LA Forensics: The Signature Murders

BY Katherine Ramsland
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Shocking Discovery

Garcia Crime Scene

A woman called 911 to offer a report about going to see her sister, who was out of town, then going
inside her sister's apartment and seeing a mess. It wasn't clear at first what the emergency was, but the
operator gently led her through it. Sometimes people in shock can't quite articulate what they need.
Yet the caller asked for the police. She believed something terrible had happened inside.
The operator established that the woman's sister was not present at the address, 1811 North Garfield
Place in Los Angeles. It was a residential area with several apartment buildings between Hollywood
Boulevard and Franklin Avenue. The caller gave her name as Marguerite and said she was calling from
the phone of a neighbor.

Detective John Thacker

Then a male called to report a death at the same address. Patrol officers were sent to secure the scene
and determine what additional personnel should come.
The callers turned out to be a woman and her nephew the victim's son who, late that afternoon,
April 6, 1998, had gone together to the one-bedroom, ground-floor apartment where Luis Garcia lived.
Luis was married to Marguerite's sister, Isabel Rodriguez, and Marguerite and Luis Jr. had hoped to
greet her as she arrived home from a trip across the country. They had noticed that the front security
door was partially open, which alarmed them, because Luis Sr. always kept it locked. Then Luis Jr.
found the front door behind it unlocked as well.

Cautiously, they entered, but when they saw that the room was in a state of disarray, with Luis Garcia
lying on his back on the living room floor, they feared he might be dead, so they exited and made their
calls. Then Isabel arrived about half an hour later and saw that Luis was dead. (One report indicates
she arrived four hours later.)

Detective Thomas Small

An ambulance and a paramedic crew arrived at the scene. They found a cord tied tightly around Luis's
neck and he was cold and still, with no pulse; they pronounced him dead. The scene was secured and
detectives were notified. One pair took the witnesses to the department for questioning.
Hollywood Homicide Detective John Thacker arrived on the scene with his partner, Detective Thomas
Small. They could see that a struggle had ensued and there were signs that the apartment had been
burglarized. This neighborhood had some gang-related crimes in the streets but not murders of this
nature. They called in the Scientific Investigation Division (SID) to collect evidence for processing.
Before they arrived, the detectives looked around, unaware yet that this was just the beginning of a
more intricate crime.

The First Crime Scene

Luis Garcia's body lay near a daybed in the living room, his head nearly underneath. Given the
apparent spattering of blood in various places, and the fresh bruises on the victim's face, it appeared
that he'd put up a fierce struggle against his attacker. He'd been strangled with the cord of a clock radio
a weapon from the scene so it seemed possible that the killer had intended only to burglarize the
place, not to commit murder. Still, he didn't flee or disable his victim; he killed him and then took his
time ransacking several rooms. But how had he gotten past the locked doors?

Nichols Crime Scene

The apartment's rear west window was partially open, with the screen removed and placed inside,
suggesting that this was the killer's likely point of entry. A sheet that lay over the couch in front of the
window appeared to have been slightly disturbed.
Below the window outside were a row of gas meters. The detectives spotted a folding knife lying on
top of one, with the blade exposed, suggesting it had been used to pry off the screen. They made a note
to look for footprints and fingerprints outside.
All of this implied that the intruder was a stranger, not someone who could have gained entry to the
home more easily. He'd probably left through the front door, which accounted for it being unlocked
and partially open.
In support of the burglary-gone-bad theory, the door of a cabinet in the living room stood ajar and a
jewelry box sat open on a love seat; there was nothing inside. In addition, a television and VCR had
been removed from a shelf and left on the floor. Apparently, the burglar had decided against taking
them.
Next to the daybed was a desk, on which there were splotches that looked like blood. The desk chair
was on the floor, knocked over, and the top of the desk was cracked, as if during the hypothesized
struggle, someone had fallen heavily onto it.
There were more red spots on the cuff and arm of a shirt and a denim jacket, and several in multiple
locations around the room. Oddly, near the victim's right foot lay a black leather belt, loosely coiled,
which had no apparent purpose. Perhaps the perpetrator had thought about using it to strangle the
victim and decided instead on the clock radio cord. In that case, he might have left his fingerprints on
the belt.
In the bedroom, dresser drawers had been pulled, with the contents moved around. In some, there were
bloodstained items. A coin holder was knocked over and pennies were scattered around. Of the two
beds, one was turned down as if someone had been sleeping in it. It appeared from the position of
several empty hangers that items of clothing had been taken.
A trail of blood drops in the hall, along the wall, led Detective Thacker to the small bathroom, where
he found blood drops on the sink. It appeared that the intruder had cut himself, which was good news,
because they could collect blood samples to match to a suspect, whenever they developed one. This
was the type of evidence that solved cases.

