Serial Killer Documentary - William Suff

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The 8th of February, 1990, Riverside, California. The half-naked corpse
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of a woman was found in a grapefruit orchard on
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the outskirts of the city by two local workers.
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We didn't know who she was, and we lift up
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her shirt, and right in the middle of her chest
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were four Very distinct stab wounds.
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Forensic scientists later identified the woman as 35-year-old sex worker
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Carol Miller. Her stab wounds were a calling card of
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the so-called Riverside prostitute killer who'd already slain three women.
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39-year-old Bill Suff would go on to take another nine victims.
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I would tell the girls, stay off the streets for
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a while. It's not safe. There is a serial murderer
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out there.
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But by day, Suff was a model employee for the
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local county.
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He was very friendly. He was the guy next door.
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He was a chameleon.
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He could become this monster and brutalize these women horribly.
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The Jekyll and Hyde killer even attacked his own children.
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I was not wanting to believe that he would kill
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our child. There's no rhyme or reason for it.
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Suff beat his two-month-old daughter to death. He brutally killed
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and mutilated 12 women. He spread fear across the county
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of Riverside, making Bill Suff one of the world's most
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evil killers. the 23rd of December, 1991, Riverside, California. A
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workman made a shocking discovery. He found the body of
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39-year-old Eleanor Casares lying in orange groves. She'd been strangled, stabbed,
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and mutilated, and was the 13th victim of the man
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who'd later become known as the Riverside Prostitute Killer.
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When we look at this particular murder, it was very violent.
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And if we look at what he did with the
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victim's breast, he mutilated it and he threw it some
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40 feet away. He's just discarding this woman's body part
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like it's trash. And I think that's how he saw
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these victims.
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In an act of bravado, the killer dumped Eleanor's body
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just a block away from the Riverside Police Department. Local
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detective Christine Keir Sheffield had warned Eleanor about a serial
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murderer on the loose only days earlier.
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When we saw it was Eleanor, I was just like, oh,
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my God. You know, we just had this talk. We
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just had this talk. And I knew she had little children.
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You fight back your emotions and say, we got to
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get this solved.
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Knowing a serial killer was on the rampage shocked the
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county of Riverside.
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The fear was rampant.
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It affected people's willingness to go out at night and
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just walk in their neighborhoods.
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And the papers played up to that.
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There was a great deal of building pressure on us,
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law enforcement, to find this individual.
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This killer story begins on the 20th of August, 1950.
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William Lester Suff was born in Torrance, California.
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From the outside, his family did appear to be very traditional.
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He was the eldest of five siblings. But there was
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an incredibly abusive relationship that went on between Suf's parents.
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And when a child grows up in an environment like this,
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they learn violence is a way of getting what you want.
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Violence is a way of maintaining feelings of control. And
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those are very toxic things, but they take root.
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His mother, Elizabeth, was domineering, overbearing. his father, William, rather remote.
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I'm not suggesting for a moment there was abuse, but
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there was certainly a very poor male role model anywhere around.
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At the age of 16, Suff's father walked out on
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the family, and his mother was left bringing up five
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children on her own. Suff had to work part-time to
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support his family, who were in dire straits.
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Well, Suff had to take on quite a considerable role
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looking after his siblings... He had a lot of responsibility.
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He was essentially an adult in this house. And I
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think that impacted upon his own development to make him
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quite an isolated and quite a solitary individual.
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Elizabeth starts up another relationship with a man she was
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eventually to go on and marry. Now, he was the opposite,
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if you like, of Suf's father. He was firm, disciplinarian,
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very tough, I think.
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On Suf.
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At school, young Suff was an unremarkable student, but he
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held his own amongst his peers, achieving average grades. He
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also developed an interest in music and learned to play
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the trumpet.
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He was in a high school marching band, as a
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matter of fact. In his senior year in high school,
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his high school marching band had been selected to participate
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in the Rose Parade, which is quite an accomplishment.
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It was here, playing with his band, that the 18-year-old
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Suff met his first love, Terrell, who was just 15.
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Well, me and my friends from school, we went to
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the game, and Bill was there. He was kind of cute,
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and so naturally we all flirted. At the time, I
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was infatuated. I thought he was a cute guy. He
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asked me for my phone number, and I gave it
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to him.
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And then.
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I heard from him a couple months later he was
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going into the Air Force.
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Saff wrote to Terrell from his Air Force base in Texas,
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where he was training to be a medic. And just
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over a year later, in May 1969, he asked for
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her hand in marriage. But Terrell had suffered a devastating event.
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I had been raped, got pregnant, and said, no, I
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can't marry you. You know, circumstances... and told him what happened.
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And he says, well, I want to marry you anyway.
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So we did. Although Suf had accepted that Terrell had
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been raped and that she was carrying the child, ironically,
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he didn't accept the child.
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Suff lied and told Terrell that the Air Force didn't
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allow children to live at the base. She was forced
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to leave the baby with Suff's mother and stepfather in
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California and make the move to join him in Texas alone.
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For him, it was an opportunity to exert control over
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somebody else. Terrell was someone who was quite vulnerable, who
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had been through quite a lot, so I think he
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took advantage of that situation.
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Pretty much his behavior started changing when I moved to Texas,
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because then he felt like he had complete control over me.
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He started to get physical, and that was only six
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months in.
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In early winter 1970, Suff was discharged from the Air Force.
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The following November, the couple had their first child, William Jr.
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Suff himself at this point is 21, a new young father.
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Struggling to realize what being a father means, I think
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fatherhood was a dreadful shock to him.
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The couple stayed in Texas, but Suff drifted from job
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to job until he found work as a parking attendant.
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Even then, he was fired for stealing a client's car.
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So Terrell had to work in a restaurant to pay
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their bills.
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So when he loses his job and Terrell becomes the
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main breadwinner, this causes quite a lot of conflict in
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him because it compromises those feelings of control that he
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has over this family. Seth has some very fixed views
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about men and women. Men should be breadwinners. Women should
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be caregivers. So I think this causes quite a lot
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of conflict for him.
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In July 1973, the couple had their second child, a
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daughter called Dijanae, affectionately known as Dee Dee. Whilst Terrell
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went out to work, the volatile suff was left at
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home alone with Dee Dee, and their newborn bore the
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brunt of his frustrations.
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When somebody's abusive and they're used to getting what they
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want through being violent, and they try and use that
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tactic on a baby, it doesn't work in the same
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way that it would work on an adult. If anything,
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it's going to make the baby cry more, it's going
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to make them scream more, and this is just a
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really toxic environment to bring a child into.
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But soon the angry and possessive Bill Suff would break
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into a rage that would spiral out of control. Before long,
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the little life he held in his hands would be
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in mortal danger. On the 25th of September, Terrell received
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some alarming news about their two-month-old baby.
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Suff rings his wife at work and says, you must
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come home at once because Dee Dee's not breathing. Terrell
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rushes home to discover that her newborn daughter is indeed
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not breathing.
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When we look at the abuse that their daughter was
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subject to, it is really horrendous. Broken ribs, broken wrists,
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cigarette burns.
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It was really awful.
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Suff tries to explain her injuries by saying that his son,
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William Jr, had been too aggressive in hugging and kissing her. Bizarre,
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I would have said, because I don't think any toddler
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is capable of inflicting those kinds of injuries. But that
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was Suf's story.
