According to the FBI, as many as 50 serial killers are currently active in the United States. It's hard to say if the following 10 entries are among them, as they have never been identified.
Sure, police have strong suspicions in some cases. It is even possible that one or more of these cases will be closed by the end of 2017. However, it looks like these 10 serial killers are at large and roaming the streets of America.
10 Jeff Davis 8
Photo credit: Rolling Stone
When in a small town with 10.000 inhabitants within a period of five years eight murder victims were found in the same area, it is normal that a serial killer is at work. Here's how it happened in Jennings, Louisiana. Between 2005 and 2009, eight women were murdered in swamps and ponds around the city.
The victims had a lot in common. They lived in the same area and all had criminal records, mainly for prostitution. Most of them died of asphyxiation. Signs point to the work of a serial killer, but it's been over a decade without a solid suspect.
This has led to alleged misconduct on behalf of local law enforcement agencies. Investigative reporter Ethan Brown wrote a book on the subject, claiming Jennings police officers had sex with some victims. Their investigation was tainted because evidence was mishandled and people were fired after they tried to speak out. Brown believes evidence doesn't point to killer at fault, but a cover-up.
Brown's biggest revelation concerns the Boudreaux Inn, a seedy motel where women would receive customers. The reporter noted that one of the co-owners was a field representative of Louisiana Congressman Charles Boustany. Local claimed to witness congressman visiting motel with multiple victims.
This still begs the question: Who killed the Jeff Davis 8? Was it the work of a serial killer evading justice thanks to an incompetent or corrupt task force? Or have local police officers murdered up to eight women to protect those in power?
9 The Child Killer in Oakland County
In 1976, Oakland County, Michigan, had a child killer on its hands. Four children, two boys and two girls, murdered within one year. They were all kidnapped and held captive for several days before their bodies were carefully found in various locations.
A task force led by Michigan State Police investigated the murders. They had several clues: a composite sketch, a profile from witness descriptions and a car model (blue AMC Gremlin). Police reviewed thousands of tips and made dozens of arrests on uncharged charges, but failed to arrest the Oakland County Child Killer (OCCK).
There were several intriguing suspects. One was Chris Busch, son of a General Motors executive. He was suspected of several sex crimes involving children and committed suicide in 1978. This might explain why OCCK never killed again.
Another suspect came forward with a letter to the psychiatrist and member of Task Force Dr. Bruce Danto. The author identified himself as Allen and said his roommate Frank was the killer. Frank was angry at Vietnam and wanted the rich to suffer. To all should Dr. Meet Danto in a bar. But he never showed up and the police never heard from him again.
For a time, police considered notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy a possible murderer.
In 2007, investigators announced that Ted Lamborgine was their prime suspect in the crimes. He was given life in prison for several sexual offenses involving children dating back to the 1970s. He also declined a reduced penalty as a substitute for a polygraph test in relation to OCCK.
8 The Bear Creek Killer
Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, New Hampshire, was the site of two gruesome discoveries that took place for 15 years. In 1985, the remains of a woman in her twenties and a child were found in a barrel. In 2000, police searching the area again found a barrel with the bodies of two girls.
DNA profiling revealed that the wife and two of the children were maternal relatives. They were all killed between 1977 and 1985. The skeleton's remains have been used for reconstructions several times since their discovery, but the victims are still unidentified.
Although the crimes are nearly four decades old, police announced in early 2017 they had a very strong suspect in the Bear Brook murders. His name was Robert Evans and he was the biological father of the girl, who was not related to the other victims. Although there is no evidence definitively tying him to the barrel murders, Evans died in prison in 2010 while serving time for killing and dismembering his wife, Eunsoon Jun.
In addition, police suspected Evans in 1981 when his then-girlfriend Denise Beaudin disappeared and was likely murdered, claiming he was actually a serial killer. They believe he also murdered his daughter's mother. For now, police are focused on identifying the barrel victims rather than definitively proving Evan's guilt.
7 The Colonial Parkway Killer
Photo Credit: The Virginian Pilot
In the late 1980s, Virginia's Colonial Parkway served as a hunting ground for a killer who targeted couples. The Colonial Parkway Killer murdered at least six people between 1986 and 1989. Two other people have disappeared in the area and are presumed dead, but their bodies have never been recovered.
Despite the murders 30 years ago, the most notable developments occurred in the last decade. In 2010, the victims' families hired retired homicide detective Steve Spingola to investigate the case.He felt that the murders were not necessarily the actions of a murderer, especially when it came to the first couple. Unlike the others, these were two slightly older women who appeared to be bound and strangled.
In 2009, the case gained new national attention when it was revealed that dozens of crime scene photos were used to teach an FBI photography class and subsequently published online. Although the case was never closed, the FBI announced it would provide new resources to solve the crimes and test all original evidence for DNA using modern technology.
So far they have two new leads. They think the killer could be a cop, a ranger or someone pretending to be one of them. Authorities also found similarities between the Parkway killings and the 2009 murder of a couple in the Jefferson National Forest wilderness.
6 The way 8 Killer
On Route 8 south of Torrington, Connecticut, there is a remote wooded area that has served as a dumping ground for one or more murderers since the late 1980s. Between 1988 and 2004, four young women were murdered there, and they had one thing in common: They were all from Waterbury.
Oddly enough, investigators don't have just one reasonable suspect in connection with the murders. They have three. All are suspected serial killers and convicted murderers who are already in prison on other charges.
The first is Richard W. Rogers. He is already incarcerated for two other murders and allegedly killed Jack Franklin and dumped his body parts throughout the region. Although authorities considered him a suspect, Rogers targeted gay men and dismembered them.
