#16: He Got Away With It. Until One Ominous Friday the 13th

He charmed, lied, and vanished into plain sight. Long before his face made front pages, there were warning signs—disturbing, violent, and ignored. This is the story of what was missed, and the darkness that followed.

In this episode we examine the disturbing early years of serial predator Christopher Wilder, known as the "Beauty Queen Killer." Before his deadly 1984 cross-country spree, Wilder left a trail of warning signs—allegations of abuse, sexual violence, and manipulation spanning from Australia to Florida. We explore his volatile marriage, suspicious attempts on his wife's life, and his early use of modeling scams to exploit young women. With insight into his carefully constructed façade and failed business dealings, this episode traces the roots of a man who used charm and deception to mask a violent, escalating pathology.

Keywords: Christopher Wilder, Beauty Queen Killer, true crime podcast, Nightwatch Files, serial killer, 1980s, modeling scams, Florida crime, Australian true crime, abusive marriage, early signs of violence, criminal psychology, cold cases.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Before we begin. Do you have a theory about this
case or a story of your own? Leave a message
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files without the space, or head over to night watch
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Your insights might be featured in a future episode. I'm
Harper Finley and this is night Watch Files. Warning. This

(00:26):
episode contains graphic descriptions of violence. Listener discretion is advised.
He moved through cities like a shadow at dusk, never
staying long, never seen twice, always just far enough ahead
of the questions being asked. He didn't force his way in.
He didn't follow women down dark alleys or smash his
way through locked doors. He walked right up to them

(00:47):
in broad daylight, on sidewalks, in parking lots, at gas stations,
and outside shopping malls. Places that felt safe, familiar, places
no one was watching too closely. He spoke softly, confident
but never threatening. He had a way of making people
stop and listen. Sometimes he said he was a photographer.

(01:07):
Sometimes he worked in fashion or beauty or advertising. Sometimes
he just asked for directions. What he said didn't matter,
It was how he said it He made it feel ordinary,
and once the conversation started, it didn't take long before
it ended in silence. The first report came out of Miami,
a young woman who left for a promotional job and

(01:28):
never came back. Two weeks later, another woman vanished just
a few miles away, her car abandoned near a high
school where she used to teach. In Texas, a teenager
disappeared from a shopping center in the middle of the afternoon,
her purse still in the car. Keys in the ignition.
In Kansas, another woman didn't return home after stopping to

(01:50):
fill up her gas tank. Different names, different cities, different
police departments, none of them talking to each other, none
of them connecting the missing threads. The disappearances were treated
like separate stories, missing persons, cold trails, unsolved cases, Families
left waiting by the phone, hoping, guessing. He didn't leave evidence.

(02:12):
He didn't need to. His weapon wasn't a knife or
a gun. It was control, patience, precision. He picked the moment,
created the opening and slipped through it before anyone could react.
He moved fast, but not recklessly. That's what made him
so hard to catch. He was careful, and in his
wake he left only the absence of what had been
there before. Then everything would come to a sudden halt

(02:36):
on a Friday the thirteenth. Um Coley Wylder was a

(02:58):
nineteen year old Navy man from Irmingham, Alabama. When he
enlisted in nineteen thirty nine. He was stationed at Pearl
Harbor on the morning of December seventh, nineteen forty one,
when the Japanese attacked. He survived, continued his service and
was later stationed in Australia, where he met June Ducker,
a young woman from Sydney. The two married in April

(03:19):
nineteen forty four. Just under a year later, on March thirteenth,
nineteen forty five, their first of four sons was born
in Sydney. They named him Christopher Bernard Wylder. The war
in Europe would end just two months after his birth.
The Pacific Theater would close a few months later following
the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Christopher's arrival into

(03:42):
the world was anything but easy. He was born prematurely,
and doctors believed he wouldn't survive the night. A priest
was summoned to perform the last writes an unusual gesture
for a family without ties to the Catholic Church. His
parents kept vigil preparing themselves for the worst. The child
survived years later. When interviewed by psychiatrist doctor D. G.

(04:05):
Boozer in nineteen seventy seven, Wilder denied this near fatal experience.
He also claimed he'd never suffered serious illness, accidents or
episodes of unconsciousness. Records and media accounts tell a different story.
In April nineteen forty six, the family left Australia. Coley
remained in the Navy, and the family relocated, often living

(04:26):
on American naval bases in Norfolk, San Francisco, and Las Vegas,
and for a time in the Philippines. In sessions with
his later therapist, doctor Bush, Christopher recalled these years as disjointed.
He claimed he was sent to the US at age
one and didn't see his parents again until he was three.
Despite this distance in the nature of military life, there

(04:48):
were no known signs of abuse or neglect. His upbringing
was relatively stable and financially secure, but even as a
young child, Christopher Wylder was no stranger to death. Day
playing at the beach near Sydney, he disappeared while swimming
When he was pulled from the surf, he was unconscious,
his small body, limp and water logged. Lifeguards managed to

(05:10):
revive him. His friends had assumed he was dead. Media
reports later claimed he nearly drowned in a backyard pool
at the age of three and slipped into a coma,
but once again, Wylder would go on to deny this
version of events, telling doctor Adelson that it never happened.
What did happen consistently were fainting spells, episodes that continued

(05:31):
throughout his youth. As he grew older, Wylder's behavior began
to shift. He became impulsive, detached, and increasingly indifferent to
the suffering of others, particularly women. His early life contained
no obvious signs of violent influence, yet the presence of
multiple near death experiences, coupled with recurring neurological symptoms led

(05:53):
some experts to question whether this could have played a
role in shaping his psychological profile. A child who believed
himself indestructible, a young man who believed the rules didn't apply,
that belief would have consequences. Christopher's brothers, Stephen and Rick,

(06:16):
were born by the late nineteen fifties, as the family
returned to Sydney after their father's retirement from the Navy.
They settled in Ride near June's relatives, where Colei built
a home to outsiders. They appeared competent, if perhaps a
bit soft, but coally demanded military formality within the household. Yes,
sir or no, sir. Doctor D. G. Booser's nineteen seventy

(06:38):
seven assessment noted Christopher was closer to the mother, who
was warm, too easy, and gave them whatever they wanted,
a dynamic already hinting at indulgence and blurred boundaries. Christopher
attended Epping Boy's High School. Academically unremarkable. He preferred the
baseball diamond to the classroom. His IQ tested at wonder

(06:59):
and four barely average. His preference for American baseball over
cricket or rugby made him conspicuous and exoticism he'd later weaponize.
At fifteen, a disappointment, he failed his intermediate certificate and
left school. His father blamed confusion with the Australian system.
Christopher started a carpentry apprenticeship, diligently saving wages. By seventeen,

(07:22):
he'd bought his first car, an off white four door
Morris minor, a symbol of his independence. His younger brother Stephen,
recalling him years later in nineteen eighty four, painted a
conflicting picture. Blonde, good looking, a good athlete, possessing a
classy American aura, yet beneath the surface, a very nervous person,

(07:42):
very edgy, a very big nail bier, never calm and cool,
except Stephen noted with unsettling precision when he was picking
up girls. But the cracks in this suburban facade were
appearing much earlier. The first documented signs pointing towards a
terrifying future emerged in Christopher early adolescence. Between the ages

(08:02):
of eleven and thirteen, he was caught window peeping in
his own Sydney neighborhood. Neighbors reported him to the police.
The outcome was a little more than a scolding before
being handed back to his parents. Authorities in the late
nineteen fifties dismissed it casually, boyish exuberance and sexual experimentation.
His parents, noted for sheltering him, ensured he escaped meaningful punishment.

