Mystery and a Spree Killer

The time.. February 1984. The place.. Miami Florida. At the time Miami was awash in drugs and violence. But at the same time it is a magnet for beautiful people. A very beautiful 20 year old model named Rosario Gonzales suddenly vanishes into thin air while working as a cigarette girl during the Miami Gran Prix. A week later a very attractive 20 year old Miss Florida contestant named Elizabeth Kenyon leaves school one afternoon and disappears into thin air. Beth's Parents contact police and offer a $50,000 reward for her safe return. Two days later police find Beth Kenyon's car at the Miami Airport parked in a location that she couldn't have gotten into.. and the license plates are in the trunk.

The two missing girls make the front page of the Miami news. Somehow everyone knew this story wasn't going to have a happy ending. In the meantime Beth's parents hire a private detective to help with the case. So the private eye meets with her parents and goes over her dairy and photo album. One man immediately stands out.. A man named Chris Wilder. In fact while speaking to her father the private eye learns that Chris Wilder dated Beth and had even proposed. The Private eye further learns that Wilder and Beth were spotted together two days before she disapeared. The private eye then speaks to Wilder's secretary and learns that he had mentioned something about Beth's car being found at the airport.. but only the police knew that fact.

So the private eye calls a detective in a nearby town and has his detective friend run a background check on Wilder. He learns that Wilder is on the run from Australia after having raped a girl over there. But in a move that will haunt them for years to come the police do not bring Wilder in for questioning. So the private eye contacts Chris Wilder and confronts him over the phone. Of course he denies knowing anything about the missing girls. The police are none too pleased with the private eye's interference.

Chris wilder, as it turns out is a 39 year old building contractor and was a driver at the Miami Grand Prix. He is a very flamboyant character who claims to be a professional photographer and likes fast cars and pretty women. Next, the Miami Herald publishes a front page story linking Wilder to both missing girls. Although the private eye warns police that Wilder is about to go on the lam, it is too late.. Wilder leaves town and disappears leading everyone on an across the country chase. The game of cat and mouse has just begun.

On Wednesday, March 14 1984 Chris Wilder heads north on I95, Florida's busiest interstate. He is not in one of his flashy cars but rather a non descript 10 year old family sedan. The very next day a 15 year old girl named Coleen Orsborn skips school to attend a concert in Daytona beach and is never seen again.

Six days later in Haynes city Florida, the body of 16 year old Terry Fergeson is found floating in a snake infested stream. She had been bound hand to feet and the weight of her body in the trunk of Wilder's car had strangled her to death. But as Wilder was dumping her body he got stuck in the sand and had to have a tow truck come pull him out. And he is using a credit card to pay for it but you have to remember this is 1984 before the Internet so transactions aren't tracked as fast as they are today. However when the police track down the tow truck driver and show him a picture of Chris Wilder, their worse nightmares are realized. Chris Wilder has now committed Murder.. his first or so the cops think.

Frustrated FBI agents can only sit and watch since there is no proof that Wilder has crossed state lines. And no one knows where Wilder is heading next. By now the police believe Wilder has killed four women and he is about to strike again. The police have a picture of Wilder at a bank near Tampa but there is nothing they can do as he has already left by the time they arrive. A week after Wilder left south Florida a local sheriff in Alabama gets a call to a local motel. The call is about a local girl named Linda Grover, a 19 year old Florida State student, who had been raped and severely beaten and tortured for hours even having her eyes super glued shut. She recounts her horrific tale for the sheriff who immediately recognizes the handiwork of Chris Wilder. In the room where she and Wilder were staying the room is covered in blood and police find ropes, duct tape and even the hair drier that Wilder had used to try to dry the super glue.

The story begins when a would be photographer approaches her at a Tallahassee mall for a modeling job. Wilder, as it turns out is extremely glib and charming and seems to have a way with the ladies. All the qualities of the worst kind of predator. At any rate she did refuse Wilder advances but he forced her into the car and takes her to a rural Tallahassee area where he beats her nearly to death and then puts her in the trunk of his car. After four or five hours in the trunk of his car he takes her to the motel. While entering the room Wilder makes the comment "this is perfect, nobody can see us." since the room he has selected faces away from the highway. After torturing her for hours with electric shock and various other methods he unties her and that's when she makes her escape. Shortly afterwards, Wilder makes his own escape.

