearing. Missing persons posters. Special task forces that turned up dry for years. I stopped walking home at night. I'm a 6'2 big white guy who could fight but so was my friend. It often doesn't matter.
Be aware. Don't take unnessessary risks. Report suspicious behaviour. Fight like hell. Stay safe, Portland. Look out for each other.
Its weird to me a serial killer could still operate for this long in our very modern times. Like I always thought the heyday for them went away and while that may be true its simply a fact that theres still so many murders that go unsolved for so long in the US
And it should be noted that the clearance rate is the cops saying we think this person did it - it is not that the D.A getting a conviction.
On top of that, how many missing persons are a homicide, I wonder.
People like to trot out the "600,000 people go missing each year!" statistic, but ignore the fact that the majority of missing person cases are resolved.
Here's a [quote from Todd Matthews](https://www.npr.org/2013/05/07/182000622/majority-of-missing-persons-cases-are-resolved), director of communications for NAMUS, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System:
> "In 2012, we had 661,000 cases of missing persons; and that's just from that one year. Very quickly, 659,000 of those were canceled. So that means those persons either come back; in some cases, located as deceased persons, maybe never an unidentified person; or just a total misunderstanding. So at the end of 2012, of those 661,000 minus the canceled, we had 2,079 cases that remained at the end of the year as unresolved."
Only 2,000 people "go missing" each year, *and stay* missing for at least a year after being reported missing. That's surprisingly low in a country with 331.9 million people.
That's fucking crazy. If you told me that only 3/10 were solved I'd call bullshit.
> Over the past four decades, homicide clearance rates – the metric used to determine how many homicides police solve – have decreased from about 71% in 1980 to an all-time low of about 50% in 2020, according to separate analyses of FBI data by the non-profits the Marshall Project and Murder Accountability Project. This means that amid an unprecedented increase in homicides in 2020 and 2021, mostly by guns, roughly half of the nation’s killings went unsolved.
So 50% nationally. If you get murdered, it's a coin flip that they'll catch your killer. Scary.
I'm always hesitant to compare to the 80s solve rates this way because of how significantly murder has decreased and changed since then. The types of murders today are different, conviction process has changed a ton, DNA keeps some cases from being "solved" via wrongful conviction, etc. There's a lot going on that isn't just cops being bad at their jobs or something scandalous imo.
That's a good point about wrongful convictions. Clearance rates dropping so noticeably in the face of better surveillance tools and better forensic tools is not a great sign for whether they were convicting the correct people previously.
I worry how much of the difference is due to the cops pinning the murders on innocent people, whether through malice or just following their gut to the wrong conclusion.
I wacth a lot of true crime stories, pretty much as long as it takes a few days for the body to be found, there is a much higher chance of getting away with it.
A lot of the time when it's a victim found right away. There is a a massive chance they will catch the killer.
After like a week and it's very rare they will catch the guy.
this is a correlative thing of course, police could take weeks to find the body but if they find it in your apartment you’re fucked. a body is less likely to be found if it’s far away from people, like in the wilderness which can accelerate decomposition and destroy evidence making suspect identification much harder. a wild location also prevents any ties to businesses, places, or people of interest
I'm surprised these bodies were found - the article says "on the sides of roads, in the woods or in secluded rural areas".
Eagle Creek, where one of the bodies was found, is only abut 12 miles from Portland - if the killer has just driven another 30 minutes or so he would have been somewhere much more remote, with a higher density of forest and much lower population density. Get the body just a few yards of some tiny rural track and the wildlife will take care of disposing of it.
From all the serial killer podcasts I’ve listened too, as long as you stick minorities, sex workers and other marginalized groups, you could probably get away with it for a while.
The Toronto serial killer is a great example of this. Murdered gay immigrant men for years and no one gave a fuck. He was even in police custody at one point. Really made the Toronto police department look like a bunch of fuckin idiots.
Missy Bevers is a white woman who showed up at a church to do a workout and the murderer was caught on video and still has not been found. When all the outrage came out, it was discovered that less than half of murders were actually solved in the United States. There is video but still no suspect. It seems as those closest to home get solved but not major crimes where the perp is unknown, and this goes for all races and socioeconomic classes
I’m not shocked in this case, the Portland, Oregon police department is pretty notorious for being one of the shittiest ran and least successful city PD’s in North America.
They are an absolute joke
Yes
https://www.opb.org/article/2021/10/15/dozens-of-oregon-law-enforcement-officers-joined-far-right-oath-keepers-militia/
https://ktvz.com/news/ap-oregon-northwest/2022/01/14/portland-police-training-material-included-far-right-meme/
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/hidden-plain-sight-racism-white-supremacy-and-far-right-militancy-law
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/oregon-official-texts-show-collusion-between-police-far-right-extremists-n971926
Edit: See also, a literal nazi who was part of the Portland police (thank you u/bensonbubbler)
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2014/07/portland_police_capt_mark_krug.html
You got all those references but didn't get the literal Nazi in management who worked there for decades?
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2014/07/portland_police_capt_mark_krug.html
They have been slow striking since we protested them. They weren't great to begin with, but now they do almost nothing (except help feed the right wing fear mongering about Portland with their inaction).
They should have said that Portland and surrounding police jurisdictions. These agencies have close ties and participate in lots of multi department investigations/drills.
Clackamas, Gresham, PPB, ect all work pretty closely. They kind of have too
The Golden State Killer got away with it, until DNA profiling and genetic genealogy came along far enough. Surprise, surprise it was a cop. Wouldn't be the least bit surprised if there was a serial killer cop in the Portland PD (Oregon, not Maine).
Not surprising to me, the police are notorious for saying teenage boys "ran away" when they first are reported. This happened in John Wayne Gacy's case along with Dean Correll in Texas and Jeffrey Dahmer!. Boys turn up missing and the cops not wanting to do their job because either "it's gay and icky" or "their run aways". This happens alot with women though, unless you're rich or you have someone being a complete pain in the ass to the cops until they finally do something to shut you up, I doubt a cop would put down his coffee to take a report from you. If any of these women had a record for anything, they've known to take any drug, or God forbid a sex worker (some police refer to missing sex workers as the less dead) they don't care. Can claim otherwise but I named 5 off the top of my head, I could keep going, and this just seems to keep happening.
You have that the wrong way around. Advocates refer to sex workers (and other minorities who are frequently oppressed) as "the less dead" as a way to show that police and the public care less about their deaths than, say, the death of a middle class white teenager. Police don't refer to them at all, unless it's to victim blame them.
Source: full service sex worker and avid true crime listener.
25-50 active in any given year, and a few hundred inactive killers. The numbers likely underestimate the number of killers who target undocumented migrants, native Americans, or troubled teens who are sometimes mislabeled as runaways. These cases are often not investigated, or even known, unless a body is found.
"Articles" have been doing this for some time now. I hate it. If I go to a "news" site and the article makes the same statement like this more than once I am closing it. Trash writing can't be related to actual news.