(08:27):
This incident, seemingly minor to the authorities of the time,
opened a door a dark corner of his psyche, once glimpsed,
began to fester. Then, on January fourth, nineteen sixty three,
a few months shy of his eighteenth birthday, the simmering
darkness erupted violently. Christopher Wylder, his Morris minor, and two

(08:47):
younger friends were at Freshwater Beach. They lured a thirteen
year old local girl into the car. What began as
an attempt to coerce her into consensual sex rapidly descended
into brutality. When she refused, they threatened her physically overwhelmed her.
All three boys took turns raping the young girl. Afterwards,
they abandoned her on the beach, discarded. She immediately reported

(09:10):
the crime. Wilder was arrested, held for eight days at
the Albion Street Children's Shelter, released on bail. Later, he
would weave a tale for his psychologist, claiming unwilling participation
in a gang rape and undergoing court ordered electroshock therapy.
The records tell a different story. Electro Shock was neither

(09:31):
ordered by the court nor recommended by the assessing psychiatrist.
It appears to be part of a mystique. Wilder cultivated,
a narrative of victimhood and extreme treatment. At sentencing, his
father took the stand. He leveraged his war record, his
commitment to family, his church attendants. He painted a picture
of a good boy led astray. The prosecution and the

(09:53):
judge were swayed. The probation officer suggested Christopher was drawn
into the offense by his associates. On June thirteenth, nineteen
sixty three, now legally an adult at eighteen, Christopher Bernard
Wylder received a twelvemonth suspended sentence with a good behavior bond.
His punishment was further sex education. His siblings remained largely

(10:15):
in the dark, recalling it vaguely as a beech thing.
The two younger boys received slightly harsher, yet still lenient sentences.
Decades later, one of those boys, burdened by guilt, recalled Wilder,
specifically turning nasty when the girl refused him at the quarry.
This brutal assault wasn't just a crime, It was a
chilling blueprint. It revealed planning a specific modest operandi, luring, coercion, violence, abandonment.

(10:43):
Christopher Wylder's parents had spent years hoping their son would change.
They had seen him in trouble before disturbing behavior, brushes
with the law, and still they believed that with the
right support, he could turn his life around. His father
helped him secure work. Both parents and couraged him to
settle down to marry to lead a respectable life. In

(11:04):
nineteen sixty eight, it seemed they'd finally succeeded. Christopher Bernard
Wylder got married. The narrative most often repeated is that
the marriage lasted only a few weeks, but that version
is wrong. The truth is more painful. It lasted for
a year, long enough to inflict lasting damage on the
young woman he married. Her mother would later recall that

(11:25):
she'd often seen Wilder in fits of violent rage. The
signs were there early, but her daughter stayed with him.
In the first weeks of marriage, things seemed ordinary. The sex,
she said, was quite normal. That didn't last. Soon, the
same disturbing traits Wylder had shown years earlier, the ones
that led to his arrest in fresh Water, reappeared. His

(11:47):
wife later said, Chris started getting real crude while we
were having sex. He would say, I want you to
hurt me, I want you to scratch me. He became relentless,
demanding sex three times a night. When she cried. He
would beg her not to, speaking in what she described
as a real funny sort of voice. He insisted on
having sex during her menstrual cycle. When she refused, he

(12:11):
would become furious. Sometimes he slapped me or got me
around the shoulders and shook me real hard, she said. Afterward,
he would go into the bathroom and remain there for
nearly an hour, the shower running the entire time. His
demands escalated. He wanted anal sex, at the time still
illegal in Australia, carrying a sentence of up to fourteen

(12:32):
years in prison. His wife resisted, but she was frightened isolated.
She also made disturbing discoveries photographic equipment, nude photos of
unknown young women, photos of them posing in her bikinis,
and dresses stolen from her drawers. Quick break ads keep

(12:53):
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Thanks for sticking through that. Let's get back to it.
Then came the incidents that chilled her. Beyond the bedroom.

(13:14):
There were moments in their marriage that at the time
may have been written off as unfortunate coincidences, but looking back,
they seem anything but accidental. In mid nineteen sixty eight,
his wife was driving to work when her car's brakes
gave out. She managed to avoid a crash, but when
the car was inspected, it was found to be completely
out of brake fluid. That in itself was strange. The

(13:37):
car had been well maintained, and Wilder, who had a
strong grasp of mechanics, had been checking it regularly. Her
family found the situation troubling. Two weeks later, another incident.
This time it was the steering It failed without warning.
She lost control of the vehicle and ran off the road. Again.
She wasn't hurt, but the coincidence of the two serious mechanical

(14:01):
failures in such a short space of time, both involving
components that Wylder would have known how to access, was
hard to ignore. At the time, the couple had been
arguing frequently. She suspected he was seeing other women. Then
came something even more disturbing. In October that same year,
Wylder's wife was lying in bed when she detected a

(14:21):
strong smell of gas. It was overpowering. When she got
up to check, she noticed the windows in their unit
had all been shut, unusual for their routine. In the kitchen,
one of the gas jets on the stove had been
left on. Christopher Wylder was outside the house when she
asked if he could smell the gas. He said he couldn't.

(14:42):
She and her family would later report these incidents to police.
To this day, there is no definitive proof of intent,
but given what he was capable of, how calculated and
cold he could be, it's difficult not to draw chilling conclusions.
Wylder also turned his predatory gaze on his wife's younger
sisters in August nineteen sixty eight, Employing a photographer slash

(15:04):
modeling scam, he tried to lure her to a supposed photoshoot.
It was only thwarted when the sister and her mother
saw through his disguise, but the pattern continued. In November
nineteen sixty eight, Wilder sexually assaulted an eighteen year old nurse.
He used the modeling scam again, then threatened to publish
nude photos he'd taken to coerce compliance. The nurse reported

(15:28):
him to police in February nineteen sixty nine. She gave
a detailed statement, but facing the prospect of a trial.
She was unwilling to testify, and without her testimony, prosecution faltered.
His wife, now fully aware of the danger and warned
by police, left him for the final time. In February
nineteen sixty nine, Christopher Wilder was on the radar of

