OH OH - Christopher J. Below, suspected Serial Killer

s_finch

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I literally stumbled across this guy last night while searching SC's missing persons and found he is suspected in the Kristina Porco case which happened in Hilton Head Island. Further down are links that I assembled last night. There isn't very much known about him but LE suspects he is a serial killer, possibly the murderer of Heather Teague, and the most troubling aspect is that his first parole review is next year, 2012!!

Links to info about Christopher J. Below

http://mja--inc--investigations.web...8-christopher-j-below-suspected-serial-killer

http://byginamace.blogspot.com/2009/11/dark-secrets-of-christopher-below-part.html (PLEASE NOTE THERE ARE TWO MORE POSTS ON THIS SITE RELATING TO THIS STORY)

http://findcarrie.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=missinga&action=print&num=1100486807

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/406833/missing_pieces_interview_transcript.html?cat=2

http://www.truecrimereport.com/2009/11/who_took_heather_danyelle_teag.php

(Please note: Sara Teague, Heather's mother, is not completely confident with the LE line of thought in this case, as you can read in "The Missing Pieces" interview. I was surprised to find this out. )

http://www.drc.ohio.gov/OffenderSearch/Search.aspx (This is Ohio Offender lookup--just type in "Below" for last name and he will pop up)

I'll add more info in the next post.
 
Kristina Porco, 16, November 29, 1986 -- Hilton Head Island, SC
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/p/porco_kristina.html


Shaylene Farrell, 18, August 8, 1994 -- Piqua, OH
OH OH - Shaylene Marie Farrell, 18, Piqua, 8 Aug 1994 - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community


Heather Teague, 23, August 26, 1995 -- Spottsville, KY
KY KY - Heather Teague, 23, Spottsville, 26 Aug 1995 - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community


Mary Kushto, 43, May 5, 1998 -- St Cloud, FL
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/k/kushto_mary.html


He was convicted of manslaughter in the death of 26-year-old Kathern Fetzer, November 26, 1991, in Medina, OH. Her remains have never been found.
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/f/fetzer_kathern.html

http://findcarrie.blogspot.com/2005/11/disappearance-of-heather-teague.html
 
Dark Secrets of Christopher Below -- Part I
Akron Beacon Journal (OH)
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Author: Craig Webb and Gina Mace , Beacon Journal writers
Dateline: MEDINA

Many of the women in his life remember him, first of all, as a Southern gentleman -- a tall, brown-haired Southern gentleman with piercing blue eyes who had an uncommon ability to charm his way into their hearts and homes. There seemed to be no reason to suspect anything sinister lurked beneath that surface.

Thirteen years ago, when he was but 25, it was that charm that ensnared a married Medina woman of the same age into a summerlong affair, and it was his intriguing tales of adventure that kept her interested. But when guilt got the better of Kathern Fetzer and she decided to bring the episode to an end, a strikingly different side of Christopher Below emerged.
Part II: Vanishing Point
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Akron Beacon Journal (OH)
Author: Craig Webb and Gina Mace, Beacon Journal writers
Dateline: HENDERSON, KY.

AFTER HEATHER TEAGUE DISAPPEARED ALONG THE OHIO RIVER IN 1995, POLICE THOUGHT THEY HAD SOLVED HER MURDER. THEN THEY HEARD ABOUT CHRISTOPHER BELOW

Tim Walthall never met Heather Teague. Yet their lives intersected on a warm, sunny day in August 1995 in a horrifying moment that passed without significance to anybody in faraway Medina County, Ohio.

It was a perfect day for the blue-eyed, long-haired former beauty queen to find a secluded spot to work on her tan. She parked her red compact car at Newburgh Beach on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River near Henderson and walked through a stand of willow trees and down a steep bank, plunking her chaise longue along the water's edge. Alone with the sounds of the river pushing over the nearby dam, the slender 23-year-old removed her cutoff shorts, placed them by her shoes on the sand, and lay down on her stomach, loosening her bikini top.

snipped
Then came Thomas and his inquiries, eight years after the 1995 abduction.

