SUSPECT: Christopher Bernard Wilder

[JeannieC]

A Killer's Rampage

Wilder managed to get to Texas, where he found his next victim

Frenzy

Terry Walden

Terry Diane Walden, a 24-year-old nurse from Beaumont and mother of two, told her husband on March 21 that a bearded older man had approached her and asked if she would pose for him as a model. She had turned him down, but he had asked her to go with him to his car to see some samples of his work. She requested quite firmly that he leave her alone. Then two days later on Friday, she disappeared. Her husband failed to make the connection at first.

A friend had seen her around 11:30 that morning, hurrying through the student union at the college where she took classes, and her orange Mercury Cougar was gone from where she usually parked it. Her frantic family went through the weekend trying to locate her.

Then on Monday morning, March 26, a worker found her floating facedown in a canal near a dam. She was fully clothed. The pathologist found that she had been tied up with different types of rope at one point, gagged with tape, and stabbed multiple times, but there was no indication of sexual assault.

Forty detectives were assigned to the case. They found a strip of duct tape in the water, footprints nearby, and tire tracks, but could not find Terry’s car.

The FBI came in to help. They knew that Wilder had stolen license plates in Baton Rouge shortly before to place on his Chrysler. He had stayed at a motel near Beaumont where he had registered under his partner’s name, L.K. Kimbrell. Terry’s husband supplied a description of the man who had approached her, and it matched Wilder. Then his abandoned Chrysler, sans plates, was located. It appeared that he had removed the stolen plates from his car and had probably put them on Terry’s. At least they knew the car he was using, and the license plate number. But he had a head start. By then he’d reached Nevada, via Oklahoma and Colorado. Reports of missing women were turning up almost daily.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/wilder/5.html

http://i.cdn.turner.com/trutv/trutv.com/graphics/photos/serial_killers/predators/wilder/6-1(VICTIM)-Terry-Walden-(150).jpg

http://i.cdn.turner.com/trutv/trutv.com/graphics/photos/serial_killers/predators/wilder/1-4(POLICE)-Christopher-Wilder.jpg

 

[JeannieC]

Aftermath

Wilder was cremated in Florida, leaving a personal estate worth almost $2 million. Along with the eight known victims he killed during February to April 1984, he has been linked to the murders and disappearances of many other women, including some whose remains were found around Florida in areas he was known to frequent.[12] Australia's unsolved Wanda Beach Murders have also been linked to him. The bodies of Elizabeth Kenyon and Rosario Gonzalez have never been found.

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Wilder"]Christopher Wilder - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Christopher Wilder

Background information

Birth name:
Christopher Bernard Wilder

Also known as:
The Beauty Queen Killer

Born:
13 March 1945
Sydney, Australia

Died:
13 April 1984 (aged 39)
Colebrook, New Hampshire, USA

Cause of death:
Suicide (though could be seen as an accidental gunshot death)

Killings

Number of victims:
8 confirmed, possibly more

Span of killings:
February–April 1984

Country:
United States

State(s):
Florida, California, Texas, Oklahoma, Nevada, New York, Utah

Christopher Bernard Wilder (13 March 1945 – 13 April 1984) was a serial killer who abducted and raped at least ten women and killed at least eight of them during a spree across the United States in early 1984. His rampage began in Florida and continued across the country through Texas, Oklahoma, Nevada, California and New York before he committed suicide during a struggle with police in New Hampshire on April 13.[1] He is also believed to have raped girls aged 10 and 12 in Florida during 1983. For many years since his death, Wilder has also been considered the prime suspect in the unsolved Wanda Beach murder of two teenage girls in Sydney, Australia in 1965.[2]

 

[JeannieC]

The killer touched down next in Beaumont Texas. Terry Walden, 24, informed her husband on March 21 that a bearded man had approached her between classes at the local university, soliciting her for a modeling job. She thanked him and declined the offer, but the conversation struck a chord of memory when Terry disappeared March 23. Her body, torn by multiple stab wounds, was recovered from a canal three days later.

On March 25, 21-year-old Suzanne Logan disappeared from a shopping mall in Oklahoma City. Her body was found the next day, floating in Milford Reservoir, near Manhattan, Kansas. Raped and stabbed, the victim had apparently been tortured prior to death.

Sheryl Bonaventura was the next to die, abducted from a shopping mall in Grand Junction, Colorado, on March 29. Another shopper placed Wilder in the mall, soliciting women for modeling jobs, and he was seen with Sheryl at a nearby restaurant that afternoon. She joined the missing list as Wilder worked his way across the country, killing when he paused to rest.

http://the-immoralist.livejournal.com/312862.html

 

[JeannieC]

Christopher Wilder tortured, cut, stabbed, strangled, beat, shot, and shocked his vicitms. He was a race car driver. Lived in Fla. Killed in Sydney Australia , Fla, Texas, Oklahoma, Nevada, California,and New York.

