Tracks Of A Killer | FULL EPISODE | The FBI Files

The nation's railroads become the conduit for a murderer who he randomly hits and then disappears. Recurring clues tell police they are facing the worst predator of all. A ritual serial

killer

. He's cunning, deadly and on the move, but the authorities are determined to stop him in his

tracks

. Oh more. More than 200,000 miles of railroad

tracks

across the United States from California to Kentucky. Few who lived near a railroad track felt safe in the summer of 1999. A serial

killer

traveled the rails, picking up random towns and victims. He left behind him a trail of bloodshed but no trace. where would i appear next im jim calstrom former head of the fbi's new york office as the number of victims grew, the fbi enlisted the help of a profiler to help predict the killer's next move on december 17, 1998 in West University Place, Texas.

A young woman called the police from outside the home of a friend she worked with. She was worried about her. She told them that her friend, a prominent doctor at a nearby medical school, had not shown up for work that morning, according to her colleague, this was completely out of character she had not answered phone calls to the house all day nor had she opened her door said she would see me tomorrow nothing out of the ordinary and that was yesterday the colleague was sure something was up bad I'm just very worried about it, the doors and windows of the house were closed from the outside, everything seemed normal, the officers discovered that the garage door was open and inside the door of the house, open jewelry on the floor suggested a robbery, so the house had been ransacked the officers moved cautiously an intruder could still be inside the ground floor was clear but a trail of clothing led to the second floor in the master bedroom they found the doctor who had been brutally murdered 222 They let me have a supervisor in the crime scene unit come to the scene Detective Kenneth Maher responded to the scene through a 10 year veteran of the department, he was shocked by the report of a homicide.

West University plays just a small 2.2 square mile suburb right in the middle of Houston, a primarily residential and affluent community. and the last time we had a murder was in 1985 during a pharmacy robbery, the brutality of the crime hit the detective. Blood splatters were everywhere in the hallway and on the walls and door, the body was completely covered except for one. protruding arm and both legs of him there was a large butcher knife that was near the body lying on a pillow. Investigators also recovered a heavy blunt object spattered with blood nearby. Both were weapons of opportunity that the killer found in the home.

Police contacted the doctor's husband and learned that he had taken the couple's two children out of the house. the city to visit relatives before Christmas, they had been away for several days, the victim had work obligations to take care of that wave, so she could not travel with him, the evidence suggested that the killer had taken his time in the house, opened the Christmas presents and rummaged through the victim's belongings, the contents of her purse spilled out and her driver's license was clearly left outside and displayed, it was quite strange to see him like this in the kitchen that the detective partially found . eaten fruit possibly another proof that the killer had stayed in the house also found the keys to the victim's jeep according to the doctor's husband it was the only game in the garage there were no strange fingerprints at the suspected entry point but on a workbench researchers I found the broken cover of a steering column next to some levers.

The killer must have stolen the victim's jeep. We assume he had to break the steering column of the jeep to get it going and to start it here. The killer made a crucial mistake. When I picked up the large steering column piece I could visibly see fingerprints on the shiny black plastic. The column casing was packaged for later analysis in the laboratory. At the autopsy, the medical examiner determined the cause of death: multiple stab wounds and blunt force trauma to the spine. head the victim had been sexually assaulted the gruesome nature of the murder worried detective maha it just didn't fit the pattern of a random murder it was a step further investigators knew that killers like this usually don't strike just once two days later and A 200 Miles away, San Antonio police found an abandoned Jeep in a motel parking lot.

The plates were traced to West University. It belonged to the doctor. The plastic steering column cover was missing inside. Investigators found a guitar and a butcher knife that the doctor's husband had. We noticed both items were missing from the house. Someone had quickly hooked up the jeep. We also noticed that the steering column was completely messed up. Fingerprints were taken from the inside and outside of the Jeep, but technicians found no usable prints on analysts at the police department's forensic lab. We made electronic copies of the fingerprints taken from the steering column cover of the Jeep and ran them through an automated matching system and at that time we obtained a positive match on an individual named Carlos Rodriguez.