Another suspect is Steve Hayes. He is in prison for the home invasion and murder of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters. In a letter, he confessed to 17 murders throughout New England, possibly including Waterbury. However, authorities consider Hayes a pathological liar, possibly a serial confessor, so his allegations are taken with a grain of salt.
The best lead may be William Devin Howell. He is currently in jail for a murder and under investigation for seven other victims whose bodies were dumped behind a shopping center in New Britain, Connecticut. Authorities believe he may be responsible for other murders.
5 The Hartford Killer
Photo credit: Hartford Courant
In 1991, Carla Terry was strangled to death. In 1998, Alfred Swinton was convicted of her murder. He is believed to have been responsible for at least four other murders in the Hartford area between 1987 and 1991. In 2017, Swinton was released from prison after his conviction was overturned due to faulty evidence.
Swinton was originally charged with Terry's murder in 1991, but there was insufficient evidence to establish probable cause. Seven years later, he was convicted primarily on the testimony of an expert witness who claimed bite marks on the victim's breasts matched Swinton's. In 2017, the Innocence Project showed that DNA from saliva left behind from bite marks and from the victim's fingernail scrapings did not belong to Swinton.
Despite his release, prosecutors made it clear Swinton has not been exonerated and is preparing for a new trial. The prosecutor also stated that Swinton remains a suspect in "a number of similar homicides".
If Swinton turns out to be innocent, police could be looking at another serial killer with a much higher body count. In the early 1990s, a task force led by state police investigated as many as 19 unsolved homicides within the state, including the Hartford killings. All victims were young women who had been strangled or stabbed to death.
4 Indian Creek Trail Killer
While the public's obsession is mostly focused on notorious serial killers of the past few decades, we shouldn't think of this as a problem of the past. There may be a crazed serial killer roaming the trails of Kansas City, Missouri, as we speak.
Since August 2016, four men have been killed while exploring the city's popular hiking trails, particularly the Indian Creek Trail. All four victims were elderly white men between 54 and 67 years old. Three of them were walking their dogs.
Police have been reluctant to call the killings the work of a serial killer, but have noted that all the murders have "obvious similarities". They also called on the FBI to provide their expertise on behavioral science. A retired FBI agent from the Kansas City division speculated that agents were mainly looking for connections between the four murders.
A fifth body was found on Memorial Day 2017 by a search party looking for a missing 18-year-old woman. The victim, a 31-year-old man, was found off the Trolley Track Trail, a few miles north of the previous crime scenes. Investigators have so far confirmed unequivocally that the latest death is unrelated to the earlier murders.
3 Killer I-65
In 1987, 41-year-old Vicki Heath was attacked while working as a night clerk at a Super 8 motel in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. After being sexually assaulted and shot, her body was left in the dumpster.
For more than two decades, investigators believed Heath's murder was an isolated act of violence. As recently as 2010, DNA evidence linked her attacker to two other 1989 murders that took place in Indiana. Both victims also worked as night clerks at Days Inn motels.
Another woman was attacked a year later, but she managed to escape and describe her attacker.Unfortunately it has been over 25 years and he still has not been identified.
Police suspect the killer may be responsible for other murders, but they have no solid leads so far. Because he appeared to be traveling via I-65 and staying in cheap motels, investigators believed he was a traveling salesman or truck driver.
2 The Scherer Murders
New evidence could potentially lead to the arrest of a serial killer responsible for at least three murders decades ago. It's been nearly 20 years since an unknown assailant attacked Sherri Scherer in her Portageville, Missouri, home and shot and killed her and her 12-year-old daughter, Megan.
Just hours later, the murder weapon was used in a shooting in Dyer County, Tennessee. Although police received a composite sketch from witnesses, the trail went cold.
Then, in 2006, the killer's DNA was matched to a 1990 rape and murder in Greenville, South Carolina. Police always suspected her killer had other victims, but this case provided no new clues.
In early 2017, his DNA was finally linked to a 1997 rape in Memphis, except this time the victim lived. Investigators had looked at the old file and obtained another sketch that looked like their previous one, and found information about the trick and process the killer used to control his victims.
This is a recent track that was published in May 2017. Portageville investigators have yet to interview Memphis victim. As for the significant delay, the DNA match took so long because the rape kit in the Memphis case was part of a massive overhang that was forgotten about until 2013.
1 Chillicothe murderer
Photo credit: NBC News
This is another case with a unique twist. This time, the victim killed the attacker, and police then realized that a notorious serial killer may be in their hands.
It all started in July 2015, when an Oregon man named Neal Falls arranged online for an escort in West Virginia. When he arrived at the woman's home, Falls subdued her with a gun and tried to strangle her. During the fight, the prostitute picked up his gun and shot Falls.
Upon examining his car, police found a "kill kit" – knives, handcuffs, shovels, cleaning supplies, axes, etc. At that moment, investigators realized this probably wasn't Falls' first rodeo. The attacker had a list of names and numbers of six other women. However, all were later found to be alive, leading police to speculate that they were potential future victims.
Now it was time for investigators to look into the past of Falls. Police already believe he is responsible for the deaths of 10 women in several states. At the time Falls was working at Hoover Dam, four prostitutes were murdered in the Las Vegas area.
In addition, an Ohio task force was assembled to determine if Falls was responsible for as many as six homicides in the small town of Chillicothe between 2014 and 2015. Four women were murdered and two others disappeared.
They all had a similar profile. Officially, none of the cases are connected, but investigators strongly believe that most or all of them were the work of the same killer. Whether this turns out to be Neal Falls, only time will tell.