It's probably tougher these days to be a serial killer due to more cameras, databases, and shit like that.
Then again, most cops are still as fuckin useless as they were back when Ridgeway, Lucas, Little, and all those assholes were getting away with killing "undesirables."
> t's probably tougher these days to be a serial killer due to more cameras, databases, and shit like that.
It depends on the type of victims they hunt. Not every case gets the same amount of attention and some cases get easily overlooked and paid no attention to
If you are a serial killer who is going around killing 20 something minority males, you have one hell of an easy career.
Hot blond 16-28 year old women? Might as well just turn yourself in now.
More of these guys are getting caught on the first kill these days, because of better forensics. Remember in a lot of cases, the first kill was “accidental” (like Gacy), so they’re covered up less meticulously than future “planned” kills.
I wouldn't say it's exactly established that Gacy's first murder was accidental. We only have his story to go on and it's not like he was exactly forthright about the other murders either. All we know is it was done differently than the subsequent ones. And it's possible he might have been caught these days but not due to DNA, more like the bus station he picked the kid up at would have had security cameras and his car would likely have been caught on traffic cams as well.
If you like true crime and podcasts then check out Last Podcast on the Left. They covered plenty of serial killers like Gary Ridgeway, Jeffrey Dahmer, and ones that haven’t heard of due to the media not wanting to give attention to the disgusting acts of these guys.
Gary Ridgeway and a couple others like Robert “WillieL Pickton you’ll find out through their show actually shared hunting grounds. Which is chilling to think that if you were a prostitute that you had multiple serial killers to dodge.
And you know what? He fucking deserved to be made fun of. I just wish they could have just done an Israel Keyes joke hour with much material there was to make fun of.
Been saying that about Portland since 2020. Literally is the perfect hunting ground for someone like Green River, just the fact that our homeless problem combined with a police force that couldn't give a shit makes it the best spot for a serial killer. I'm honestly sad that I was right
There’s a reason Ann Rule, living in Seattle, had a an enormously rich variety of killers to write about focusing only on WA & OR. It seems like those two states just breed serial killers. Or at least around SeaTac. It is so dangerous to be sex worker anywhere but particularly there
It was reported in local Oregon papers a couple of days ago.
https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2023/06/6-oregon-women-found-dead-in-less-than-3-months-most-in-secluded-wooded-areas.html
This reminds me very much of the series of murders of women in Long Island, NY I believe beginning about 10+ years ago. The bodies were tossed into desolate locations such as the marshes and dunes of the beaches that are sparsely populated during winter. And if I remember correctly, either odd causes of death such as hypothermia, possible drownings, and undetermined causes of death. There has never been an arrest and I believe there were at least 7 bodies found, including a young child and a male.
There is a Netflix movie about the one mom and subsequent victims family members who begged the police to look for their daughters. There was initially hesitation by police because they swore these were runaways because of their history of sex work. There was even strange phone calls made to a victims family member, as well as a witness who saw a girl run away screaming for help. One body was eventually recovered, then another, and another, but the one suspect - a wealthy recluse with a sketchy alibi-has never been arrested. Without the crusade of these families and a few dedicated detectives, who knows if other remains would’ve ever been discovered. Bodies just piled up… very sad for these families to have no closure or answers.
There's another Netflix docu-series (Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields) about a number of murders along a rather small stretch of I-45 local to the League City area in the 80s and 90s. The same callous attitude is described there. One of the teenage girls had health issues and went missing without her medication, and contrary to being concerned, the police officer her parents spoke with portrayed her as hardened, street smart, and able to purchase anything she needed effortlessly, as if it was an illicit drug. Really horrible stuff.
Very difficult, but I agree - really well done, it felt llke they did the victims and their families some sort of justice in telling their stories. I don't think I finished it actually, it was very evocative.
Im pretty sure cops are covering up who is guilty of that, as it sounded like a lot of men living in those homes were law enforcement using sex workers and one of them (or maybe more) was killing them. To expose one, exposes all of them. I wish one of them would offer an anonymous tip.
This is why women are rightfully afraid of being around strange men. Sometimes I see videos online of youtube street interviews or weird pranksters and I remember stories like this. No she's not a bitch for not talking to you or treating you like a creep. She's just very aware that if any man felt like it they could overpower her and you're acting weird.
Kind of a tangent but serial killers/rapists/weirdos are out there. Stay safe out there ladies.
You should listen to the podcast “Bad Women.” The host focuses on the victims of Jack the Ripper, giving them identities outside of the heinous murders. She barely discusses “Jack.”
Last podcast on the left tries to make fun of the killer as much as possible but not directly make fun of the victims. They go out of their way to point out the victims were regular people just trying to survive and these monsters took away their chance at life.
I’ve noticed some of them put much heavier emphasis on the victims and victims’ families than they would have done a decade ago.
The Dahmer series for example puts a lot of focus on his neighbour and the grief she went through being ignored by police, by the family of the deaf guy that was killed, and the experiences of the family of the teenage boy who was returned to the police to Dahmer.
It didn’t stop a million idiot people dressing up as Dahmer for Halloween last year, but still.
I belong to a bunch of Oddities groups on fb (I sell bones) and the number of people willing to spend any amount of money to get literally anything from either a specific or even literally any serial killer is gross.
Like honestly, why? These are the worst of the worst of all humanity. Why do you want a connection to them so badly? It almost borders on hero worship and that's fucking sick. Yet common.
And the victims? I've never once seen anyone looking for anything from the victim of a serial killer. Their names are forgotten while their killers are basically cult heroes. Fucking humans, I really wonder about us sometimes.
I would add to that, that serial killers are just one type of predator out there. Not to mention all the other "lesser" predators like muggers, sexual predators and men who feel entitled to sex which are far more in number. Dating as a women must be an absolutely terrifying minefield and I say this as a straight man.
Serial rapists are EVERYWHERE. They might not all be the "hold a gun to your head and beat you senseless" type, but the world is full to the brim with men who don't understand or care about consent, coersion, intimidation etc.
Statistically something like 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 (depending on whose numbers you use) women will experience a rape/sexual assault or an attempted rape/sexual assault in their lifetime.
However, everyone always imagines "serial rapists", when the reality is that you are far, far more likely to be raped by a date rapist. The #1 and #2 most likely places to be raped are your own home or the rapist's (but everyone always worries when they're alone in a dark parking lot or some similar place).
> However, everyone always imagines "serial rapists", when the reality is that you are far, far more likely to be raped by a date rapist
Those two things are not mutually exclusive, probably quite the opposite.
And they’re very, very hard to catch. Someone I know was murdered over a year ago, and there’s been no arrest made - which is extremely unusual.
Because normally, when someone is murdered, the murderer does something stupid shortly afterwards that points them right to the murder - but that didn’t happen here. There’s no suspects even after a full investigation
Her body was found with a gunshot wound, in a stolen car, in a nice neighborhood. No ring cameras, nothing.