A computer check revealed another name, Rafael Reséndez Ramírez. This was sent to the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division, a search of its extensive database revealed dozens of other aliases and more information about the senders. He had an extensive record dating back more than 20 years and an active warrant for a stolen vehicle charge. Investigators reviewed the suspect's file from the Immigration and Naturalization Service and learned Resendez traveled regularly and illegally between the United States and Mexico. Most recently, he had been arrested in California for trespassing on railroad property with a loaded firearm and was deported to Mexico.

Now it seemed that Rafael Resendez had returned to Texas; his transient lifestyle would make it difficult to find him. Detective Maha searched the suspect's records for a place to start and found the name of her fugitive sister living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on a pre-arranged conference call. maha spoke with her at the albuquerque police department a few days ago. information about your brother, if that would be okay, she couldn't tell me much about her brother's current activity, she didn't have much contact with him, she did mention that sometimes he would travel around Albuquerque and stay with her for a few days and then just He disappeared.

Detective Maher asked her to call her if she knew anything about her brother and I think there was a little bit of anger and resentment on her part because she had to get involved in that and she really didn't want to do it. associated with him if he really was a real killer like we thought he was the authorities also asked the public for help they distributed wanted posters along the train routes resendez was known to use dozens of clues they found nothing in march three months after the doctor's murder there were a series of reported sightings at railroad yards near san antonio the crusaders had traveled 200 miles west each time they fled before police could respond the alleged killer was still on the move jumping trains and eluding authorities With thousands of miles of railroad tracks to choose from, Rafael Reséndez could be anywhere five months after the doctor's murder and just 90 miles away in Weimer, Texas, members of a local church went to see their pastor, he and his wife.

They had not gone to church that morning the couple was found murdered in their own bed the murder of weimer in a small town is almost unheard of among the texas rangers and the fort bend county sheriff's office arrived on the scene the preacher and his wife had been beaten to death with a sledgehammer a gun of opportunity taken from their garage the car at a certain time of death between 24 and 36 hours before the couple had been murdered on Friday night or early Saturday morning money and valuables were clearly visible theft was not the motive officers processed the bedroom with luminol, a chemical that reacts with proteins in blood and other body fluids revealed blood and body fluids of the victim from an unknown source.

Forensic tests later revealed that the woman had been sexually assaulted. It seemed that after the murders the killer had stayed at the crime scene, ate in the victim's kitchen and took his time studying their driver's licenses. Investigators at the scene were unaware of the West College Place murder, but not for long. In May 1999, Texas authorities were on the trail of fugitive Rafael Reséndez. Fingerprints implicated him in the murder of a doctor in West College Place. college place four months later a preacher and his wife were found beaten to death in their home in weimer the couple's red van disappeared probably stolen by the killer police issued a search warrant for the vehicle at the department of public safety investigators of texas rangers were concerned about the crime scene evidence in the house partially consumed food and exposed identification cards suggested a ritual killer.

Rangers contacted the FBI's Houston field office to obtain the opinion of a criminal profiler. Special Agent Mark Young has many messages at the crime scene. Lots of forensic evidence. and a lot of behavioral evidence, you can collect not only the forensics, the fingerprints, the DNA, the hairs and fibers and that kind of thing, but you can also take a look at the behavior of the criminal, the way he commits that crime, it is unique, it is different from any other. Another young offender noted that this killer acted with extreme anger but no signs of panic. What really caught my attention about his behavior was that this criminal, unlike many others, spent an incredible amount of time in that house going through everything that was opened in his wallet and purse, respectively.

His identification showed, in other words, that the criminals sat there and looked at photographs of him. They did not accept credit cards. They did not accept cash. Profilers may analyze a killer's behavioral choices in an attempt to reveal details about him in this case after killing the victims. The perpetrator. He continued to hit him with the weapon but then covered his bodies, this suggested that he might even be repulsed by the results of his actions. Showing the victim's identification cards could be an act of dominance, as if he wanted details about the lives he had taken from one of the Texas people.

