Post by Helen Dagner on May 22, 2012 15:37:06 GMT -5
~Re-post~Hi Helen--I pieced together a map with print outs from Google and have been staring at it. The one big thing that jumps out is that the killer/body dropper had to have known Oakland County well. The other thought that I had was looking at this thing and picturing John drawing those maps in the Alpena Big Boy. No way someone could just pull that stuff out of their ass. Hell, I lived in Oakland County and I couldn't have told you how to get to most of these spots--certainly not off the top of my head. That is just creepy.
In looking at the map, all of the abductions were in areas close to Woodward Ave. He starts in Ferndale, gets away with it and then moves north up Woodward to continue hunting for kids. Ferndale, then Royal Oak, then Berkley (although if I read the information below it appears that Kristine was abducted from an area south of where Jill had been abducted). Although the guy is moving north, the abductions have to be based on chance more than anything if you ask me--he has to find a kid alone in a situation where the killer and the child will not stand out. The guy picks an area off of Woodward and cruises for a victim--but it is a crime of opportunity. He needs the right situation, and probably had to cruise around a lot to wait for that to happen. I think the only rhyme or reason to the pick up spots is that he is moving around to new areas so he won't get busted. The old newspapers I have read talk about abduction attempts in the Bloomfield Township area after Tim's murder (I remember one happened in April). If this was the same killer, it would fit with moving north--and put a victim much closer to his home.
That leaves the drop off areas. The killer would have more control over that. I don't think you can include Tim's in this analysis because the killer was having to get out of Oakland County because they were searching cars. So that would have broken any pattern--assuming there was one. I just don't see anything to the drop offs, except that Jill was by Troy PD and Kristine was dropped on Bruce Lane (Bruce L. Danto). Those two drop-offs seem to carry a message, but that's about all I can come up with.
I'm not very good at things like this--but I do hesitate to give the killer too much credit for thinking through the pick ups and drop offs beyond simple convenience. His goal was to get a kid AND not get caught. I think that drove the locations more than anything else, but like I said, I don't always think outside the box.
I will stare at the map again later.
In looking at the map, all of the abductions were in areas close to Woodward Ave. He starts in Ferndale, gets away with it and then moves north up Woodward to continue hunting for kids. Ferndale, then Royal Oak, then Berkley (although if I read the information below it appears that Kristine was abducted from an area south of where Jill had been abducted). Although the guy is moving north, the abductions have to be based on chance more than anything if you ask me--he has to find a kid alone in a situation where the killer and the child will not stand out. The guy picks an area off of Woodward and cruises for a victim--but it is a crime of opportunity. He needs the right situation, and probably had to cruise around a lot to wait for that to happen. I think the only rhyme or reason to the pick up spots is that he is moving around to new areas so he won't get busted. The old newspapers I have read talk about abduction attempts in the Bloomfield Township area after Tim's murder (I remember one happened in April). If this was the same killer, it would fit with moving north--and put a victim much closer to his home.
That leaves the drop off areas. The killer would have more control over that. I don't think you can include Tim's in this analysis because the killer was having to get out of Oakland County because they were searching cars. So that would have broken any pattern--assuming there was one. I just don't see anything to the drop offs, except that Jill was by Troy PD and Kristine was dropped on Bruce Lane (Bruce L. Danto). Those two drop-offs seem to carry a message, but that's about all I can come up with.
I'm not very good at things like this--but I do hesitate to give the killer too much credit for thinking through the pick ups and drop offs beyond simple convenience. His goal was to get a kid AND not get caught. I think that drove the locations more than anything else, but like I said, I don't always think outside the box.
I will stare at the map again later.