CO CO - Robert Charles Browne - possibly connected to 48 slayings

Auggie21

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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (AP) -- A Colorado man serving a life sentence on a murder conviction has claimed responsibility for up to 48 slayings throughout the United States, authorities said Thursday.

Robert Charles Browne, 53, told authorities the slayings occurred from 1970 until his arrest in 1995, in the death of 13-year-old girl in Colorado, the El Paso County Sheriff's Department said in a news release.

The investigation was first reported on the Web site of The Gazette of Colorado Springs.

The newspaper said authorities have linked Browne to 19 of the slayings, in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Washington and South Korea.

A sheriff's department spokesman said he had no immediate comment. The department scheduled a news conference for later Thursday.
 
The Doe Network:
Case File 1410DFLA

Self, circa 1983
Faye Aline Self
Missing since March 30, 1983 from Armistead, Red River Parish, Louisiana.
Classification: Missing

Vital Statistics
  • Date Of Birth: October 18, 1956
  • Age at Time of Disappearance: 26 years old
  • Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'2"; 100 lbs.
  • Distinguishing Characteristics: Bleached blonde hair from brown. Her hair was shorter than in photo when she disappeared. Grey eyes.
  • Marks, Scars: Surgical scar on abdomen from a hysterectomy. Scar on right leg. Vaccination scar on left arm.
  • Dentals/Fingerprints: Available. She wears upper dentures.
Circumstances of Disappearance
On the night of March 30, 1983, Aline Self left her baby with her mom and went to meet some friends at the Wagon Wheel Bar & Restaurant. The friends in the bar said that Aline told them she was leaving to go get her daughter since she had to be at work early the next day. She never arrived at her mom's house. Her car was still in the parking lot the next day.
The car was still locked and the keys were not found. Her father and brother broke into it and popped the locked steering column so they could pull it home.
Her family says she did have a wild streak but she was very responsible where the baby was concerned and she would never have left willingly. Aline was declared dead 5 years after her disappearance.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Red River Parish Sheriffs Department
318-932-5753

The Doe Network: Case File 1410DFLA



Also:



Browne told Hess that in 1983 he killed two women in his hometown, Coushatta, La., in Red River Parish. One victim was a neighbor. He met the other woman in a bar.

One was found in her apartment, a cabin, that sat in view of Browne’s apartment window. The other’s body was dumped into the Red River. Her body has not been found, and she was considered a missing person until recently. Both were in their 20s.


http://www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1319653&secid=47




I think this is the missing person Browne is talking about.
 
The article mentions a body that was cut up and put in a suit case. The details make it sound like that body has been found. Isn't there at least one case on the cold case site that involves a dismembered body in a suit case, maybe from Pennsylvania or New Jersey?
 
Lisa Lowe -- 21 years old -- heading to her boyfriend. Met her outside nightclub. Nov. 3 1991 missing. Discovered Nov., 26. had consensual sex. Strangled and umped her in St. Francis River. 5 feet 125 pounds. Manner and cause of death. Church . Sept. 17 1991 missing Sept 16. 1993 body remains found in El Paso. Fingerprint. Accept a plea to first degree murder.



Rocio Sperry -- 15 year old. 5 fet 4 104 years old Missing Nov. 15, 1987. disposed of body in dumpster. She was heading to the store. Employed as a clerk



Katherine Hayes -- 15 years old July 4 1980 disovered Oct. 16. chicken stand. Took her to his mother's house.strangedld her with shoelaces. Places

Wanda Faye Hudson -21 years old. Multiple stab wounds. Maintenance man changed the lock. Brother's .chlooroform over her nose and mouse brown's neighbor discovered in her home


Faye Self -- a neighbor of 26 years old. Placed in Red River. Complex owned by brother. She was sleeping placed a chloroform rag over her remains never located.



Melody Bush -- discoverddd 22 years old 5 9 120 pounds. Discovered March 30 197



Nida Mendoza -- 17 years old missing 1984. discovered met her at nightclub. Had consensual sex. Strangled. Placed her in a suicase and made two trips to dipsose of it in a ditch. Sugarland Texas leaving Dames ngith club.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/9587682/detail.html
 
What other type of work did this guy do? Other than the handy work at the apartment complex. I read that he killed a man in Tulsa. Do you think he could of ever came into Pawhuska. We have an unsolved case. Cold case of Cynthia Kinney.
 
