This murder is the lead that catches a serial killer.
On Jan 26, 1988, 911 gets a call of a fire in an apartment building. The smoke is concentrated in one apartment. The fire was set with an accelerant in that apartment where a man is dead. He was stabbed multiple times. The victim is 31 year old Victor Woods, a bike shop employee.
Joe Kenda Tip #3: Concealment fires are meant to destroy evidence that would lead to the killer. So something in that scene or on that body will reveal the killer.
The smoke alarm is disabled, so the killer wanted to destroy the entire building. They didn’t care who they killed as long as this entire room was destroyed. That makes him incredibly dangerous.
Joe Kenda Tip #4: During stabbings you get what is called “cast off bleeding”. The first blow produces blood. The second blow disperses it. Every time you pull the knife back it creates a streak of blood on the ceiling. If you count the blood streaks on the ceiling and add one, you have the number of stab wounds or pretty darned close.
The murder weapon is a large butcher’s knife found in the living room next to chair. It is soaked in blood. The knife block in the kitchen shows a missing butchers knife, so he was stabbed with his own knife. Murder was probably not planned because the killer didn’t bring a weapon. He used what was handy.
Joe Kenda Tip #5: During stabbings, the handle becomes slick with blood and the killer’s hand slips, cutting himself on the blade. If you look for ER cases where someone came in with cuts on their hands, you may have your killer.
In the sink are athletic socks that are blood soaked. The killer is hurt. That blood belongs to the killer. So they send the bloody socks to the lab.
There is no forced entry. The killer and victim probably know each other.
Police talk to the woman who called 911. She’s a 25 year old pharmacist who lives above Victor Woods. At 2:15 am she heard a loud scream and a woman yelling, “Don’t do that!” There were sounds of a struggle then quiet. She looked outside and saw a Trans Am with stripes.
A second witness comes forward, an athlete training at the nearby Olympic facility. She was injured and having trouble sleeping. So she got up and went for a soda outside. That Trans Am took off peeling out of the parking lot just as she saw smoke coming from Woods’ apartment.
Police speak to Victor’s coworkers. He was having run-ins with a coworker at the bike shop. When they talk to the coworker, he says he worked there first but Victor was better than him at repairing bikes. So he was worried he’d be fired. The coworker takes a polygraph. He fails. Then he gives an alibi. He’s part of a pool league and was there all night.
Police learn that after work that day, Victor went to the Yukon Tavern for happy hour. He is a regular. But once he gets drunk, he is obnoxious. That particular night he is cut off because he’s gotten too obnoxious. Then a young guy, very handsome like a movie star, approaches Victor and they leave together at 1:30 am. After they left, the bartender heard a car start. A muscle car with some throat.
The bloody socks give them the DNA of the killer. It doesn’t match anyone in the database.
Joe Kenda Tip #6: VICAP, Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, is a program where every police department in the US can enter information about a crime and compare it to other crimes in other states. It should be one of the first places you check for violent crimes with distinctive signatures.
Police enter the crime into VICAP and find no similar crimes.
Forty miles south of Colorado Springs on Feb 8, 1988, eight days after Victor’s murder, a man in a Camaro walks into the lobby of a small hotel in Pueblo, Colorado with a gun. He points the gun at the clerk and attempts to rob her. A security guard enters the lobby, surprised. The killer disarms him then shoots him in the face. Then he shoots the clerk and leaves, driving away in the Camaro. Two murders in two minutes.
According to witnesses, this same killer robbed the exact same hotel a month earlier in January. They described him as an attractive white male in his thirties. This time, however, someone calls in a tip to Crime Stoppers. They overheard Ronald Lee White in a bar talking about “hitting” the hotel.
Ronald Lee White has an extensive criminal record and is currently living in Colorado Springs. So Pueblo Police have Colorado Springs police arrest him and they take him into custody. When Lt Kenda gets the bulletin, he wonders if this is the guy. So he shows photo to witnesses. “Looks like the guy.” Not admissible in court. He needs a confession.
Kenda had Pueblo police bring White up for questioning. He looks at his hand. Finally, White confesses. It was a chance encounter. Victor needed a ride home because he was drunk and said something to piss off White. So White killed him.
White admits to shooting the hotel clerk in Pueblo and his roommate three years earlier. He’s an avid Star Trek fan. His roommate tried changing the channel when Star Trek was on, so he shot him in the face.
Ronald Lee White is sentenced to life without parole. He claims to have killed 15 other people.
Bibliography
Homicide Hunter, Season 1 Episode 6: Chance Encounter, air date: Nov 28, 2011.
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