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I was not wanting to believe that he would kill
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our child. And when he was arrested, I was trying
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to still work in my mind how he could have
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done it or why. There was no rhyme or reason
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for it.
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When the doctors examined Dee Dee, they also found evidence
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of old injuries, which suggested she'd been abused over a
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period of time. Terrell's world was turned upside down even
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further when she, too, was arrested on charges of murder.
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Their son was taken into care, and on the 11th
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of April, 1974, both parents were sentenced to 70 years
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for killing their daughter.
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I didn't have my son. I'd lost my daughter. And
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I really had nothing. You know, I was just devastated, destroyed,
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and I wasn't sure how I was going to actually
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make it through.
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20 months into her sentence, Terrell was granted an appeal hearing.
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The court was not satisfied with the evidence against Terrell
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and exonerated her.
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I walked outside the courtroom and just screamed. Because now
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I can try to move on. And I immediately started
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divorce proceedings. And it was one of the best days
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of my life.
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Meanwhile, her ever manipulative ex-husband was making his own plans
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for an early release.
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When Suf's in prison, he demonstrates the kind of behaviour
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that officials want to see. He's compliant. He appears to
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be someone trying to better himself.
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He volunteered for the prison library. He took two degrees,
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caused no trouble whatever. Suf is such a modern prisoner
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that he serves only ten years of his sentence and
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is released in 1984.
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On the 6th of March, 33-year-old Suff was awarded parole.
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He moved back to California and found a job in
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the county of Riverside selling Greyhound bus tickets.
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He appeared to be a real pillar of the community
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and it diverts attention away from him. He blends in.
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He's the average Joe.
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In October 1986, Suff got a new job as a
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supply clerk for Riverside County. He'd started dating a teacher
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called Bonnie and moved in with her to help care
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for her elderly grandmother.
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He's effectively creating the persona, the quiet man who doesn't
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mind helping a very ordinary, but within him, something quite
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different was happening.
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People at work loved him. He was good to everybody
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on the outside.
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He had this facade going on about him that you
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could trust him, that he was a kind and giving person,
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but at the same time, he had that secret devil
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within him.
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Saf split up from his girlfriend, Bonnie, after he admitted
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stealing money from her grandmother. He often spent nights cruising
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the local red-light districts looking for casual sex. He developed
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a hatred for the women he saw on the streets.
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I think he reserved a particular distaste for sex workers
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because he saw them as less than women. He saw
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them as women who weren't fulfilling the roles of the
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caregiver and the nurturer, and he had some very rigid
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ideas about who women are and how they should behave.
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Soon, this seething resentment would escalate. In January 1989, 38-year-old
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Suff was driving his van down Main Street in Lake
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Elsinore when he spotted a young woman called Rhonda Jetmore.
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They agreed on $ 20 for sex, and she demands the
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money up front.
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It is extremely dark. Suff hands her the bill, and
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she switches the flashlight on to look at it, and
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instead of it being a $ 20 bill, it's a $ 1 bill.
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Now, she's furious.
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I'm not doing this for a dollar bill. She is angry.
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Suff launches himself at her in an attempt to begin
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to strangle her.
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Rhonda fought back, smashing Suff around the head with her
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flashlight and made her escape.
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I think it taught Suff something very specific. Never let
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them survive. If you attack them, they must be killed.
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You cannot afford to have another Rhonda.
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Six months later, on the 26th of June, 1989, single
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mother Kimberley Little was soliciting sex along Main Street. Suff
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00:15:28.889 --> 00:15:31.909
was one of her regular clients. He picked her up.
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Put her into his van, take her to an isolated spot,
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00:15:37.210 --> 00:15:41.610
rape her, stab her, strangle her, and he put some
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00:15:41.649 --> 00:15:45.629
of his clothes on her. He demonstrated an extraordinary lack
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00:15:45.980 --> 00:15:49.490
of DNA awareness. He left semen at the scene. He
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00:15:49.509 --> 00:15:50.830
left pubic hair at the scene.
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She was clothed, and she was wearing a man's Western-style shirt.
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She had pants on, but she had a long blue
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00:16:00.539 --> 00:16:05.299
bath towel that covered her. Now, this was significant to
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00:16:05.320 --> 00:16:09.970
the profiler because he felt that the suspect knew her.
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00:16:10.330 --> 00:16:13.470
There was a sign or an indication of remorse. He
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00:16:13.509 --> 00:16:16.549
couldn't look at her. He covered her. He left her there.
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Any remorse Suff may have felt soon disappeared. Six months later,
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00:16:24.289 --> 00:16:28.649
on the 12th of December 1989, Suff returned to Lake
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00:16:28.789 --> 00:16:35.019
Elsinore's red-light district again. He picked up 23-year-old Tina Leal,
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00:16:35.399 --> 00:16:38.899
then strangled and stabbed her. She was dumped off a
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00:16:38.980 --> 00:16:42.960
quiet road in nearby Paris, and a couple discovered her
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00:16:43.019 --> 00:16:44.879
body the following day.
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00:16:45.700 --> 00:16:49.799
She was wearing men's clothing. The suspect had mutilated her body,
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00:16:51.230 --> 00:16:56.149
but the evidence showed that she was dressed after she
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00:16:56.190 --> 00:16:56.669
was killed.
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00:16:57.690 --> 00:17:02.029
We noticed that she had very distinct stab marks towards
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00:17:02.049 --> 00:17:04.740
the middle of her chest, not the typical kind of
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00:17:04.839 --> 00:17:07.920
stab marks that you would see when somebody's in a rage.
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00:17:08.380 --> 00:17:13.519
These were very controlled, very clean-looking stab marks that would
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00:17:13.559 --> 00:17:17.859
indicate somebody had control over their senses and their emotions
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00:17:17.920 --> 00:17:18.420
at the time.
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It wasn't until the autopsy later that day that detectives
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00:17:23.329 --> 00:17:27.410
discovered the true horror of Suf's final act of humiliation
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00:17:27.609 --> 00:17:28.589
against his victim.
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00:17:29.450 --> 00:17:37.119
The pathologist discovered that a 95-watt light bulb had been
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00:17:37.160 --> 00:17:42.920
inserted into her vaginal vault. Now, according to the pathologist,
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00:17:44.170 --> 00:17:47.490
He felt that the suspect had to take quite a
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00:17:47.490 --> 00:17:50.009
bit of time with her because the light bulb was intact.
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00:17:50.509 --> 00:17:51.369
It hadn't broken.
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00:17:52.710 --> 00:17:56.390
With at least two victims under his belt now, Suff
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00:17:56.450 --> 00:18:00.549
was becoming bolder. Just over one month later, on the
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00:18:00.849 --> 00:18:06.789
18th of January, 1990, he struck again, strangling another sex worker,
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00:18:06.869 --> 00:18:08.910
Darla Ferguson, after sex.