(15:50):
Sydney Police for serious sex offenses. His opportunities in Australia
seemed exhausted. The net, however, primitive by modern standards, was tightening,
so in nineteen sixty nine, Christopher Bernard Wilder leveraged his
dual citizenship. He left Australia. He emigrated to the United States.
The technology for rapid international police communication was limited, inquiries

(16:13):
moved slowly. The door to immediate Australian justice closed behind him.
As he boarded that plane. He slipped away, carrying his
dark compulsions, his honed methodology, and the terrifying potential for
escalation across the Pacific. A predator already molded by violence
and leniency, entering a vast new hunting ground. Christopher Bernard

(16:44):
Wilder stepped onto American soil in nineteen sixty nine, leaving
behind a trail of shattered lives and near misses with
Australian justice. He arrived in Florida, a state bathed in
relentless sunshine, promising anonymity and opportunity to the outside world.
His early adulthood would project an image of burgeoning success,
a self made man. But beneath this carefully constructed facade,

(17:09):
the darkness nurtured in Sydney was intensifying, evolving, and finding
terrifying new expression across two continents. Florida welcomed Christopher Wylder
with open arms. He plunged headfirst into the sun drenched
hedonism of the state, the beaches, the parties, the casual encounters.
But Wylder wasn't just playing. He was building. With shrewdness

(17:30):
and relentless drive. He amassed a small fortune. He bought
cheap land, riding the wave of Florida's nineteen seventies real
estate boom, and founded two lucrative contracting companies. This fortune
funded a carefully curated image, a beachfront home, boats, motorcycles,
and crucially, high performance sports cars. He even entered the

(17:52):
competitive world of car racing, a part time profession that
burnished his image as a successful, daring entrepreneur. Yet behind
the gleaming paint work of his sports cars. In the
facade of his waterfront success, the Predator remained active hunting
in the Florida sun. The nineteen seventies became a chilling
prelude for Christopher Wylder, a decade marked by a series

(18:15):
of sexual assaults where serious consequences consistently eluded him. Victims,
traumatized and intimidated, often found the prospect of testifying too overwhelming. Authorities,
sometimes dismissive, sometimes hampered by evidentiary hurdles, frequently deemed his
acts not severe enough to warrant harsh punishment. Shortly after

(18:36):
he settled in Florida in nineteen sixty nine, he resumed
a pattern that had already become familiar. He approached a young,
attractive nurse with the same well rehearsed line he'd used before.
He claimed to be a professional photographer. He said he
was looking for fresh faces to help launch into modeling careers,
and that he could take photos for free. The woman agreed.

(18:59):
She even insented to pose nude, something that may have
seemed less taboo in the context of the so called
sexual revolution that was unfolding across the United States at
the time, but once Wilder had the photos, the tone changed.
He threatened to release them unless she agreed to have
sex with him. She refused, and, unlike many others, she

(19:20):
went to the police. She reported the incident, detailing the
threat and his coercion, but this was nineteen sixty nine
and the authorities weren't inclined to take her seriously. Without
hard evidence, her account was dismissed. Officers suggested it might
have been a lover's quarrel, or perhaps they said the
woman had simply got more than she bargained for. No

(19:42):
charges were filed, no further investigation was made. Wilder was
free to continue, and he did. The pattern was fully established.
Now in nineteen seventy one, down in Pompano Beach, he
enticed two teenage girls with the same photography scam. This
time an arrest followed for soliciting, but justice was fleeting.

(20:02):
When the terrified girls refused to testify, the charges were
dropped and he walked away. Yet again. Later that same year,
another arrest, this time for forcing oral sex on a
teenage girl, and once more the outcome was the same.
Faced with the ordeal of court, the victim withdrew, charges dropped,
Wilder remained free. By nineteen seventy four, Emboldened by his impunity,

(20:25):
his assaults escalated. He met another teenage girl, dangling the
familiar lure of fame, but the promise turned predatory. He
drugged her, He raped her, this time, perhaps due to
the violence or the drug. Prosecution did follow, but convicted
under older, far more lenient guidelines, Christopher Wilder received only probation.

(20:46):
A violent rape met with nothing more than a judicial
slap on the wrist. Then came Boca Ratan nineteen seventy six,
charged with sexually assaulting a sixteen year old girl he'd
lured using a fabricated story. In court, facing the accusation,
Wilder adopted a mask of contrition. He admitted to the assault,
projecting an image of remorse for the jury. But was

(21:07):
it genuine or just another calculated move? This pattern, the lure,
the assault, the escape, defined his Florida years. Each near miss,
each dismissal, each lenient sentence wasn't just a failure of
the system. It was fuel for a predator growing ever
more confident, ever more dangerous. This nineteen seventy six case

(21:27):
brought psychological scrutiny. Doctor Edward Addelson assessed Wilder. His conclusion
was that Wilder was not a mentally disordered sex offender,
not dangerous to others. He recommended only structured treatment. Doctor D. G. Booser, however,
held a very different view. Boozer found Wilder not altogether reliable,
profoundly self centered, and noted his reality ties are virtually

(21:51):
nonexistent and at best tenuous. Boozer's chilling diagnosis Wilder was
a mentally disordered sex offender and not safe except in
a structured environment. Despite Boozer's stark warning, the jury deliberated
for only fifty five minutes and he was acquitted. The
court record simply noted the charges as dismissed. Christopher Wylder

(22:13):
walked free, once again, his wealth charm and the system's
failures shielding him. During this turbulent decade, Wylder maintained a
long term relationship with a woman named Nola. They lived
together for roughly eight years in the early to mid
nineteen seventies. To Nola, initially Wylder seemed a workaholic. Their
sexual relationship struck her as very normal, but cracks appeared.

(22:37):
She discovered caches of photographs young women in swimsuits, their
telephone numbers, scribbled on the back. It revealed his sleazy hobby,
his secret life of affairs. Nola became a keen, if
horrified observer. She noted how he lies smoothly and well.
She saw his vanity, his fastidiousness. Most tellingly, she described

(22:58):
his unsettling habit not looking people in the eye, but
rather looking beside and beyond them when talking to them.
He was, she realized, a watcher, not a participant in
social settings, and she identified his deepest dread. His greatest
fear in life would involve incarceration in a penal institution,
a fear that would later drive him to desperate, violent extremes.