And here are some of the things he discovered:

+ Below was living in Kentucky in 1995 when Teague was abducted, but not for long.
+ Three days after the abduction -- the same day Dill put the gun to his head -- Below left town.
+ Some of Dill's friends and some of Teague's friends were also acquaintances of Below.
+ A phone call that was placed by Teague on the night before she disappeared was made from a pay phone outside a bar near Henderson -- a bar that Below liked to frequent.

Furthermore, according to Thomas, there is a striking resemblance between Heather Teague and Kathern Fetzer.
Part III: The Terrible Silence
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Akron Beacon Journal (OH)
Author: Craig Webb and Gina Mace, Beacon Journal writers
Dateline: HENDERSON, KY.

Whether by accident or design, Below left a briefcase with a 5-year-old South Carolina poster that sought the public's help in learning the whereabouts of Kristina Joanne Porco.

Kristina, they discovered, was a petite, 16-year-old girl with long, dark hair who had been missing since Nov. 29, 1986. She left her home in Hilton Head, S.C., following a quarrel with her mother. She had called a girlfriend, asking to meet her in the pool area of the complex.

When her friend arrived, though, Kristina was gone and all that remained was the girl's red sweater. She never was seen again.

Why her missing poster was left in Below's apartment is unclear.
 
Well, the timing and location fit Jennifer Olson. I'm going to look around for more information.
 
Well, the timing and location fit Jennifer Olson. I'm going to look around for more information.

Thanks and good luck, bessie. I just looked back over Jennifer Olson's thread (very brief) and now I recall how hard it was for us to find much of anything. I hope you can scare up more stuff than we did.

I wish we could find a picture of her...
 
I'm afraid I didn't have much luck on a first try, BW. I didn't even find pay-per-view articles about JO.

According to the statements in this article, as of 2001, it was an open case.
'"We're still working on the Jennifer Olson case," Bromage said. "It's being actively investigated." 'While he is reluctant to give details about the investigations, Bromage said fresh interviews with witnesses, DNA testing and other forensic science advancements, and the use of state resources are helping detectives. 'This week, the Sheriff's Office will begin tapping into a national crime database that helps police departments cooperate in investigations by matching crime scene details, and other information about victims, weapons and suspects, Sheriff P.J. Tanner said.
http://www.lowcountrynewspapers.net/archive/node/76509

Below lived in SC and KY during the 80's and 90's. Kristina Porco disappeared from a condominium complex in November 1986. Olson was staying with her family at a resort hotel when she was killed in July 1989. I don't see why Below would've been ruled out unless he had a strong alibi that placed him elsewhere when Olson was killed.
 
Hilton Head Death Said Unrelated to Assaults
Sheriff: Cobb Woman's Slaying Not Connected

Date: August 2, 1989 Publication: The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution
Sheriff Morgan McCutcheon of Beaufort County, S.C., said Tuesday he didn't think the slaying of a 19-year-old Marietta, Ga., woman Sunday was related to seven recent sexual assaults at Hilton Head Island.
"Damn right, I'm concerned," said Sheriff McCutcheon. "This is unusual. But I don't believe this case is tied to anything that previously happened on the island."
In this preview of a ppv article, the Beaufort County sheriff said he didn't believe JO's murder was related to the rash of assaults which occurred in June and July, 1989. His statement was probably based on the fact that the suspect in those crimes was an African American man, Darryl Youmans, and an eyewitness saw JO leave the Westin lobby with a caucasian man. But that still doesn't explain whether or not Below was ruled out.
 
Does anyone know if they have considered him in Tammy Zywicki's abduction and murder?

(from IowaColdCases.com)

"On Sunday, Aug. 23, 1992, Tammy J. Zywicki, a 21-year-old Grinnell College student, departed Evanston, Illinois, to return to school in Grinnell, Iowa, where she was expected to arrive that evening. Later that day, Zywicki’s car — a 1985 Pontiac T1000 with New Jersey license plates — was found by an Illinois State Trooper and ticketed as being abandoned.

