EHS sociology students to present Bible Belt Strangler profile to FBI

Published 8:42 am Tuesday, October 16, 2018

A journey that a group of Elizabethton High School students embarked on in the spring just keeps on going.

The students of the 2018 spring sociology class, taught by Alex Campbell, will be presenting their profile of the Bible Belt Strangler to the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit at the FBI Knoxville field office, today.

“The BAU is pretty much the ones that created profiling, so to have an audience with them to present our case to them, when they are the ultimate authority, I think is huge,” said Campbell.

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The EHS students’ creation of the Bible Belt Strangler profile came as the group tried to put a face on a serial killer that could be responsible for a string of six murders between 1984 and 2001. Though the murders, deemed the “redheaded murders,” have never been officially connected, the EHS students felt that the similarities were too strong to ignore.

Here recently, in an interview conducted by UPI with the Kentucky State Police, Detective Aaron Frederick said the murders were likely connected, adding some credence to the students’ suspicions. Frederick’s admission is the first time a law enforcement agency has agreed with the students’ assumptions that the murders are the possible work of a serial killer.

The CBS TV series, 48 Hours, will be doing an episode on the case, and the EHS students will be featured on the show, said Campbell. The episode was approved by CBS this past Friday, and camera crews will be on hand while the students present their case to the FBI BAU.

The “redheaded murders” refers to six cases that span four different states. In each case, the victims’ bodies were found along highways and interstates. The cases received its name due to the fact that a majority of the female victims had red-colored hair. Due to the murders’ close proximity to the interstate and highways, the students felt that the possible killer would be a truck driver that lives in the Knoxville area since the killings taking place on the I-40 corridor or along I-75 and I-81.

EHS students involved with the project include Wesley Andes, William Bowers, Nicole Caponero, Macie Churchill, Brianna Finkle, Summer Johnson, Cassidy Kaldy, Gabriel Larkins, Avery Leonard, Jagger Mathes, Noah May, Ethan Norman, Alizabeth Osborne, Clinton Parlier, Mason Peterson, Malena Pierce, Alyson Roberts, Seth Sexton, Alexis Shelton, Kagan Tester, Kayla Vandeventer and Loutisha Williams.