When A Killer Calls: A Haunting Story of Murder, Criminal Profiling, and Justice in a Small Town
by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker
Hardcover
From the publisher's website:
On May 31, 1985, two days before her high school graduation,
Shari Smith was abducted from the driveway of her family home in South
Carolina. Based on the crime scene and the abductor’s repeated and
taunting calls to the family, law enforcement quickly realized they were
dealing with a sophisticated and highly dangerous criminal. A letter
arrived the next day entitled “Last Will & Testament,” in which
Shari, knowing she was to be murdered, wrote bravely and achingly of her
love for her parents, siblings, and boyfriend, saying that while they
would miss her, she knew they would persevere through their faith. The
abduction rocked her quiet town, triggering a massive manhunt and
bringing in the FBI, which enlisted profiler John Douglas. A few days
later, a phone call told the family where they could find Shari’s body.
Then nine-year-old Debra May Helmick was kidnapped from her yard, confirming the harsh realization that Smith’s murder was no random act. A serial killer was evolving, and the only way to stop him would be to use the study of criminal behavior to anticipate his next move before he could kill again. Douglas devised a risky and emotionally fraught strategy to use Shari’s lookalike older sister Dawn as bait to draw out the unknown subject. Dawn and her parents courageously agreed.
One of the most haunting investigations of Douglas’s storied career, this case details how the eerily accurate profile he created—alongside his carefully crafted and stage-managed manipulation of the killer’s psychology—combined with dedicated police work and cutting-edge forensic science to end a reign of criminal terror. As Shari’s family took incredible personal risks to lure her killer from the shadows, Douglas and the FBI pushed criminal profiling to its limits, culminating in one of his most dramatic and effective confrontations with a sadistic and remorseless killer.
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