ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, October 7, 1996 TAG: 9610070005
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE
SOURCE: SONJA BARISIC ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUTHORITIES IN Southeastern Virginia now have a description of a man they believe is responsible for 11 unsolved killings dating to 1987.
The bodies - at least 11, and all of them men - began turning up in 1987, dumped in streets or ditches in southeastern Virginia.
Many of the victims were gay, nearly all were drifters or transients, and some were hustlers. Nine were strangled. The others were too decomposed to determine how they died.
Police say all of them died at the hands of the same man, a cunning killer who so far has eluded them. But finally, the predator may have made a costly mistake - allowing a victim to escape and provide police a detailed description, right down to his tattooed right arm and chest.
A man - whom police have not identified - said he was walking alone along a street in Norfolk when a stranger pulled up in a van. The man accepted an invitation to ride, police say.
The driver told his passenger he needed to take a detour, and pulled the van onto a dark, remote lane in Chesapeake. The driver tried to force the man to have sex with him in the van, a fight ensued, and the would-be victim fled. The van sped away.
The man told police his attacker was a white man in his 30s, with a Northern accent and tattoos of an eagle on his chest and a snake curled around a dagger on his right forearm.
Chesapeake police spokeswoman Elizabeth Jones said there were parallels between last month's attack and the serial slayings, but police weren't jumping to conclusions that their witness was assaulted by the serial killer.
Police also were trying to determine whether a man slain this summer may be the serial killer's 12th victim, Jones said.
``We hesitate to link it until we're sure that it's related,'' she said. ``We don't want to instill any type of fear more than necessary in saying that there's another body.''
The nude body of Andrew D. Smith, 38, of Portsmouth was found July 22 on the grassy shoulder of a road in Chesapeake. Investigators have declined to release the cause of death.
The detective leading the investigation of the serial killings has declined all requests for interviews, Jones said.
Police think the killings started in July 1987 with the slaying of an 18-year-old Norfolk man. The last confirmed victim was found in January.
Nearly all of the victims were last seen in or near gay bars in Norfolk or Portsmouth, Jones said. But police think a stronger link among the cases is the fact that the victims were transients, known to keep late hours and unpredictable schedules.
``A lot of people have been calling them the `gay serial killings,''' Jones said. ``That's really been blown out of proportion.''
Many of the victims were not viewed as respectable but were ``the kind of people who will do anything for a dollar,'' said Craig Narron, who has been covering the killings for Our Own Community Press, a gay monthly newspaper in Norfolk.
``There's obviously some reason he's picking on men,'' Narron said.
Jones declined to say whether police think the serial killer is gay or hates gay men.
After the 10th body was found, in May 1995, police acknowledged for the first time that they thought the killings were the work of one man.
They have received help from the state police and the FBI.
A psychological profile portrayed the killer as being organized, intelligent, outgoing and attractive. He uses good verbal skills to take control of his victims.
He probably also has an active interest in the investigation and reads about it in the newspapers, said Larry McCann, a state police special agent in Richmond who helped developed the profile.
Agents created the profile by studying the details of the crimes and developing a list of probable characteristics of the person who committed them, said McCann, who specializes in tracking serial killers.
Any suspects will be compared with the profile to determine whether they fit the picture, McCann said.
He said not all details of the profile have been made public, for investigative reasons. The profile is fine-tuned with each successive killing.
Police are frustrated that they haven't been able to catch the killer, McCann said. But time may be on their side.
``The longer it goes,'' he said, ``the more possibility there is that he's going to make an error.''
The address to send information to police is: Chesapeake Police Department, P.O. Box 16291, Chesapeake 23328. Police also have set up a Serial Killer Tip Hot Line, (757) 436-8900.
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