If VR=EAR, Then EAR=Mt. Whitney HS Class of ‘75
Apr 18, 2018 12:32:41 GMT
rkz, Ranger71, and 2 more like this
Post by winters on Apr 18, 2018 12:32:41 GMT
Unfortunately the case is probably far more complex than that. There were multiple girls that the VR was stalking prolifically, and some of them had little or nothing to do with each other. The Snelling incident does stand out because of the kidnapping attempt obviously, but he was also stalking a nineteen-year-old receptionist, a woman who worked at a hospital, a fourteen-year-old, a beauty pageant winner (and her mother), a thirty-year-old woman, and probably more. With two of those victims, he attempted to enter their home during the night *while they were in it*. Two others received harassing phone calls. And the crime patterns during 1974 and the first half of 1975 are far more indicative of a commuter offender (good POIs have been developed from Exeter and even from outside Tulare County) than a local. Given some of the sightings in the latter half of 1975, I'd even say that a local is unlikely.
I'd caution against taking one data point from a very complex series of crimes and drawing firm conclusions from it, at least in the VR or EAR cases!
Some of the reasons I believe the VR may have been a commuter:
- The ransackings happened almost exclusively from Friday evening to Sunday evening, which suggests someone who may have been somehow unavailable or not present during the week
- Most of his attack clusters seem to feature a starting point from where transportation could be stashed, like Mt. Whitney High School/Conyer Elementary, Royal Oaks Elementary/Houk Park area, Divisadero Middle School/Rotary Park area, College of the Sequoias, or the church on Tulare/Sowell or the church on Giddings/Kaweah. Shoe prints suggested that from some of those points he used the Evan's Ditch or the footpath that bordered State Route 198 to travel (especially to travel to the Redwood/Whitney area from COS or Linda Vista/Gist/Verde Vista). A tracking dog losing his scent in a church parking lot also seems to indicate that he stashed transportation in these types of parking lots.
- Once some good sightings occurred, police aggressively searched the area for the subject but came up empty-handed. It was a fairly small area, and even today it's possible to account for most of the residents in the attack area with a manageable list
- A profiler consulted in 1976 believed that he lived 15 to 20 minutes away and that he most likely lived with an elderly relative or by himself
He certainly still could have lived in the attack zone or could have originated in the attack zone, but those are my reasons for theorizing that he might've been outside of it. Perhaps he just lived in the northern half of time (which was never hit), or perhaps he lived somewhere further south (a weapon stolen in a ransacking was found in a ditch about close to a dozen miles southeast of the attack area, just north of the intersection of Road 164 and Oakdale Avenue/Avenue 256).
As for whether he had his beginnings elsewhere or not, it's possible. When the ransackings started full-force in April 1974, his MO was already in place and it changed very little throughout the time that he offended. He could've been the one responsible for the incidents in 1973 (which included one ransacking), which would suggest a longer interest in the area or even a tie to it. Or he could've been the offender known as the "Cordova Meadows" burglar that was just discovered in Sacramento (NOT the "Cordova Cat Burglar"). If so, it would strengthen the idea that the VR morphed into the EAR by a great deal. The Cordova Meadows Burglar began operating in Rancho Cordova in 1973. He didn’t seem to care whether a resident was home or not for his intrusions, though many of them were done in vacant houses. He also didn’t care whether it was day or night, and was quite a bit messier at crime scenes than the 1972-1973 Cat Burglar was. He extensively ransacked homes, moved women's undergarments around, etc. He stole “coins, piggy banks, jewelry, binoculars, hunting knives (some in scabbards), photographic cameras and movie cameras, two-dollar bills (numerous,) Blue Chip Stamps, handguns, food, alcohol, and prescription medication.” LE also notes that “larger items, most electronics, and other items of value were noted to be disregarded by the suspect.” He sometimes stole photos the women who lived at the house, weapons, and single earrings from a pair, much like the Visalia Ransacker. The physical description matches better than it does for the East Area Rapist. Sometimes he killed the family dog though, which isn't something the VR ever did. So there are some similarities but also some stark differences.
Even if he were a commuter offender, Visalia still could've been the nearest large town (between 20,000 and 30,000 people during the time of the crimes), or he could've decided to offend there because it would be too risky to do it in his hometown (or he'd already been caught doing it there). It seems like one of many viable possibilities to me.
As with all commentary on theories, I reserve the right to change my mind as time goes on