Wish You Were Here by John Allore & Patricia Pearson

Author:John Allore & Patricia Pearson [Allore, John & Pearson, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House of Canada
Published: 2020-09-22T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

Kim Rossmo left Vancouver and, as part of his doctoral thesis at Simon Fraser University, went on to pioneer a method of homicide investigation called geoprofiling, a criminological technique that can narrow down the area in which a serial rapist or killer lives by analyzing the geography of the attacks and, where relevant, the body dump sites. There are several premises behind geoprofiling. One is that predators will operate along routine pathways in their work and home lives. They seldom stray into unfamiliar areas to attack, so there’s no point in feeling terrified at the summer cabin or an isolated farmhouse. On the contrary, like all of us, criminals have their comfort zones. They also have routines. As such, they will often pass the same victim—or type of victim—dozens of times at a bus stop or parking garage near their work, say, before they summon the nerve to act.

Where victims disappear and where their bodies are found are significant clues in geoprofiling in light of routine activity theory. Geoprofiling then draws on mathematical equations to locate serial offenders. Early on, Rossmo offered law enforcement a proposition: if detectives could provide at least five or six incidents traceable back to the perpetrator, his algorithm could reduce the search area for the criminal’s residence by more than 90 percent. The algorithm produces a “jeopardy surface,” a geocoded map with a topographical surface showing peaks and valleys, ramped and coloured to highlight areas where it is most likely that the suspected criminal resides.

In putting together a Townships map for Rossmo, John and I found that we had one further point of reference to use. Theresa’s red wallet had been found on the outskirts of Sherbrooke on chemin Macdonald. That road is an extension of rue Belvédère, and if you follow rue Belvédère from the downtown armoury that Camirand frequented, then travel out of town heading south, after a kilometre and a half you will pass the caisse populaire where Manon Dubé went sledding in the parking lot. After a few more kilometres, the road starts to bend to the left and travels down a steep incline as it switches names to chemin Macdonald. Pass an apple orchard, and you are where Theresa’s wallet was found. Follow chemin Macdonald to its conclusion, eight hundred metres farther down the hill, and you run into Route 143. Turn left, and within three kilometres you will be at the corner of College Street and Queen / 143, home to the Golden Lion Pub, where Theresa often stood and hitchhiked. All of these points are within five kilometres, all located on or near the main artery route of rue Belvédère.

It was important to know precisely where the wallet was found. Was it in the ditch on the right or left side of Macdonald? This could indicate whether the vehicle was travelling into or out of town. John’s guess was that Theresa’s killer had used the rue Belvédère artery to drive back into town after dumping her body, tossing the wallet out the driver’s side window on the way.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.