(23:20):
By the late nineteen seventies, Christopher Bernard Wylder stood at
a terrifying cross roads. He possessed significant wealth, social standing,
and a predatory methodology refined over years. He had evaded
meaningful punishment time and again. The psychological assessments were starkly divided,
but one warned unequivocally of his danger. He was a watcher,

(23:42):
a manipulator, a man whose greatest fear was capture. The
stage was set. The Sunshine State's darkest storm was gathering,
and Christopher Wilder was its eye. The acquittal in nineteen
seventy six wasn't an end point for Christopher Wilder. It
was a green light. Emboldened, he continued to wear his
destructive path through Florida's sunlit landscape. The predator, shielded by wealth,

(24:05):
charm and systemic failures, was growing bolder, more calculating, and
more dangerous. Quick break ads keep the show running, but
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(24:31):
Let's get back to it. In Australia, Christopher Wilder had
always leaned into his American accent, using it to set
himself apart, to appear worldly, different, interesting. In Florida, he
did the same thing, but in reverse. Now it was
the Australian accent he played up. He used it the

(24:52):
way he used everything else, as a tool to attract attention,
to draw people in, to disarm. Australia was having moment
in the American imagination, especially after the nineteen seventy nine
release of Mad Max. The film's gritty dystopian style struck
a chord, and suddenly being Australian carried a certain cachet, dangerous, edgy, exotic.

(25:14):
Wilder understood that appeal, and he used it. Every bit
of his life was curated to feed an illusion. He
was involved in three businesses, Rainbow Equipment, Sawtel Electric, and
Sawtel Construction. All of them were run from a non
descript office in a builder's yard on Northeast third Street,
Boyton Beach. Despite his reputation for chasing women, the walls

(25:35):
weren't plastered with photos of models. Instead, they showcased his
public obsession motor racing. His business partner, Zeke Kimbrell, told
The Los Angeles Times in nineteen eighty four that Wylder's
entire persona was performative. He moved with confidence, wore flashy
leather jackets, and sported oversized rings he claimed were diamonds,

(25:56):
but they weren't. They were cheap zirconia bought for Showkimbrell
said he wanted to be something he wasn't. The two
men met in nineteen seventy six. At the time, Wilder
was working as a carpenter and Kimbrell was managing large
construction projects. Though they went into business as equal partners,
the arrangement was far from balanced. Kimbrell told People magazine

(26:19):
that Wylder was useless on a job site. Chris was
no contractor. He said, the SOB didn't know how to
change a light bulb. While Kimbrell handled the actual work,
Wilder drifted through the days, more interested in appearances than results.
It wasn't just his work ethic that raised questions. Kimbrell
accused him of siphoning money from the business, alleging that

(26:42):
Wilder often visited job sites ahead of schedule, collecting cash
payments from clients behind his partner's back. When Kimbrell followed
up with an invoice, he'd learned the client had already
paid directly to Wilder. Kimbrell believed the stolen money was
being sent back to Australia, where Wylder's father was flipping
properties with it for profit. As a tradesman, Wylder was

(27:05):
neither skilled nor reliable, but he knew how to turn
a profit. He made clever, calculated investments, buying run down
properties with low deposit long term loans, sprucing them up
and selling them quickly. It wasn't flashy, but it worked.
By this time, Wylder's liven relationship with a woman named
Nola had ended Still, the two remained close. They'd meet

(27:28):
up at dog shows and continued speaking regularly by phone.
In nineteen seventy nine, Nola moved to New Hampshire. That
same year, Wylder made his first trip back to Australia
in a decade. There was no trouble at the airport.
No one flagged his name, no one questioned his presence.
The technology of the time, primitive border controls, sluggish international

(27:50):
data sharing, meant his significant criminal record went unflagged. He
walked back into Sydney unnoticed. It was a reconnaissance mission.
He stayed only briefly with his parents at their home
on Renee Street in North Ryde, then quietly boarded a
return flight to Florida. His past remained undisturbed for now.

(28:19):
In nineteen eighty Wilder was back in a Florida courtroom.
The charge was sexual battery. His method chillingly familiar yet evolving.
He conned two teenage girls with the siren song of
modeling stardom, but this time the trap snapped shut. With
added cruelty, he plied one victim with LSD laced pizza,
drugging her before the assault. He raped her. Facing the evidence,

(28:43):
Wilder played the system. He plea bargained the charge down
to attempted sexual battery. His sentence was five years probation
and in order to see a psychologist, doctor Ginger Bush.
Records show Wilder attended these sessions diligently playing the compliant patient,
but it was a performrments another mask. October first, nineteen
eighty two, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the glittering stage of the

(29:07):
Miss Florida USA pageant. Among the finalists was Beth Kenyon,
a twenty three year old special education teacher, radiating poise
and promise. As the judging concluded, a figure moved through
the crowd. Christopher Bernard Wylder, the successful Florida businessman, spotted her.
He approached, deploying a weapon he knew disarmed many. His

(29:28):
Australian accent. Introducing himself as a photographer for the prominent
Australian magazine Picks, sometimes recalled as P seven X, he
spun tales of an itinerant childhood. He was charming, persistent.
He persuaded Beth to dinner. Over subsequent meetings, the charm
offensive continued. He spoke of taking her to Australia of
making her a princess. He even proposed marriage. But for

(29:52):
Beth Kenyon, despite their friendly regular contact, there was no
romantic spark. She politely declined his proposal to Beth. He
was eccentric, perhaps overly keen acquaintance. She couldn't know. She
was brushing against a gathering storm. Late nineteen eighty two,
the pressure in Florida, the constant need to hunt, perhaps

(30:14):
a desire to reconnect with old haunts or old vulnerabilities,
prompted a decision. Wylder decided to visit his parents, Cooley
and June, who had retired to Sautel, a quiet town
on the mid north coast of New South Wales, Australia.
There was still the matter of his Florida probation. On
November twenty second, nineteen eighty two, he stood before Judge

(30:35):
Johnny Boone. He sought permission to travel. Permission was granted.
The system once again facilitated his movement. December sixth, nineteen
eighty two, after brief stops in San Francisco and Hawaii,
Christopher Wilder touched down in Sydney. He was back on
Australian soil. The lag in technology The gap in international

(30:56):
criminal records meant he arrived unnoticed by the authorities who
should have been watching. The lapse was immediate. December seventh, nineteen
eighty two, less than twenty four hours after landing, Wylder
was back on Manly Beach, camera in hand. He wasn't
capturing scenic vistas. He was prowling for a young, attractive
female target. He found one, Fianna Parsons, sixteen years old.

