Tracking a serial killer

Tracking a serial killer
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
January 18, 2013

John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, Gary Ridgway, along with many more have been entered into the history books as being among the worst serial killers. There are more but you get the point. These people were evil but there was something twisted in their minds that made them the way they were. Some say they simply didn't have a soul.

While they were going around killing people, thousands of hours were spent trying to find them by law enforcement including the FBI with reporters tagging along trying to get the latest reports to make the print deadline. With all the people involved there were the victims and their families plus communities living in fear while the killers were on the loose.

One of my favorite TV shows is Criminal Minds. I fell in love with the show when it started and have been hooked ever since. While they attempt to call the serial killer they need to find the "unsub" for unknown subject, because they do not want to glorify the criminal, they end up referring back to the real serial killers with not just their names but the labels reporters pinned on them.

Right now there is a list of mass murders making the news from Newtown, to Aurora and going backwards over the years but what they usually leave out is what happened at Fort Hood.

When the body of a Private was found in his barracks on August 24, 2009, no one knew there was a serial killer on Fort Hood. Few even paid attention to the reports coming out of non-combat deaths. No one paid attention until all hell broke loose on November 5, 2009 and the entire world tuned in to see what was happening at Fort Hood when a Major opened fire on other soldiers. In October they were cheering with the news that 16,000 of their soldiers were coming home. Francheska Velez had been home from Iraq for just three days. She survived a year there but was murdered on Fort Hood. Just a day after Lt. Col. Juanita Warman arrived at Fort Hood, the shooting started.

After the mass murderer was stopped, the deadly results were just beginning. I wrote this on November 5th.

Aftermath of Fort Hood shootings may be worse

Crisis teams will address the traumatic events of today, but the soldiers that have already been involved in traumatic events cutting into them will need far greater help than anyone is really prepared to deliver. This is my greatest fear for them.

Five days after the killings, this came out.

Soldiers' mental health comes under scrutiny Ft. Hood has had 10 soldier suicides this year, the second-highest of any Army post. Families of troops who have committed suicide say troubled soldiers are slipping through the cracks.

The list of reports goes on and on and all of them are bad. What this is leading up to is simple. In 2010 when the Army should have been doing everything humanly possible, especially after the mass murder at Fort Hood, they were doing something stunningly stupid leading up to this result.

Fort Hood reports a surge in soldier deaths by suicide in 2012
Suicides surged last year at Fort Hood, one of the largest military installations in the country, reflecting a national trend that saw a record number of suicides in the military in 2012.

The Army post in Central Texas reported that 19 soldiers either killed themselves or were suspected of doing it.

This part is fascinating. Under a photo on the page that I am not using there is this.

File 2010/Staff Photo
Soldiers attend a mandatory suicide prevention program at Fort Hood.

Now you can click the link to see what the picture looks like. I wonder if you spotted the same thing I did. They are totally bored. The program was two years ago. A year after the Fort Hood massacre.

What constitutes a serial killer is open to interpretation. In the United States, Congress has defined a serial killer as someone who murders a minimum of three or more people. By definition, a cooling-off period separates the murders, making them appear random or unconnected. The victims — often prostitutes, runaways or other vulnerable populations — rarely know their killer and may serve as a symbol that triggers the attack. In other words, a serial killer's motive tends to be psychological, not material.

It is safe to say that Major monster shot the soldiers at Fort Hood but I wouldn't call him a serial killer. Some rightfully want the murders called "terrorist" actions. The soldiers killed and wounded are not treated the same way they would have been if they were shot by the "enemy" even though in this case, it appears the enemy was within. His trial has become a joke over the beard he suddenly says he has a "religious" obligation to have even though he didn't have one while he was serving before the murders. Even with what he did, he does not come close to the serial killer I have been hunting for 30 years.

This serial killer doesn't just strike out. It is patient. It stalks. It invades piece by piece claiming more and more of the target until they are consumed. It is not satisfied with just the target. It has to claim more and more until it is defeated and killed.

The serial killer has a name and it is PTSD.

The military reported 349 servicemen and women committed suicide last year. The total they say cannot be attributed to PTSD because many of the suicides happened without being connected to deployments, so they want us to think they cannot be connected to PTSD, but they avoid mentioning the fact that civilians get PTSD without being deployed and they also commit suicide. Sure the DOD points out the suicides of civilians but never mention the fact those numbers involve 8,030 veterans. Yes, that's right. The latest news is 22 veterans a day commit suicide.

This is from the CDC in 2010

All suicides
Number of deaths: 38,364 Deaths per 100,000 population: 12.4
Cause of death rank: 10
Firearm suicides
Number of deaths: 19,392
Deaths per 100,000 population: 6.3
Suffocation suicides
Number of deaths: 9,493
Deaths per 100,000 population: 3.1
Poisoning suicides
Number of deaths: 6,599
Deaths per 100,000 population: 2.1

It would be delivering justice if everyone stopped treating PTSD as if it was not claiming more lives than serial killers every year. Until we do, there will be more and more when there should be less and less considering the Suicide Prevention Hotline claims it rescued 30,000, veterans charities claim they are doing more and more while collecting your money and Congress passes more and more Bills while the DOD has unspent funds.

While most people in this country are about as oblivious as they can be, they pay attention when this serial killer shows up in their neighborhood.

I am not calm and focused as Hotchner, brave as Morgan, patient as JJ, smart as Reid or a great writer like Rossi, but we sure could use the mind of Garcia to hack into all the information being hidden in plain sight because the reporters know more about asking questions they care about than why our veterans and troops are killing themselves.