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00:18:10.160 --> 00:18:12.700
Her body was found in a remote area along a
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00:18:12.740 --> 00:18:16.279
dirt road just outside of Lake Elsinore. Now, the unique
287
00:18:16.319 --> 00:18:20.309
thing with Darla Ferguson was that she was nude, she
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00:18:20.329 --> 00:18:24.029
was strangled, just like the other victims, but her upper
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00:18:24.109 --> 00:18:27.710
torso was covered in a very large black bag, a
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00:18:27.789 --> 00:18:30.710
trash bag, and it was tied at the waist.
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00:18:32.130 --> 00:18:35.029
We did not look at the first murders as being
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00:18:35.069 --> 00:18:39.539
connected at all. They were like independent victims events that happened.
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00:18:39.619 --> 00:18:42.500
The only similarity that we knew at the time, they
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00:18:42.519 --> 00:18:45.869
were in the Elsinore area, and they were female prostitutes.
295
00:18:46.970 --> 00:18:50.589
But soon a pattern would begin to emerge for investigators.
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00:18:51.480 --> 00:18:54.640
Just over two weeks later, on the 6th of February,
297
00:18:55.079 --> 00:18:58.960
Suff had identified a hunting ground closer to home. He
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00:18:59.039 --> 00:19:03.980
picked up 35-year-old Carol Miller from Riverside's Red Light District,
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00:19:04.339 --> 00:19:08.920
University Avenue. He stabbed and strangled her, then dumped her
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00:19:08.980 --> 00:19:12.289
in a grapefruit orchard on the outskirts of the city.
301
00:19:13.069 --> 00:19:16.769
She was discovered two days later by agricultural workers.
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00:19:17.690 --> 00:19:20.490
Well, I went out to the Carol Miller scene, and
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00:19:20.549 --> 00:19:24.430
she was naked except that she had her shirt over
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00:19:24.470 --> 00:19:30.089
her face. Next to her was a partially eaten and
305
00:19:30.150 --> 00:19:34.069
peeled grapefruit. And we lift up her shirt, and right
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00:19:34.170 --> 00:19:37.650
in the middle of her chest were four very distinct
307
00:19:37.710 --> 00:19:41.190
stab wounds. I was aware of the Tina Leal case.
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00:19:41.759 --> 00:19:44.940
where she also had four distinct stab wounds that seemed
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00:19:44.960 --> 00:19:48.210
to be very deliberate. Carol Miller had the same, and
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00:19:48.250 --> 00:19:49.589
that was atypical.
311
00:19:49.910 --> 00:19:51.130
Which is not what we normally see.
312
00:19:52.460 --> 00:19:56.339
Steve Sikofsky was also drawn to something else that the
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00:19:56.400 --> 00:19:58.640
killer's van had left at the scene.
314
00:19:59.559 --> 00:20:03.380
There were hundreds of feet of tire tracks, so we
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00:20:03.599 --> 00:20:09.059
took literally hundreds and hundreds of pictures to document them,
316
00:20:09.279 --> 00:20:11.200
see if they matched anything else.
317
00:20:11.980 --> 00:20:15.490
Questions were now starting to be asked about whether this
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00:20:15.609 --> 00:20:18.410
series of killings could in fact be linked.
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00:20:18.970 --> 00:20:24.430
Tina Leal, Darla Ferguson, and Carol Miller, they had occurred
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00:20:24.750 --> 00:20:28.329
in consecutive months. So we didn't really know what was
321
00:20:28.349 --> 00:20:29.990
going to happen, and we didn't know if we were
322
00:20:30.009 --> 00:20:33.230
going to expect another case. So it's like, did we
323
00:20:33.269 --> 00:20:37.150
have a serial killer? So now the object was Well,
324
00:20:37.170 --> 00:20:39.640
let's analyze the evidence and see what we can come
325
00:20:39.720 --> 00:20:39.980
up with.
326
00:20:40.599 --> 00:20:45.539
Whilst investigators pored over the evidence he left behind, serial
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00:20:45.599 --> 00:20:49.490
killer Suff had made his mark, killing the sex workers
328
00:20:49.569 --> 00:20:54.569
he so despised. Despite having killed at least four sex workers,
329
00:20:54.910 --> 00:20:59.559
his rampage had only just begun. At night, Suff stalked
330
00:20:59.599 --> 00:21:02.660
the streets in his van, looking for his next victim.
331
00:21:03.180 --> 00:21:06.460
But by day, the local county clerk was a pillar
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00:21:06.759 --> 00:21:07.640
of the community.
333
00:21:09.220 --> 00:21:14.529
Riverside County was promoting a rideshare program to conserve energy.
334
00:21:14.930 --> 00:21:20.430
And interestingly enough, Mr. Suff was the poster boy for
335
00:21:20.470 --> 00:21:23.269
the program. He was on the front page of the
336
00:21:23.309 --> 00:21:27.259
newsletter saying, And the headline said, take a ride with Bill,
337
00:21:27.339 --> 00:21:29.480
and he was standing next to his van that he
338
00:21:29.519 --> 00:21:32.150
had kidnapped and murdered and assaulted all these women in.
339
00:21:33.940 --> 00:21:37.140
Things were going well for Suff. Not only was he
340
00:21:37.160 --> 00:21:41.079
a model employee, he'd started a new relationship.
341
00:21:42.359 --> 00:21:46.349
He meets Cheryl, and there's got to be at least, oh,
342
00:21:46.380 --> 00:21:49.089
I would say 20 years difference in their age.
343
00:21:50.369 --> 00:21:55.230
She was only a teenager. Abusive and controlling men tend
344
00:21:55.250 --> 00:21:58.890
to target younger women because they are easier to manipulate,
345
00:21:58.930 --> 00:22:02.410
they're easier to isolate, they're easier to shape and mould
346
00:22:02.569 --> 00:22:05.710
and to chip away at their sense of identity.
347
00:22:07.450 --> 00:22:11.029
Whirlwind romance. He rushes her off to Las Vegas, they
348
00:22:11.049 --> 00:22:14.059
get married. She doesn't really know anything about him. She's
349
00:22:14.490 --> 00:22:17.630
a child compared to this mature adult who also happens
350
00:22:17.650 --> 00:22:21.359
to be a serial killer. Cheryl becomes pregnant.
351
00:22:22.029 --> 00:22:25.849
Despite being a newlywed, Saf could not suppress his need
352
00:22:25.910 --> 00:22:28.869
to kill, so he came up with a clever ruse
353
00:22:28.930 --> 00:22:31.309
to tell his new and expectant wife.
354
00:22:32.029 --> 00:22:34.750
He was telling her that he did the disaster preparedness
355
00:22:34.829 --> 00:22:37.569
program for the county of Riverside, and that's why he
356
00:22:37.609 --> 00:22:39.049
was out late till.
357
00:22:38.890 --> 00:22:42.609
1 or 2 in the morning. He had disaster preparedness pamphlets.
358
00:22:42.990 --> 00:22:44.950
I don't know if he ever passed any of them out,
359
00:22:45.519 --> 00:22:48.099
but he convinced her that that's what he was doing
360
00:22:48.140 --> 00:22:48.640
at nighttime.
361
00:22:50.079 --> 00:22:53.960
Just seven months after getting married, Suff was looking for
362
00:22:54.019 --> 00:22:55.119
his next victim.
363
00:22:56.019 --> 00:22:57.140
On the 30th of.