(31:20):
He approached her, weaving a new alias Larry Kodanski from
Group three Productions, claiming association with the legendary Australian modeling
figure June Dally Watkins. His questions turned intimate invasive. He
threatened her with a non existent lie detector test. He
gave her ten dollars, demanding she by a specific outfit.
When she refused to help lure other girls, he revealed

(31:43):
his true power dynamic. He showed her a gun. Fianna,
terrified but resourceful, reported the encounter to her father. Together,
they went straight to the Manly police station. Later, Fianna
would pick Wylder's face from a photo album with chilling certainty.
The alarm was sounded December ninth, nineteen eighty two. The

(32:03):
Manly Daily newspaper published a stark warning avoid photo pest
police warned girls. The article described a photographer stopping young girls,
urging anyone with information to contact Detective Sergeant Jeff Shelley.
The net, it seemed, was tightening. Unfazed or perhaps driven
by escalating compulsions, Wylder flew back to Sydney on December

(32:25):
twenty seventh, nineteen eighty two. Arriving in the evening, he
collected a reserved nineteen eighty two Ford Falcon sedan from
Avis registration MBF three eight nine. He checked into room
eleven fourteen at the four star Top of the Town
motel in Darlinghurst, a base of operations. December twenty eighth,
nineteen eighty two, Tuesday, Manley Beach, again, the prowl resumed. Wilder,

(32:47):
now using the alias David Pierce and claiming to represent
the Barbizon modeling agency, approached two fifteen year old girls
the promise of modeling careers the lure of fame. It worked.
He got into the Ford Falcon, but vigilance existed. Three
boys observing the interaction felt uneasy. They followed the car diligently,

(33:08):
noting the registration number MBF three eighty nine. Wilder drove
the girls back to Room eleven fourteen at the top
of the town. Inside the promise curdled into nightmare, he
forced them to pose nude. He sexually assaulted one of them.
He threatened to expose the photos if they talked. To
maintain control, he made them write down their names and

(33:28):
phone numbers a trophy list. Traumatized but defiant, the girls
reported the assault to the Blacktown police station later that
same day. Crucially, they had the car registration. Police traced
it swiftly back to Christopher Wilder and confirmed his location
at the top of the town. Confronted in his room,
Wilder initially tried charm, then crumbled into a performance of shame.

(33:53):
He admitted taking photographs, claiming he discarded the film out
of guilt. He confessed to making the girl's undress and
to me masturbating in front of them. Christopher Wilder was arrested,
His clothing his cameras were seized. Film found in his
possession contained images of pretty young women potential future targets

(34:13):
or past victims. His finger prints confirmed an arrest twenty
years prior in Australia, Though the critical link to his
extensive US criminal record remained frustratingly unmade. The magistrate saw
the danger. At the end of December nineteen eighty two,
he ordered Wilder remanded in custody, no return flight to Florida,
no New Year's Eve celebration. Christopher Wylder saw in nineteen

(34:37):
eighty three, locked in a cell at the Manly Police Station,
Australia's get tough on crime stance meant he was staring
down the barrel of serious prison time. The meticulous facade
of the Florida business man had cracked wide open on
a Sydney beach. Facing this abyss, Wilder activated his final safeguard,
his parents, Coley and June Wylder, despite everything, once more intervened.

(35:01):
They posted an astronomical three hundred fifty thousand dollars bond
for his release awaiting trial, and he briefly went back
to Florida, returning to Australia in August nineteen eighty three
for his committal hearing as required by his bail conditions.
He appeared in Manly Court on August fourth, nineteen eighty three.
Following this hearing, which was adjourned until April third, nineteen

(35:23):
eighty four, Wilder again returned to Florida. This was in
fact his last physical return to Australia. He absconded from
his bail. He vanished, boarding a flight back to the
United States, leaving Australia and his parent's fortune behind forever.

(35:45):
Back in Florida, Wylder resumed his life with minimal disruption.
He discussed the Australian arrest with his business partner Zeke Kimbrel,
casually dismissing it as a misunderstanding. He claimed the girls
were older around twenty, he said, and brushed it off
as a big screw up. Instead of laying low, Wylder
continued to immerse himself in motor racing, a passion that

(36:08):
had grown stronger in recent years. He drove a Black
Portion nine eleven number fifty two and raced competitively across
multiple states. On March nineteen, he competed as a co
driver in the Seabring twelve hour race, finishing twenty seventh
out of eighty four entries. On April ten, he drove
in the Road Atlanta Race in Georgia, finishing twenty sixth.

(36:31):
Later that year, on November twenty seven, he competed in
the three hour Daytona race, placing fortieth. Despite the police
investigation and looming court proceedings in Australia, Wilder remained publicly
active and visible. In May nineteen eighty three, Robin Melanie Adler,
a twenty two year old woman from Florida, vanished without

(36:52):
a trace. Wylder was never charged in connection with her disappearance,
but investigators listed him as a possible suspect. The timing,
geography and victim profile aligned closely with his known behavior.
One month later, on June twenty seven, Sherry Lynn Ball,
aged twenty, disappeared from her home in Boca Ratan. Days later,

(37:13):
she called her boyfriend from a truck stop in Virginia,
saying she was on her way to New York. That
was the last anyone heard from her. In early July
nineteen eighty three, Tammy Lynn Leppert, an eighteen year old
model and beauty queen, disappeared from a convenience store in
Merritt Island, Florida. Wylder's name surfaced again he was considered

(37:34):
a person of interest. Witnesses said Leppert had been approached
by a man posing as a film producer, a method
consistent with Wylder's pattern. That same month, Wilder escalated. In
Boynton Beach, Florida, he abducted two young sisters, aged nine
and twelve. He took them to a secluded area, sexually

(37:54):
assaulted them, and, breaking from his usual behavior, drove them
back to town. Afterwards, the girls told their parents and
a report was filed. Forensic testing carried out years later
confirmed the attacker's identity. Semen recovered from the scene matched
Wylder's butt blood type and DNA. It was one of
the rare cases where physical evidence clearly tied him to

(38:16):
a violent sexual offense. He resumed sessions with doctor Ginger Bush,
a psychologist he had seen in previous years for sexual compulsions.
During these sessions, Wylder described feelings of deep depression and
uncontrollable urges. He confessed to masturbating while fantasizing about domination

(38:36):
and violence. He also offered disturbing and often implausible accounts
of his past, including claims of childhood trauma, gang rape,
and electroshock therapy, accounts that could never be verified and
were likely fabricated to manipulate or illicit sympathy. By late
nineteen eighty three, Wylder's behavior remained predatory. At the Banana

(38:58):
Boat Bar in Boynton Beach, he at Lisa Maxwell and
Laurie Bath, both nineteen. The trio shared drinks and Wilder
invited them to his house on Mission Hill Road. Laurie accepted.
Once there, he attempted to impress her with displays of
wealth and charm, but when he made unwanted advances, Laurie
declined to stay. The night she returned to the bar,

(39:19):
it was another encounter that did not escalate, but others
wouldn't be as lucky. Quick break ads keep the show running,
but if you want to skip them, the ad free
versions on Patreon for just three bucks a month, links

(39:41):
in the show notes and we're back. Thanks for sticking
through that. Let's get back to it. By early nineteen
eighty four, Christopher Bernard Wylder's private world had turned into
a slow motion collapse. Though still attending therapy with doctor

(40:03):
Ginger Bush, his thoughts and behavior were spiraling. In a
January session, he described his frustration over a failed New
Year's Eve encounter. He had bought a dress for a
woman who refused to wear it, refused his company. To
deal with the rejection, he hired a sex worker, and
later told doctor Bush it had been the closest he'd
come to acting out violent urges toward a photographic subject.

