Serial Killer Trends Exposed: A Rookie Detectives Revealing Insights into Americas Declining Criminal Landscape in 2025

# "Serial Killers in 2025: Hidden Patterns & Active Cases" - True Crime Detective Podcast

Join Detective Emily Carter as she explores the fascinating decline of serial killer activity in America while revealing chilling active cases still haunting communities today. This eye-opening episode examines how modern forensic techniques and cross-agency collaboration have dramatically reduced predatory crime, yet highlights disturbing ongoing threats including the New England murder cluster and targeted killings of Indigenous women along highways.

Learn about the shifting geographic hotspots from California to Alaska, the psychological profiles of modern killers, and how social media is transforming both investigations and public awareness. Detective Carter shares professional insights on current manhunts, including the Potomac River Killer and Sleepy Hollow cases, while explaining why everyone deserves equal justice regardless of background. Perfect for true crime enthusiasts who want both historical context and breaking case information straight from a law enforcement professional.

This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey there, listeners, Detective Emily Carter here, and wow, do
I have some stories for you today. You know, when
I was at the academy, one of my instructors used
to say that serial killers are like the Boogeyman of
law enforcement. They terrify the public, dominate the headlines, and
keep criminologists like me up at night studying patterns and behaviors.

(00:22):
But here's the thing that might surprise you. We're actually
living in one of the safest times in modern history
when it comes to these predators. Yeah. I know that
sounds wild given what we're about to dive into, but
stick with me because the numbers tell a fascinating story.
Back in the nineteen eighties, there were nearly seven hundred
seventy known serial killers operating across the United States. Can

(00:45):
you imagine that the decade I wasn't even born in
yet was absolutely crawling with these monsters. By the time
the nineteen nineties rolled around, that number started dropping. Then
it dropped again in the twenty hundreds, and by twenty
sixteen we're looking at only about one hundred active cases
from the previous decade. That's still one hundred to many

(01:06):
in my book, but it's a massive decline that tells
us something important about how far we've come in law enforcement.
So what changed? Well, As someone who just graduated from
the academy with all this fresh knowledge bouncing around in
my head, I can tell you that forensic science has
absolutely revolutionized this field. DNA profiling alone has been a

(01:28):
game changer. When I'm a studying cold cases in my
criminology classes, I saw case after case that got solved
decades later because we finally had the technology to match
evidence that have been sitting in storage. The criminals who
got away with murder in the seventies and eighties because
they were careful about fingerprints, they had no idea their
DNA was all over those crime scenes, just waiting for

(01:51):
us to catch up with the science. Then there's the
collaborative aspect. We've got databases now, like the Violent Criminal
Apprehension Program, which we call VYCAP. This system lets a
least departments across the entire country share case details instantly.
Back in the day, a killer could move from one
state to another and essentially start fresh because local agencies

(02:14):
had no idea what was happening three counties over, let
alone three states away. Now we're all connected, we're all
sharing information, and these predators have nowhere to hide. But
even with all this progress, even with all our advances
and technology and training, there are still active cases out
there right now in twenty twenty five that are keeping

(02:35):
investigators up at night. And that's what I want to
talk to you about today, because some of these stories
are absolutely chilling. Let me start with something that's been
making waves on social media recently, and honestly, it's a
perfect example of how the internet can both help and
hurt investigations. Since the beginning of March twenty twenty five,

(02:57):
seven bodies have turned up across New England. We're talking Connecticut,
Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. Now, before you panic, let me
be clear about something. Law enforcement agencies have not officially
connected these cases. They're not standing at press conferences saying
we've got a serial killer on our hands. But the public,

(03:17):
the public has other ideas. There's this Facebook group called
New England SK that's got nearly nine thousand members right now,
and they're all convinced that these deaths are connected. They're
posting theories, mapping locations, trying to find patterns, and look,
I get it. I'm a true crime junkie myself. I
spent my college years binge watching documentaries and reading every

(03:40):
book I could find about criminal profiling. But here's where
my training kicks in and reminds me that we have
to be careful about jumping to conclusions. The reality is
that bodies being discovered doesn't automatically mean we're dealing with
a serial killer. Some of these are unidentified remains, some
could be accidental deaths, some could be completely unrelated homicides.

(04:01):
What makes someone a serial killer? Serial pattern form, by definition,
is a pattern of behavior, a cooling off period between
murders and typically at least three victims that can be
definitively linked. Without those connections, without evidence tying these cases together,
we're just speculating. But I'll tell you what does concern
me as a rookie cop who's been trained to look

(04:22):
for patterns. The timing is interesting. Seven bodies in roughly
two months, across three states that border each other. The
locations matter too. Some of these bodies were found in
grotten and Killingly Connecticut, which are really close to the
Rhode Island border. That kind of geographic clustering can sometimes
indicate a killer who's comfortable in a specific region, someone

(04:45):
who knows the area well enough to find good dump sites,
but is smart enough to cross state lines to complet
that complicate investigations, But no one said of the right.
Northeastern University actually had some experts weigh in on this,
and they're urging caution. They're saying the specula lacks supporting evidence,
which is absolutely true from an investigative standpoint. But they're

(05:05):
not dismissing public concern either. And that's important because sometimes,
and I mean sometimes, public attention and amateur sleuthing can
actually help cases. The Golden State killer was caught in
part because of a genealogy database that regular people use.
The zodiacular ciphers have been worked on by amateur codebreakers
for decades, and they bid progress. So while I'm not

(05:26):
here to feel panic or spread unconfirmed theories, I am
here to say that paying attention matters, being aware of
your surroundings matters, And yes, and this day and age,
social media can be a tool for keeping communities informed
and alert. Now, let's talk about something that really gets
under my skin, and it should get under yours too.
The suspected serial killers targeting Indigenous Americans, particularly Indigenous women.

(05:50):
This is something that doesn't get nearly enough media attention
and it's absolutely infuriating. There's this incredible resource called the
Murder Accountability prim object Or Map, which was created by