364
00:22:57.180 --> 00:23:01.759
October, he returned to University Avenue in the city of Riverside,
365
00:23:02.079 --> 00:23:07.559
where he picked up 33-year-old Cheryl Coker. After sex, he
366
00:23:07.619 --> 00:23:11.880
strangled her, then placed her body into a dumpster. She
367
00:23:11.940 --> 00:23:15.900
was Suff's fifth victim, and in his final depraved act,
368
00:23:16.240 --> 00:23:18.180
he sliced off her right breast.
369
00:23:19.220 --> 00:23:22.660
He's making judgments about them as women because breasts are
370
00:23:22.700 --> 00:23:25.630
obviously a part of nurturing children. And I think this
371
00:23:25.690 --> 00:23:29.069
is perhaps his way of saying these women, in my opinion,
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00:23:29.210 --> 00:23:31.289
are not fit to be mothers. They are not fit
373
00:23:31.329 --> 00:23:31.950
to be women.
374
00:23:32.849 --> 00:23:36.190
From where the body was located, there was an embankment.
375
00:23:37.170 --> 00:23:40.460
And when he sliced her breast off, he tossed it
376
00:23:40.500 --> 00:23:42.640
like a frisbee that went all the way.
377
00:23:42.539 --> 00:23:45.700
Up the embankment on the top up there. So that
378
00:23:45.740 --> 00:23:47.059
was rather unusual.
379
00:23:48.759 --> 00:23:54.279
Once again, he leaves DNA and fiber evidence behind. He's
380
00:23:54.339 --> 00:23:57.980
not grown any more aware of forensic proof than he
381
00:23:58.000 --> 00:23:58.740
was before.
382
00:23:59.779 --> 00:24:04.180
Just seven weeks later on the 21st of December, another
383
00:24:04.279 --> 00:24:09.069
sex worker, Susan Sternfeld, was found strangled in a dumpster
384
00:24:09.450 --> 00:24:12.329
close to the location of the previous killing.
385
00:24:13.329 --> 00:24:16.150
When you're starting to find women that are placed in
386
00:24:16.210 --> 00:24:18.910
dumpster areas, You start to do a little bit of
387
00:24:18.990 --> 00:24:19.549
a tie-in.
388
00:24:20.390 --> 00:24:22.130
So in my mind, I'm.
389
00:24:22.769 --> 00:24:25.400
Thinking that there's somebody out there that feel that these
390
00:24:25.480 --> 00:24:27.200
women are nothing more than trash.
391
00:24:28.160 --> 00:24:30.279
And so we're gonna treat them like trash.
392
00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:32.589
After we kill them, we're gonna dump them in the trash.
393
00:24:34.470 --> 00:24:38.430
Now, Suff, the prostitute hater, was picking up pace with
394
00:24:38.470 --> 00:24:43.970
his murders. Barely a month later, on the 18th of January, 1991,
395
00:24:43.970 --> 00:24:50.440
42-year-old Kathy Puckett vanished whilst working University Avenue in Riverside.
396
00:24:51.319 --> 00:24:54.160
She was found strangled the next day by a motorist
397
00:24:54.400 --> 00:24:57.049
at the side of a dirt road 30 miles away.
398
00:24:58.029 --> 00:25:02.390
Forensic scientist Steve Sikofsky attended the scene and made an
399
00:25:02.470 --> 00:25:03.710
important discovery.
400
00:25:05.599 --> 00:25:08.819
I saw dozens of tire tracks, and I noticed that
401
00:25:08.859 --> 00:25:12.430
there was one that struck a familiar chord to some
402
00:25:12.450 --> 00:25:14.829
of the tire tracks in the Carol Miller case. We
403
00:25:14.869 --> 00:25:18.930
have finally some physical evidence that would link at least
404
00:25:18.990 --> 00:25:21.710
two of the cases. That was the first time that
405
00:25:21.769 --> 00:25:25.740
we now had some evidence, forensically, that said, we've got
406
00:25:25.779 --> 00:25:27.039
a serial killer going here.
407
00:25:27.839 --> 00:25:32.079
When Steve Sikofsky started looking for other evidence linking the
408
00:25:32.140 --> 00:25:36.009
spate of sex worker killings... His suspicions were confirmed.
409
00:25:36.809 --> 00:25:40.150
I started looking at all the trace evidence, the fibers,
410
00:25:40.609 --> 00:25:44.309
and saw some commonalities. I saw fibers that were gray
411
00:25:44.410 --> 00:25:47.670
in color from one victim to the next, to the next.
412
00:25:47.730 --> 00:25:51.079
And so we were starting to build up some idea that,
413
00:25:51.480 --> 00:25:54.039
in fact, we do have a series going on, a
414
00:25:54.440 --> 00:25:55.259
serial killer.
415
00:25:55.519 --> 00:25:56.579
We had to put a stop to it.
416
00:25:57.619 --> 00:25:59.619
To us, it was not that they were prostitutes. It
417
00:25:59.640 --> 00:26:02.980
was there were human beings being killed. Women are being killed.
418
00:26:03.390 --> 00:26:06.430
and dumped in places all over the place. So we
419
00:26:06.450 --> 00:26:08.069
need to make a tie-in here somehow.
420
00:26:09.450 --> 00:26:13.160
Now that there was conclusive evidence confirming that a serial
421
00:26:13.240 --> 00:26:16.839
killer was on the loose, a task force was created
422
00:26:16.980 --> 00:26:22.349
linking the various law enforcement agencies investigating the killings in
423
00:26:22.410 --> 00:26:27.349
both Riverside and Lake Elsinore. They put out posters appealing
424
00:26:27.369 --> 00:26:31.329
for locals to come forward with any relevant information and
425
00:26:31.410 --> 00:26:36.460
offering a reward of $ 11, 000. By the 27th of April,
426
00:26:36.740 --> 00:26:39.500
they had an eighth case of a dead sex worker
427
00:26:39.660 --> 00:26:45.059
on their hands, 24-year-old Sherry Pacer. For the forensic team,
428
00:26:45.380 --> 00:26:49.640
gathering evidence at this crime scene proved much more difficult.
429
00:26:50.500 --> 00:26:53.809
We were in the process of looking at the... the
430
00:26:53.869 --> 00:26:55.839
body to see if there were any fibers on it.
431
00:26:55.890 --> 00:26:59.430
We already saw a shoe print and the sprinkler system
432
00:26:59.470 --> 00:26:59.869
came on.
433
00:26:59.910 --> 00:27:01.099
It was just a small.
434
00:27:00.859 --> 00:27:06.019
Little garden area behind the bowling alley. We're standing on
435
00:27:06.099 --> 00:27:09.480
top of literally sprinklers coming up on us to keep
436
00:27:09.559 --> 00:27:13.430
the water off the body and yelling, have them shut
437
00:27:13.509 --> 00:27:14.769
the sprinkler system off.
438
00:27:15.880 --> 00:27:20.160
With the sprinklers washing away potential evidence, it reduced the
439
00:27:20.220 --> 00:27:24.819
amount of information forensics could gather. However, they did find
440
00:27:24.900 --> 00:27:30.109
traces of semen on Sherry's body. Despite having a heavily
441
00:27:30.210 --> 00:27:33.670
pregnant wife, Cheryl, at home, on the 3rd of July,
442
00:27:34.029 --> 00:27:39.849
Suff struck again, taking his next victim, 37-year-old Sherry Latham.