(40:27):
He claimed to cut off all contact with women that month,
supposedly to protect others from his aggression. In February, the
pressure of his looming legal problems in Australia was mounting.
He confided to doctor Bush that he had again resorted
to hiring sex workers, admitting he'd been violent with one
of them. On February eighteen, the body of an unidentified

(40:49):
young woman was found in Davy, Florida. She had been strangled.
Her appearance in the location matched Wylder's usual victim profile,
and though the link remained speculative, investigators believe she may
have been his first murder victim. That same month, on
February twenty sixth Wylder was at the Budweiser Miami Grand Prix.

(41:10):
He raised his Porsche again and finished seventeenth in a
field of thirty. That day, twenty year old Rosario Gonzalez
disappeared from the event. She had been distributing promotional aspirin
samples near the track. Wylder had met her before, and
it's believe to use the familiar lure modeling opportunities a
portfolio choot to gain her trust. She was never seen again.

(41:32):
No body was recovered. Two days later, Wylder met with
doctor Bush and denied any knowledge of Rosario's disappearance. On
March fifth, another young woman vanished. Elizabeth Kenyon, a twenty
three year old special education teacher and former Miss Florida finalist,
was last seen at a shell station in Coral Gables.
She had previously dated Wylder, who had proposed to her.

(41:55):
She declined, but remained in occasional contact a gas station
at ten time, and later confirmed that Wylder had been
with her that evening, paying for fuel with a twenty
dollar bill. Her car was found abandoned, her body never
was In his March sixth session, Wilder told doctor Bush
he had a cut on his hand from breaking up
a dog fight. He also asked if there had been

(42:16):
any news about Rosario Gonzales. Four days later, he contacted
doctor Bush again, upset that Beth Kenyon's family had hired
a private investigator who was looking into him. On March eleventh,
two investigators went to Wylder's home in Boynton Beach. They
found the house unusually clean, sterile. Almost the Porsche was
in the garage, visibly damaged. On the next day, Wylder

(42:40):
left multiple messages on doctor Bush's answering machine, increasingly paranoid
and agitated, convinced he was under surveillance. On March fifteenth,
fifteen year old Colleen Orsbourne disappeared in Daytona Beach. She
had reportedly been approached by a man offering money in
exchange for modeling photos. Following day, journalist Edna Buchanan published

(43:02):
a piece in The Miami Herald connecting the disappearances of
Rosario Gonzales and Beth Kenyon. The article included details of
a man driving a Porsche and living in Boynton Beach.
Whether it was fear or something else, Wilder reacted decisively.
He began cutting ties, He shuddered his photography business, boarded
his dogs, and canceled his plane ticket to Australia. He

(43:26):
told his business partner, Zeke Kimbrel that he was being framed.
They met behind a pizza shop where Wylder was crying, panicked,
saying he would never survive in prison. He asked Kimbrell
for his credit cards and said he planned to flee
to South America. On March eighteenth, twenty three year old

(43:51):
Terry Ferguson disappeared from the Merritt Square mall on Merritt Island.
She too was interested in modeling. The next day, Wylder
was seen on a bank surveillance camera in Tampa. On
March twentieth, nineteen year old Linda Groeber, a student at
Florida State University, was abducted from Governor's Square Mall in Tallahassee.

(44:12):
She was forced into Wylder's car at gunpoint and taken
to a motel across the Georgia state line. There he beat, raped,
and tortured her. At one point he superglued her eyelids shut,
but Linda managed to fight back, jabbing him in the eyes,
locking herself in the bathroom and screaming until Wilder fled.
On March twenty first, Terry Ferguson's body was found in

(44:34):
a stream near Lake Alfred, Florida. She had been beaten
and strangled. Her wrists, feet and neck were bound with rope.
By March twenty second, Wylder was in Louisiana swapping out
license plates. There were reports that he attempted his modeling
ruse on a woman in Lafayette, but she declined. That
same day, the FBI issued a warrant for his arrest.

(44:55):
Following the interstate nature of Linda Groeber's abduction. The next day,
a national alert went out. Agents warned law enforcement agencies
across the country Christopher Bernard Wylder was armed, dangerous, and
likely suicidal. That warning hit close to home for one.
Detective Tom Nabors, whose wife had monogrammed Wylder's racing suits,

(45:17):
recognized the name and told her to keep a gun handy.
When the FBI searched Wilder's home in Boyton Beach, they
found a hidden room behind a false wall. Inside were restraints,
sex aids, and what they described as torture equipment. That
same day, Terry Diane Walden, a twenty three year old
nursing student, was last seen on the Lamar University campus

(45:38):
in Beaumont, Texas. Her body was found dumped near a lake.
She had been stabbed to death. Wilder took her nineteen
eighty one Mercury Cougar and continued west. On March twenty fourth,
he used Kimbrel's ID to check into a holiday inn
in Oklahoma City. The following day, twenty year old Suzanne
Logan disappeared from the Penn Square Mall. Her body was

(46:00):
later found in Kansas, stabbed and bound. Her pubic hair
had been shaved, and investigators matched the knife wounds to
one of the blades Wilder carried with him. March twenty
sixth brought Wilder to Denver. He checked into the Viscount
Motel and the next day purchased a three hundred fifty
seven Colt Trooper Revolver in Aurora, adding to the arsenal

(46:21):
he was assembling on the road. He relocated to another
motel and Wheat Ridge near the outskirts of the city.
On March twenty eighth, he bought gas in Vail, then
checked into the Red River Lodge in Rifle, Colorado. The
following day, eighteen year old Cheryl Lynn Bonaventura disappeared from
the Mason Mall in Grand Junction. Like the others, she

(46:41):
was drawn in by Wylder's offer of a modeling career.
Over the next two days, she was held captive, raped
and tortured. He used electrical shocks and knives. On March
thirty first, her body was found in a remote area
of Utah. She had been shot and stabbed by now
Wilder's pattern was clear. It was a rampage. By April

(47:07):
nineteen eighty four, Christopher Wilder had been on the run
for weeks, from Florida to California, through the Midwest, and
now into the Northeast. His path was marked by coercion, rape, torture,
and death. Each victim followed the same pattern. Young female
lured by promises of modeling opportunities, His manipulation was effective,
his violence escalating, his control complete. On April first, seventeen

(47:32):
year old Michel Kaufman was competing in a modeling contest
at the Meadows Mall in Las Vegas. She was seen
speaking with Wylder shortly before her disappearance. Photos from the
event captured him in the crowd, focused on Michele with
a look described later by an investigator as pure predator.
When Wylder vacated his motel room days later, investigators found

(47:54):
a blow up doll, a dildo, and other paraphernalia he'd
left behind, objects that hinted ritualistic behavior. Michele's body wouldn't
be found for weeks. That same week, on April third,
Wilder checked into the Proud Parrot Motel in Lomita, California.
He used a false name, fake car registration, and paid
in cash. The same day, thousands of miles away in Australia,