Have they announced if anyone in Mississippi had contact with this man? Shondra May, 18, missing/located/murdered 1986. No leads on murderer.
 
http://www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1319691&secid=1

"For example, 6-year-old Morgan Nick, who was abducted from a ballpark in Arkansas 12 years ago couldn’t be Browne’s victim. That’s because he was in prison at that time on a life sentence in the 1991 kidnapping and murder of Heather Dawn Church, 13, from her Black Forest home."

Just as important as finding matches is ruling out perpetraters!
 
Auggie21 said:
The article mentions a body that was cut up and put in a suit case. The details make it sound like that body has been found. Isn't there at least one case on the cold case site that involves a dismembered body in a suit case, maybe from Pennsylvania or New Jersey?
You're thinking of Carbon County Jane Doe. Auggie. Did they say what states in particular this guy killed in and what method ??? (stabbing, strangling etc....)
 
Hollow said:
You're thinking of Carbon County Jane Doe. Auggie. Did they say what states in particular this guy killed in and what method ??? (stabbing, strangling etc....)
There is an article link in this thread that describes his methods. As the information has unfolded, it appears unlikely he is connected to Carbon County Jane Doe. The "girl in the suitcase" from Browne's history appears to be from Texas and found in Texas.
 
I found articles about one woman dismembered and found in a suitcase in El Paso Texas, but that was in 1959, that's too long ago right ??
 
Hollow said:
I found articles about one woman dismembered and found in a suitcase in El Paso Texas, but that was in 1959, that's too long ago right ??
From the Article: http://www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1319651

Hess said Browne told him he dismembered one body in a motel room to avoid being seen carrying it to a vehicle. “He cut her up in the bathtub and put body parts in a suitcase and took them to a certain place and just threw them near the road,” said Hess, a former special agent with the FBI who was with the CIA in Vietnam in the 1960s and now works on Sheriff’s Office cold cases with two other retirees.

The affidavit says the body of Nidia Mendoza was found Feb. 6, 1984, on a roadside in Sugar Land, near Houston. The head and legs had been cut off, but not her arms.

Brown told Hess he met the woman in a strip club, made a deal for sex and they drove together to a nearby motel. There, they had sex and he strangled her. He said he cut her up but then stated, “I may not have cut her arms off.”

He used a dull butcher knife from the room’s kitchenette.

Maketa said the body was cut up with precision, and that Browne was trained as a medic while in the Army.
 
The article that I read made it sound like the body in the suitcase was identified around the time it was found. Does anyone have a link to the other pictures? The picture collage linked to the article was too small to be useful in comparing to missing persons.
 
That's really strange, because I also found an article saying six women, one at least, found in the San Diego bay in a suitcase with only her head and legs cut off, were found dismembered in California in seven months time, this article was from June, 1974.
 
Your Affiant is Detective Jeffrey B. Nohr, a regularly employed detective for the County of El Paso, State of Colorado and currently assigned to the Investigations Division of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office (EPSO). In February 2005, Your Affiant was assigned as lead investigator to investigate information which had been received from Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) inmate Robert Charles Browne, DOB: 10/31/52. Mr. Browne had provided information regarding several homicides he claimed to have committed throughout the United States and one homicide in Colorado Springs, Colorado, County of El Paso. He later admitted to a second homicide in the Colorado Springs area.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/9589406/detail.html

The affidavit goes into great detail about the victims.
 
Rle7 said:
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/9589406/detail.html

The affidavit goes into great detail about the victims.
Ok, this is awful, but follow my train of thought. I got all of this from the affidavit.

Browne is taunting LE with letters back in 2002. He offers two letters with criptic information about "seven virgins, entombed side by side,those less worthy, are scattered wide." He originally says there are 9 victims in Colorado. If you buy the "seven" stuff, the other two would be Church and Sperry.

Later he sends this awful letter where he tells LE

"Location: Murky plaza depth -- cool caressing mire
Amount: Seven
Instructions: Drain-dig
Accomplice: High Priestess
Motive: Sacred virgins-less worthy scattered"

"Something else that might be of interest to you. Hypothetically, if individuals were held in a concealed chamber and their caretaker was incarcerated, thereby causing these individuals to succumb over time, would the caretaker be considered guilty of murder, even though their deaths were a direct result of actions taken by law enforcement officials? I suppose three should be added to the nine. /s/ Robert Browne."


Later in the affidavit, LE notes that Browne's former wife said he owned property in Teller County Colorado off of Teller Highway 1. He took measurements of the property and spoke of liking underground houses.