"Based on the totality of the circumstances," said Detective Small, "with the scuffle and all the blood
throughout the crime scene, we were pretty confident that the suspect had left his blood inside this
location."
The kitchen was the only room that appeared untouched. Once the detectives checked out the scene,
which they considered "evidence rich," they turned it over to the criminalistics team.

Processing for Prints

The photographers went through first to photograph everything in the position in which it lay. Then
after a walk-through to see the layout of the scene, a pair of latent print specialists went through the
apartment to find and lift fingerprints. As with any inside scene, there would be plenty of prints from
people who resided there. Some would be smudged or partial and others would be clear. What they
hoped was that the intruder had come without gloves and had touched something in such a way that he
would have left clear prints from more than one finger. That was the best case scenario.

Examining Fingerprints
They were able to lift around 30 fingerprints, which they carefully packed for analysis. The deceased's
prints would be rolled at the autopsy for comparison, and detectives would collect prints from anyone
else who might have been in the apartment.
For about a century, this has been the best evidence for the identification of an offender. Our fingertips
are covered with ridges and valleys, some of which make continuous lines, some of which stop, some
of which divide, and some of which make other kinds of formations like arches, pockets and dots.
These patterns are classified into four basic groups, with subgroups, making eight overall pattern
types. Comparisons are made by finding a similarity on several points between the lifted print
(questioned sample) and those taken from a person (known sample). The more points of similarity
there are the better, but only one dissimilar point is sufficient to negate a match between the known
and questioned samples.
Ridged skin leaves impressions thanks to tiny sweat glands hidden within. Sweat mixes with amino
acids, creating a substance that leaves a residue. Touching any surface transfers the perspiration
present in the ridge and valley patterns, leaving an impression of the minutiae. Or the person might
touch something that clings to the skin, such as cooking spray or ink, and thereby leave an impression.
Depending on how much surface there is and how many points of similarity, the impression can be
sufficient to provide a lead. If the impression is not visible but can be made so with a specific
technique, it's called a latent print.

Making a latent print visible depends on the type of material on which it was left. The more irregular
or absorbent the surface, the more difficult it is to lift a good print, although many advances have made
in this regard.
Initially, prints were developed on nonporous surfaces with fine, gray-black dusting powder, applied
with a soft brush; this technique is still practiced today. The excess powder is carefully blown off,
leaving a clear impression from the powder that adheres to the oils. The print is then ready to be
photographed and lifted with a special tape. It's then placed onto a special print card for preservation.
Besides powder, there are other methods, such as the use of chemicals, for surfaces like paper and
cardboard. Then digital imaging was developed, along with Superglue fuming.
Portable light sources can help to locate prints, especially if used with fluorescent chemicals and
powders. Holding light at an angle over a surface provides oblique lighting that can show the presence
of the natural residues of a print.

Print Comparisons
As SID collected fingerprint samples from every surface that might have been relevant to the crime,
such as the knife, the desk, and the dresser drawers, they knew that it would all go into a database. To
compare them for identification purposes, the print technician or detective must first make sure that
prints are taken of everyone who was or who might have been at the scene, including corpses. To take
a print, an ink roller is run over the fingertips and the tips are then pressed against a card with ten
separate spaces, or a person places his or her fingertips against an ink pad and then presses the card.

