ABSTRACT
Case study David was the oldest of three children. During his childhood, his mother worked in a bar and often was not at home when the children were there. David’s father was an alcoholic who was also physically and psychologically abusive toward his children and his wife. However, his father was not present for much of his childhood. During a dispute in a bar, he unintentionally caused the death of another man that resulted in a lengthy prison sentence. David had a problematic childhood. He had problems in school and often got into trouble. When older, he was unable to maintain a job. David started to isolate himself very early on in his life. He rapidly developed a fantasy world where he was omnipotent. He would use the actresses who he saw in movies to fill his fantasies. These fantasies were not only sexual in nature but were also very violent. During the time that these fantasies started to develop, David was experiencing some interpersonal relationship difficulties with his girlfriend. This ultimately led to the decision to take a break from the relationship. During our interview with the offender, he explained that he was not confident that this break would have a positive outcome. Because of this, he decided to go out on a regular basis. David did not have a problem with alcohol but he admitted to smoking pot occasionally. His goal was to go out to bars or restaurants to pick up a girl who he would take back to his place in order to have sexual intercourse with her. The night of the first murder, he met the victim in the downtown area. She was heavily intoxicated so the offender thought that she would be perfect. He convinced her to come back to his place to have one last drink. The victim agreed. While at his place, David gave the victim a beer and put on some music. He started kissing and caressing the victim and managed to completely undress her, at which point he attempted to penetrate her. This is when the victim asked the offender to stop. She explained that she did not mind the kissing and fondling but she did not want to have sexual intercourse. She explained that she did not feel like it and that she felt guilty because she had a boyfriend. David said that he understood, but a few minutes later he made another attempt to penetrate the victim. This time, the victim pushed him and scratched him on the shoulder. David instantly became very angry, and in a state of fury, he started to strangle the victim. When the victim
was no longer moving, he used a hammer to hit the victim on the head and on her legs. He also bit the victim’s breasts and arms, which, according to him, helped to release his rage. When he became calmer, he decided that he needed to get rid of the body. He decided to wrap the victim’s body in bed sheets. However, he did not want to throw the body in the garbage. Instead, he put the body and all of the victim’s clothes in a big box that he had in his apartment. He then sealed the box with tape and threw chocolate syrup, molasses, and flour on the box to stop people from trying to peek inside. The next day, the garbage truck came and picked up the box without anyone noticing anything. David felt immense relief and believed that he had just committed the perfect murder. This is why, 11 days later, he decided to do it again. Similar to the first victim, the second victim rejected him when he made an attempt to have sex with her. This enraged him and so he did not hesitate for a second to kill her using strangulation. However, when it came to getting rid of the body, David no longer had a big box. Moreover, he explained during the interview that the second victim was much taller than the first so he had to find another way to dispose of her body. He decided to dismember the victim’s body and place her body parts into different garbage bags. He separated the head, then the arms, and finally the legs. To make the bags look like they contained real garbage, David emptied his own garbage into each one. One day later, while playing hockey in the alley, some children accidently hit one of the bags. The children informed their parents of their discovery and the police were called. In one of the bags, the police found the victim’s head along with some envelopes that had both the name and address of the offender written on them. During the police interview, David admitted to the murder and also confessed to the first murder.