Could he have burried bodies on that property, or even burried someone alive?
This is far fetched, and I am perfectly willing to believe that he made the "seven virgins" crap up to get LE's attention.

I tried to do a property ownership search in Teller County but on-line records only go as far back as 1992.
 
DENVER (AP) -- Robert Charles Browne says he shot some of his victims and strangled others, in one case with a pair of leather shoelaces. He knocked out one woman with ether, then used an ice pick on her. He put a rag soaked in ant killer over another victim's face and stabbed her nearly 30 times with a screwdriver.

If Browne is telling the truth about killing 49 people across the country, his crimes practically constitute a manual on the many ways in which to kill.

In fact, it may have been the variety in his methods that kept authorities from connecting the crimes until Browne sent a taunting letter to prosecutors six years ago.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/COLORADO_KILLER?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
 
Did anyone watch Nancy Grace regarding Robert Browne? He confessed sorta in letters of killing 49 other women all over US...He had no names but had described the address where he found the girls. I hope police can connect where he was during the years from 1980 and see what states vs the missing to see if they can solve some of these cold case's. I live in Tennessee and we had Jennifer Wyant missing during that time and the picture they showed of him in 1980 sure looks alot like someone I saw during that time. I just hope they can connect him to the unsolved ones and put an end of the not knowing to some of these family and friends:

Story on Nancy Grace, CNN as follows:


Robert Browne was convicted in 1995 on his guilty plea of killing a 13-year-old girl right outside of Colorado Springs in 1991. That was the end of his spree, if you will, or his self-proclaimed spree. He`s in prison now, but investigators are starting to patch together a past that is pretty frightening, to say the least.

GRACE: Out to Sheriff Terry Maketa, El Paso County sheriff. Sheriff, thank you for being with us. How did he go from being convicted of killing 13-year-old Heather Dawn Church, a babysitter outside Colorado Springs, how did he go from that to now being suspected as the most prolific serial killer in the country?

SHERIFF TERRY MAKETA, EL PASO COUNTY SHERIFF: Well, basically, I would say it`s because he began sharing information with our detectives. And I would have to say they deserve some credit. They spent a lot of time with him. This was a very lengthy investigation.

GRACE: Why did he start talking? And when did he start talking, Sheriff?

MAKETA: You know, it started with the exchange of letters originally in 2000, but it really picked up in 2002, and providing information in these letters. And at first, that`s the only way he would communicate.

Eventually, he allowed our detectives to come down to the prison he was serving his sentence in, and he began giving bits and pieces of information, but almost to a point where he was basically making the detectives work for it.

GRACE: But who was he writing the letters to?

MAKETA: He began writing letters to the sheriff`s office and then, more specifically, he began writing letters to the detectives.

GRACE: Now that you`ve been taking a look at it, Sheriff, do you see a similarity between the various victims? This is unheard of. You`re behind bars on one crime. Did he have the death penalty for that crime against Heather Dawn Church, the 13-year-old babysitter?

MAKETA: No, that was part of the original plea agreement when he pled guilty for Heather Dawn Church that the state would not seek the death penalty. So he got life in prison without the possibility of parole.

GRACE: Well, isn`t Colorado a death penalty state, or am I wrong about that?

MAKETA: No, you`re absolutely right. Colorado does have the death penalty.

GRACE: OK, Sheriff, help me out. I`ve got a feeling you may be on my side. All right, you kill a 13-year-old babysitter, a little girl -- did you see those glasses?

MAKETA: Oh, yes.

GRACE: And you don`t get the death penalty, all right. What happened?

MAKETA: You know, basically, I think the suspect, Robert Browne, knew that he could potentially face the death penalty. And probably, as a strategic move, went ahead and took a plea of life in prison without parole. And the district attorney at the time, they chose not to go with the death penalty.

In retrospect, to some degree, I`m glad they didn`t. I think we had a good case, but we wouldn`t have the information we have today and we wouldn`t have the sense of closure that we have at least brought to two people, that being the husband and daughter of...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Yes, that`s a really good point, Sheriff. To Detective Jeff Nohr, El Paso County sheriff`s office -- he`s been handling this case -- Detective, first of all, we`ve got the 13-year-old girl, Heather Dawn Church. He`s convicted of killing her. Then there`s another girl, another teenager -- let me see if I can find -- Rocio Sperry, vanished in 1987. And those remains were not found for many, many years. He got rid of her remains. Now, how did this guy open up to start confessing?

