Christopher Wilder

Christopher Bernard Wilder was born on March 13, 1945, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia,[2] the oldest of four sons to an American father, a naval officer, and an Australian mother. He nearly died at birth, and reportedly almost drowned in a swimming pool at the age of two.[3][4]

On January 4, 1963, aged 17, Wilder raped a 13-year-old girl in company with two other young men, both of whom denied being involved in the actual assault. Wilder was sentenced to probation, and claimed later in life that he also received electroshock therapy.[4][5] It has been suggested that this therapy aggravated Wilder's violent sexual tendencies.[6] However, journalist Duncan McNab claims there is no evidence that he underwent electroshock therapy, and that the story of Wilder's near-drowning was an invention of Wilder himself.[7]

Wilder married in 1968, but his wife left him after one week. He emigrated to the United States in 1969 and lived in Boynton Beach, Florida in an upscale home and was successful in real estate while developing an interest in photography. From about 1971 through 1975, Wilder faced various charges related to sexual misconduct.[8] He eventually raped a young woman he had lured into his truck on the pretense of photographing her for a modelling contract.[5] This was to become part of his modus operandi during his later crime spree. Despite several convictions, Wilder was never jailed for any of these offenses.[9]

While visiting his parents in Australia in 1982, Wilder was charged with sexual offenses against two 15-year-old girls whom he had forced to pose nude. His parents posted bail and he was allowed to return to Florida to await trial, but court delays prevented his case from ever being heard, as the eventual initial hearing date of April 1984 came after his death.[10] In early 1984, Wilder began a bloody six-week, cross-country crime spree in the United States. He left in his wake eight murder victims, all female.[11]

On April 13, Wilder stopped at Vic's Getty service station in Colebrook, New Hampshire to ask directions to Canada.[9] Two New Hampshire state troopers, Leo Jellison and Wayne Fortier, approached Wilder, who retreated to his car to arm himself with a Colt Python .357 Magnum.[17] Jellison was able to grab Wilder from behind and in the scuffle, two shots were fired. The first bullet hit Wilder and exited through his back and into Jellison. The second bullet hit Wilder in the chest. Wilder died; Jellison was seriously wounded, but recovered and returned to full duty.[18]

A copy of the novel The Collector by John Fowles, in which a man keeps a woman in his cellar against her will until she dies, was found among his possessions after his death.[19] Wilder was cremated in Florida, leaving a personal estate worth more than $7 million. In June 1986, a court-appointed arbitrator ruled that the after-tax balance was to be divided among the families of his victims.[20][21][22]

Along with the eight known victims murdered between February and April 1984, Wilder has been suspected in the murders and disappearances of many other women, including some whose remains were found around Florida in areas he was known to frequent and his home country of Australia:

