The Hunt

There had been no security camera on the pumps where Pe

At the time, the police treated Pe

Two years later, Dora Feliciano disappeared. She didn’t own a vehicle, but was walking home from work in downtown Bozeman. There was still a question as to whether the Butcher was responsible for her disappearance. The Sheriff’s Department looked heavily at her live-in boyfriend, who had no alibi for the time, but no solid evidence co

It wasn’t until Colleen Thorne, Qui

Miranda Moore and Sharon Lewis. Disappeared 5/27/94. Sharon killed 6/2. Miranda found by Sheriff’s search team.

Qui

The information on Miranda’s sheet was longer, more detailed. That was when they’d realized they had a premeditated abduction on their hands. That they had a serial killer. They went back to Pe

In June of 1997, Susan Kramer and her roommate Je

Je

Nineteen ninety-nine was a ba

Karen Papadopoulis’s case was different only in that her body was discovered before her vehicle, which had been concealed off a little-used road west of Old Norris in neighboring Madison County. She’d been shot in the thigh by a high-velocity rifle, but that wasn’t what killed her.

Her throat had been slit.

Qui

“So we know the unsub has a vehicle,” Qui

“Or drag them on a makeshift sled.”

“True, but we haven’t seen evidence of that type of tracks, have we?”

Nick shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay, so he carried the girls up there. Sometimes two.”

“Separately?”

“Most likely.”

The Butcher was patient. Methodical. A pla

They’d never found evidence that he used a horse, but Qui

Qui

“The cabins are all fairly close, three to five miles, to some sort of road, or an unused, overgrown trail,” he said. It wasn’t a new revelation; he was simply trying to think of the investigation from another angle. “We’ve already determined that he’s strong, but in addition to muscles, he has to be accustomed to long, arduous manual labor.

“Nothing came of the property search,” Qui

“It’s private property, a thousand-acre spread owned by a Hollywood type. He comes up once, twice a year. He probably doesn’t even know the shack is on his land. His spread is on the other end.”

“Have you checked him out?”

Nick paused. “No.”

Qui

“He has a caretaker.”

“I’ll go check it out.”

Nick’s jaw tightened, and Qui

“It’s a long shot,” he told Nick. Nick didn’t look placated.

“I’ll go pull the records on the property. Be back in a minute.” Nick left.

Qui

He turned back to the board. The key profile points of the Butcher were listed on the far right.

White male age 35-45.

Born or raised in Montana; superior knowledge of area.

Familiar with MSU; former student, professor or staff.

Molasses in the gas tank to disable the car; is there a reason for this trademark, or just convenience and effectiveness?

During World War II, American troops had disabled German tanks with sugar. It was a well-known tactic, displayed prominently on revenge-oriented websites. The FBI profiler Vigo considered that the Butcher might have once been in the military, but dismissed it. “He wouldn’t have volunteered, and he’s too young to have been drafted,” he’d told Qui

They had a list of all the students, professors, and staff that fit the profile at the time Miranda was abducted. There were hundreds of them.

When they learned Pe

Nick stepped back into the room and handed Qui

“Thanks.” Qui

“In archives.”

“Including the University records?”

“Hers? Or the suspects’?”

“All the men who had known her.”

“Those totaled in the hundreds.”

“I know.”

“They were returned to the University.”

Shit. He’d have to get a warrant because of the Privacy Act.

Qui

“It sounds like a long shot.”

“I don’t know that anything will come of it,” Qui

Qui

Instead, he asked, “Did you ever wonder why the killer didn’t come after Miranda after she escaped?”

Nick looked surprised. “Actually, no.”

“I have. I’ve thought about it a lot. All my training says that the killer would hate her for getting away, a mistake, his screwup. He considers himself superior to women, or feels a driving need to prove his superiority because he felt inferior as a boy. He hates women. It’s about control. Domination. But he couldn’t control Miranda.

“The fact that Miranda got away should enrage him,” Qui

“That she beat him in the hunt?”

Qui

“And that, Nick, goes against the grain and makes me think we could be looking in all the wrong places.”