He probably had murdered many more girls and women before going on his final killing spree. He had been convicted of raping girls and given probation.

He probably traveled a lot racing and with his businesses. He posed as a photographer to lure girls into non existent modeling jobs. He followed beauty pageants and abducted girls and raped them.

 

[JeannieC]

DAYTONA BEACH -- When 15-year-old Colleen Orsborn missed her bus, ditched school, grabbed a pink bikini and left home on March 15, 1984, DNA science was still young.

When a fisherman found a knee poking out of the ground near an Orange County lake a few days later -- faded pink nail polish left on the body's fingers and toes -- there was still no DNA database.

For almost three decades, Colleen and the girl found in Orange County remained separate mysteries.

The Daytona Beach News-Journal contacted Garavaglia in mid-January after a user on the online forum Websleuths.com pointed out similarities between Colleen's case and the unidentified girl. The girl's description, listed in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, resembled Colleen in several ways.

Colleen, listed at 5-foot-2 and 95 pounds, had brownish blond hair and hazel eyes. The Orange County girl, dumped and buried just a few miles west of Disney World, was listed at about 5-foot-3 and 100 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes.

http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/east-volusia/2011/02/02/dr-g-matches-missing-daytona-teens-dna.html

 

[Snarky247]

Suzanne Logan was a friend of mine in high school - she was one of the sweetest girls I knew. Every time I think of how terrified she must have been, it makes me sorry Wilder took the coward's way out. I would have preferred a long & painful life at the hands of other prison inmates for him.

 

[JeannieC]

Suzanne Logan was a friend of mine in high school - she was one of the sweetest girls I knew. Every time I think of how terrified she must have been, it makes me sorry Wilder took the coward's way out. I would have preferred a long & painful life at the hands of other prison inmates for him.

I'm so sorry for your loss. I agree, he took the easy way out and like you I would much rather he lived to pay for his crimes. Knowing the monster he was it is hard to imagine the fear, pain, and torture he put these girls through.

I feel there are more victims that we may never know about and neither will their families.

Thank you for sharing with us.

 

[JeannieC]

Rosario Gonzalez

Endangered Missing from Miami, Florida since February 26, 1984

Age: 20 -- Height: 5'6" -- Weight: 115 lbs -- Hair Color: Auburn -- Eye Color: Brown

Rosario's nickname is Chary.


Rosario disappeared on February 26, 1984. She'd been working at a temporary job distributing aspirin samples at the Miami Grand Prix racetrack, where witnesses said took a break and had left around noon with an older man. She was last seen shortly after 1:00 pm. Rosario's 1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass was left parked near the Dupont Plaza, and her paycheck was left unclaimed.

Christopher Wilder became a suspect in Gonzalez's disappearance in March 1984. He has been linked to at least a dozen disappearances and murders of women in the early to mid-1980s. Wilder, who also was at the race, was seen less than four hours later driving north on I-95. He was killed in a struggle with police officers in New Hampshire in late 1984 after he went on a killing spree. Rosario's case remains unsolved

[ame="http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116670"]http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116670[/ame]

 

[JeannieC]

Nothing ever happens here’

Eventually, ties to abductions and murders led to the identification of Wilder as a suspect. He traveled thousands of miles cross country to the western states and finally to the northeast. By April 8, Wilder made the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list.

In California, on April 4, the smooth talker picked up 16-year-old Tina Marie Risico. It was Tina who approached 15-year-old Dawnette Sue Wilt in Gary, Ind. near a mall, offering her a modeling job on April 10.

Wilt was put in the car at gunpoint by Wilder and the horror spree continued.
After Wilder and Risico stopped and took pictures at Niagara Falls, the night was spent at the Exit 45 Motel near Rochester.

Learning he was a wanted man, Wilder took to the back roads. He left Wilt to die in Barrington after stabbing her in the chest once and the back twice. But she was alive and managed to get up and walk into the road where Charles Laursen found her and took her to Soldiers & Sailors Memorial

http://www.chronicle-express.com/news/police_and_fire/x342383242/-Nothing-ever-happens-here

 

[JeannieC]

A list of women and girls believed to be victims of serial killer Christopher Wilder during his 1984 killing spree:

Rosario Gonzalez, 20, last seen Feb. 26 at the Miami Grand Prix. Never found.

Elizabeth Kenyon, 23, last seen March 5 at Coral Gables High School. Never found.

Colleen Orsborn, 15, last seen March 15 at her home in Daytona Beach.

