Predator. Steven Walker
December 29, the cases were combined.
In a prepared statement, the Cape Girardeau Police Department released to the media that the Parsh and Cole murders might be linked to a single “psychotic” killer. The statement said that in addition to similarities in the ballistic test report, the apparent lack of a normal motive in the slayings—such as robbery, rape, or revenge—has led authorities to theorize that one psychotic individual could be responsible for all three murders.
Chief Gerecke said at the time, “We don’t want to be alarmists, but I feel it is our duty to alert the public.” He added that his own daughter was visiting during the holiday break from her school in Texas, and he had told her not to go out alone or pick anyone up while she was staying in the area.
The bodies of Mary and Brenda Parsh were so decomposed when they were discovered that no useful physical evidence could be recovered from their autopsies that would aid investigators to solve the case. In contrast to the longevity that contributed to the accelerated decomposition of Mary and Brenda Parsh as a detrimental factor, it may have been haste that contributed to a lack of evidence in the Sheila Cole case. According to Sergeant Brown, Cole’s body was already in the process of being embalmed before some investigating authorities were even notified of her death.
While the ballistic test showed similarities in the bullets used in the Parsh and Cole murders, the report did not provide definitive proof that the same weapon was used in both cases. Federal, state, and local authorities worked together to search for another common thread that might link the victims.
Sheila Cole lived in an apartment building that was located next door to the nursing home where Mr. Parsh lived for several months after his wife and daughter were killed, but he said that he had never spoken to or even had known who Cole was.
Before moving to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Brenda Parsh lived and worked in St. Louis. Cole’s family lived in Crestwood, which is located outside of St. Louis, but there was no indication that they ever ran into each other or even knew each other. In considering any possible connection with the background of the victims, Brown said, “Nothing seemed close or to overlap at all.” He added, “That was just about the time that ‘Son of Sam’ was prominent in the newspapers and maybe that triggered something. If we have a true psychotic here as well, he might strike again.”
1978–1981
I just went nuts. Back in ’77 and ’78, I think I just went a little crazy.
—Timothy Wayne Krajcir
5
New Year’s came and went. More interviews ensued. Most of them were full of “he said that she told him she heard this guy say that because he heard it from that girl,” and it all led nowhere.
Several people who heard about the Cole murder called the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Emma Glass said that she was driving to Kentucky on November 17 and stopped at the rest area on Illinois Route 3, near McClure. She said that she walked into the restroom, saw someone lying on the floor, and quickly turned around and walked back to her car.
Cheryl Bonta called to say that Donald Charles, who parked cars at the Hush Puppy Tavern in McClure, Illinois, saw Sheila Cole leave there with three guys on the night she was murdered. She said that she lived near Charles, and also near Jim Farmer and Dean Abernathy. Bonta said that Beverly Mayberry told her that Farmer drove a van similar to the one that she saw at the rest area on Illinois Route 3 on the night that Sheila Cole was murdered.
A lead with the potential to break the case presented itself on January 5, 1978. A man who asked to remain anonymous because he was in fear for his life contacted the Cape Girardeau Police Department. He spoke with Sergeant Dennis Dolan and told him that Donald Charles had witnessed Cole’s murder.
Harold Cole called Special Agent Smith to report that he received a phone call from a woman named Sandy, from St. Louis. Sandy told him that Sheila attended the Bethany Baptist Church on Koch Street, near the Parshes’ house in Cape Girardeau. He told Smith that Sandy told him that the pastor of the church received two anonymous phone calls prior to Sheila’s murder. The first time, the caller told the pastor that Sheila had been involved in a car accident and was hospitalized. The second time, the caller said that Sheila had been killed in Illinois.
Sergeant Brown followed up on this information by contacting the secretary of the church and was told that there were no records to indicate that Sheila ever attended services at the church. Sheila’s roommates Barnard and Gredizer said that they had no knowledge of Sheila attending the church, either. They also told Brown that their other roommate, Connie Walker, had moved back to her home in California.
Special Agent Smith contacted Donald Charles on January 13 to follow up on the anonymous caller’s tip from the previous week. Charles told Smith that he did not know Sheila Cole and had no information about her death. He said that at the time, he had to take his daughter to St. Judes Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, for treatment for leukemia and that he stayed at the Convention Center Hotel. Charles submitted to taking a polygraph examination. The results indicated that he had no involvement with Cole’s murder.
And round and round it goes until it ends up back at square one—with no evidence, no leads, no suspects, and no end in sight.
The details of the Cole and Parsh cases were put into a new database developed for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) was a state-of-the-art behavior-based crime analysis and investigative tool that could be used by any law enforcement agency to collect, collate, and analyze their own violent crime information on a local level, and assist in identifying similar cases on a regional, state, or national basis. Based on the criteria submitted, other cases across the country would be searched to find links that might connect them to other cases with similar details. The purpose of this process is to detect repeated or identifiable patterns of modus operandi (MOs) that are often connected to the commission of multiple unsolved homicides, which will, in turn, allow ViCAP personnel to pinpoint those crimes that have been committed by the same offender. Law enforcement agencies that enter information into the database or are involved in an investigation can access the results to see if patterns of behavior might point to a specific individual who could become a suspect in the crimes committed. The law enforcement agency can then pursue the suspect based on the information that is gathered. Computer technology at the time was relatively new and not always effective, but today the program is a very resourceful tool that is often used to identify dead bodies that have been found where the manner of death is known or suspected to be a homicide. It is also useful for suggesting a suspect in unsolved homicides—especially those that involve an abduction, or are apparently random, motiveless, or sexually oriented, or are suspected to be part of a series of similar attacks. Once a case is entered into the ViCAP database, it is compared continually against all other entries on the basis of certain aspects of the crime. When a pattern of criminal activity is discovered—for example, a serial murder suspect has been identified—ViCAP can then assist law enforcement agencies by coordinating a multiagency investigative conference for case review.
6
Virginia Witte
May 12, 1978
Nine months after the Parsh murders took place, and just six months after Sheila Cole’s body was discovered at the rest area on Illinois Route 3, near McClure, another murder took place not very far away. On May 12, 1978, David Witte discovered the body of his wife, Virginia, just after 1:00 P.M. in their Westernaire Estates home on Lakeview Drive. He found her naked body on their bed with a kitchen knife protruding from her chest.
The Wittes lived comfortably in a well-to-do neighborhood in West Marion. David was formerly a district manager for General Motors Corporation and had more recently begun operating his own financial investment firm. His financial success afforded his wife, Virginia, the opportunity to be a stay-at-home housewife. Virginia was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1926. She met David and they fell in love and were married in 1942, in Webster Groves, Missouri. She raised two sons, David Witte Jr., who was living in Jefferson City, Missouri, at the time, and Michael Witte, who was married