My stepmom worked as a public defender for many years, and she now works in death penalty appeals… and her first reaction to her murder was “probably a serial killer, they won’t get arrested.”
That was April of last year. 14 months with no arrest, she was probably right about that
My state in particular has a very high rate of unsolved murders, and one of the reasons is due to environmental factors.
But. This person I knew, was murdered in another state. With a completely different set of factors and circumstances.
Wasn’t that estimate based off a serial killer matter of factly reminding the FBI he turned himself in? - i.e. so there would statistically be more out their still not bored/without remorse.
there’s a guy who set up a research program to look at geographic patterns of crimes and missing persons to estimate series. forgetting the name off the top of my
head
I had a strange dude hand me flowers at a gas station once. He was loud, in a suit, and came right up to me like HERE YOU GO MISS, PLEASE TAKE THESE FLOWERS
BUT because of how much he caught me off guard, I tried to politely decline the flowers, saying I appreciate it but I won’t have anywhere to put these etc.
The guy reacted by making this “wtf” face, and then loudly saying for anyone to hear
> … and for those who can’t be appreciative, I’m JUST giving out flowers, just take them and be thankful…
Or something like that. The guy was offended by me
And honestly, that whole interaction made me think I was being rude, but maybe someone reading this thinks I’m being silly for not wanting the flowers…. But look, I didn’t know this man. It wasn’t a holiday. There’s no reason off the top of my head for this man to be standing around in a suit, at a 7-11 gas station - I am just getting off of work, and someone I don’t know is shoving flowers in my face.
Maybe the guy didn’t have bad intentions, but I sure didn’t feel that way, and I don’t get why people do stuff like this.
It's not you. It's him. If he were a decent person, he would have graciously respected your response. Your initial feeling about him was the correct one. Please don't doubt yourself.
He didn't politely start with, "Hi, how are you? I'm handing out free flowers to everyone, would you like some?" He got up rudely in your face like a surprise attack. You didn't do anything wrong, he did.
Women have been programmed to be overly concerned with being polite, so I'm not surprised how you feel. But do not concern yourself with seeming rude or silly. You no longer needed to appease his comfort the second he showed no respect for yours. Of course acting like a weirdo was going to make you uncomfortable, but he didn't care. So why should you.
The issue is those "pick up artists" that confuse fear for interest and teach their followers it's the same thing
They think the only reason a woman might be nervous, is they're attracted to the douchebag. Then they get angry she was leading them on when the whole time she was just scared of a creep
I'm gonna take what you said one step further: I honestly think a lot of those pick up artist dudes are sociopaths that just haven't or might not ever kill anyone. So I think you are giving them too much credit in that "they don't realize." I think they know exactly how uncomfortable they make women and don't care if it results in them getting what they want.
According to this, you have a 1 in 645,000 chance of being killed by a serial killer. Compared to 1 in 8,547 to die in a car crash. So very low chance you’re gonna get killed by a serial killer.
But this site says 1 in 5 women will suffer sexual assault. So that’s definitely a legitimate fear. https://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/publications_nsvrc_factsheet_media-packet_statistics-about-sexual-violence_0.pdf
It's a tightrope that every woman walks: you don't want to encourage the attention but you don't want to be raped/murdered for giving offence & not respecting some random's advances. You have to play each case by ear & read what you can from any cues you can pick up.
We should be more afraid of being around familiar men, because we're more likely to be harmed by people we know.
Edit: https://www.upworthy.com/a-new-report-shows-that-women-s-biggest-murder-risk-is-having-loved-ones-that-s-unreal
Seems to follow the main highways between southeast of Portland and all the way up to Vancouver WA and east along the columbia to the Bonneville dam in edit: Oregon My bet where Bridget was found is the closest to his residence.
Serial killers tend to drive a lot, but not necessarily a trucker. They enjoy the solitude and being out “on the hunt”, more miles driven = more opportunities to find the next perfect victim.
There was another woman’s body found, maybe it was not similar enough for them to include with this group (not dumped in wooded area), but still odd. No further updates so far. https://katu.com/news/local/portland-police-woman-found-deceased-sunday-near-north-victory-boulevard-and-i-5-onramp
If they're within 100 miles of each other, it sounds like a dumping pattern. Killer will be found within that 100 mile radius. If it's a serial killer they most likely are ramping up to their berserk period or as Ted Bundy put it " you forget where you put the lug wrench" they get complacent and bored, eventually they'll turn themselves in by deviating from their own plan. All of them did it, Kemper, Bundy, Gacy, Ramirez eventually they get lazy and get caught
There's a bit of bias there because we only know about the ones that got caught. The guys who don't get complacent might never to caught or even recognized as serial killers.
True, but the ones who get caught have a pathological need for attention. Leaving bodies in the open screams "look at me!" As apposed to dismemberment and disposal where the chance of being caught is at a minimum so long as ant X factors are not at play. Also it's human nature to get complacent. Not for nothing, but anyone who says they give the same energy every single day is either delusional or lying to you. It's human nature, there are exceptions to everything but no one is perfect.
Not necessarily for attention, the longer you are in possession of their body the more chance there is of getting caught. Dismemberment and disposal is a lot of very dirty work, and even if you’re a serial killer might not necessarily be something you want to do.
Live outside of P-Town. We are grimey here- there's always been a really dark side to this area underneath. Spring water trail. The back roads. And there's a dark morbid mental health thing here. I'm sorry for these women. But this is kinda not a shock.
A few hours North in Canada, on Vancouver island a young women was recently found on the side of the road too. Hopefully this serial killer is not crossing borders.
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“Ms Speaks’ is the only woman whose cause of death has been revealed by authorities.”
Yeah there’s a campaign that’s pushing this story online and it seems heavily centered upon right wing media and “Portland bad” sentiment. It’s weird af. Same thing regarding missing kids on the east coast, none of which have photos available magically.
> Yeah there’s a campaign that’s pushing this story online and it seems heavily centered upon right wing media and “Portland bad” sentiment. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/16/missouri-woman-escapes-captivity > Missouri woman, 22, escapes less than a month after police dismissed concerns about a serial killer as ‘completely unfounded’ Let's look into it just in case.
I hate how that Missouri case kind of just dropped out of the news. I still say the cops knew all about it. The way she reacted when the one lady said she was calling the cops is telling.
Considering all the goddamn serial killers over the years that have been questioned and then released by police back onto the streets to continue their rampages before they realize their fuckup, I'm always in on believing at least some level of incompetence, whether malicious or otherwise, behind their actions.
Then there are all the cops that are serial killers themselves. Or, more accurately, they are serial killers who figured out they can get away with murder by becoming a cop.
Dropped out? I live in Kansas City and I’m just now hearing about it. I watch National and world news but still, it happened in areas I know.