Terry Ferguson, 21, last seen March 18 in Satellite Beach. Found stabbed to death.

Linda Grober, 19, abducted March 20. Tortured and raped but survived.

Terry Walden, 24, disappeared March 23 in Beaumont, Texas. Found stabbed to death.

Suzanne Logan, 21, disappeared March 26 in Oklahoma City. Found stabbed to death.

Sheryl Bonaventura, 18, abducted March 31 in Grand Junction, Col. Found shot and stabbed to death.

Michelle Korfman, 17, disappeared April 1 in Las Vegas. Found dead.

Tina Risico, 16, abducted April 4 in Torrance, Calif. Abused and raped but survived.

Dawnette Wilt, 16, abducted April 10 in Merrillville, Ind. Tortured, raped, stabbed and left for dead but survived.

Beth Dodge, 33, shot and killed April 12 in Victor, N.Y., for her car

http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/east-volusia/2011/02/02/dr-g-matches-missing-daytona-teens-dna.html

 

[JeannieC]

ith his death, Chris Wilder was inevitably linked with other unsolved crimes. A pair of girls, aged ten and twelve, identified his mug shot as the likeness of a man who snatched them from a park in Boynton Beach, in June of 1983, and forced them to fellate him in the nearby woods. His name was likewise linked with other deaths and disappearances across two decades, in Australia and America. In 1965, Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock accompanied a young man matching Wilder's description into the beachfront dunes near Sydney; strangled, raped and stabbed, their bodies were discovered in a shallow grave, but no one has been charged to date. In 1981, teenagers Mary Hare and Mary Optiz were abducted from a mall in Lee County, Florida; Hare was later found, stabbed to death, while Optiz remains among the missing. During 1982, the skeletal remains of unidentified women were unearthed on two separate occasions near property owned by Wilder, in Loxahatchee; one victim had been dead for several years, the other for a period of months.

And the list goes on. Tammi Leppert, teenaged model, kidnapped from her job at a convenience store on Merritt Island, July 6, 1983. Melody Gay, 19, abducted on the graveyard shift of an all-night store in Collier County, Florida, on March 7, 1984, her body pulled from a rural canal three days later. Colleen Osborne, 15, missing from the bedroom of her home in Daytona Beach, March 15, 1984. Chris Wilder was seen in Daytona that day, propositioning "models

http://the-immoralist.livejournal.com/312862.html

 

[Claudette]

Where was he in March 1975? The two pretty blond Lyon sisters (10 and 13) disappeared from a mall. Other Wilder victims disappeared from malls and other very public places. The sisters were approached by a man with a microphone, acting like he was interviewing them. IMO this fits his MO, I think it's possible he used more than one "face" to make people feel at ease. Wilder is thought to have killed two young girls in Australia. Somehow he was able to control the two of them, something that is discussed over in the Lyon sisters' form - how does one man control two girls?

 

[MsFacetious]

I want to know where he was in March of 1975 too... the Lyon sisters.
Also, where was he in May of 1977?

Why is Utah listed if he didn't kill anyone in Utah?
Just because he had to pass through going to and from California?
Or can they verify he was in Utah?

 

[bessie]

I want to know where he was in March of 1975 too... the Lyon sisters.
Also, where was he in May of 1977?

Why is Utah listed if he didn't kill anyone in Utah?
Just because he had to pass through going to and from California?
Or can they verify he was in Utah?

I've never read anything that indicates Wilder was in the Maryland or D.C. area in 1975. During the late 1970's, he was a successful electrical contractor in Florida. Prior to his spree in the spring of 1984, the crimes he is known to have committed occurred in Florida, and one in Australia.

Utah is listed because that's where he killed Sheryl Bonaventura.

On March 29 [1984], four days after Suzanne Logan's body was found, and more than 800 miles to the west, Sheryl Bonaventura, 18, of Grand Junction, Colo. packed her bags for a car trip to Aspen and dressed up for the long-awaited occasion: faded jeans, rust-colored, gold-toed cowboy boots, gold rings, gold bracelets and a white sweatshirt, which read "Cherokee" on the front. To her mother's admonitions about careful driving, she replied with a breezy "Mom, you worry too much" and rushed off for a quick stop at the nearby shopping mall before meeting her traveling companion, best friend Kristal Cesario. Wilder was there that day asking for a "cowgirl type" for a modeling assignment. Kristal thinks Sheryl may have fallen for his pitch. "We were always dreaming of someone coming up and saying, 'You're found. You're Vogue material.' I would have done it."