DET. JEFF NOHR, DETECTIVE HANDLING THE CASE: With Mr. Browne, when he started providing information in regards to Rocio Sperry, he only gave bits and pieces of the information, such as a white Grand Am and young Army soldier. He did not know Ms. Sperry`s name. He provided an address of where she had lived and where he was employed. Ms. Sperry would come into his store.

GRACE: Oh, wait a minute, Detective, I`m sorry to interrupt you, but we just put up a -- you`ve got to hear this. I`m sure you`re familiar with it.

This is part of his letter. "Seven sacred virgins, entombed side by side. Those less worthy are scattered wide. The score is you one; the other team" -- me, I guess, him -- "48. If you were to drive to the end of the zone in a white Trans Am, the score could be 9 to 48. That would complete your home and court sphere."

Detective, what kind of a freak are we talking about that would write something like that? Is that the white Trans Am you`re talking about?

NOHR: Actually, it was a Grand Am and he had written Trans Am. Mr. Browne, as far as, you know, writing his stuff, that came in a letter as being poetic, trying to taunt us with that information. That`s in the very beginning stages.

GRACE: Poetic? He thinks he`s poetic?

NOHR: Yes.

GRACE: OK, Detective, correct me if I`m wrong. You know this case like the back of your hand. He killed one lady with an ice pick. He knocked out one lady with ant killer, then finished her off with a screwdriver. He has forgotten a lot of his victims` names. They mean absolutely nothing to him. And he thinks he`s a poet?

NOHR: Well, in his writings, I guess so.

GRACE: Detective, how do you do this? You know, every day after day, you must have been working on this case a really long time.

NOHR: I had been assigned to this case approximately 17 months.

GRACE: Does it ever get to you when you read poetry like this and you realize this guy is talking about innocent people`s bodies and murders?

NOHR: No. What you`re looking at is obtaining the information for the victim and the victim`s families to bring them some closure.

GRACE: OK, I want to get back to the crime at hand. You know, Sheriff Maketa just said something I think is very correct, Detective. He said he`s glad it wasn`t the reverse. And, actually, I think he`s right, because if this guy had already gotten the death penalty for the death of a 13-year-old, we would never have all this information.

And is there anything in the prior deal, Sheriff Maketa, that precludes prosecutors from seeking the death penalty this time?

MAKETA: Actually, there is not. States like Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, they can file charges, and they can pursue the death penalty if their state law allows it. There was no deals offered in the original sentence with Heather Dawn Church, and there was none with this case.

GRACE: Let`s go out to Tiffany Koenig, defense attorney. Tiffany, no statute of limitations on murder. Now this guy has opened up and started writing these poems about his murders that he did in the past to the tune of about 49, Tiffany. Do you think some defense attorney is not doing a back flip over that?

KOENIG: Well, I don`t know if we`d be doing back flips, but certainly he`s not helping himself out by speaking at all. And if that`s -- it`s at least been my experience with serial killers that they just tend to keep talking and they like to have the attention. And it`s not really going to matter to him, because he`s in prison for life as it is.

GRACE: Take a look at this, Dr. Patricia Saunders. Robert Browne`s criminal behavior starts off with cruelty to animals, theft, auto theft, burglary, arson, homicide. The cruelty to animals things really sticks out.

You remember Jeff Dahmer, the cannibalistic killer, BTK killer, he was a dog catcher, Avery, that is soon to be tried for the death of a young girl, a photographer that came to his junk yard for AutoFinder, I believe it was. How does cruelty to animals fit in with later serial killers?

DR. PATRICIA SAUNDERS, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, there`s something called the McDonald`s triad that shrinks talk about, and it`s one of the best predictors we have of who`s going to turn out to be a psychopath and maybe that rare bird, the serial killer like this one. It`s three things: cruelty to animals; bedwetting; and arson as a child.

GRACE: But what`s the connection? I mean, I can read the stats, but what`s the connection between somebody that`s cruel to animals and then becomes a serial killer?

SAUNDERS: Power and the pleasure in having control, absolute control over a helpless victim. People like this have no conscience. They have no remorse. And very often, sex and violence and aggression are all mixed up for them.

GRACE: Back to you, Gary, veteran trial lawyer, speaking of all these poems that he`s been writing, if the bodies of these victims can`t be found and the poems give enough detail that only the killer would know, how do you get those writings into evidence at trial?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it`s going to be very difficult to get the writings into evidence.

GRACE: Can`t you get them in with a handwriting sample?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that`s one way. You`ll have to have a forensic handwriting expert at the trial.
 

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