443
00:27:40.950 --> 00:27:43.849
The whole task force is starting to feel pressured because
444
00:27:44.450 --> 00:27:47.940
we have These bodies that are appearing, I didn't feel
445
00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:52.119
any closer to identifying or providing that kind of information
446
00:27:52.259 --> 00:27:53.680
to catch the guy.
447
00:27:54.839 --> 00:27:58.980
Three weeks later, Suff became a father once again when
448
00:27:59.059 --> 00:28:03.039
Cheryl gave birth to their daughter. Whilst he was forced
449
00:28:03.259 --> 00:28:06.319
to spend some time at home, the task force were
450
00:28:06.359 --> 00:28:08.980
making every effort to close in on him.
451
00:28:10.200 --> 00:28:12.839
One of the deputies was assigned to try and identify
452
00:28:12.900 --> 00:28:15.660
some shoe impressions that were left at several of the scenes.
453
00:28:16.569 --> 00:28:19.069
So what he did is he took a photograph of
454
00:28:19.089 --> 00:28:21.630
the shoe impression and it was blown up to a
455
00:28:21.849 --> 00:28:25.490
one-to-one ratio, which means it's the actual size of the impression.
456
00:28:26.630 --> 00:28:28.930
What that deputy did is he went to all the
457
00:28:28.970 --> 00:28:31.890
different shoe stores, picking up shoes, looking at the bottom,
458
00:28:32.269 --> 00:28:35.490
at their soles, to try and find the same pattern.
459
00:28:36.839 --> 00:28:40.920
And after many hours, he was successful. he found that shoe.
460
00:28:41.740 --> 00:28:43.980
So now we had a shoe identified, and we have
461
00:28:44.019 --> 00:28:45.460
a shoe size identified.
462
00:28:46.680 --> 00:28:51.309
Meanwhile, forensic scientist Steve Sikofsky's hard work had started to
463
00:28:51.369 --> 00:28:54.869
pay off. He'd been analyzing the tire marks found at
464
00:28:54.950 --> 00:28:59.650
the scenes of Carol Miller and Kathy Puckett's killings, and he, too,
465
00:28:59.710 --> 00:29:00.690
had made a breakthrough.
466
00:29:00.710 --> 00:29:04.569
I was able to identify what kind of tire it was.
467
00:29:04.589 --> 00:29:09.200
It was an Armstrong Ultratrac. had a very unique kind
468
00:29:09.359 --> 00:29:13.470
of tread design or pattern. And so I would take
469
00:29:13.509 --> 00:29:15.650
this picture with me wherever I would go.
470
00:29:16.109 --> 00:29:16.910
I remember one.
471
00:29:16.829 --> 00:29:18.890
Time I went to a restaurant with my dad and
472
00:29:18.930 --> 00:29:22.569
my two youngest kids, and I'd be looking at the
473
00:29:22.630 --> 00:29:24.710
cars in the parking lot to see if I found
474
00:29:24.769 --> 00:29:25.930
a similar tread design.
475
00:29:26.410 --> 00:29:28.519
They're going, Dad, what are you doing?
476
00:29:28.950 --> 00:29:32.279
The task force was so determined to catch this killer
477
00:29:32.539 --> 00:29:35.259
that many were unable to leave their work.
478
00:29:35.319 --> 00:29:35.880
At the office.
479
00:29:36.819 --> 00:29:39.630
Many times I would take my casebook home and lay
480
00:29:39.670 --> 00:29:41.400
it out on the bed and say, what are we missing?
481
00:29:41.680 --> 00:29:44.940
Is this somebody that knows these girls? Is it somebody
482
00:29:44.980 --> 00:29:47.920
that works down here? Is it somebody coming in from
483
00:29:47.980 --> 00:29:52.910
out of town? And it was rather disturbing.
484
00:29:52.329 --> 00:29:54.769
To me, to say the least. So I started putting
485
00:29:54.809 --> 00:29:55.809
all my effort into it.
486
00:29:56.359 --> 00:29:59.200
But an even bigger break would come for the task
487
00:29:59.240 --> 00:30:03.349
force on the 15th of August. At 10 p.m., serial
488
00:30:03.400 --> 00:30:08.490
killer Bill Suff was once again cruising Riverside's red-light district.
489
00:30:10.009 --> 00:30:13.450
Suff goes out searching for prey again and comes across
490
00:30:13.670 --> 00:30:17.970
a young woman called Kelly Whitecloud. She is spirited and
491
00:30:18.670 --> 00:30:22.980
not one to suffer fools gladly. They make a deal.
492
00:30:24.720 --> 00:30:25.599
She got in his van.
493
00:30:26.200 --> 00:30:28.759
and went with him to McDonald's because she wanted him
494
00:30:28.839 --> 00:30:30.920
to buy her a hamburger.
495
00:30:32.119 --> 00:30:35.160
Once they got back in his van, Saff said he
496
00:30:35.220 --> 00:30:38.599
wanted to take Kelly out to nearby orchards for sex,
497
00:30:38.900 --> 00:30:42.240
but she refused. An argument broke out.
498
00:30:43.380 --> 00:30:47.509
She felt uneasy, and so ultimately, when they drove out
499
00:30:47.549 --> 00:30:50.609
of the McDonald's parking lot, she bolted from the van
500
00:30:51.390 --> 00:30:51.950
and ran away.
501
00:30:53.140 --> 00:30:57.069
As Kelly recovered from her encounter with Suff, she witnessed
502
00:30:57.109 --> 00:31:01.089
him pick up her friend and fellow sex worker, Kelly Hammond,
503
00:31:01.470 --> 00:31:03.650
further down University Avenue.
504
00:31:04.450 --> 00:31:08.769
White Cloud is shouting to her down the street, don't
505
00:31:08.910 --> 00:31:13.039
get in the van, don't get in. Hammond ignores it,
506
00:31:13.480 --> 00:31:16.599
gets into the van and becomes Suff's next victim.
507
00:31:17.650 --> 00:31:20.230
Suff had sex with Kelly in the back of his
508
00:31:20.289 --> 00:31:23.099
van and then strangled her with a ligature.
509
00:31:24.420 --> 00:31:27.299
He dumped her nude body in an alleyway and posed
510
00:31:27.380 --> 00:31:30.700
it with her legs in the air, which meant, almost
511
00:31:30.720 --> 00:31:33.130
for the first time in his spree, that she was
512
00:31:33.170 --> 00:31:36.470
found relatively quickly. Her body was still warm when it
513
00:31:36.509 --> 00:31:37.089
was discovered.
514
00:31:37.849 --> 00:31:41.750
Suff had taken the lives of at least nine sex workers,
515
00:31:42.190 --> 00:31:45.230
but a witness had seen the predator on the prowl.
516
00:31:45.710 --> 00:31:47.650
The net would soon close.
517
00:31:47.390 --> 00:31:48.660
In on the killer.
518
00:31:52.539 --> 00:31:55.859
On the 16th of August, an office worker found Kelly
519
00:31:55.900 --> 00:32:01.859
Hammond's body and called the police. Detective Christine Keir Sheffield
520
00:32:02.119 --> 00:32:06.460
had previously gone undercover as a local sex worker, so
521
00:32:06.519 --> 00:32:11.289
she investigated the latest murder using her contacts on the street.