The rangers that Young spoke to had seen something like this before realizing because he had some knowledge of the case at Western University that some of the same types of things had happened and he said, Hey guys, you know, could this be connected? We are not just searching. At some point that seems similar, but we are looking at behavior, this ritualistic behavior or what we sometimes call the signature of a criminal. If there was a connection between the two cases, the forensic lab would find it. One of the advantages we had is that we had forensic evidence in both places, we had fingerprints and DNA evidence in the case of the Universidad del Oeste.

We also had DNA evidence at the Weimer location. DNA analysis revealed that the body fluid recovered in both cases matched the same man who sexually assaulted both women from the first victim. A jeep had been recovered. Investigators wondered how the killer got to the second crime scene. In both cases, the vehicle had been stolen after the crime, which traditionally would have meant that someone had to take the person there or that it was someone close to them. The young people studied the case file of the suspect Raphael Reséndez. There was already information in that fugitive investigation that indicated that Reséndiz moved by train.

According to the file, there were train tracks 50 meters from the doctor's house in West College Place. We turned around. and we look there is a train track immediately across the street from weimer's location with the two cases directly connected the investigators believed that rafael reséndez was a ritual serial killer the way he committed these crimes is somewhat evolutionary, you don't wake up one day and you get involved in that type of crime it's something you've practiced, you've developed and you've done it before and he's not going to suddenly stop. They feared Reséndez was using stolen vehicles and the railroads to find his next victim in the Houston field office.

The FBI fugitive squad joined the search for Resendez. Special Agent Bobby Eckerd led the investigation. We knew that he had fled the jurisdiction and had most likely traveled interstate and actually to Mexico. DueBecause the rescinders had likely left Texas, they obtained an illegal flight to avoid an indictment order. would allow the FBI to add its federal resources to the search. The first thing we wanted to do was find out everything we could about Reséndez. We knew he had been arrested more than 13 times. I immediately started getting all the prison records. packages of pins to be able to identify not only his relatives but also his associates determine his patterns all the interviews revealed to us that this was a man who was not well known to anyone, his family had not really had much contact with him since He left home at the age of 12 and moved to Acapulco and finally Florida with little to do.

Criminal profiler Mark Young attempted to unlock the homeless man's past to predict his next move, sending details of both cases to analysts with the drug apprehension program. violent FBI criminals who use vicap analysts sophisticated databases to identify similar unsolved cases were immediately able to return a case to me in lexington kentucky a hispanic man had assaulted a college student and murdered her boyfriend this happened late at night in 1997 near the train tracks where these two had been walking. The man was killed because his skull was crushed by a rock and the woman was sexually assaulted. She was also physically attacked with fairly serious injuries, although stunned by the attack, the young woman somehow survived upon seeing that her boyfriend was dead and headed to a nearby house where the residents called the police.

She was able to give them an artistic representation. A local offender artist. Young received the sketch from the Lexington Police Department. I compared it and didn't immediately say, "Wow, you know, this is him." I felt like there was a kind of cautious optimism that it could be the same guy, but a sketch is not proof that Young needed scientific evidence to be sure. that he knew Lexington police still had DNA samples from the sexual assault two years earlier and organized the samples. to be flown to the fbi laboratory in washington dc in the dna analysis unit the examiners began to process the samples a couple of samples to work on the examiner alan giusti within kentucky we looked at 13 different unique dna regions and developed a profile individual in each of those regions I describe it as if you look at the physical characteristics of a person, you can look at a region of DNA and it could be the same as another person's and that would be like saying that two people have brown eyes, well, that It's very common. 13 different DNA regions is like saying someone has brown eyes is left-handed is six foot three has red hair the more DNA regions you look at, the more complete picture you will get of the person after mapping the perpetrator's DNA profile.