• Wilder is one of three suspects in Australia's unsolved Wanda Beach Murders – the murders of 15-year-olds Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock at Wanda Beach, near Sydney, on January 11, 1965 – because of his similarity to a suspect sketch and the fact that two years prior to the Wanda Beach murders, he had been convicted of a gang-rape on a Sydney beach which led police to include him as a suspect.[23][24] The day after they were both reported missing by family the day before, both bodies were found partially buried in the sand. A blow to the back of the head had shattered Sharrock's skull, and she had received fourteen knife wounds.[25] Schmidt had been stabbed six times and had her throat severely cut. Attempts had been made to rape both girls, and their underwear had been cut. Both girls had semen stains on their clothes, but an autopsy revealed that their hymens were still intact. The case is currently the oldest under review by the New South Wales unsolved homicide unit.[26][27]
• Wilhelmina Kruger, a 56-year-old cleaning lady, was murdered at Wollongong's Piccadilly Centre on Saturday, January 29, 1966.[28] A butcher who had arrived for work at 5:45 a.m. found her bloody body at the bottom of the basement-level staircase. She had been forcibly pulled down the escalators and stairs after being attacked three stories up, possibly around 4:30 a.m. She was discovered naked from the chest down, having been stabbed, strangled, and mutilated. Additionally, the police discovered burns from cigarettes on her clothing[29] and blond hair at the site. Prior to the murder, Kruger started to feel as though someone was stalking her, so her husband drove her to work. The lights in the Centre's parking lot had also recently displayed signs of tampering and had been altered once more the morning of the murder. When a witness who lived close to the Centre claimed seeing a car driving by at roughly 4:55 a.m. on the day of the murder while he was waiting at the gate of his property for the morning newspaper delivery, it provided a significant clue during the investigation. The witness described the car as a rusted, cream-coloured utility, potentially like a Holden or Chevrolet model, and with a plywood cover fastened to the back of the vehicle. The driver was described by the witness as a tall, lean person who appeared dishevelled. This account was verified by two Victoria visitors who were staying at the Piccadilly Centre motel and who just before Kruger's murder inquired about lodging options nearby. The pair claimed that shortly after the murder, they heard the sound of a car driving away from the Piccadilly Centre. The person the witnesses described fitted the previous witness' account of a male he saw speeding close to the Piccadilly Centre shortly after Kruger was killed. He was allegedly driving a car that also matched the witness' description, according to the pair. The homicide is still unsolved and is regarded as one of the most horrific in state history.[30]
• A 27-year-old store employee and prostitute from Bondi named Anna Toskayoa Dowlingkoa vanished after leaving the Taxi Club in Kings Cross on Wednesday, February 16, 1966, at midnight. Ten days later, on February 26, at about 5:30 p.m., a truck driver who had stopped at the side of Old Illawarra Road in Menai to fix a tire discovered her partially clothed, stabbed, strangled, and mutilated body.[31] Drag evidence revealed that Dowlingkoa's body had been moved to a more obvious position three to four days or so before her body was discovered. The majority of Dowlingkoa's clothing and belongings were also missing. Police immediately linked her brutal "Jack the Ripper-like murder" with that of Kruger, and investigators from that crime were called in to assist. They believed that the murder might have been the work of the Wanda Beach Killer,[32] primarily based on circumstantial evidence and similarities in modus operandi.
• An unidentified woman's body was discovered in a field in Caledonia, New York, on November 10, 1979. She had been shot twice, once in the front of the head and once in the back, and was the victim of a homicide. She was discovered shortly after her death, but she remained a Jane Doe until 2015 when she was identified as Tammy Jo Alexander, a 16-year-old who had vanished from Brooksville, Florida previously in 1979. Alexander may be connected to Wilder due to the fact that she was discovered wearing an "Auto Sports Products, Inc." jacket. Photographer and race car driver Wilder was well-known for using 'Auto Sports' goods. A .38 calibre bullet that killed Alexander was found in the dirt beneath her body. This caliber ammunition is commonly used in .357 calibre revolvers like the one Wilder attempted to use on the troopers. There is no evidence that the round's compatibility with the pistol was determined through ballistic testing. However, she was seen eating at a diner with a man who has never been found the night before her body was discovered. He has been identified as a person of interest in her slaying. She had consumed food that was consistent with the restaurant where she had been seen, according to the autopsy. The man Alexander was with paid for their order, but he remains unidentified and supposedly bore little resemblance to Wilder.[33][34]
• Wilder is a suspect in the unsolved disappearance of Mary Opitz. The 17-year-old disappeared in Fort Myers, Florida, on January 16, 1981, and was last seen walking towards a parking lot.[35] Another girl who physically resembled Opitz, Mary Hare, disappeared on February 11, 1981, from the same parking lot. Hare's body, which had decomposed, was found in June 1981; she had been stabbed in the back and was the victim of a homicide. Authorities began to suspect foul play was involved in Opitz's case following this, but Opitz's case remains unsolved.
