AUSTIN (KXAN) – Hundreds of books filled floor-to-ceiling, wooden shelves stacked along the walls of Dr. Kim Rossmo’s home office in Central Austin. Their spines displayed titles like “The Biology of Violence,” “Career Criminals” and “Delinquent Behavior.” Without knowing Rossmo’s background, one might assume a darker obsession.
But a closer look would reveal a handful written by Rossmo himself, a criminologist. They included “Geographic Profiling.” That particular volume described an investigative methodology he pioneered and has now used to scientifically determine the likelihood of a serial killer drowning victims in Lady Bird Lake a few miles away.
“Serial murder is a very rare event, but it’s also one with very serious consequences,” Rossmo said, pointing to a computer monitor on his desk that showed a map of the waterway – part of the Lower Colorado River – stretching through the city’s downtown. He traced his finger from the eastern boundary of focus – U.S. Highway 183 – across the screen to Red Bud Isle at the west end.
Applying his technique, he then analyzed what some believe to be a series of seemingly connected crimes over the past 22 years.
“We started with 189 cases,” Rossmo explained of the data he and his team gathered from police, medical examiner reports and other sources. It included locations and dates of when bodies were recovered in or near the water, along with other key characteristics – helping them narrow down the list to 58…