Now that he has crossed state lines the FBI is called in.. for all the good it will do. That remained to be seen. The first thing the FBI agents do is rush to Bainbridge Georgia to interview the victim themselves while she is in the hospital. When they show Linda a photo lineup of Chris wilder she immediately picks him out and their worst fears come true. According to leading psychologists, Christopher Wilder is one of the worst types of predators, skilled at luring in his victims with plenty of charm and charisma. And the only thing the investigators know for sure is that where ever the monster goes bad things are sure to happen.

As a sexual predator Christopher enjoys watching the pain and suffering of his victims and feels absolutely no guilt or remorse for what he has done. He is labeled a spree killer or one who, unlike a serial killer, does not wait for a cooling off period in between his kills. In just four weeks Wilder is believed to have killed four women and assaulted another and so far there is nothing anyone can do about it. When investigators get a hold of a video tape Chris makes for a dating service they get new insight into his disarming facade. By all definitions Christopher Wilder is a full blown psychopath of the worst kind. Digging deeper into Wilder's history the FBI learns he has been decades
in the making having been involved in sex crimes in Australia from his early teens. His past is eerily similar to his current MO. Posing as a photographer and luring pretty young girls to their ultimate demise.

On December 1982, Wilder abducted and assaulted two young girls in Sidney Australia. He was released on bond and allowed to come to Florida while awaiting trial. One can only surmise that he must have figured his crimes there would be relatively easy to prove so he went on this last big killing spree. Now the FBI is desperate to catch him and they realize that until they do some girls and their families are going to go through hell. As Wilder heads westward his rampage only grows. So far all investigators can do is wait for Wilder's next move.

On March 24, 1984 seven days after leaving Miami, Christopher Wilder seems to be winning his game of Cat and Mouse with the authorities. He is now speeding west through Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The problem for investigators is that he is moving so quickly that by the time they catch up he has already moved on and they had no idea where he was going next. Ten Days into the killing spree the FBI issues a Be ON The Lookout (BOLO) for Chris Wilder. Still it is not yet a National concern. Agents are roughly able to track him through his credit cards but they can't catch up. At their closest point they miss him by about an hour. There seems to be no end in sight.

Then, halfway across the country in Beaumont Texas, a 24 year old nurse goes missing. Her name is Teri Walden and she is also very attractive. The agents think that Wilder approached her and asked if she wanted to pose for his camera. When she doesn't show up the next day, her husband calls Beaumont police. The detective who gets the case barely has time to open a file on her when city maintenance workers find her body. She was fully clothed with a ligature tied around her wrists and ankles and three stab wounds to her upper chest area. Rope and duct tape are found nearby along with a paper bag containing a receipt for the rope and duct tape. Shocked Investigators immediately recognize the work of Christopher Wilder. In Beaumont, Wilder abandons his car. It proves that he was there and Agents are getting closer but they still can't catch up.

Later that day the body of an Oklahoma City woman named Susan Logan is found under a tree in Junction City. The Agents again quickly recognize the work of Christopher Wilder. The body count is rising and Wilder is still one step ahead of the authorities. In a risky manuever the FBI keeps the killing spree out of the national media. Now two weeks into the spree a Detective in Grand Junction Colorado is working the case of a 19 year old missing girl who vanished from an upscale mall. Her name is Sheryl Lynn Bonaventura and like the others she is very attractive. As the detective is reviewing the case a teletype comes in over the wire that talks about Christopher Wilder.

Then police get a call from a woman who had a disturbing encounter at the same mall. As she describes her encounter with a strange man who wanted to take her picture. She refused but she says he went all around the mall trying to get young pretty girls to pose for him. These days, most women are wary of smooth talking photographers with big promises. Christopher Wilder is one of the reasons why.

Eighteen days into Wilder's journey, 17 year old Michele Korfman goes missing from a teen fashion show at a local mall. When police rush to the mall to investigate they are stunned to see some pictures of Christopher Wilder lurking in the background. The predator's boldness has reached a new level. Wilder is now believed to have killed eight women across 3000 miles and investigators are still one step behind desperate to catch up.

Out of options and running out of time the Agents change tactics and go public with the story and place Wilder on their top ten Most Wanted List hoping that it will result in his immediate capture. They strategically withhold some information since they recognize they are speaking to the killer as well as the public.