Lexington Giusti contacted examiners in Texas who would map the samples from Weimer and West University Place. By comparing the results I got with the results they got, we were both able to determine that we had a potential common donor; In other words, the same person was compromising. These crimes at Texas Young sent word to the other investigators. I was able to call the Lexington police and heard a lot of commotion and yelling because they thought it was going to be a cold case. Lexington police now had Rafael Reséndez as their top suspect. Throughout the Southwest they canvassed homeless shelters and train yards they knew Rescindus was out there somewhere on May 28 authorities found the preacher's truck abandoned near a train yard in San Antonio it looked like Rescindus had returned to On the rails, finding it would be a daunting task for special people.

Agent Eckert and her team have never faced these types of obstacles before. There are thousands of ways. There are thousands of trains every day. It was difficult to determine which line he traveled on with a massive search area to cover. They had to be resourceful. The way we handled this is that we developed a small wanted poster that we gave to people who frequently traveled by rail at train yards around the country. Locals were advised to keep an eye out for Rafael Reséndez. If they saw him, they were to call the FBI fugitive squad. Immediately when we received these calls we would contact the railway police, they would remove the person from the train and identify them.

Railway police officers responded to hundreds of sightings. The FBI's best lead was the fugitive sister in New Mexico. The agents remained in contact with her waiting. she might hear from him and if she heard from him they expected her to talk. I told you the last time we spoke so far it seemed like the only way to trace the story was to follow a trail of bodies on June 4, 1999 in Fayette County. A woman from Texas stopped by her mother's house to check on her. The 73-year-old widow lived alone. The house had been ransacked. There was no sign of her mother.

Mom while she searched each room, her panic increased and in the bedroom she found her mother's body. a woman had been beaten to death in 1999 agents were on the trail of rafael resendez linked to four murders in texas and kentucky as his notoriety grew the press dubbed him the railroad killer now an elderly widow had been murdered in the county rural fayette, texas like the other victims, she lived near a railroad, the gruesome crime seemed like the work of Rafael Reséndez, according to FBI special agent Mark Young, when you looked at that really brutal style of murder, you felt that yes, it was Well, dealing with the same guy because she was covered similarly. jewelry boxes that had been opened in other rooms things had been opened and items had been gone through and taken it was a familiar and disturbing pattern cash and jewelry had been left behind instead the killer stole trinkets and personal items such as If he took fingerprints in the laundry room, he indicated that the killer had entered through a back window.

The print was later compared to rescinders. After killing his victim, he was in no hurry to leave. He not only went to all the rooms, took certain items and He spent an excessive amount. From time to time he went and ate some fruit and some bread, something we had seen several times. I consider this to be more of a signature showing that I

full

y possess and control this individual and his belongings rather than an I'm hungry and need something to eat two distinctive clues at the fayette county scene appeared to be a message to investigators had been placed a newspaper on the couch open to an article about the recovery of the preacher's stolen vehicle in a guest room they found a toy train that had recently been unpacked and placed on the bed it looked like the railroad killer was taunting the authorities the unit k -9 followed his scent to the railroad tracks from there the trail went cold less than 24 hours later the next victim was discovered another Gruesome Murder near the railroad tracks, this one 95 miles from Fayette County.

I received a call regarding a crime scene in Houston that was being evaluated by the Houston Police Department. They were noticing some similarities. A 26-year-old school teacher was found sexually assaulted. and beaten to death in her bedroom they had taken her driver's license from her purse and displayed it on a table like the other victims she lived near the train tracks the teacher's car a white honda sedan had been stolen later the DNA analysis confirmed that Resendus had assaulted the woman now. He was killing at a much faster rate. One of the concerns we had was that this guy would evolve into what we call a spree killer.