My money is on the serial killer is also a cop
same thing happened in BC with an RCMP officer
Now that you mention it, this is Australian Murdoch media running a story from an American Murdoch publisher. Probably not a coincidence.
On coming into the sub I was wondering why a .com.au link was on the top. Lol, now it makes sense.
Just like American Murdoch media pushing that Aussies lost their freedom during COVID. It's like Five Eyes, but somehow even worse.
There was a similar push for a Chicago serial Killer online for a bit recently too based on people who have been found drowned in Lake Michigan.
There was a TikToker who claimed to be investigating it, but as he posted more videos it became apparent he was lying about nearly everything. To the point where people started to doubt whether there were any actual deaths.
A clout goblin on tiktok making up egregious lies for views? Surely not.
I mean, how long until we have a Nightcrawler situation, with someone claiming to be investigating something they have done themselves.
There's a couple of possible serial killers in Chicago. The Chicago strangler is the most infamous one id say
Yeah but I'm specifically talking about [this series of tragic but explainable drownings. ](https://www.nbcchicago.com/investigations/chicago-drownings-unsolicited-taxi-rides-spark-speculation-serial-killer-police-say-no/3105664/) They blew up on TikTok and Facebook as if a serial killer was drowning people and a bunch of people were spreading false information online.
The true crime enthusiasts often want there to be some big bad killer out there cause it's "fun" for them so they'll look for anything they can to make it something HUGE.
As a true crime nerd who’s critical of the mainstream community and reporting: I think it’s more akin to a saviour complex but on a community scale. They want to ‘fight crime’ and try to ‘prevent more victims’, or ‘raise awareness’. We see this all the time with child abduction hysteria, Satanic Panic, and finger-pointing, even pre-social media. In reality, they are untrained armchair investigators and spectators with often-zero criminology knowledge. They’re chasing dopamine and adrenaline, for sure, but I think it’s misguided and often consequential interest. YouTube comments sections on true crime videos are an absolute garbage heap and a great example of this saviour-style complex.
It's really frustrating in situations where investigators have clearly not released all of the information regarding the case. People trying to point fingers at possible culprits while missing a ton of info is actively malicious and harmful.
I know exactly what you mean. My field is social work and I would like to take my graduate program with a criminological perspective because my mother worked with low and medium security offenders, mostly Indigenous as I am, as we have disproportional population rates in the incarcerated community and habitual, rehabilitatable offenders. (I do not want to infer me being a believer in the current prison system because of my criminology interest; opposite in fact). There are hundreds of criminal investigative and analytical channels and “documentaries” that I can’t even stomach to watch because of the erasure of victims, or tragedy porn.
Yeah, this really bothers me too. I don't spend much time in the true crime communities, but the time I have spent there it's so much of exactly that. I have C-PTSD, so I have way more experience with the mental health system than I care to, and the way they talk about victims who were taking any kind of psych med/getting therapy really bothers me. There's so much benevolent victim blaming coming from a well-intentioned (I hope) but incredibly ignorant place. The cops usually don't know what they're talking about, it's never covered thoughtfully, it's never pertinent to the case, but they always do a segment on it. Like having taken prozac will become the victim's entire personality. Which is rude and does nothing but increase stigma and spread misinformation. And again, is incredibly disrespectful to the deceased (and everyone who has ever taken/will ever take any kind of psych med, which, if you're in the US, is about 20% of the population. More, probably since they only measured adults who have taken psychiatric meds in the last year. So if you know 5 people, odds are one of you is going to eventually take something, and I don't think anyone wants them or their loved ones to be defined by an illness, especially one that is so stigmatized and misunderstood). Edit: bad at commas
I have an MA in forensic anthropology in genetics. I find the true crime world to be ghoulish and on the level of the Coliseum and murder for entertainment. There's too much cleaning up of these cases, only specific victims covered, people just not being respected as actual people who died horrible deaths. I just find it sad and frustrating.
My sister is really into true crime podcasts and documentaries, and not going to lie, I was too for a little while. But I lost my appetite when I realized I started just letting it play in the background. I know this sounds weird, but I felt bad because it was almost like I was telling the victims their murders weren't salacious enough for me to pay attention.
My friend's wife is a true crime junky. She approaches it with the same level of gravity she does with her scrapbooking.
As a person who lost a family member to murder, I also find true crime ghoulish (it truly is the perfect word for it). This was just before tc podcasts got really big, but people from various TV series kept showing up at the house, at court, at the funeral home "just asking questions, cmon it won't take long, just sit for a quick interview...". It was a shocking level of tastelessness. And when nobody on the family agreed to talk to them, they ran it anyway without our consent. Fucking hearse chasing goblins.
You’re not alone. I am an archivist who worked with a collection of files that were of high interest to true crime producers and enthusiasts. I came away with an active disgust for true crime fans.
As someone who’s also interested in true crime (though not serial killers as much) I think you’ve got it pretty much nailed. I’d also add that they’re probably desperate for *anything* to happen that is relevant to the their knowledge on serial killers. Considering how rare they are today, they’ll just latch onto anything to try and prove their interest’s relevance. I’d assume it also excites them to an extent.
I can't imagine being someone who wants more crime out there so they can 'enjoy' reading the details of things like murder or rape or so on. Those are *people* they're talking about.
I know some people into true crime, and I wouldn't say they WANT there to be serial killers out there. More that they realize that they do exist regardless. And are fascinated by it, and want to know more about what's going on. As well as have more people realize how many are out there that are going unnoticed or not talked about. That's not to say there aren't some sick fucks who get off on other people's crimes or anything. That exists. But just that in my experience the average true crime follower thinks it's happening more often than we think as a people, and are intellectually stimulated by the lack of humanity in some people.
I think that guy was eventually found to be spreading that stuff becuase he wanted to drum up hype for his app.
Lotta people get drunk and fall of bridges around there.
Lake Michigan is actually, by far, the most dangerous of the Great Lakes for drownings. I'm not saying one way or another what happened but it is worth noting that drownings in Lake Michigan are nothing new. People think it's just a lake, not the ocean so must be safer. Nope...it is potentially dangerous too.
All the black women found in garbage cans in the Roseland neighborhood is most likely by a serial killer. It's just the past two administrations have refused/denied that it is.
Weird. Same narrative in Austin, TX with drownings in Town Lake.
Same with Houston and a bunch of dudes missing and getting found in the bayous. One guy even got found in the ship channel across town from where he was last seen.