522
00:32:12.170 --> 00:32:14.690
I knew, because I had a rapport with the girls,
523
00:32:14.750 --> 00:32:17.210
that Kelly Hamlin was a good friend of Kelly Whiteclown's.
524
00:32:17.990 --> 00:32:21.269
So I went to University Avenue, and I looked for
525
00:32:21.329 --> 00:32:22.210
Kelly Whiteclown.
526
00:32:22.589 --> 00:32:24.710
And I found her. I said, get in the car, Kelly.
527
00:32:26.019 --> 00:32:27.720
And I asked her, when's the last time you saw
528
00:32:27.759 --> 00:32:29.809
Kelly Hammond? She goes, oh, I saw her last night. Why?
529
00:32:29.829 --> 00:32:31.730
And I said, well, I'm.
530
00:32:31.690 --> 00:32:34.349
Going to tell you this. I go, Kelly was murdered
531
00:32:34.430 --> 00:32:39.529
last night. And so she, of course, became hysterical.
532
00:32:38.930 --> 00:32:39.869
And was crying.
533
00:32:40.539 --> 00:32:45.079
Kelly told Detective Keir Sheffield about her altercation with the
534
00:32:45.140 --> 00:32:47.940
client in the van and how the same man had
535
00:32:47.980 --> 00:32:51.859
picked up her friend. With this breakthrough of finally finding
536
00:32:51.900 --> 00:32:55.619
a witness, the task force rushed in a forensic artist
537
00:32:55.940 --> 00:32:58.230
to create a sketch of the suspect.
538
00:32:59.609 --> 00:33:01.990
And Kelly told her he's a white guy with a
539
00:33:02.009 --> 00:33:05.730
chubby face, he's wearing glasses, and she really gave an
540
00:33:05.990 --> 00:33:06.930
awesome description.
541
00:33:07.369 --> 00:33:08.380
I was ecstatic.
542
00:33:08.599 --> 00:33:11.759
I just felt that we were getting closer now. We
543
00:33:11.779 --> 00:33:12.619
were getting closer.
544
00:33:12.680 --> 00:33:13.660
We had something.
545
00:33:14.500 --> 00:33:18.809
So we now have a drawing of Kelly, We have
546
00:33:18.829 --> 00:33:21.950
the type of vehicle and color that he was driving.
547
00:33:22.130 --> 00:33:24.250
We're excited about this. This is the best type of
548
00:33:24.309 --> 00:33:25.950
information that you could hope for.
549
00:33:26.869 --> 00:33:29.829
By now, the police had drawn up a profile of
550
00:33:29.890 --> 00:33:34.069
their serial killer. Detective Keir Sheffield was asked by her
551
00:33:34.150 --> 00:33:37.890
superiors to update them on the investigation.
552
00:33:38.769 --> 00:33:40.839
I said, this guy, you know, he starts off, he's
553
00:33:40.880 --> 00:33:45.579
only doing white females, and now we're getting Hispanic females.
554
00:33:46.589 --> 00:33:51.190
but he's never done an African American female. The following day,
555
00:33:51.210 --> 00:33:55.329
my chief of police decided to do a press release,
556
00:33:56.029 --> 00:33:57.589
and he put the information out.
557
00:33:58.490 --> 00:33:59.829
And it came out in the newspaper.
558
00:34:01.269 --> 00:34:05.009
So on the 12th of September, Suff had a sinister
559
00:34:05.049 --> 00:34:09.630
surprise in store. He picked up a black sex worker,
560
00:34:09.650 --> 00:34:14.190
30-year-old Catherine MacDonald, stabbed and strangled her, then left her
561
00:34:14.309 --> 00:34:18.889
on a deserted building site 40 miles south in Lake Elsinore.
562
00:34:20.269 --> 00:34:23.070
I think he was thumping his nose at us, saying,
563
00:34:23.639 --> 00:34:26.570
you don't know what I like. You can't guess who
564
00:34:26.630 --> 00:34:29.380
I'm going to do next, and I'm a free man
565
00:34:29.440 --> 00:34:29.679
out here.
566
00:34:29.699 --> 00:34:30.920
I think he was taunting us.
567
00:34:31.900 --> 00:34:35.079
Suff repeated many of the hallmarks he used in his
568
00:34:35.179 --> 00:34:38.360
previous killings so that the police could be in no
569
00:34:38.440 --> 00:34:42.199
doubt as to whose handiwork this was. But in his
570
00:34:42.260 --> 00:34:46.309
haste to show off, he also unwittingly left clues.
571
00:34:47.289 --> 00:34:51.769
Where Catherine MacDonald was laid was an area that had
572
00:34:51.809 --> 00:34:54.360
a lot of fresh dirt, which is very conducive to
573
00:34:54.400 --> 00:34:59.019
cars driving over it and leaving very good tire track impressions. Forensically,
574
00:34:59.059 --> 00:35:01.360
there was a lot of information just in the tire
575
00:35:01.389 --> 00:35:02.269
tracks and shoe prints.
576
00:35:03.190 --> 00:35:07.389
What investigators didn't realize was that on the very same day,
577
00:35:07.489 --> 00:35:11.889
their serial killer was hiding in plain sight. Two newly
578
00:35:11.949 --> 00:35:15.860
appointed members of the task force were visiting the council
579
00:35:15.920 --> 00:35:19.980
warehouse Suff worked at to collect new office furniture when
580
00:35:20.019 --> 00:35:21.420
their pagers went off.
581
00:35:22.489 --> 00:35:25.190
They asked Bill Suff if they could use his telephone
582
00:35:25.230 --> 00:35:29.670
to call dispatch, and Bill Suff said, sure. And while
583
00:35:29.710 --> 00:35:33.050
Bill Suff was nearby watching them, these investigators were taking
584
00:35:33.110 --> 00:35:36.610
down notes on the very body, on the very person,
585
00:35:36.820 --> 00:35:40.719
the victim, that he had killed the day before. You
586
00:35:40.739 --> 00:35:44.719
can just imagine the euphoria that he felt, the feeling
587
00:35:44.739 --> 00:35:47.699
that he was smarter than us, and we had no
588
00:35:47.820 --> 00:35:48.719
idea that it was him.
589
00:35:50.090 --> 00:35:54.050
Whilst the smug killer relished watching the police run around
590
00:35:54.110 --> 00:35:58.150
in circles, trying to work out who was behind the slayings,
591
00:35:58.730 --> 00:36:04.019
at home, things were beginning to slip. Suf was, once again,
592
00:36:04.440 --> 00:36:06.039
struggling with being a father.
593
00:36:06.679 --> 00:36:10.900
So history almost repeats itself here, and this is a
594
00:36:10.940 --> 00:36:14.219
very toxic, a very dangerous environment into which to bring
595
00:36:14.260 --> 00:36:17.809
a child because he doesn't possess those feelings of attachment
596
00:36:17.889 --> 00:36:21.550
and warmth and love that make most fathers put the
597
00:36:21.610 --> 00:36:23.130
needs of their child first.
