THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 6, 1996 TAG: 9602060278
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
Police are looking for two men they want to talk to about a recent homicide believed to be the latest of 11 serial killings.
On Monday, police began distributing composite drawings of the men. One of them is believed to be the last person seen with the victim, Jesse J. Spencer Jr., police said. The second man was seen driving a pickup on Jolliff Road just before a resident found Spencer's body Jan. 27.
Police spokeswoman Elizabeth Jones emphasized that detectives only want to speak with the men, and that they are not considered suspects.
Also on Monday, police said Spencer's body was dumped about 12 hours after he was last seen alive. That's significant because it's a departure from a pattern developed in recent cases.
In three of the past four cases, not including Spencer, the killer hung on to each body for days before dumping it. Police know that because the bodies were dumped in conspicuous places and were quickly found and reported, but the corpses showed several days' decomposition. In the fourth case, police aren't sure when the body was dumped.
Police believe the killer was taunting them by dumping the recent victims in obvious places. In three of the past four cases, police missed the killer by less than 30 minutes.
The 10th victim, for example, was dumped near a cul-de-sac May 14 just 10 or 15 minutes after a police car drove away.
Since the summer of 1987, someone has killed 10 transients, drifters, hustlers and homosexuals and dumped their bodies mainly in Chesapeake, but also in Suffolk and Isle of Wight. Spencer is believed to be the most recent victim.
Eight of the 10 were strangled; the other two were too decomposed for investigators to determine a cause of death. Police have not said how Spencer died.
Spencer was dumped nude, as all but one have been, in plain view of nearby homeowners.
Police said Monday that Spencer was last seen leaving Perry's Lounge on Church Street in Norfolk just after midnight Jan. 27 with a man pictured in a composite drawing. Jones described the man seen with Spencer as a dark-skinned black male, 6-foot-2 and about 220 to 250 pounds, who wore a diamond cluster ring. He had curly black hair, long in the back and short on the sides and top.
The man drove a shiny, clean, maroon sport-utility truck with silver mag rims.
The second person police are looking for is described as an olive-skinned man with black curly hair cut short, with a thick, dark mustache and thick, bushy eyebrows. He was seen driving a red pickup with a red camper shell around the time the body was discovered.
Police are asking anyone with information about either man, or about Spencer, to call 487-1234. Police are offering a cash reward for information that leads to the person responsible for the crimes. ILLUSTRATION: Police are looking for two men to talk to about a slaying in
January.
KEYWORDS: SERIAL KILLINGS SERIAL KILLER HOMOSEXUALS by CNB