(48:18):
a court in Manly convened without him. Wylder had failed
to appear for his committal hearing on multiple sexual assault charges.
He had jumped his bail. His barrister offered little explanation,
only that certain things had developed in the United States.
The next day, Wilder abducted sixteen year old Tina Risico
from a mall in Torrents. He introduced himself as David

(48:41):
Pierce from Barbazan Modeling, offered her a portfolio shoot, then
drove her to a remote location, pulled a revolver and
a knife, and began what would become a week long ordeal.
He kept her in a motel in Elcentro, where she
was beaten, raped, and electrocuted with cords. By April fifth,
Wilder wid watching television with Tina when a news report

(49:02):
interrupted their routine. It was the FBI's national press conference.
His name, face, and crimes were now broadcast across the country.
Old mugshots were shown. The FBI described him as armed
and extremely dangerous. Wilder quietly stood up and shaved off
his beard. With the man hunt intensifying, Wilder began using
Tina as cover. She was allowed to drive a tactical

(49:25):
move to avoid detection. Police were looking for a man
driving alone. Tina, conditioned by trauma and violence, did as
she was told. When she disobeyed or hesitated, she was
punished burns, shocks, humiliation. Over the next several days, they
passed through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma, always staying
in cheap motels, always paying in cash, always moving in Indiana.

(49:49):
On April tenth, Wilder abducted sixteen year old Donnette Wilt
with Tina's help. Donnette was tricked into thinking Tina was
a fellow teen looking for work. She was forced into
the back seat of a stolen Mercury cougar, blindfolded, restrained,
and taken to a motel in Ohio. There, Tina was
made to watch as Wilder raped and tortured the girl

(50:10):
with electrical shocks. The next day, they were in New
York State, checked into another roadside motel, Wilder assaulted Donnette, again,
telling her he planned to trade her for drugs in
New York City. The abuse was now mixed with unhinged paranoia.
On April twelfth, as the group drove north into the
rural Finger Lakes region, Wilder forced Donnette to swallow sleeping pills,

(50:34):
then dragged her into the woods. There, he assaulted her,
stabbed her repeatedly, and left her for dead. But Donnette survived,
bloodied and mutilated. She crawled to a nearby road and
was found by a passing driver. She gave authorities their
next lead, but Wilder had already vanished. Later that day,
in Victor, New York, he abducted thirty three year old

(50:56):
Elizabeth Dodge at gunpoint from a mall parking lot. Followed
behind in the Mercury a few miles outside town. Wylder
pulled over, ordered Dodge out of the car, and shot
her dead. Her body was left on the roadside. Wilder
switched vehicles again, forcing Tina into Dodge's gold Pontiac Firebird.
They drove through the night to Boston. At Logan International

(51:18):
Airport in the early hours of April thirteenth, Wylder bought
Tina a one way ticket to Los Angeles using a
stolen credit card. He handed her the ticket, kissed her
on the cheek, and said say hi to the law.
Then he watched her walk away. She was met by
FBI agents shortly after landing. The information she gave them
would complete the final pieces of the puzzle. Wilder, now alone,

(51:42):
drove north toward Canada. Just hours after releasing Tina, he
attempted one final abduction in Beverly, Massachusetts. The intended victim,
a nineteen year old woman, fled before he could pull
her into the car. Witnesses saw the license plate and
called police. It was Elizabeth Dodge's stolen fire Authorities now
had a precise location. They knew the vehicle, they knew

(52:05):
he was close. Wilder crossed into New Hampshire, continuing toward
the Canadian border. He reached the small town of Colebrook
by early afternoon. At vic Sgetty gas station. He stopped
to refuel and asked about border crossing requirements. As he
was speaking to the attendants, two New Hampshire State troopers,
Leo Chuck Jellison and Wayne Fortier, spotted the stolen Firebird

(52:28):
from across the street. The troopers approached quietly. Wilder noticed them,
but didn't run. When they stepped into the parking lot,
he made his move, bolting for the driver's side door.
Trooper Jellison intercepted him. A struggle began over the Colt
Python three fifty seven revolver. Wylder kept on him at
all times. In the chaos, Wilder managed to rest the

(52:50):
gun free. Then, instead of aiming at the officers, Christopher
Wilder turned the gun on himself. He pulled the trigger,
the bullet to or through his chest and exited out
his back, striking Jellison in the leg. A second shot
was heard moments later, It too came from Wylder's revolver.
He was already dead. By the time paramedics arrived. The

(53:12):
gas station was crawling with officers. Wilder's body was found
slump beside the car. His kill kit, a duffel bag
filled with cords, tape, knives, and photos of victims, was
discovered in the back seat. The spree was over. Trooper
Jellyson survived his injuries. The town of Colebrook, quiet and remote,
became the temporary epicenter of a national news event. Reporters

(53:36):
and camera crews flooded the area, but for law enforcement,
it was over. For the families of the murdered, it wasn't.
But the killing had stopped, and the man who carried
it out. Manipulative, methodical, and increasingly unhinged. Was gone. Quick

(54:00):
break ads keep the show running, but if you want
to skip them, the ad free versions on Patreon for
just three bucks a month. Links in the show notes
and we're back. Thanks for sticking through that. Let's get
back to it. Christopher Bernard Wylder's death on Friday, the

(54:21):
thirteenth of April nineteen eighty four in the small town
of Colebrook, New Hampshire, brought an abrupt end to the
largest man hunt in FBI history at that time. Yet
the conclusion of the chase was only the beginning of
another kind of investigation, one focused on uncovering the full
extent of his crimes, locating potential victims, and offering a

(54:42):
measure of closure to those affected. Wilder's body was transported
to a funeral home in Boyton Beach, Florida, where a
brief service took place. The gathering was small, consisting of
about a dozen attendees, including his brother, Stephen and his
former business partner Zeke Kimbrel. For Kimbrel, the service was bittersweet.

(55:03):
Mourning a man who had committed such horrific acts felt impossible.
Wylder was cremated and his ashes were handed to Stephen,
closing the final chapter of his life. The immediate aftermath
of Wylder's death brought relief to law enforcement officers and
the families of his known victims. With him gone, no
more harm would come at his hands. Yet his sudden

(55:25):
death also sealed many questions that would never be answered.
Wylder took with him the full truth of his motives,
the total number of his victims, and whether he should
be definitively classified as a serial killer or something else entirely.
This distinction remains debated among experts. Traditionally, a serial killer
is someone who murders three or more people over time,

(55:47):
with distinct cooling off periods between each killing. While Wylder
did kill multiple victims, his pattern often involved moving with
his captives, rarely pausing long enough to establish clear breaks.
His behavior more closely resembled a spree killer, someone who
commits multiple murders in a relatively continuous sequence without cooling off.