Expert Compares Prints

Since 1972, fingerprints have been compared and retrieved via computer. By 1989, they could be sent
to other places online. State and local agencies built up automated fingerprint identification systems
(AFIS), and the FBI opened the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), which expedited the
exchange of information among law enforcement agencies. They introduced a standard system of
fingerprint classification (FPC), so that information could be uniformly transmitted from one AFIS
computer to another.
The computer scans and digitally encodes prints into geometric patterns. In less than a second, the
computer can compare a set of ten prints against a half million (although getting matches can take
longer). At the end of the process, it comes up with a list of prints that closely match the exemplars

(the originals). Then the technicians make the final determination via a point-by-point visual
comparison.
At the Garcia scene, many items had the potential for prints, and the technicians collected quite a few,
but only seven were of sufficient quality to put through the AFIS system. Yet fingerprints weren't the
only evidence collected from this scene. At the time, SID was using a new technology.

What's in the Dust?

An electrostatic detection apparatus operates by using a high voltage charge on a lifting film that
causes dust particles to stick to the film's underside. While mostly employed for flat surfaces, it can be
used on fabric, newspaper, and even bodies. With this device, SID technicians could go through Luis
Garcia's apartment in the hope of finding a usable shoe impression, left in the dust.
While footprints made with shoes are considered to be "class characteristic," meaning they can't be
associated with a specific individual, if there's anything unique about the bottom of the soles, such as a
nick, the shoe impression may then yield individualizing traits that can be matched to a suspect's shoe.
If not, SID can at least get the size and shape of the shoe.
The SID team brought in this device and found several prints, although they would have to work to
eliminate people who had been in the home who were not the intruder including paramedics and
crime scene personnel.
Since a shoeprint was not the best type of evidence, but only added something if they had a good
collection of other evidence, it was important to collect evidence that could be tied to a suspect with
such specificity that there would be no doubt. Thus, the blood evidence was their most important focus
at this scene.

Wet Evidence
Criminalists Harry Klann and Patricia Pape arrived to process the evidence. Criminalists operate on the
Locard Principle of Exchange: every contact involves a transfer. In other words, people bring
something to a scene and take something away with them, on their persons.

Harry Klann
Klann and Pape first secured the outside and collected the knife. They also looked for shoeprints,
clothing or items dropped as the intruder left the scene.

Inside, they decided on a search pattern in order to collect evidence in the most organized and efficient
way possible. They could start near the body and work their way outward, or spiral around until they
got to the body. (It's not stated which method they chose.)

Gathering Blood Evidence

There was no need to do a spatter pattern analysis, since they did not need to re-enact any complex
activity, so they would concentrate on extracting DNA. They collected samples from near the victim,
the furniture, items in the drawers, the hallway wall, and especially the bathroom sink. The blood in
the bathroom was the intruder's and not the victim's. In addition, on the floor of the bedroom they
picked up a bloodstained coupon for the department store, JC Penney. In all, they collected about 40
samples.
Historically, among the earliest ways to link a suspect to a victim via physical evidence was through
the analysis of blood types, and at first that meant by isolating blood evidence according to one of the
four major blood types. While not very discriminating, it was better than nothing. Blood typing could
at least eliminate a suspect from having left blood at the scene if his type did not match the sample. As
more research was done on blood, the analysis examined proteins and enzymes present in ratios
specific to individuals.
The discipline of serology, or the analysis of serums, also made another important discovery. Around
eighty percent of the members of the human race were found to be "secretors," which means that the
specific types of antigens, proteins, antibodies, and enzyme characteristic of their blood can be found
in other bodily fluids and tissues. By examining saliva, semen, and even teardrops, analysts can tell the
blood type.
These days, thanks to a discovery in 1986, DNA technology has replaced the tests for specific enzymes
and proteins. Each of the samples collected would be analyzed for its DNA profile. SID had been at the
scene about four hours.
At the Garcia scene, the other piece of evidence of supreme importance was the electrical cord from
the clock radio that had been wrapped around the victim's neck. This offered behavioral evidence, and
could as well provide DNA from sweat on the killer's hands.
The coroner arrived and took charge of the body. It was his opinion, from various signs, that the victim
had been dead for at least twenty-four hours.
As the physical evidence was processed, the detectives started to collect information about the
deceased, to try to determine if he had an enemy or had crossed paths with someone who had reason to
harm him. They also wanted to know when he was last seen alive.