Twenty one days into his spree, Wilder pulls into Torrence California. With his picture now all over the news he has to know he is the subject of an all out manhunt, yet he is still claiming a victim every other day. He is now more of a danger than he ever was before. By now, 21 days after the spree started Wilder has claimed 9 victims across 3000 miles. Having reached the west coast, Wilder's spree takes an unexpected turn.

Victim number 10, 16 year old Tina Marie Risco surprises everyone. This girl is a runaway and no one will know she is missing. Wilder grabs her while he is in Torrence Califorinia and rapes her repeatedly, beats and tortures her savagely. But rather than kill her Wilder decides to keep her as his captive. She copes with her situation by cooperating. There is no question that Wilder would have killed her had she not cooperated. But another thing makes this victim unusual. She has an opportunity to escape but does not take it and no one knows why. Wilder and his passenger turn east.

Six days later they reach Gary Indiana. Now Wilder uses his captor as bait to draw in his next target, Dawnette Wilt. Wilder and the two girls head hundreds of miles east. Wilder eventually stabs Wilt and dumps her body in upstate New York. Next, Wilder zeros in on a victim unlike all the others.

Beth Dodge is 33 years old when he grabs her. Fortunately she has dropped her baby off beforehand. Wilder has only one use for her.. Rape, torture and to kill. After the abuse Wilder puts her on her knees in a field and executes her by shooting her in the head. This is simply an instrumental killing in Wilder's mind, just to get her car and leave no witnesses. This last act makes Wilder even more threatening to a broader spectrum of people. However, Investigators get a new lead on Wilder's whereabouts when Dawnette Wilt, left for dead, stumbles from a field alive. With her information the authorities now have his last location and what kind of a car he was driving.

But his behavior is becoming even more erratic. The same day that Dawnette Wilt is rescued, Wilder pulls into Boston's Logan Airport and lets his captive fly back to her home near Los Angeles. This girl proves to be Wilder's undoing. Tomorrow is Friday the 13th. Are investigators about to catch the predator so he can tell them what he did with the missing or are they in for one last surprise? As the FBI closes in Wilder heads north still hunting victims.

Outside of Beverly Massachusetts he moves in on 19 year old Carol Hilbert. He makes another attempt at picking her up but after a few miles she senses something is wrong and manages to escape. Had she not, there is little doubt that Wilder would have raped and killed her too. Now armed with statements from the women who have survived, investigators believe that Wilder is heading to Canada. The FBI sets up roadblocks leading to the border but it is a needle in a haystack. By now Law enforcement in every state is looking for Wilder and still he manages to allude the authorities.

Wilder now heads north into New Hampshire dumping mementos as he goes. The mementos not only represent what he has done but also to who. But now his car is running low on gas and he stops in Coldbrook New Hampshire, a small town 10 miles from the Canadian border to fill up. While he is there two plain clothes State Troopers notice what appears to them to be suspicious activity. They approach his car and Wilder gets out holding a gun. There is a struggle and Wilder shoots one of the officers in the gut. But the gunfight isn't over. He returns to his car and fires one more time.. Into his own heart.

After 30 days on the run the most wanted man in America is now dead.. and with his death go all the answers as to what happened to the three missing girls and all the answers to all the other crimes he might have committed that law enforcement doesn't know about. For the families of the missing victims the pain and anguish is agonizing. One of the missing, Sheryl Lynn Bonaventura, who was last seen at a Colorado Mall is found two weeks later dead in a field near the border of Arizona and Utah. Like the others she had been raped, beaten, and tortured.

Over the next few days Investigators try to piece together Wilder's Death toll. In the end Wilder is linked to the death or abduction of thirteen women. The Investigators get together and try to retrace his steps over his 8000 mile journey. They do turn up a dead body out of the San Francisco area that they believe to be a victim of Wilders but they can't be sure. During a search of Wilder's car they find Wilder's favorite novel.. "The Collector" by John Fowles. It is a story about a man who abducts a woman and keeps her locked up in his basement waiting for her to fall in love with him. It is a story that Wilder played out in real life over and over again.

Investigators have to wonder how many other unknown victims there are in his collection, not only in this country but in Australia as well. Most investigators strongly believe there are other victims that we will never know about. Nor will they know what happened to the three missing girls whose bodies have never been found. And perhaps the greatest mystery of all.. Why causes a person to become psychopath in the first place. That may remain a mystery forever.