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20087690,00.html

On May 3, over a month after she had disappeared, Sheryl Bonaventura was found under a tree in Utah. She had been killed with a gun and also stabbed. Her time of death was estimated at around March 31, two days after she was spotted with Wilder in a restaurant.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/wilder/10.html

JMO, but I don't think the MO in the Lyons case fits Wilder. Wilder was an avid photographer, and he used his camera as a prop to entice women with the promise of a modeling career. The man seen with the Lyons girls used a microphone and tape recorder. He was also much older than Wilder who would have been 30 years-old at the time.

 

[sistershane]

Hi,
My name is shane kurz sia. I met Wilder in Lockport, ny in summer of 1983. My girlfriend and i had decided to put on a yard sale at my house which was in town proper. A lot of people were having yard sales on our street and in town-so it looked like a good time. Wilder pulled up in his car, got out and casually walked up to us and started chatting. He gave us almost immediately his business card-that said he was a professional photographer-did modeling portfolios for aspiring models. He was very nice, charming and even went back to his car to get his album of models(woen) he said he'd done. I recognized Elizabeth Kenyon-and he told us who she was. He said he was her friend and a friend of the family and had gone to the Kenyon's Store to visit that day-the store was just a block away from me. Everyone in town knew the Kenyon family-really nice family-they had a summer home in Lockport. Anyway-in 1983 of course, Wilder was not "known' to the average person and even the kenyon family liked and trusted him. We declined his offer to do a portfolio for us, and he was cool about that. he seemed to be interested in a nearby yard sale that was selling cameras-and went on his way. it was about 10 months later he went on his killing spre. Imagine our shocj when it hit the news and we saw who we had talked to(for about 20 min.!), and how we had escaped being a potential possible victim of his!
On April 28th, 2014, we had breaking news here in WNY about the ID of a girl's body that had been found in Oct. 1983. They figure she had been dead since July 1983. Found her in a wildlife preserve not far from where i live now. For 31 years she went as a Jane Doe-now DNA database id'd her a sShari Lynne Ball of West Palm Beach, Florida-who'd disappeared with a man in Boynton beach Florida in 1983-who was taking her to NY for a modeling job! I immediately suspected Christopher Wilder! It all fir his MO!
Now, fast forward. I contacted NYS Police in batavia, ny who are handling this cold case of Shari Lynne Ball-and they interviewed me and my friend about our encounter with Christopher Wilder in summer of 1983. Sadly, we could not give the detective an exact date we aw him at our yard sale but think it was definitely in the summer.
Now, we are working hard to conect Wilder to Shari Lynne Ball and her leaving Florida-and his leaving Florida, at the same time! Tough though, 31 years have passed and anyone alive who may have seen the two together on their way up to wny-are no longer around and some not alive!
Eliabeth Kenyon's body was never found. I've read about Wilder putting a lot of his victims in canals/water reas-where they would decompose quicker-likely. Wilder lived near a canal at his home in Boynton beach. Fl. Likely, he put many, including Elizabeth Kenyon's body-in that canal area. Police did find bones in and around his property-but none id'd as Kenyon.
So sad. Anyway-i'm trying my best to help State Police just do one thing: Connect Wilder with Shari Lynne Ball.! So close but so far away!
I have a Facebook page: Who killed Shari Lynne Ball. My hopes are the many women out there like me who met Wilder and had narrow escapes and close calls like i did-may be of help. Can place him in a certain area around the time of Shari Lynne Ball's disappearance.
Thanks for listening-and visit my FB page!

 

[they'll get you]

Sunday Night

Wanda beach murders: Hans Schmidt breaks silence over his heartache

Marianne had been mutilated by up to 30 stab wounds and her throat cut so savagely, she’d nearly been decapitated. What sort of monster could do that to a schoolgirl? Then we visited the scene of the killing. What struck me was how the sandhills muffled sounds. It was so silent. No-one would have heard their screams, I realised.

 

[sistershane]

i feel so sad for this family. !! Wilder murdered these girls and got away with it. was interviewed here by Duncan Nab-an Austrailan retired police detective and PI, about my meeting Wilder in July 1983. This monster got away with many murders of girls here in USA, and Austrailia..many girls he was known to have last been seen with-have never been found.
SO many grieving family's here and USA-because of this monster.
I've been interviewed by cold case detectives here, a Buffalo,NY news reporter and a radio news investiagtor reporter on Wilder. Unfortunately-this killer took the cowards way out--suicide by cop in NH., and victims will never have justice.!

 

[sistershane]

A Killer's Rampage



http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/wilder/5.html

http://i.cdn.turner.com/trutv/trutv...ors/wilder/6-1(VICTIM)-Terry-Walden-(150).jpg

http://i.cdn.turner.com/trutv/trutv...ors/wilder/1-4(POLICE)-Christopher-Wilder.jpg

Exactly how i remember him-when my friend and i met him in Lockport, in July 1983.