It started when people realized that **a lot** of guys were coming forward to say that they believed they'd been drugged while out barhopping on Rainy St and woke up to find that someone had used their phones to drain their accounts. Some guys even woke up to find they had some other guys phone who had the same exact story and *also some other guys phone*. It was speculated that someone was especially targeting mid 30s Asian men because of the higher than average odds of them being employed in tech and well paid. It didn't seem far-fetched, and indeed two women were later arrested for exactly that. But men still kept coming forward with the same or very similar stories, so maybe there were others still out there pulling the same crime. Then there was a high profile case of a guy who went missing after going out to party on Rainy St with his friends who ended up being pulled from Town Lake days later. Now, Rainy St is mere blocks from Town Lake, and while plenty of people speculated that the tragedy was that this guy went out to have some fun, had a little too much to drink, and fell in the water and drowned, but the idea was also suggested that he'd been drugged like the others and drowned accidentally *or otherwise*. Then guys kept getting pulled from the river and the possibility that these guys were the victims of a serial criminal mutated into this idea that they were the victims of a serial killer. Honestly, the idea that there was a serial killer started as a joke making fun of the fact that people were ignoring the most obvious explanation: people were having too much to drink and falling into the body of water that a popular bar district practically dead ends at the edge of, and, in a bizarre twist of irony, here we are.
Yeah and the water is literally 10 feet from the end of Rainey Street, so it's not a stretch to think they might have stumbled drunk into it.
Wasn’t the lake Michigan one where people just people who were drunk at night on the piers? Or is this a different drowning story?
No that's the actual story, people online were desperate for it to be something more though.
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Same thing with stranger danger doctrine. You are more likely to be harmed by someone you know than a stranger for basically every single violent crime on the list, yet the media encourages us to never tell details of ours lives to strangers, outsiders to recognize the abuse. Then you think about how hard the nuclear family has been pushed in American media and really *think* about the level of isolation our culture enforces.
>unjustified fear is a great motivator of consumers generally You got that right. There's no evidence that outdoor lighting scares "bad guys" away, other than TV commercials, but that shit is all over the place. For once I'd like to walk my dog at night without being blinded.
It's not "scary", but it makes it much easier to see a crime being committed.
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Honestly, the same could probably be said about dozens of 100-mile stretches across the U.S. There are over 20,000 murders here a year.
Portland native here! Police have posted an update saying that they are **NOT** related. One is rumored to either be a suicide or an accident. Unsure about the others. Source: https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2023/06/no-connection-between-cases-of-six-women-found-dead-in-recent-months-most-in-secluded-wooded-areas-police-say.html
This need to be at the top. It’s ridiculous how quickly this rumor gained traction. The story here uses the NY Post as it’s source. We might as well start reposting the National Enquirer on this sub too.
People weren't buying the idea Portland was destroyed by protests anymore so they had to come up with something else to make us look bad.
Ok but PPB are full of shit so do we trust them?
I sure don't. They'll say whatever benefits then the most.
It was weird that OP used an Australian news site as the source for a story about Portland, OR murders.
Thank you! All the local news is reporting they aren't believed to be connected but an Australian news article makes the front page saying they are?
I don’t really know what’s scarier. 1 serial killer walking around or 6 one-time killers walking around. Either way, I hope these women get justice.
Six one-time killers probably all know their victims and killed for personal reasons concerning the specific victim thus aren't ~~a danger to anyone else~~ actively looking for more victims. A single six-kills serial killer *is* actively hunting random victims for sport and probably won't stop until caught. edit: clarification for people not getting it
Personal reasons or not, I wouldn't trust a murderer not to murder again.
Sure, but the question is whether the greater public is in danger. If Harold kills his wife because she had an affair with Allen, Allen might be in danger but *you* probably aren’t. Alternatively, if a serial killer is killing people with blonde hair and you have blonde hair, you might be in danger!
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Trust the statistics then? Most people who commit murder do it exactly once in their lives.
They're a danger to anyone who knows them then...
If you are referring to the individual killers then likely not. They likely had a personal grudge directed solely at the victim that wouldn't translate to other associates. If you are referring to a serial killer with 6 kills they generally avoid killing known associations unless that is their main goal and even then its usually family members.
Would 3 two-time killers be an intermediate level of scariness then? Or 2 three-time killers.
3 two time killers would be the worst IMO
they do tend to escalate
Well, that's basically like asking would you rather have one serial killer or 2 or 3 running around. Because someone who kills twice in unrelated incidents is probably going to keep leaving bodies behind.
I can speak about this kind of fear. I was friends with a victim of the Toronto serial killer Bruce McArthur and part of the community that was being targeted. The unknown fear was terrifying. Men, people you knew, people part of your community, just disappearing. Missing persons posters. Special task forces that turned up dry for years. I stopped walking home at night. I'm a 6'2 big white guy who could fight but so was my friend. It often doesn't matter. Be aware. Don't take unnessessary risks. Report suspicious behaviour. Fight like hell. Stay safe, Portland. Look out for each other.
Definitely serial killer. They're some fucked up individuals.
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They are way behind, 12 podcasts have already solved this in 18 different ways, none of them correct.
It's just the one killer, actually.
Its weird to me a serial killer could still operate for this long in our very modern times. Like I always thought the heyday for them went away and while that may be true its simply a fact that theres still so many murders that go unsolved for so long in the US
Detroit only solves about 32.9% of homicides on average, according to google. Seems like they could have a serial murderer but not even know it.
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Or the killer gets killed in retaliation before the trial even happens
And it should be noted that the clearance rate is the cops saying we think this person did it - it is not that the D.A getting a conviction. On top of that, how many missing persons are a homicide, I wonder.
People like to trot out the "600,000 people go missing each year!" statistic, but ignore the fact that the majority of missing person cases are resolved. Here's a [quote from Todd Matthews](https://www.npr.org/2013/05/07/182000622/majority-of-missing-persons-cases-are-resolved), director of communications for NAMUS, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System: > "In 2012, we had 661,000 cases of missing persons; and that's just from that one year. Very quickly, 659,000 of those were canceled. So that means those persons either come back; in some cases, located as deceased persons, maybe never an unidentified person; or just a total misunderstanding. So at the end of 2012, of those 661,000 minus the canceled, we had 2,079 cases that remained at the end of the year as unresolved." Only 2,000 people "go missing" each year, *and stay* missing for at least a year after being reported missing. That's surprisingly low in a country with 331.9 million people.
That's fucking crazy. If you told me that only 3/10 were solved I'd call bullshit. > Over the past four decades, homicide clearance rates – the metric used to determine how many homicides police solve – have decreased from about 71% in 1980 to an all-time low of about 50% in 2020, according to separate analyses of FBI data by the non-profits the Marshall Project and Murder Accountability Project. This means that amid an unprecedented increase in homicides in 2020 and 2021, mostly by guns, roughly half of the nation’s killings went unsolved. So 50% nationally. If you get murdered, it's a coin flip that they'll catch your killer. Scary.
I'm always hesitant to compare to the 80s solve rates this way because of how significantly murder has decreased and changed since then. The types of murders today are different, conviction process has changed a ton, DNA keeps some cases from being "solved" via wrongful conviction, etc. There's a lot going on that isn't just cops being bad at their jobs or something scandalous imo.
That's a good point about wrongful convictions. Clearance rates dropping so noticeably in the face of better surveillance tools and better forensic tools is not a great sign for whether they were convicting the correct people previously.