Victimology
Luis Garcia's wife, Isabel Rodriquez, had been on a trip at the time of the murder, going to South
Carolina with her son and some friends to visit her daughter, who was stationed there in the army.
Isabel had been away since April 1. Her husband, who had considered joining her, had instead elected
to remain in LA. She had called him several times on April 5 but he had failed to answer the phone. On
April 6, she had gotten on a plane to return home. At the connecting airport, she had tried calling
again, and still could not reach him.
Arriving in LAX at 2:00 in the afternoon, she called again. He did not pick up, so she called his place
of employment and learned that he had not been there for several days. Worried, she got a friend to
pick her up. When she arrived at home, she met with her sister and nephew, already at the apartment,
then went inside, where she found her husband's body. Her sister had already called the police. Her son
gave the same account.
The detectives believed that Isabel exhibited genuine fear and grief over the incident. She had been
with Luis for twenty years and was thus able to give investigators details about his background.
Luis Garcia, 58, worked as a tailor, immigrating from El Salvador eighteen years before. He had no
enemies, Isabel insisted; he didn't even have many friends because he was a quiet, retiring man. She
could think of no one who would do this.
Nevertheless, there was one possible lead. Luis had recently loaned a large sum of money to a relative,
about $10,000, so it was possible that he'd pressured the man to have it paid back and the relative had
decided to kill him to close the debt. Such motives are not uncommon. Or there might be a drug
connection, common to that area of town. However, those leads came to a dead-end and the detectives
were left with the probability that the incident was nothing more than a random stranger homicide.
Luis's apartment had been selected because it was easy to gain access. In that case, it could be very
difficult to pin this crime on someone.
Isabel said that the clothing Luis was wearing a sweatshirt and thermal long underwear was what
he usually wore to go to bed. Since one of the beds was unmade, it was likely he'd been taking a
midday nap when the intruder had entered through the window. Perhaps he'd been awakened by the
noise and had confronted the man, resulting in a fatal struggle. Oddly, a shirt and the denim jacket
were not his. Apparently, his killer had decided to shed his clothing and take some from the apartment.
Isabel also helped them to determine what had been taken: a couple of rings, a necklace, and about
$900 in cash that Luis usually kept in the apartment. One gold ring could be easily identified because
the name Luis had been carved onto it.
To get an accurate rendering to show to local pawn shops, the detectives had Isabel sit down with a
forensic artist. She described the ring as the artist did a sketch, and once Isabel was satisfied that it
looked right, the detectives had copies made and distributed. Then they waited for the evidence from
the scene to be processed.

Evidence Analysis

Larry Blanton was a supervising criminalist for the LAPD at the time of the Garcia murder. He
explained how they used the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) method for extracting DNA from the
blood samples. "The DNA is relatively stable," he said, "as long as there's no excessive heat or
moisture." DNA testing confirms the source, so most labs no longer do ABO type testing or testing for
species.

Larry Blanton
Nowadays, the lab uses the Kelex process, or the capillary electrophoresis. Once a sample is in the test
tube, they apply a Kelex resin, which binds with the impurities in the blood to get them out of the way.
The resulting DNA is cleaner.
Then the DNA gets extracted from the white blood cells. When the sample is heated in a water bath,
the lab gets a printout of how many nanograms of DNA they have. Next, for about two hours, a
thermal cycler multiplies the sample, making billions of copies by running cycles of higher and lower
temperature changes. The samples are sucked into a needle to travel through a thin capillary, so they
can be detected with a special camera. A laser beam hits the specimens and the software analyzes the
results.