Many times in the past we have had serial killers, Ted Bundy, for example. The pressure became so great that they went into spree mode and that is, they began killing a number of victims without really any cooling off period and their last two victims were killed in the 24 hour period in which it appeared that the rescinders had gone to the party. three step killer protection on driver jumping in hambrick on june 6 a rail yard worker spotted the fugitive in flytonia texas halfway between houston and san antonio 2014 we have an intruder on the premises named central dispatch brian westbrook immediately notified the local police in the FBI operation the train stop was created now investigators from more than 30 agencies were assigned exclusively to the case special agent bobby eckert was part of the operation that was made up of two basic squads, one of them was investigators of serial homicides who were investigating the various homicides developed evidence of crimes then the other side was the fugitive investigators whose sole purpose was to locate, apprehend and arrest they terminated the fugitive squad looked for patterns in the suspect's past we were able to determine that he followed the crops to Throughout the United States in Washington he claims that he followed the avocado route in Florida, he would be involved in citrus groves in Kentucky and North Carolina, he would collect tobacco after identifying the places of agricultural work and the addresses of friends and family.

Agents would try to eliminate these comfort zones wherever you go. You might think that the fugitive might appear going there because of the presence of law enforcement, in those places people are no longer willing to help the fugitive, but this fugitive felt comfortable traveling fast and alone without any help and his wave of murders was It had not yet been eight days since the schoolteacher was killed in Houston. Her car was found 300 miles away, near the Mexican border. Inside was a knife, but there was no sign of where the breakers had gone. There were train tracks that gave the killer a clean escape to almost anywhere.

In 1999, more than 30 law enforcement agencies were searching for Rafael Resendez, known as the Railroad Killer. Every time a new crime appeared to be the work of the killer, Special Agent Mark Young investigated. He received hundreds of calls from departments across the country wanting him to hear their stories about their crimes and determine if the cases could be related. On June 15, the bodies of a 51-year-old woman and her father were discovered in their home in the area. rural gorham illinois the local sheriff's office believed that resendis was involved and called mark young apparently it took place as soon as we entered the scene we could have been at one of our crime scenes in texas the double train tracks were right behind the older man's residence the killer broke in through a back window he used a weapon of opportunity a shotgun he found in the house stole some trinkets and ate the victim's food, but this time the killer had added something new, a statement scribbled on Wall.

A lot of people thought, "My God, we have another kind of criminal here who is making a pseudo political statement." intellectual type, but young man knew better that he had gone through the escapees' prison file, including their correspondence, he had been writing political messages and letters that we were able to see in the past, which was even more of an indication to me that he is the same criminal because now he is the The rest of his fantasy came to light in his own mind. Reséndez was a deep political thinker, but authorities knew he was a ferocious predator.

They believed he arrived in Gorham on the train and left in the victim's car, which he was recovered the next day about 60 miles south nearby. Kentucky Border Police across the country reviewed unsolved cases for murders that rescinders might have committed Young Special Agent investigated one in Hughes Springs, Texas In October 1998 a woman had been beaten to death with an antique iron, although the murder was not solved had been thoroughly investigated and documented, that's right and I felt there was a good chance that Resendez was responsible for that case as well. We had blunt force trauma. She was an elderly victim.

She was not sexually assaulted, but was covered in a similar manner and while viewing the crime scene. photograph, I see where her ID had been placed as if the criminal was looking at it because it happened because the serial killer could be anywhere the FBI placed Raphael Resandis on their list of the 10 most wanted fugitives. Mugshots of him were released under 30 different special agent aliases. Bobby Eckert hoped that he could release new leads. What this does is raise awareness about the case, the fugitive status and also allowed us to offer up to fifty thousand dollars for the successful capture of the recent news of the rescindus case that spread around the world. country on high alert agents and police searched hundreds of freight trains and train yards, it was as if the rescinders had a missing don clark, so the special agent in charge of the houston field office held press conferences to help to spread the word,but he was candid about the case difficulty it's a very complex investigation that many of us have never been involved in before we're dealing with a lot of unknowns here we're dealing with a lot of information and it's a very difficult investigation for all agencies The story led news broadcasts across the country and with eight victims now dead, the public was terrified.

Eight is more than enough. Many more than enough. One is more than enough. And that's all I can assure the public is that the authorities are working together to try to solve this. person who came off the street, the fugitive was deceptively intelligent and incredibly dangerous, he could cross the country easily and cross the border at will. What we were trying to let people know is that this isn't some hobo or railroad bum who has no point traveling around, it's a guy with a good IQ who knew how to evade the authorities. We needed a lot of help to capture.

