Christopher Wilder

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Christopher Bernard Wilder aka " The Beauty Queen Killer " (born March 13, 1945 in Sydney , New South Wales , Australia , † April 13, 1984 in Colebrook , New Hampshire , USA ) was an Australian serial killer who traveled in 1984 through the United States and kidnapped and murdered at least eight young women.

Life

Christopher Wilder was on 13 March 1945 as the eldest son of a US Navy - officer born and an Australian. He was inconspicuous in his childhood until, at the age of 17, he was arrested with friends for raping a young woman on Sydney Beach. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year probation and treatment with electroshock therapy . At 23 he married a woman who left him eight days later.

In 1969 he emigrated to Florida , USA, because he was threatened with trial for a sexual offense. Using the pretext of looking for models for an agency as a photographer , he picked up two 15-year-old girls from the beach, then tied them up and photographed them in immoral poses. He was only able to leave the country because his parents took over the guarantee for him. He bought a house, took part in car races and discovered his hobby as a photographer. In 1971 he was fined for trying to get women to have him photographed naked. Shortly afterwards, he was arrested again and put on trial for forcing a female student to have oral sex . However, he was acquitted by a jury . Three years later he posed as "David Pierce" looking for models to sign. He drugged and sexually abused a young girl who trusted him . On March 20, 1984, under the same pretext, he kidnapped a 19-year-old from Tallahassee , with whom he drove to a hotel in Bainbridge, Georgia , where he raped and tortured her . Among other things, he taped her eyes shut. But she screamed so loud that other hotel guests kept an eye out and Wilder fled. Alarmed by the girl's testimony, the local sheriff sent out patrols to look for an off-white Chrysler Sedan and sent notices to other states.

Always under the pretext of being a photographer and looking for models for an agency, Wilder lured young women to remote places in order to then rape and murder them. He received the name “Beauty Queen Killer” from the press because he only looked out for younger girls and women. So was z. B. one of his victims, Elizabeth Kenyon, winner of the "Orange Bowl Princess" title and finalist in the "Miss Florida 1982" election. On April 3, 1984, because of the short distances between the crimes and the cruelty of his murders, he was included in the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives ( FBI ) list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives .

Victim

Proven victims

  • Rosario Gonzales, 20, Florida
  • Elizabeth Kenyon, 23, Florida
  • Terry Ferguson, 21, Florida
  • Suzanne Logan, 21, Oklahoma
  • Terry Diane Walden, 24, Texas
  • Sheryl Bonaventura, 21, Utah
  • Michelle Korfman, 17, California
  • Beth Dodge, 33, New York

Suspected victims

  • Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock were murdered on a remote beach in Sydney in 1965. Wilder is considered one of the prime suspects.
  • Mary Opitz, 17, of Fort Myers, Florida was last seen on January 16, 1981 at the Edison Mall in Fort Myers. There is still no trace of her to this day. However, since Mary Hare disappeared in the same place just under a month later and was found stabbed, the authorities assume a crime here too, especially since witnesses testified to have seen Christopher Wilder.
  • Mary Hare, 18, was last seen on February 11, 1981 at Edison Mall. Her heavily decayed body was found in Lehigh Acres in June 1981 . She had been stabbed. Authorities believe that Christopher Wilder was responsible for the murder, as witnesses testified that they saw him in the "Edison Mall".
  • The body of 19-year-old Melody Gay was found floating in a canal in Florida on March 10, 1984.
  • Colleen Orsborn, 15, was last seen at Daytona Beach on March 19, 1984 . Witnesses said they saw Christopher Wilder that day. A classmate also testified that a man whom she identified as Christopher Wilder from photos offered Colleen $ 100 for photos. Her body was found a few days later, but remained unidentified for 27 years. It was not until 2011 that she could be identified as Colleen Orsborn using DNA analysis .

Survivors

  • On April 4, 1984, he forced Tina Marie Risico, 16, of Torrance to travel hundreds of miles around the country with him and help him with some of his murders. After Beth Dodge's murder, he took her to Boston Logan Airport , gave her enough money to fly home, and said goodbye.
  • Dawnette Wilt, 16, of Gary was abducted on April 7, 1984, raped and tortured several times. Wilder tried to strangle the girl in a forest near Penn Yan . Because of her fierce resistance, he stabbed her several times in the stomach and back with a knife, whereupon she pretended to be dead. When Wilder left, she dragged herself to a street and was taken to the hospital by a driver. There she provided the police with important information (e.g. that Wilder was on his way to Canada ).

Attempted arrest and death

On Friday April 13, 1984, Christopher Wilder was recognized and arrested by officers Wayne Fortier and Leo Jellison at a gas station in Colebrook , New Hampshire , twelve miles from the Canadian border . When Wilder drew a pistol , there was a scuffle, with two shots fired: the first bullet injured Wilder and hit a police officer in the chest, the second hit Wilder in the heart and killed him immediately. Officially, his death is considered a suicide .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lyda Longa, Chris Graham: Relatives of slain Daytona teen say death sent shockwave through family , The Daytona Beach News-Journal, April 12, 2012, accessed January 2, 2018. (English)

literature

  • AC Carlisle: The Dark Side of the Serial-Killer Personality. In: Louis Gerdes (Ed.): Serial Killers. Greenhaven Press, San Diego, CA 2000.
  • Michael Cartel: Disguise of Sanity: Serial Mass Murderers. Pepperbox Books, Toluca Lake, CA 1985.
  • Stephen Egger: Serial Murder: An Elusive Phenomenon. Praeger, Westport, CT 1990.
  • David Everitt: Human Monsters. Contemporary Books, New York 1993.
  • Bruce Gibney: The Beauty Queen Killer. Pinnacle, New York 1984.
  • Eric Hickey: Serial Murderers and Their Victims. 3. Edition. Wadsworth 2001.
  • Earl James: Catching Serial Killers. International Forensic Services, Lansing, MI 1991.
  • Michael, Newton: The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. Checkmark, New York 2000.
  • Louis B. Schlesinger: Serial Offenders: Current Thought, Recent Findings. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL 2000.
  • Mark Seltzer: Serial Killers: Death and Life in America's Wound Culture. Routledge, New York 1998.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wilder, Christopher
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wilder, Christopher Bernard (full name); Pierce, David (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian serial killer
DATE OF BIRTH March 13, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Sydney , New South Wales, Australia
DATE OF DEATH April 13, 1984
Place of death Colebrook , New Hampshire, USA