Blanton examines the blood samples

Or, the DNA is placed in a solution over plastic strips, which have DNA probes on them. DNA from
the sample adheres to the probes and when they change color, they indicate the sample's type.
In the Luis Garcia case, SID did two rounds of analysis. The first round involved nine separate blood
stains. Seven matched the victim, one appeared to be a mix that included the victim, and one was

foreign to the victim. "That was the one we were very interested in," says Blanton. "That represents
blood from a person that has fled the scene."
The criminalists were able to convey to the detectives that if they developed a suspect, SID had a
blood sample that could be compared.
The second round of testing involved bloodstains collected from the bedroom. These, too, were foreign
to the deceased. Among the probative items were the store coupon, some tissues, a jewelry box in the
bedroom, and a white shirt in a dresser drawer.
It was a good thing they had the blood evidence, because all of the fingerprints collected that were
usable had been traced back to the victim or to family members.
However, without a suspect, just having DNA meant little. Soon, they ran out of leads.

The Second Scene

Detective Dan Jaramillo

Nine days after Luis's murder, on April 15, and a few blocks away, a similar scene was called in,
around 6:30 in the evening. Another pair of detectives from the same squad, Dan Jaramillo and Lloyd
Perry, went to investigate.
At 5920 Hollywood Boulevard, they found Willie Nichols dead by ligature strangulation. The belt
wrapped around his neck had been pulled so tight his set of false teeth had been forced from his mouth.
His apartment had been ransacked and the pockets on his trousers had been turned inside out. They
were empty.
Willie Nichols, 65, had lived alone, but he had relatives who were able to go through the apartment to
indicate whether property was missing. Among the items they noticed was that Willie's black leather
jacket was missing. Also, a ring, his wallet, and his wristwatch were gone. Yet from the number of beer
and liquor bottles at the scene, and the lack of forced entry, it seemed possible that Willie had known
his attacker and had invited him in.
A woman named Deborah, who knew Willie well, said she had last spoken to him on April 8. In the
habit of speaking to him almost every day, she called again on April 9, but he did not answer the
phone. For the next four days, she called every day, but received no response, which made her worry.
She went over on April 13, but he did not answer the door. She asked the manager of the apartment
complex to check on her friend, but it took until April 15, and a great deal of pleading, to get the
manager to open the door. When she did, she found Willie's body and called the police.

Willie Nichols' former wife, when questioned, said she had spoken with him on April 11, around 10:00
in the evening. He hadn't complained about anything. Another set of friends talked with him at 11:30
that night to invite him to dinner the following day. He'd accepted, but, uncharacteristically, did not
show up. They tried contacting him but were unsuccessful.
A check of Willie's background indicated that he was a drug user, which raised the possibility that the
death was drug-related.

Nichols Crime Scene

Among the victim's belongings were ATM statements. However, the police could find no ATM card,
which indicated that the killer might have taken it away. They notified banks and hoped the killer
would use the card. Then they could track the suspect.
Strangely, a leather belt lay next to the victim, loosely coiled. Even stranger, a collection of items had
been placed on the bed near him: cigarettes, photos, and a toy dinosaur.
The scene was exhaustively dusted for prints. In this case, they were able to get clear fingerprints from
a King Cobra liquor bottle that did not originate with the victim.
At this point, there were two scenes processed by different detectives, so the notion that they were
related had not yet been explored. If it had been, then the coiled belt would have been more significant.
Given the same neighborhood and same MO, it would have appeared as if the same person did both
crimes and left a "signature."

Signature Analysis

Robert Keppel
Understanding a signature involves behavioral analysis: specifically, examining what a perpetrator
does at a scene that's unnecessary to accomplish his or her goal and that appears to be performed to
meet some inner personal need.
Dr. Robert D. Keppel in Washington State was among the first to describe and discuss signature
analysis. He was deeply involved in the Ted Bundy and Green River Killer investigations, had

interviewed Bundy about serial killers, and wrote the definitive book, Signature Killers. To Keppel's
mind, the issue is control. These men are life's losers, who feel powerless and are seeking power
through murder. The need to feel better about themselves generates a compulsion to find and control
victims in a specific way and they act out the same compulsion repeatedly.