This is a guy who was attacking innocent people while they were sleeping and no one was really safe. The reward for the fugitives. captured rose to 125,000 calls came from all over the country at the end of June resendez was seen at a homeless shelter in louisville kentucky but never stayed in one place for long before police arrived he was gone sergeant mark barnard of lexington kentucky The police department warned the public. If I live near a railroad track, I would certainly have it well lit. I would review it and make sure there is nothing out of the ordinary.

I would know my surroundings, my neighbors. I checked my doors and windows the tips kept coming in, we had 3178 calls that came to the command post of those calls, we generated over 1100 tips, in other words, things that needed to be done all over the United States and in Mexico, telephone calls were made to the Denver field office, a credible lead. The caller reported seeing Rescindus at a home in Commerce City, Colorado, after authorities traced a phone call from the home to Mexico City where the Rescinduses had family. A tactical arrest team responded and moved in for the capture seven months into the search for Rafael Reséndez.

An arrest team. They raided a home in Commerce City, Colorado, secured the occupants and searched the home, but no rescinders were found anywhere and authorities later determined the tip was a case of mistaken identity. Texas Rangers and FBI agents stayed in contact with a fugitive sister in New Mexico. She assured them that she had not heard from her brother, but promised that if he called she would contact them, but at the FBI command post in Houston, the next big clue involved a relative that no one knew about before the agents They knew that Resendus had a special wife in Mexico.

Agent Bobby Eckerd followed up on the surprising new lead: Command Post learned he had a common-law wife because she was interviewed by Mexican media and a local station obtained a copy of that interview and showed it broadcast locally. at that moment. He brought his wife to Houston for a two-day interview. Authorities needed to know everything they could about Resendez, his employers, and the places he had stayed. Did he write to you all the time? She provided us with a lot of information about Resendez and his habits. During the last two or three years, she informed him that he brought her jewelry, he brought her figurines, sometimes figurines of little angels, he brought her a guitar.

She knew that many of these items had been stolen from crime scenes and, in fact, it turned out that these items were related to the homicides that she said she had been in Resendis. mexico very recently but i hadn't seen him in days i was cooperating because i was afraid he wasn't safe there in mexico the bounty hunters were after him resendez was running out of places to hide on july 10, 1999 investigators received a phone call from albuquerque it was the fugitive's sister. Yes, I'll call you back. She needed to talk to authorities, according to Special Agent Mark Young.

There were relatives in Mexico who were being approached by authorities. Bounty hunter. Curiosity seekers. There were people who really didn't. I care how they got it, you know, dead or alive, I want the reward money. She said her brother had called her and that she didn't want him to be hurt. Law enforcement told him that we could achieve a safe surrender for him and that we had agreed to do so. treat him humanely and put him in custody to resolve this matter on July 12, 1999 Rafael Resendiz agreed to surrender to a Texas Ranger at a small border crossing respecting his sister's wishes the authorities agreed to let him cross and take him in with a minimum arrest team one One of the cruelest serial killers in the nation's history was arrested quietly and without incident.

In follow-up interviews with Mark, the young Reséndiz would confess to a total of 13 murders, four of them not yet linked to him by authorities. He could remember in incredible detail the crimes that occurred several years earlier, after talking with him, I contacted the jurisdictions that had primary control of the investigations he was referring to and we solved two homicides in Marion County, Florida , one in Colton, California, and a homicide in Barrow County, Georgia, tell me the train, the question on everyone's mind was why in interviews, Reséndez made the disgusting claim that he killed to end evil, but Among his victims were a doctor, a preacher, his wife, a teacher, and elderly people, all upstanding citizens.

Much loved by his family, the search for Rafael Reséndez took eight months and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in court. He attempted to use an insanity defense to explain his crimes, but in May 2000 he was found guilty of first-degree murder four days later. Rafael Reséndez was sentenced to death.