598
00:36:23.889 --> 00:36:27.710
Cheryl threatened to leave Suff because of the abuse he'd
599
00:36:27.769 --> 00:36:32.300
subjected their daughter to. But manipulative as ever, he asked
600
00:36:32.340 --> 00:36:35.460
for one more chance to change his ways, and she
601
00:36:35.519 --> 00:36:36.619
decided to stay.
602
00:36:37.440 --> 00:36:40.360
Bill was pleading with Cheryl to get back with him.
603
00:36:40.420 --> 00:36:42.940
He was making all kinds of promises. They had gotten
604
00:36:43.059 --> 00:36:46.170
an apartment now in the city of Colton, and she
605
00:36:46.230 --> 00:36:47.389
decided to go back with him.
606
00:36:48.489 --> 00:36:49.230
When she did.
607
00:36:49.719 --> 00:36:52.699
In her own way of offering him a present, she
608
00:36:52.760 --> 00:36:56.349
had bought a pair of Converse shoes for him for Christmas,
609
00:36:57.369 --> 00:36:59.289
and she had given him those shoes as an early
610
00:36:59.329 --> 00:37:00.050
Christmas present.
611
00:37:01.030 --> 00:37:04.679
But there was no sign of Suff the serial killer stopping.
612
00:37:05.219 --> 00:37:08.719
Seven weeks later, on the 30th of October, he took
613
00:37:08.760 --> 00:37:15.800
his 11th known victim, 35-year-old sex worker Delia Zamora. Then
614
00:37:15.900 --> 00:37:20.159
barely two months later, on the 23rd of December, Suf
615
00:37:20.239 --> 00:37:25.639
lured 39-year-old Eleanor Casares into his van in broad daylight.
616
00:37:26.880 --> 00:37:30.920
He's becoming incredibly brazen. The fear of getting caught does
617
00:37:31.000 --> 00:37:33.400
not seem to be something that is on his radar.
618
00:37:33.739 --> 00:37:36.820
He's really engaging in some quite risky behavior.
619
00:37:37.679 --> 00:37:41.159
Saf killed Eleanor and took her to an orange grove
620
00:37:41.219 --> 00:37:45.349
just a street away from the Riverside Police Station. He
621
00:37:45.429 --> 00:37:49.769
left her body there to taunt the task force investigators.
622
00:37:50.530 --> 00:37:55.949
Yet again, strangulation, yet again, dumped, and now part of
623
00:37:55.969 --> 00:37:57.920
the signature, a breast is cut off.
624
00:37:59.150 --> 00:38:02.110
Just two hours later, her body was found by an
625
00:38:02.289 --> 00:38:05.469
orchard worker, and the police were called to the scene.
626
00:38:06.260 --> 00:38:10.440
Once again, though, Suff slipped up, leaving footprints and tire
627
00:38:10.500 --> 00:38:13.760
tracks in the dirt. He'd been wearing the new shoes
628
00:38:13.860 --> 00:38:15.780
Cheryl had given him as a gift.
629
00:38:16.980 --> 00:38:20.659
I was able to identify that these are Converse tennis
630
00:38:20.699 --> 00:38:24.710
shoes because that's how good the impression was. And from there,
631
00:38:24.750 --> 00:38:26.989
I was able to tell that there were three different
632
00:38:27.030 --> 00:38:29.789
types of tires on this vehicle and where those tires
633
00:38:30.150 --> 00:38:32.429
were located, where the different types were.
634
00:38:33.269 --> 00:38:38.090
Having known Eleanor personally, this was a particularly difficult time
635
00:38:38.360 --> 00:38:40.179
for Detective Keir Sheffield.
636
00:38:41.019 --> 00:38:42.519
I wanted to make sure that I was there with
637
00:38:42.539 --> 00:38:44.739
the coroner when he told the mother and the children.
638
00:38:45.659 --> 00:38:50.090
And the brothers were absolutely out of their minds. They
639
00:38:50.130 --> 00:38:52.989
wanted to grab guns and hit the streets. And I said,
640
00:38:53.409 --> 00:38:56.710
please don't. I said, I considered Eleanor a friend, so
641
00:38:56.730 --> 00:38:59.250
I'm asking you, just let us handle this for the
642
00:38:59.309 --> 00:39:00.949
next few weeks and let's see what.
643
00:39:00.849 --> 00:39:01.369
We can do.
644
00:39:02.550 --> 00:39:06.829
Detective Keir Sheffield was determined to get the extra resources
645
00:39:06.949 --> 00:39:10.789
necessary to finally get this killer off her streets.
646
00:39:11.869 --> 00:39:15.889
Had it been college students that had been at least
647
00:39:15.889 --> 00:39:18.719
100 detectives on this case, all power would have been
648
00:39:18.760 --> 00:39:20.929
out there on that. I just felt like a slap
649
00:39:20.969 --> 00:39:24.739
in the face because it's like saying, well, okay, it's
650
00:39:24.760 --> 00:39:26.820
just prostitutes, so we'll give it.
651
00:39:26.800 --> 00:39:29.230
Our best shot, but we're not going to give it 100%.
652
00:39:29.269 --> 00:39:30.010
And I.
653
00:39:32.610 --> 00:39:36.969
Was absolutely livid. I went to the chief and I said, listen,
654
00:39:38.159 --> 00:39:39.219
here's what we need to do.
655
00:39:39.239 --> 00:39:44.639
Her chief agreed to launch a week-long intensive police operation
656
00:39:44.659 --> 00:39:47.059
in Riverside's Red Light District.
657
00:39:48.090 --> 00:39:51.789
We decided to call it Operation Apprehension. I put a
658
00:39:51.829 --> 00:39:57.130
picture of the suspect, and I said he will be
659
00:39:57.190 --> 00:40:01.400
on University Avenue. If you see this individual and he's
660
00:40:01.460 --> 00:40:03.519
trying to pick up a prostitute, stop him.
661
00:40:04.619 --> 00:40:09.300
On the 9th of January, 1992, the operation paid off.
662
00:40:10.239 --> 00:40:15.769
A police motorcyclist followed Saff's van down University Avenue. A
663
00:40:15.849 --> 00:40:19.469
short while later, he witnessed the vehicle make an illegal
664
00:40:19.550 --> 00:40:21.349
turn and pulled it over.
665
00:40:22.880 --> 00:40:26.579
He gets Suff's driving license, which is out of date.
666
00:40:27.380 --> 00:40:32.719
The vehicle registration is out of date. So he then
667
00:40:32.800 --> 00:40:36.000
starts to take a vague look in the van, where
668
00:40:36.019 --> 00:40:39.030
he discovers, among other things, a fishing knife with what
669
00:40:39.070 --> 00:40:42.050
looks like blood on it, not to mention all kinds
670
00:40:42.090 --> 00:40:46.349
of other stuff. The traffic cop knows what the police
671
00:40:46.409 --> 00:40:50.440
sketch of the possible serial killer is, and stuff looks, well,
672
00:40:51.059 --> 00:40:54.400
really quite like it. So now he calls for backup.
673
00:40:55.440 --> 00:40:58.239
The phone call came, and I asked the officer, tell
674
00:40:58.280 --> 00:41:01.820
me what the driver's side front tire was.