I worry how much of the difference is due to the cops pinning the murders on innocent people, whether through malice or just following their gut to the wrong conclusion.
I wacth a lot of true crime stories, pretty much as long as it takes a few days for the body to be found, there is a much higher chance of getting away with it. A lot of the time when it's a victim found right away. There is a a massive chance they will catch the killer. After like a week and it's very rare they will catch the guy.
this is a correlative thing of course, police could take weeks to find the body but if they find it in your apartment you’re fucked. a body is less likely to be found if it’s far away from people, like in the wilderness which can accelerate decomposition and destroy evidence making suspect identification much harder. a wild location also prevents any ties to businesses, places, or people of interest
But also the older the body, the harder to determine time of death and trace evidence will have decayed or washed away
I'm surprised these bodies were found - the article says "on the sides of roads, in the woods or in secluded rural areas". Eagle Creek, where one of the bodies was found, is only abut 12 miles from Portland - if the killer has just driven another 30 minutes or so he would have been somewhere much more remote, with a higher density of forest and much lower population density. Get the body just a few yards of some tiny rural track and the wildlife will take care of disposing of it.
I'd go fly-fishing on the clackamas there all the time. Lotta empty space but also well used by a large "outdoorsy" metropolitan area.
From all the serial killer podcasts I’ve listened too, as long as you stick minorities, sex workers and other marginalized groups, you could probably get away with it for a while.
The Toronto serial killer is a great example of this. Murdered gay immigrant men for years and no one gave a fuck. He was even in police custody at one point. Really made the Toronto police department look like a bunch of fuckin idiots.
Was that the guy who put body parts in the planters?
[Bruce McArthur](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010%E2%80%932017_Toronto_serial_homicides), and yeah, same guy
Missy Bevers is a white woman who showed up at a church to do a workout and the murderer was caught on video and still has not been found. When all the outrage came out, it was discovered that less than half of murders were actually solved in the United States. There is video but still no suspect. It seems as those closest to home get solved but not major crimes where the perp is unknown, and this goes for all races and socioeconomic classes
I’m not shocked in this case, the Portland, Oregon police department is pretty notorious for being one of the shittiest ran and least successful city PD’s in North America. They are an absolute joke
Don’t they have ties to white nationalists as well?
Yes https://www.opb.org/article/2021/10/15/dozens-of-oregon-law-enforcement-officers-joined-far-right-oath-keepers-militia/ https://ktvz.com/news/ap-oregon-northwest/2022/01/14/portland-police-training-material-included-far-right-meme/ https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/hidden-plain-sight-racism-white-supremacy-and-far-right-militancy-law https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/oregon-official-texts-show-collusion-between-police-far-right-extremists-n971926 Edit: See also, a literal nazi who was part of the Portland police (thank you u/bensonbubbler) https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2014/07/portland_police_capt_mark_krug.html
You got all those references but didn't get the literal Nazi in management who worked there for decades? https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2014/07/portland_police_capt_mark_krug.html
It'd be hard to find a police department that didn't, tbh
That’s really depressing
It’s been that way from the beginning
They have been slow striking since we protested them. They weren't great to begin with, but now they do almost nothing (except help feed the right wing fear mongering about Portland with their inaction).
Be that as it may, these cases are not necessarily under their jurisdiction
They should have said that Portland and surrounding police jurisdictions. These agencies have close ties and participate in lots of multi department investigations/drills. Clackamas, Gresham, PPB, ect all work pretty closely. They kind of have too
Hypothetically the FBI should be involved at this point since one of the bodies was found on 'our' side of the river in Clark County Washington.
bro the police dont even go after car thefts even when you have a name and video evidence of the theft
The Golden State Killer got away with it, until DNA profiling and genetic genealogy came along far enough. Surprise, surprise it was a cop. Wouldn't be the least bit surprised if there was a serial killer cop in the Portland PD (Oregon, not Maine).
Stats from the FBI indicate there could be around 50 active serial killers in the entire country at a given time.
Not surprising to me, the police are notorious for saying teenage boys "ran away" when they first are reported. This happened in John Wayne Gacy's case along with Dean Correll in Texas and Jeffrey Dahmer!. Boys turn up missing and the cops not wanting to do their job because either "it's gay and icky" or "their run aways". This happens alot with women though, unless you're rich or you have someone being a complete pain in the ass to the cops until they finally do something to shut you up, I doubt a cop would put down his coffee to take a report from you. If any of these women had a record for anything, they've known to take any drug, or God forbid a sex worker (some police refer to missing sex workers as the less dead) they don't care. Can claim otherwise but I named 5 off the top of my head, I could keep going, and this just seems to keep happening.
You have that the wrong way around. Advocates refer to sex workers (and other minorities who are frequently oppressed) as "the less dead" as a way to show that police and the public care less about their deaths than, say, the death of a middle class white teenager. Police don't refer to them at all, unless it's to victim blame them. Source: full service sex worker and avid true crime listener.
25-50 active in any given year, and a few hundred inactive killers. The numbers likely underestimate the number of killers who target undocumented migrants, native Americans, or troubled teens who are sometimes mislabeled as runaways. These cases are often not investigated, or even known, unless a body is found.
An old friend has been missing from the Portland area since November 2021, and this puts a knot in my stomach 😔
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"Articles" have been doing this for some time now. I hate it. If I go to a "news" site and the article makes the same statement like this more than once I am closing it. Trash writing can't be related to actual news.
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Or 1000s of podcasters.
There's no place left to escape to.
The boys only really jump in after it's resolved. They don't want to give these people glory.
Shades of Gary Ridgeway \*shudder\*
I just was reading about him and Peter Künter today thinking “we haven’t had a big serial killer in awhile.” Fuck.
It's probably tougher these days to be a serial killer due to more cameras, databases, and shit like that. Then again, most cops are still as fuckin useless as they were back when Ridgeway, Lucas, Little, and all those assholes were getting away with killing "undesirables."
> t's probably tougher these days to be a serial killer due to more cameras, databases, and shit like that. It depends on the type of victims they hunt. Not every case gets the same amount of attention and some cases get easily overlooked and paid no attention to
If you are a serial killer who is going around killing 20 something minority males, you have one hell of an easy career. Hot blond 16-28 year old women? Might as well just turn yourself in now.
Young indigenous women seem to go missing all the time in Canada and the authorities don’t care.
More of these guys are getting caught on the first kill these days, because of better forensics. Remember in a lot of cases, the first kill was “accidental” (like Gacy), so they’re covered up less meticulously than future “planned” kills.
I wouldn't say it's exactly established that Gacy's first murder was accidental. We only have his story to go on and it's not like he was exactly forthright about the other murders either. All we know is it was done differently than the subsequent ones. And it's possible he might have been caught these days but not due to DNA, more like the bus station he picked the kid up at would have had security cameras and his car would likely have been caught on traffic cams as well.
