Township of Van Buren, Michigan. Police received an anonymous call reporting a body of a female in an area used as an illegal dumpsite. Patrol officers responded and stopped any vehicles within the area. The officers upon their arrival observed a nude, light-skinned, black female, who appeared to be approximately 25 to 35 years of age. There was evidence of mutilation.
The officers observed tire marks from a vehicle suggesting that the body had been transported to the scene. There was only about a half-pint of blood found beneath the neck area of the victim. The victim had been cut open from the vagina to the sternum. She had deep slashing wounds to the throat and inner thigh. The body was lying spread-eagle on her back. A dismembered breast was lying on the left side of her face. The other breast was placed on her abdomen with an apparently used condom placed on it. An unused condom was located between the victim’s feet. The surrounding area was immediately cordoned off and detectives were notified. All vehicles traveling in the area were stopped and the drivers were identified.
Fig.1 The offender had severed the victim’s breasts from her chest. He placed one breast across her face.
One of the occupants of a vehicle stopped by police appeared to be intoxicated. When the officer asked for identification the subject had difficulty producing his license.
When the officer requested the occupant to exit his vehicle, he observed a gun and a bloodstained knife in the compartment in the door. The subject was arrested at the scene for DWI and possession of a loaded firearm.
The suspect, after being provided with his Miranda warnings, gave an extremely detailed statement that had him traveling from place to place and purchasing pints of vodka and drinking throughout the day. When officers asked him about the gun, blood, and the bloodstained knife and ax found inside his vehicle, he stated he didn’t know anything about them. Later on, investigators discovered that the subject had bought the gun on the street a few weeks earlier.
Fig.2 Close-up of severed breast on victim’s face.
The suspect was brought to the Michigan State Police to take a polygraph test. The suspect confessed to the state police investigator. He admitted to picking up a prostitute, who offered him oral sex for $20. When the victim entered his car, they went to a location to engage in sex, and according to the suspect, she raised the price to $40. There was an argument and a physical altercation. During this argument, the victim was shot and according to the suspect fell to the ground. He stated that he realized she was dead and removed all of her clothes. He then got the knife and ax out of his vehicle and used the knife to cut off her breasts and the ax to chop the victim’s neck and pubic area. The suspect stated he used the victim’s clothes to wipe the blood off the ax and rear seat of his vehicle. He stated that he threw the bloodstained clothing out of the window of his car as he drove away. He stated that he had driven back to the scene to see if anyone had discovered the body when the uniform officer stopped him. Investigators located several pieces of bloodstained clothing along the route the suspect told police he had traveled.
This is a classic case of a disorganized offender, who became a lust murderer as a result of being unable to sexually perform. He then acted out a perverse fantasy with the victim’s body. His confession was obviously bogus based on the forensics and not consistent with the facts of the case. This victim had been transported to the dump location after death and was mutilated postmortem with the implements he had in his car. He removed her breasts and placed them in a position that was significant to him in connection with the dynamics of this event.
Fig.3 The offender had severed the victim’s breast and placed them on her body. The offender was acting out some underlying psychosexual need in what he did.
The deep cuts into her throat are highly suggestive that he was destroying the voice that ridiculed him as he revealed his impotence and couldn’t perform. The position of the body splayed out with the arms over her head and the legs spread open is an important consideration in understanding his need to dominate her sexually. He had eviscerated the woman with a deep cut, which ran from her vagina to her upper chest. He created a sexual presentation and wanted the body discovered to show his superiority over her. The deep cut into her upper right inner thigh was a pathologically sadistic wound.
The placing of one of the woman’s breasts over her face was an act of depersonalization. Axing out the vaginal area and then placing the other breast over the pubis with a used condom on top was another act of defiance and highly suggestive that he was unable to sexually perform and was “making a statement” that he had sexually conquered her by his presentation of the woman’s body. Placing her body at a dumpsite was a further act of humiliation and degradation.
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