675
00:41:03.510 --> 00:41:06.510
And he looked down, and he told me. And I
676
00:41:06.550 --> 00:41:09.250
had a chart of exactly what tire was in what
677
00:41:09.289 --> 00:41:12.309
position on the vehicle. I then asked him.
678
00:41:12.289 --> 00:41:16.570
To go to the passenger side rear vehicle and tell
679
00:41:16.610 --> 00:41:18.210
me what the tire brand was.
680
00:41:19.320 --> 00:41:21.320
When he did that, I said, freeze the scene.
681
00:41:22.960 --> 00:41:27.840
Now, Suf is taken into custody, and the interrogation begins.
682
00:41:29.469 --> 00:41:32.429
Early in the morning, I got a phone call from
683
00:41:32.750 --> 00:41:34.510
my partner. He goes, Bob, we got him.
684
00:41:35.030 --> 00:41:35.610
I said, what do you have?
685
00:41:35.630 --> 00:41:36.510
He goes, we got him.
686
00:41:36.710 --> 00:41:37.469
He's in custody.
687
00:41:38.929 --> 00:41:40.170
And I couldn't believe it.
688
00:41:40.170 --> 00:41:41.030
I got goosebumps.
689
00:41:41.070 --> 00:41:42.539
I mean, it was just, it's one of those.
690
00:41:42.460 --> 00:41:45.639
Feelings that I'm not sure what you can equate it to,
691
00:41:46.559 --> 00:41:48.360
but it was just enormous.
692
00:41:49.780 --> 00:41:54.590
Detective Keir Sheffield confronted Suff with the damning evidence that
693
00:41:54.639 --> 00:41:57.210
proved he had been at the Orange Grove.
694
00:41:58.269 --> 00:41:59.929
He goes, yeah, I went out to pick some oranges.
695
00:42:00.110 --> 00:42:00.769
On your way to work?
696
00:42:01.070 --> 00:42:01.349
Yeah.
697
00:42:02.210 --> 00:42:06.090
And as I'm interviewing, he goes, I found a body.
698
00:42:06.780 --> 00:42:08.610
I said, oh, you found a body out there in
699
00:42:08.650 --> 00:42:11.809
the orange groves. Yeah, he said I found a body.
700
00:42:12.380 --> 00:42:15.239
I asked myself, who in their right mind, finding a body,
701
00:42:15.539 --> 00:42:16.239
would go on to work?
702
00:42:17.039 --> 00:42:21.539
Suff then decided to stop talking and never admitted his guilt.
703
00:42:22.059 --> 00:42:25.599
But when his apartment was searched, the police found another
704
00:42:25.679 --> 00:42:29.050
pair of sneakers that matched shoe prints left at some
705
00:42:29.070 --> 00:42:32.869
of the other crime scenes. Most damning of all, the
706
00:42:32.949 --> 00:42:36.630
same grey carpet from Suff's van was linked to fibres
707
00:42:36.710 --> 00:42:40.269
found on seven of the bodies, and his DNA matched
708
00:42:40.329 --> 00:42:42.809
profiles discovered on eight of the women.
709
00:42:43.730 --> 00:42:45.190
We even had some cat hair.
710
00:42:45.929 --> 00:42:48.530
At some of the more recent crime scenes, and we
711
00:42:48.590 --> 00:42:51.949
ultimately tied that into the cat Mr.
712
00:42:51.989 --> 00:42:53.760
Suff had in his apartment at the time that he
713
00:42:53.800 --> 00:42:54.360
was arrested.
714
00:42:55.380 --> 00:43:00.219
On the 25th of March, 1995, Bill Suff finally stood
715
00:43:00.320 --> 00:43:04.000
trial at the Riverside Hall of Justice and pleaded not
716
00:43:04.079 --> 00:43:09.880
guilty to 13 counts of murder. Deputy District Attorney Paul
717
00:43:09.980 --> 00:43:13.340
Zellerbach presented the case for the prosecution.
718
00:43:14.570 --> 00:43:19.110
I called 271 witnesses to testify during that trial. We
719
00:43:19.150 --> 00:43:23.889
had over 1,000 pieces of evidence. The trial lasted seven months,
720
00:43:24.570 --> 00:43:27.860
and it was all a lot of circumstantial evidence.
721
00:43:28.920 --> 00:43:33.679
But on the 19th of July, 1995, the jury finally
722
00:43:33.760 --> 00:43:37.440
delivered their verdict, finding him guilty on 12 of the
723
00:43:37.440 --> 00:43:41.719
13 counts. He was also found guilty of the attempted
724
00:43:41.800 --> 00:43:46.360
murder of Rhonda Jetmore. On the murder of Cherie Pazur,
725
00:43:46.659 --> 00:43:50.489
they were unable to make a unanimous decision, despite Suf's
726
00:43:50.570 --> 00:43:54.590
semen being found inside her. The water from the sprinklers
727
00:43:54.650 --> 00:43:58.159
at the garden where she was found had potentially destroyed
728
00:43:58.320 --> 00:44:04.139
vital evidence. On the 10th of October, 1995, Bill Suff
729
00:44:04.179 --> 00:44:10.110
was sentenced to death. Despite a successful result, Detective Keir Sheffield,
730
00:44:10.369 --> 00:44:13.309
who'd been close to some of the victims, couldn't help
731
00:44:13.369 --> 00:44:16.969
but feel a sense of unease. She firmly believed that
732
00:44:17.070 --> 00:44:19.989
Suff was guilty of Sherry's murder, too.
733
00:44:21.309 --> 00:44:24.630
That's the one case that the jury hung on, and
734
00:44:24.690 --> 00:44:27.610
they hung on it because she had two deposits of semen.
735
00:44:28.440 --> 00:44:32.099
I was hugging Sheree Pacer's grandmother, and I whispered in
736
00:44:32.159 --> 00:44:35.219
her ear, you and I know he did this. You
737
00:44:35.260 --> 00:44:38.940
heard all the physical evidence, so let your mind be
738
00:44:39.000 --> 00:44:41.710
rest assured and let your heart be at ease, because
739
00:44:41.750 --> 00:44:44.349
he's going to die for all the others, and he'll
740
00:44:44.369 --> 00:44:45.170
die for her, too.
741
00:44:47.030 --> 00:44:51.110
Suff remains on death row at San Quentin State Prison
742
00:44:51.289 --> 00:44:52.269
in California.
743
00:44:53.550 --> 00:44:56.800
I firmly believe he's going to hell. There's too much...
744
00:44:58.949 --> 00:45:02.199
He had a look in his eyes that just, it
745
00:45:02.260 --> 00:45:06.909
was so scary. It was an evil look. I'm basically
746
00:45:06.929 --> 00:45:07.789
the one that got away.
747
00:45:09.000 --> 00:45:13.510
Suff spread fear amongst vulnerable women on the streets of Riverside.
748
00:45:14.179 --> 00:45:19.230
He attacked his own children, brutally beating his two-month-old daughter
749
00:45:19.449 --> 00:45:23.590
to death. He murdered and mutilated 12 women, and the
750
00:45:23.650 --> 00:45:27.889
police suspect he had many more victims. That makes Bill
751
00:45:28.010 --> 00:45:31.289
Suff one of the world's most evil killers.