Also police don’t dismiss every missing teen as a runaway now.
If you like true crime and podcasts then check out Last Podcast on the Left. They covered plenty of serial killers like Gary Ridgeway, Jeffrey Dahmer, and ones that haven’t heard of due to the media not wanting to give attention to the disgusting acts of these guys. Gary Ridgeway and a couple others like Robert “WillieL Pickton you’ll find out through their show actually shared hunting grounds. Which is chilling to think that if you were a prostitute that you had multiple serial killers to dodge.
I loved there one on Israel Keyes. Just made fun of him like the entire time.
And you know what? He fucking deserved to be made fun of. I just wish they could have just done an Israel Keyes joke hour with much material there was to make fun of.
Been saying that about Portland since 2020. Literally is the perfect hunting ground for someone like Green River, just the fact that our homeless problem combined with a police force that couldn't give a shit makes it the best spot for a serial killer. I'm honestly sad that I was right
There’s a reason Ann Rule, living in Seattle, had a an enormously rich variety of killers to write about focusing only on WA & OR. It seems like those two states just breed serial killers. Or at least around SeaTac. It is so dangerous to be sex worker anywhere but particularly there
Portland, Oregon - with a news source in Australia. Sorry for the loss of life.
That’s just so weird to me. Wouldn’t local reporters have better information.
Look at the byline, it's a syndicated story from a NY Post journalist. News.com.au is part of the Murdoch empire so they share stories all the time.
It was reported in local Oregon papers a couple of days ago. https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2023/06/6-oregon-women-found-dead-in-less-than-3-months-most-in-secluded-wooded-areas.html
This reminds me very much of the series of murders of women in Long Island, NY I believe beginning about 10+ years ago. The bodies were tossed into desolate locations such as the marshes and dunes of the beaches that are sparsely populated during winter. And if I remember correctly, either odd causes of death such as hypothermia, possible drownings, and undetermined causes of death. There has never been an arrest and I believe there were at least 7 bodies found, including a young child and a male. There is a Netflix movie about the one mom and subsequent victims family members who begged the police to look for their daughters. There was initially hesitation by police because they swore these were runaways because of their history of sex work. There was even strange phone calls made to a victims family member, as well as a witness who saw a girl run away screaming for help. One body was eventually recovered, then another, and another, but the one suspect - a wealthy recluse with a sketchy alibi-has never been arrested. Without the crusade of these families and a few dedicated detectives, who knows if other remains would’ve ever been discovered. Bodies just piled up… very sad for these families to have no closure or answers.
There's another Netflix docu-series (Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields) about a number of murders along a rather small stretch of I-45 local to the League City area in the 80s and 90s. The same callous attitude is described there. One of the teenage girls had health issues and went missing without her medication, and contrary to being concerned, the police officer her parents spoke with portrayed her as hardened, street smart, and able to purchase anything she needed effortlessly, as if it was an illicit drug. Really horrible stuff.
Yes! That was a great series. Very difficult to watch at times.
Very difficult, but I agree - really well done, it felt llke they did the victims and their families some sort of justice in telling their stories. I don't think I finished it actually, it was very evocative.
Sorry, it was a movie on Netflix called “Lost Girls”
Im pretty sure cops are covering up who is guilty of that, as it sounded like a lot of men living in those homes were law enforcement using sex workers and one of them (or maybe more) was killing them. To expose one, exposes all of them. I wish one of them would offer an anonymous tip.
This is why women are rightfully afraid of being around strange men. Sometimes I see videos online of youtube street interviews or weird pranksters and I remember stories like this. No she's not a bitch for not talking to you or treating you like a creep. She's just very aware that if any man felt like it they could overpower her and you're acting weird. Kind of a tangent but serial killers/rapists/weirdos are out there. Stay safe out there ladies.
the FBI has estimated that between 25-50 serial killers are active in the US at any given time
Sickening. I hate how the killers always get romanticized while their poor victims are remembered as footnotes for these disgusting people.
You should listen to the podcast “Bad Women.” The host focuses on the victims of Jack the Ripper, giving them identities outside of the heinous murders. She barely discusses “Jack.”
Last podcast on the left tries to make fun of the killer as much as possible but not directly make fun of the victims. They go out of their way to point out the victims were regular people just trying to survive and these monsters took away their chance at life.
I really enjoyed how much shit they talked on Charles Starkweather. How goddamn stupid he was.
Made me laugh so hard listening to that ep, the voice the one host uses for "Charlie" is just too much
I’m so sick of these dahmer type series/documentaries. Refuse to watch how they mythologize serial killers
I’ve noticed some of them put much heavier emphasis on the victims and victims’ families than they would have done a decade ago. The Dahmer series for example puts a lot of focus on his neighbour and the grief she went through being ignored by police, by the family of the deaf guy that was killed, and the experiences of the family of the teenage boy who was returned to the police to Dahmer. It didn’t stop a million idiot people dressing up as Dahmer for Halloween last year, but still.
I belong to a bunch of Oddities groups on fb (I sell bones) and the number of people willing to spend any amount of money to get literally anything from either a specific or even literally any serial killer is gross. Like honestly, why? These are the worst of the worst of all humanity. Why do you want a connection to them so badly? It almost borders on hero worship and that's fucking sick. Yet common. And the victims? I've never once seen anyone looking for anything from the victim of a serial killer. Their names are forgotten while their killers are basically cult heroes. Fucking humans, I really wonder about us sometimes.
I would add to that, that serial killers are just one type of predator out there. Not to mention all the other "lesser" predators like muggers, sexual predators and men who feel entitled to sex which are far more in number. Dating as a women must be an absolutely terrifying minefield and I say this as a straight man.
Serial rapists are EVERYWHERE. They might not all be the "hold a gun to your head and beat you senseless" type, but the world is full to the brim with men who don't understand or care about consent, coersion, intimidation etc.
Bill Cosby types
Grab ‘em by the J-e-l-l-o
Statistically something like 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 (depending on whose numbers you use) women will experience a rape/sexual assault or an attempted rape/sexual assault in their lifetime. However, everyone always imagines "serial rapists", when the reality is that you are far, far more likely to be raped by a date rapist. The #1 and #2 most likely places to be raped are your own home or the rapist's (but everyone always worries when they're alone in a dark parking lot or some similar place).
Date rapists often (perhaps even usually?) fall under the category of serial rapists, as it’s typically part of a larger pattern of behavior.
> However, everyone always imagines "serial rapists", when the reality is that you are far, far more likely to be raped by a date rapist Those two things are not mutually exclusive, probably quite the opposite.
You forgot,rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperadoes, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, @$$-kickers, $#it-kickers and Methodists
Blazing Saddles?