Book cover: Signature Killers by Robert D. Keppel

The killer will either use the murder scenario to build sexual tension and ejaculate at the scene, or will
delay release and substitute certain rituals, such as posing the victim, to indicate sexual subservience.
"Signature killers are sexual offenders at the far end of the violence continuum," Keppel says, "who
leave their psychological imprints at crime scenes to gratify their sexual needs." Since what they do
sets their murders or rapes apart, they may provide patterns that indicate how best to hunt them down.
Even when a clever killer tries to throw off the investigation, certain repetitions give him away. As
Keppel explains, "It lies within the very nature of the killer that his signature will be recreated in each
and every murder he commits."
These murders involve progression and escalation. Either they become more intense, with bolder
expression of the ritual, or they are done increasingly more often. The way the killer selects,
approaches, kills and poses a victim reveals his "psychological calling card." Those who can read
signatures have a higher success rate in stopping these criminals.
Even when the MO the way a crime was committed changes from one incident to the next the
signature nevertheless links the crimes and reveals the killers' essential vulnerability. They're
compelled to leave their imprints: Some always choose a victim with the same hairstyle; some always
abuse the corpse after death; some always ejaculate next to the body. At least one liked to leave a
coiled leather belt.

Coiled Belt left at the crime scene.

Whatever the compulsion, it will bemust berepeated. In essence, signature reveals intent, and the intent
is always the same, because it never gets fully satisfied.

ATM Payoff
It wasn't long before detectives learned that someone had been using Willie's ATM card, but the
surprise was that during this period, Willie Nichols had still been alive. The card was used on April 9 at
a bank on 6th Street, and the surveillance video showed a young black man who was clearly not the
decedent. He was wearing a black leather jacket similar to the one missing from Willie's apartment. He
used the card the next day at a 7/11 store on North Vine, and then two blocks from the victim's
residence, he inserted it into an ATM machine on April 11, around midnight just twenty minutes
after the last time someone had spoken with Willie.

DA Carol Rose
Deputy DA Carol Rose later theorized that the perpetrator knew Willie, acquired his ATM card and the
pin number to collect on money, possibly for drugs, so that's why he was in possession of the card and
the PIN number before the victim had died. He might then have gotten the idea to just kill Willie and
keep using the card.
Detectives got the videotapes for analysis. They sharpened the picture until they were able to clearly
see the slender man using the card and walking away. This didn't yield his identity, but it gave them a
way to find out if someone else could tell them who he was.
They made freeze-frame photos, first showing them to the family to see if someone who knew Willie
Nichols might recognize this person. They did not, but they did recognize Willie's leather jacket.
Detectives then prepared "wanted" bulletins with the photo and hung these in strategic places around
the general neighborhood of the murder. Then they had to wait and hope that 1) someone would
recognize him, and
2) any person who recognized him would come to the police. About six weeks passed before they
received significant information.

Urgency

Late in the morning on June 8, 1998, Detective Blake took a call from a male who would not identify
himself. He stated that he had seen the posters and was now in the vicinity of the man pictured. He was
standing in the parking lot of the AIDS Project, LA, at Vine and Fountain.
Blake and McDonough rushed to the address, hoping to catch the man before he walked away. As they
pulled up, they observed a black man who resembled the photo, but he was not wearing the leather
jacket. A security guard identified him as Robert Rose. They took him in for questioning.