On Sept. 1, 1992, Zywicki’s body was located along Interstate Highway 44 (I-44) in rural Lawrence County, Missouri, located between Springfield and Joplin.

She’d reportedly last been seen with her car at mile marker 83 in central Illinois sometime between 3:10 and 4 p.m. on Aug. 23, 1992. Witnesses reported seeing a tractor-trailer near Zywicki’s vehicle during this time period.

In January 1993, an unnamed eyewitness placed a call to the task force, stating she’d seen Zywicki pulled to the side of the road and that a man was with [Zywicki], watching as the young girl struggled to fix her car.

The witness described the man — allegedly the tractor-trailer’s driver — as a white male between 35 and 40 years of age, over six feet tall, and having dark, bushy hair.
"

Below:

Matches the physical description
CBelow3.jpg


Was active in the early-to-mid 1990s, around the time Tammy was abducted

Was active in the same region Tammy was abducted

Was a truck driver

Was known to pick up girls who were lost, having car trouble, or simple travelling alone along interstates

Had been rejected by the Marines less than a year before Tammy was abducted.


What does everyone else think?
 
This guy should be getting out very very soon unless he was charged with something else that I can't find. Am I right on this? oh please tell me I missed something. I'm feeling nervous.
 
I'm just learning of Christopher Below, happened upon his name while looking for information on Shaylene Farrell. I'm curious as to why LE believes he could be responsible for all of these abductions? Was this based on proximity alone? Is there more information than what has been made available?

Where is the jump from a male murdering his mistress who planned to break it off, to suspected serial killer abducting women in public? I'm just trying to make the connection. Thanks!
 
He apparently worked with one of the victims. The police found a missing persons flier of another vic in his home.
It seems all circumstantial. He was a truck driver and can be placed in the area of abductions. I still don't understand how they are linking him to Shaylene. Unless his truck route was on 36 in Piqua and he happened to have been hanging out at pick-and-save which is a pretty stupid place to hang on when there was a huge parking lot just 1/4 mile west with a Macdonalds, Kmart and Krogers back then. All of the stores are gone now and krogers is where pick-n-save use to be.
http://mja--inc--investigations.web...8-christopher-j-below-suspected-serial-killer

Maybe this will help
 
I'm just learning of Christopher Below, happened upon his name while looking for information on Shaylene Farrell. I'm curious as to why LE believes he could be responsible for all of these abductions? Was this based on proximity alone? Is there more information than what has been made available?

Where is the jump from a male murdering his mistress who planned to break it off, to suspected serial killer abducting women in public? I'm just trying to make the connection. Thanks!

Going by memory here, if Farrell is the woman in KY abducted from a beach, IIRC Below lived in the area at the time and was associated with a guy who was suspected in her abduction and somehow Below was implicated. HE IS FROM KY.
 
IIRC there was more than one missing girl poster in his home. They were in a special box he kept that he told his sister to secure if anything happened to him. His sister handed it over to LE.
 
He apparently worked with one of the victims. The police found a missing persons flier of another vic in his home.
It seems all circumstantial. He was a truck driver and can be placed in the area of abductions. I still don't understand how they are linking him to Shaylene. Unless his truck route was on 36 in Piqua and he happened to have been hanging out at pick-and-save which is a pretty stupid place to hang on when there was a huge parking lot just 1/4 mile west with a Macdonalds, Kmart and Krogers back then. All of the stores are gone now and krogers is where pick-n-save use to be.
http://mja--inc--investigations.web...8-christopher-j-below-suspected-serial-killer

Maybe this will help

Thank you! That is helpful.
 
I think he deserves a spot on the long haul trucker thread. Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan were his stomping grounds maybe a little further south. He is due to get out of prison in the near future having served a full sentence which means no post prison babysitter.
 

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