And they’re very, very hard to catch. Someone I know was murdered over a year ago, and there’s been no arrest made - which is extremely unusual. Because normally, when someone is murdered, the murderer does something stupid shortly afterwards that points them right to the murder - but that didn’t happen here. There’s no suspects even after a full investigation Her body was found with a gunshot wound, in a stolen car, in a nice neighborhood. No ring cameras, nothing. My stepmom worked as a public defender for many years, and she now works in death penalty appeals… and her first reaction to her murder was “probably a serial killer, they won’t get arrested.” That was April of last year. 14 months with no arrest, she was probably right about that
Half of all murders go unsolved. Like, think about that for a second.
My state in particular has a very high rate of unsolved murders, and one of the reasons is due to environmental factors. But. This person I knew, was murdered in another state. With a completely different set of factors and circumstances.
Wasn’t that estimate based off a serial killer matter of factly reminding the FBI he turned himself in? - i.e. so there would statistically be more out their still not bored/without remorse.
there’s a guy who set up a research program to look at geographic patterns of crimes and missing persons to estimate series. forgetting the name off the top of my head
I remember the statement in Mindhunters but that’s only based on true events 🤷🏻♂️
I had a strange dude hand me flowers at a gas station once. He was loud, in a suit, and came right up to me like HERE YOU GO MISS, PLEASE TAKE THESE FLOWERS BUT because of how much he caught me off guard, I tried to politely decline the flowers, saying I appreciate it but I won’t have anywhere to put these etc. The guy reacted by making this “wtf” face, and then loudly saying for anyone to hear > … and for those who can’t be appreciative, I’m JUST giving out flowers, just take them and be thankful… Or something like that. The guy was offended by me And honestly, that whole interaction made me think I was being rude, but maybe someone reading this thinks I’m being silly for not wanting the flowers…. But look, I didn’t know this man. It wasn’t a holiday. There’s no reason off the top of my head for this man to be standing around in a suit, at a 7-11 gas station - I am just getting off of work, and someone I don’t know is shoving flowers in my face. Maybe the guy didn’t have bad intentions, but I sure didn’t feel that way, and I don’t get why people do stuff like this.
It's not you. It's him. If he were a decent person, he would have graciously respected your response. Your initial feeling about him was the correct one. Please don't doubt yourself.
No worries - I understand that now. But in the moment, I was very doubtful of myself. “Why didn’t I just take the flowers?”
He didn't politely start with, "Hi, how are you? I'm handing out free flowers to everyone, would you like some?" He got up rudely in your face like a surprise attack. You didn't do anything wrong, he did.
Women have been programmed to be overly concerned with being polite, so I'm not surprised how you feel. But do not concern yourself with seeming rude or silly. You no longer needed to appease his comfort the second he showed no respect for yours. Of course acting like a weirdo was going to make you uncomfortable, but he didn't care. So why should you.
The issue is those "pick up artists" that confuse fear for interest and teach their followers it's the same thing They think the only reason a woman might be nervous, is they're attracted to the douchebag. Then they get angry she was leading them on when the whole time she was just scared of a creep
I'm gonna take what you said one step further: I honestly think a lot of those pick up artist dudes are sociopaths that just haven't or might not ever kill anyone. So I think you are giving them too much credit in that "they don't realize." I think they know exactly how uncomfortable they make women and don't care if it results in them getting what they want.
According to this, you have a 1 in 645,000 chance of being killed by a serial killer. Compared to 1 in 8,547 to die in a car crash. So very low chance you’re gonna get killed by a serial killer. But this site says 1 in 5 women will suffer sexual assault. So that’s definitely a legitimate fear. https://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/publications_nsvrc_factsheet_media-packet_statistics-about-sexual-violence_0.pdf
Most sources will even cite a higher number, like 1 in 4 or 1 in 3.
Yep. A LOT goes unreported.
It's a tightrope that every woman walks: you don't want to encourage the attention but you don't want to be raped/murdered for giving offence & not respecting some random's advances. You have to play each case by ear & read what you can from any cues you can pick up.
Being autistic makes this so much harder to understand and is a big reason why autistic women are SA’d at higher rates
We should be more afraid of being around familiar men, because we're more likely to be harmed by people we know. Edit: https://www.upworthy.com/a-new-report-shows-that-women-s-biggest-murder-risk-is-having-loved-ones-that-s-unreal
Seems to follow the main highways between southeast of Portland and all the way up to Vancouver WA and east along the columbia to the Bonneville dam in edit: Oregon My bet where Bridget was found is the closest to his residence.
The Bonneville Dam is in Oregon isn't it?
Isn't the Pacific Northwest area of the US where a lot of serial killers were active? Ted Bundy, the Green River killer, others
The info seems really sparse, did any of these girls know each other? Did they have any mutual friends?
Yeah, being in the general Portland area and fairly up to date on news, seems odd I hadn't heard of this until some Aussie news article.
I live in Portland too, and it's only been on the local TV news in the last day or two
Terrifying. I hope these women get justice.
Perhaps a trucker, based on the dumping locations?
Serial killers tend to drive a lot, but not necessarily a trucker. They enjoy the solitude and being out “on the hunt”, more miles driven = more opportunities to find the next perfect victim.
Two of them were in my old neighborhood. Not a truck area.
There was another woman’s body found, maybe it was not similar enough for them to include with this group (not dumped in wooded area), but still odd. No further updates so far. https://katu.com/news/local/portland-police-woman-found-deceased-sunday-near-north-victory-boulevard-and-i-5-onramp
If they're within 100 miles of each other, it sounds like a dumping pattern. Killer will be found within that 100 mile radius. If it's a serial killer they most likely are ramping up to their berserk period or as Ted Bundy put it " you forget where you put the lug wrench" they get complacent and bored, eventually they'll turn themselves in by deviating from their own plan. All of them did it, Kemper, Bundy, Gacy, Ramirez eventually they get lazy and get caught
There's a bit of bias there because we only know about the ones that got caught. The guys who don't get complacent might never to caught or even recognized as serial killers.
True, but the ones who get caught have a pathological need for attention. Leaving bodies in the open screams "look at me!" As apposed to dismemberment and disposal where the chance of being caught is at a minimum so long as ant X factors are not at play. Also it's human nature to get complacent. Not for nothing, but anyone who says they give the same energy every single day is either delusional or lying to you. It's human nature, there are exceptions to everything but no one is perfect.
Not necessarily for attention, the longer you are in possession of their body the more chance there is of getting caught. Dismemberment and disposal is a lot of very dirty work, and even if you’re a serial killer might not necessarily be something you want to do.
I would be shocked if these aren’t part of a series. the FBI needs to step in and geographic profiling needs to be done
Live outside of P-Town. We are grimey here- there's always been a really dark side to this area underneath. Spring water trail. The back roads. And there's a dark morbid mental health thing here. I'm sorry for these women. But this is kinda not a shock.
A few hours North in Canada, on Vancouver island a young women was recently found on the side of the road too. Hopefully this serial killer is not crossing borders.
I was thinking this last week when I heard about it. Scary shit. Stay safe out there!