Robert Rose
At the station, Detectives Jaramillo and Parry took over. Rose, 43, had a black handbag in his
possession and when they examined the contents, they found a pocketknife, narcotic paraphernalia,
and some paperwork.
Doing a background check turned up a surprise: Rose was a convicted killer. He was currently on
parole for a manslaughter that had occurred in 1989, which had happened during a burglary. In fact,
there was a warrant on him for violating parole, and he had a long history of crimes such as burglary,
theft, trespass, and extortion. He'd been sentenced to thirteen years but had been released after serving
eight.
It was now time to see if their suspect could be placed at Willie Nichols' residence. They took his
fingerprints and sent them to the Latent Print Section of the crime lab, requesting a comparison. They
learned that the match was positive: Rose had left a print on the bottle found in the apartment.
Jaramillo informed Rose of his Miranda Rights and proceeded to talk with him. Rose admitted to being
in the area in April. Shown a photo from the ATM video surveillance, he said it looked like him but
hedged a little before denying that it was him. He also denied knowing Willie or even being near his
apartment complex.
Then Jaramillo pulled out his trump card: fingerprints of the perpetrator found at the scene. At this
point, Rose refused to cooperate any further and the interview had to be stopped. Rose was
nevertheless placed under arrest and taken to the LA County jail.

Joint Investigation
The squad room at Hollywood Homicide was small, and the six detectives who were part of the unit
often sat around comparing notes about their cases. As Jaramillo discussed the progress of the Nichols
case, Thacker and Small started to think it sounded like theirs, which was still unsolved. They looked
at the crime scene photos, comparing them to the photos from their own case and becoming more
convinced that Rose was their guy as well, especially when they saw the coiled belt next to Willie's
body. The incidents were close together, in time and in location, so it appeared that the Luis Garcia

case, which had gone cold, had just heated up especially when they learned about the 1989 killing.
Rose was a serial killer.

Robert Rose
On August 17, Thacker petitioned for a sample of Rose's blood to be compared to the bloodstains
they'd collected from the Garcia crime scene. It took over four months, but on December 31, Larry
Blanton from SID informed Thacker and Small that blood on the store coupon found in Luis's bedroom
included Rose as a possible donor. They would do additional DNA testing at a higher frequency to get
more definitive results.
A grand jury was convened to listen to evidence from both cases, but with only one item of blood
evidence, the jury decided against holding Rose for trial: the evidence was insufficient. So the
detectives awaited further DNA testing and came back with more.
On February 3, 1999, Deputy DA David Brougham filed murder charges with special circumstances,
which meant the possibility of the death penalty. Rose decided to skip the trial and plead guilty to both
murders. He received two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Pure and simple,
his motive for both appeared to be money.
Unfortunately, an explanation for the belts and the objects left next to Willie were never forthcoming.
Indeed, it turned out that Rose had also left a belt at the scene of the 1989 homicide. The meaning
behind this signature remains a mystery. "It was as if Rose left a little bit of himself at each scene,"
said Detective Small.
Deputy DA Carol Rose believed that Rose had intended to use the belts as the strangulation weapons,
because he brought them to the scene; they did not belong to the victims. However, it's too great a
coincidence that all were coiled near the victims, and she's forgetting the odd items placed near Willie
Nichols. It's likely there's something more to the belts then a mere murder weapon, especially since
none were used to kill anyone.
The presence and position of the belts at all three scenes does indicate a compulsion, which led
Detective Thacker to say, "I am certain that he would have continued killing innocent victims had he
not been sent to prison." Without the forensics, the cases would not have been solved.

Sources

Fisher, Barry. Techniques of Crime Scene Investigation, 6th Edition, Boca Raton, FL:CRC
Press, 2000.
Keppel, Robert D. Signature Killers. New York: Pocket, 1997."Investigation of the Serial
Offender: Linking Cases Through Modus Operandi andSignature," in Serial Offenders:
Current Thoughts, Recent Findings, edited by LouisB. Schlesinger, Boca Raton, FL: CRC
Press, 2000.
Kurland, Michael. How to Solve a Murder: The Forensic Handbook. New York: Macmillan,
1995.
Lee, Henry C and Howard A. Harris. Physical Evidence in Forensic Science. Tucson, AZ:
Lawyers & Judges Publishing Company, 2000.
Ramsland, Katherine. The Forensic Science of CSI. New York: Berkeley, 2001.