• Skeletal remains were discovered in a green nylon bag on May 29, 1982, in a shallow grave at the 300 block of F Road, north of Southern Boulevard, in Loxahatchee, Florida. Although the manner of her death is unknown, the fact that her fingerprints were severed suggested that her murderer knew her well and was concerned about being associated with the crime if the body was identified. According to dental records and the fact that the decedent had an asymmetrical face, 17-year-old Tina Marie Beebe's remains were identified as hers in July 2013 by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. On January 20, 1981, she told her sister Marth that a man had offered her a job as a model before she disappeared in southern Florida. A few elements of Beebe's instance match Wilder's modus operandi. Like Beebe, Wilder killed adolescent girls or young women after offering them modelling jobs. His victims were White or Hispanic. An unidentified woman was also found nearby a few months after Beebe's body was found. They were found in areas that were close to property owned by Wilder.[36]
• On December 19, 1982, a real estate agent who was inspecting land discovered severely decomposed remains that belonged to a female. They were dispersed throughout thick bush in a wooded location 140 yards north of Okeechobee Road off F Road, close to Loxahatchee. According to the autopsy report, she was shot once in the head and died as a result. On May 29, 1982, Tina Marie Beebe, a teenage girl, was also discovered in the vicinity; however, her remains were not identified until 2013. They were found in areas that were close to property owned by Wilder. Authorities refer to the woman only as the Palm Beach County Jane Doe because she remains unidentified.[37]
• Nancy Kay Brown, a 25-year-old native of Rantoul, Illinois, disappeared while vacationing in Cocoa Beach, Florida, on June 6, 1983. Her remains were discovered in Canaveral Groves on March 8, 1984. She was a victim of a homicide.[38] Officials believe she died from a blow to the head.
• Shari Lynne Ball, a 20-year-old aspiring model, went missing on June 27, 1983[39] from Boca Raton, Florida. Her badly decomposed body was found by a hunter in Shelby, New York, on October 29, 1983, but was not identified until 2014.[40] Her cause of death could not be determined, but foul play was suspected. Wilder is currently being looked at for possible involvement since it matches his modus operandi, but no evidence links him to the crime.[41] She was found 38 miles from where Tammy Alexander was found, in Caledonia, New York.
• Tammy Lynn Leppert, 18, was last seen around 11:30 a.m. on July 6, 1983, in Cocoa Beach, Florida, while in a heated argument with a male companion. Leppert's family filed a $1 million lawsuit against Wilder before his death, but dropped the suit afterward. Leppert's mother, modelling agent Linda Curtis, claimed that Wilder and Tammy met on the set of the 1983 comedy film Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale. She further claimed that he travelled to Brevard County where they lived in a fruitless effort to convince her to let him photograph Tammy. She also recalled that a man strongly resembling him visited her modelling agency several times in 1983, looking for models. However, she later stated that she never believed Wilder was involved in Tammy's disappearance. Police were never able to link Wilder and Leppert, and it may be coincidence that she disappeared at the same time he was targeting area models. He had a long history of sex crimes, but did not begin his killing spree until almost a year after she vanished.[42]
• An unidentified young woman, the Broward County Jane Doe, was found floating in a canal on February 18, 1984, in Davie, Florida. She had been strangled to death and was thought to have been dead two days prior to being found.[43]
• On March 7, 1984, Melody Marie Gay, 19, was abducted while working the graveyard shift at an all-night store in Collier County, Florida; her body was pulled from a rural canal three days later. Due to the similarities between her murder and Wilder's crimes, they were thought to be connected, but he has since been ruled out as a suspect.[44]
• Wilder is the primary suspect in the disappearance of 15-year-old Colleen Orsborn, who went missing after leaving her Daytona Beach home on March 15, 1984. She missed the school bus on the day of her disappearance and her mother gave her some money so she could take the county bus to school. Orsborn never arrived, however. She is believed to have skipped school to go to the beach. Wilder was staying at a motel in Daytona Beach on that same date. The disappearance of Colleen fits the pattern of Wilder, who often attacked near his birthdate of March 13. Also, one of Orsborn's classmates stated a man resembling Wilder had offered her $100 to pose for pictures. However, though he checked out on the day Orsborn disappeared, no evidence has been found to connect them. Her body was discovered a few weeks later, partially buried near a lake in Orange County, Florida, although it was initially ruled not to be her, and was not formally identified using DNA testing until February 2011.[45][46]

On May 3, 1973, a man walking his dog discovered the bodies of sisters Mary Jenkins, 16, and Marguerite "Maggie" Jenkins, 18, in a wooded area in Key Largo, about 100 miles from where they were last seen. They were seen the day before trying to hitchhike back to their home in Gloucester, New Jersey. Both girls had been sexually assaulted as well as had been subjected to blunt force trauma and shot to death. Authorities looked into the possibility that Wilder was the person responsible for the murders as he had already been attacking women and resided in Boynton Beach in 1973, which is 150 miles from Key Largo. However, Wilder was eliminated as a suspect when DNA evidence recovered from a bite mark on one of the girls did not match him.

Wilder earned the nickname the Beauty Queen Killer as a result of his crimes. The 1986 made-for-television movie Easy Prey dramatises a series of events based on Wilder's story.[47]

• List of serial killers in the United States
• List of serial killers by number of victims
• List of serial rapists

• Easy Prey (TV Movie 1986) at IMDb
• miamiherald.com