FlyAzzLove asked this question on 4/18/2000:

This is for a book, so I need some help making sure the conclusions drawn are realistic of your average cop/detective. WARNING...kind of gruesome.

There's been a string of murders....the first two are actually deemed missing persons because the bodies have never been found (am I correct to say that missing persons is a different division than homocide...so as soon as a body turns up a different detective is called in?).The third body lies sprawled on the floor ( a female in her own first floor apartment). The door is untampered, the chain still linked. The window is shattered. A small coffee table is the only turned over piece of furniture the magazines and a shattered glass spread on the floor. The girl is nude, with a hankerchief covering her eyes. Her wrists are red and bloody as if she was bonded but they aren't now. The arms are outstreched to the sides so her body looks like that of a 'T.' They've recovered hair, that seems to be of a cat, and s bit of blood that is not the victim's. Her fingertips have been removed. On her stomach is carved "The Last One" on her back, "Is Coming." Oh yeah...the victim is found lying on her back.

jellygator gave this response on 4/21/2000:

If these murders are the work of one murderer and not two, you might want to have something that connects the girl's murder to the others. (Perhaps she was missing for a while, or the two missing ones are lying undiscovered with carving on their bodies and missing body parts). Serial killers have a "signature" that is unique and the scene you describe for the girl's murder shows what is called "staging", which occurs when a killer is trying to leave a message of some sort, even if the message is "a burglar did this by accident".

If a killer uses staging or signature, it will normally be present in varying degrees in all his victims' crime scenes.

The average rating for this answer is 4.

FlyAzzLove rated this answer a 4.