(56:09):
His cross country odyssey shares similarities with known spree killers
like Charles Starkweather and Andrew Cunanan. Until further victims can
be definitively linked, Wilder is often categorized as a spree killer.
Despite that, he earned a popular nickname something also commonly
associated with serial killers, the beauty queen killer. This moniker

(56:31):
was earned by Wilder as a direct result of his
bloody rampage across the United States in the spring of
nineteen eighty four, which left at least nine women dead
and three others brutalized. His modus operandi of approaching unsuspecting
women under the guise of being a fashion photographer and
luring them with promises of modeling careers before torturing, raping,

(56:53):
and killing them led to this specific designation. Some victims
remain missing to this day. Rosar Marrio Gonzalez's body was
never found. Her parents clung to hope, creating a small
shrine in her memory. Her sister recalled how her parents
virtually stopped living for years, holding an annual mass in
Rosario's name. Elizabeth Kenyon's fate remains equally uncertain. Despite skepticism

(57:17):
from local authorities, her family pushed for FBI involvement. Her
mother died young. Overwhelmed by grief, The family placed her
name on a mausoleum and named a plaza and road
after her. Holding on to the hope that one day
they might learn more. Colleen Oorsbourne's body was only positively
identified in twenty eleven through advances in DNA technology, years

(57:39):
after her disappearance. Teresa Ferguson's remains were recovered days after
her abduction, but decomposition delayed identification. Her stepfather, Don Ferguson,
expressed relief that Wylder was dead, though he lamented that
Wylder had taken the answers to many other missing girl's
fates with him. Several survivors played critical roles in peace

(58:00):
together Wylder's crimes. Linda Grover escaped his grasp and provided
a positive identification, cementing the FBI's involvement in the case.
Forced to leave the country under protection, she lived with
frustration at her lost freedom, but later saw her survival
as a second chance, an obligation to live a life
that honored those who did not make it. Tina Marie

(58:23):
Risico endured unimaginable abuse, manipulated by Wylder's control and suffering
from Stockholm syndrome. After Wylder released her in Boston, she
contacted authorities and was granted immunity. The trauma haunted her,
yet she admitted a grim relief in Wylder's death, hoping
it would ease the burden on the victim's families and herself.

(58:45):
Donnette Wilt's survival stands as nothing short of miraculous. Brutally assaulted, stabbed,
and left for dead, she crawled to safety and was
rescued by a passerby. Her courage and resilience helped narrow
the search for Wylder and saved lives. The town of
Penyan embraced her, offering support and even arranging private transport

(59:05):
to return her and her family home as she recovered.
Christopher Wylder's death ended a spree of terror that spanned
thousands of miles and left scars that remained decades later.
While law enforcement gained closure, the true scale of his
crimes and the depth of his darkness continued to haunt
those left behind. In the years following Christopher Wylder's death,

(59:37):
authorities in the United States and Australia continued to investigate
cold cases that bore striking similarities to his known crimes.
There was a prevailing belief among investigators that Wylder's spree
in nineteen eighty four was only a fraction of his
true body count. His sadistic tendencies and extensive travels suggested
a far more comprehensive trail of victims than the night confirmed.

(01:00:02):
One of the most haunting possible connections reached back to
nineteen sixty five to the Wanda Beach Slags in Sydney, Australia.
Two young women, Mary Anne Schmidt and Christine Sharrick, had
been murdered in a case that remained unsolved. Wilder became
a prime suspect. Among the chilling evidence was a knife
discovered in Wylder's kill kit after his death, resembling a

(01:00:24):
partial blade found at the Wanda Beach crime scene. A
witness description from the time also bore an unsettling resemblance
to an age regressed photo of Wylder. Unfortunately, critical DNA
evidence from the case had been lost, leaving the possibility unresolved.
In Florida, where Wylder had spent much of his time,
several cold cases were reviewed for potential links to him.

(01:00:47):
Two women, Mary Hare and Mary Opits, both brunettes fitting
his preferred victim profile, had disappeared from Fort Myers in
nineteen eighty one. Near Wilder's property. Skeletal remains of two
unidentified females were found in nineteen eighty two, one showing
signs that her fingers had been deliberately removed, suggesting a
disturbing familiarity with her killer. Another case involved Sherry Lynne Ball,

(01:01:12):
an aspiring model who vanished from Boca Ratan in nineteen
eighty three. Her remains were discovered years later in upstate
New York and identified through DNA, with authorities estimating a
ninety five percent likelihood that Wylder was responsible. Tammy Lynn Leppert,
a beauty queen an actress, also disappeared in nineteen eighty

(01:01:32):
three from Merritt Island, the same city where Wilder abducted
Teresa Ferguson. Although Leppert's family initially filed a lawsuit against Wylder,
they withdrew it after his death, doubting his involvement in
Broward County. A Jane Doe was found strangled in a
canal near Miami in early nineteen eighty four, mere days
before Wylder's confirmed spree began. Authorities strongly suspect she was

(01:01:56):
his first victim of that year's killing spree. Melody Gay
abducted from a convenience store and found dead in a
Canal shortly after. Elizabeth Kenyon's murder, is also believed to
have been killed by Wylder. A Jane Doe discovered in
San Francisco in nineteen eighty four drew some suspicion toward Wylder,
though Tina Marie Risicoe's account of their travels complicated the

(01:02:19):
time line and route. Wylder's financial estate also became a
subject of scrutiny. Initially valued at one point three million dollars,
later reports reduced that figure considerably. At his death, he
left property worth around a hundred and eighty one thousand dollars,
including a home in Boynton Beach appraised at just over
seventy eight thousand dollars to a woman with whom he

(01:02:42):
had lived for eight years. Several families of victims sued
his estate, but the compensation awarded was minimal compared to claims.
Most victims received about twenty eight thousand dollars. Beth Dodge's
family was granted thirty thousand dollars, and Trooper Jellison was
awarded two thousand dollars. Suzanne Logan's father was vocal about

(01:03:02):
his indifference to money, focusing instead on ensuring that Wylder's
relatives did not profit from his estate. Psychological profiles painted
Wilder as a deeply disturbed and dangerous man beneath the charming,
successful exterior hit, a sexual sadist who derived gratification from
torture and murder. Experts highlighted traits consistent with psychopathy, an

(01:03:25):
absence of empathy, inflated ego, pathological lying, and manipulative behavior.
His infamous kill kit included electrical devices designed for torture
and a serrated knife, tools that revealed his calculated cruelty.
Wylder's obsession with John Foles's novel The Collector, a story
about a man who kidnaps women as trophies, reflected the

(01:03:46):
warped mindset that guided his crimes. This fixation paralleled other
notorious killers, such as Leonard Lake and Robert Burdella. His
ability to evade capture for years was aided by loopholes
in the law, his dual citizenship, and poor communication between
agencies across continents. Countless chances to apprehend him were missed,

(01:04:07):
allowing him to continue terrorizing victims. Ultimately, Christopher Wilder remains
remembered as a merciless predator, a man whose violence left
an enduring mark on the lives he shattered. His story
stands as a stark warning about the deceptive nature of
some criminals and the long lasting pain inflicted on those
who survive and those left behind.