Sheriff Taylor arrived soon after the body was recovered. The park service found a car at a nearby trailhead for which the owner could not be located. The vehicle belonged to Florence Simmons of Apache Junction, Arizona. Once I checked the face of the victim, I realized that her resemblance to the other dead women was unmistakable. It had been Jason McKinney, not an accident. I was frustrated and angry that Jason had claimed another victim even after we were on to him.
“If this killer had Will Blake’s car and an eight hour head start, why the hell did he drive around the Canyon to kill someone else in Coconino County?” Sheriff Taylor asked in his gruff baritone.
I think the question was rhetorical, but I answered, “I’m expecting a call from an FBI profiler this evening or tomorrow morning. Maybe she can help us answer that.”
The Sheriff, Chad and I were standing with Amy Ziegler on a windy point above the huge expanse of the Grand Canyon. It was the spot from which Florence Simmons had been pushed. We could see a portion of the North Kaibab Trail far below. The trail leads from a trailhead near the Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim to Phantom Ranch and the Colorado River. From there, cross canyon hikers can take the Bright Angel Trail up to the South Rim. It was twenty-four miles of difficult hiking. As we talked, the body of Florence Simmons was being loaded onto the Sheriff’s helicopter.
The plan was for the Sheriff to return to Flagstaff to coordinate the four-state search for the man we knew as Jason McKinney. The North Rim was too remote to manage a wide-ranging search. Our cell phones had no service, and the road on the North Rim was a two-hour drive from Page where the nearest Sheriff’s Office substation is located. We had no evidence to charge Jason with any of the murders, but he could be picked up on the fraudulent use of a passport. As soon as he returned to Flagstaff, the sheriff planned to personally call other law enforcement officials in the area to stress the importance of the search.
A uniformed Park Service Ranger joined us with an update for Amy Ziegler. The ranger had found the BMW roadster in the parking lot for the North Kaibab Trail. That was fairly good circumstantial evidence that Jason had driven around the Canyon to an area within a few miles of the next death. However, we had no proof that this death was not an accident. The North Kaibab Trail parking lot held thirty-one other cars left by hikers, most of whom were doing cross canyon hikes or camping in the Canyon.
“This guy is smart,” I said. “He wouldn’t take off walking down the trail. He left the car there so we’d be forced to consider that possibility. I’ll bet he’s stolen another car.”
“It was probably easy,” Chad said. “Some hikers cross south to north and trade cars with friends going the other way. When I’ve done that, we leave the key hidden outside the vehicle in a small magnetic box to make the exchange easy in case we miss each other on the trail. If he saw someone conceal his keys to the car, Jason didn’t need any skill to get the car. It might be days before we know which car is missing. A few people do day hikes across, but most cross canyon hikers take three or four days. Jason could be anywhere in four days.”
“If they’re camping anywhere in the Grand Canyon, the hikers had to get a permit,” Amy said. “Our records will show where each camper is staying each night. I think we can figure this out, but it will take some time. We have no records for the day hikers, but they’re not common this time of year because of the heat.”
She told the ranger who found the BMW, “Go back to the trailhead and record the tag number and model of car for every vehicle in that lot. Bring the information back as soon as you can Rick.”
He hurried off and Amy explained, “We’ll talk to each camper that’s left a car at the North Kaibab Trail parking lot. Eventually, we’ll find someone whose car is missing. At the same time, we can make certain that Jason didn’t try to hike across. We have a good description but no photo. His accent should make it easier to find him.”
“Until we know the make of the missing car, we’re not likely to find this guy if he’s gotten out of the Arizona Strip already,” Sheriff Taylor said. The Arizona Strip is the remote and mostly uninhabited areas of Arizona north of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon. It has one paved road and a single bridge connects the Strip directly to the rest of Arizona. That road, US 89A, leads to the small town of Fredonia near the Utah border.
Amy replied, “There’s no way we can find all of these campers before nightfall when they normally stop hiking and make camp. They’ll be spread along twenty-four miles of trails. We’ll do our best.”
“I’ve already put roadblocks at the Navajo Bridge, on the Stone House Road, and at Fredonia,” the sheriff said. He had blocked the only routes from the North Rim to the rest of the Untied States. There were too many unimproved forest service roads to block, but they all led back to the main road except for the Stone House Road. Jason was trapped unless he made it past before the roadblocks were set up.
There were actually three possibilities. The most likely was that Jason was still in the area of Northern Arizona north of the Grand Canyon. Florence Simmons was discovered quickly, and we had responded with roadblocks immediately. There was not a lot of traffic in this remote area of Arizona. We didn’t know what kind of car Jason was driving, but we could stop every vehicle and interrogate every driver and passenger. Jason’s Australian accent and his lack of a local driver’s license would also help in our search. If he were still in the area, we’d catch him.
A second possibility was that Jason escaped from the area before we were able to set up the roadblocks. If he got through the roadblocks, Jason could be almost anywhere in the country in twenty-four hours.
The third possibility was that Jason was on foot either hiking or hitchhiking. A very experienced outdoorsman might evade us indefinitely in the dense forest of the eight thousand foot elevation of the Kaibab Plateau. However, Jason was from Sydney and had only been in Arizona a few months. Water was available in a few places in the North Kaibab Forest, but it’s not easy to find. Once you descend from the high, forested plateau, you are traveling through one of the least inhabited areas of the Southwest. If the fugitive Australian left the Kaibab National Forest, his survival odds in the uninhabited lands north of the Grand Canyon would be poor. We only needed to watch the few sources of drinking water to catch Jason in the barren and desolate Arizona Strip.
There was a possibility that Jason hiked down into the Canyon, but it would be easy enough for the Park Service to monitor the main hiking trails. I thought Jason was too smart to try to get away on foot. Hitchhiking and car theft were Jason’s best ways to evade us. The roadblocks should cut off his escape. I was optimistic that we’d have him in custody soon. Unfortunately, when we caught him, we still did not have the hard evidence to bring Jason to justice for the deaths at the Grand Canyon.
As soon as the body of Florence Simmons was loaded on his helicopter, the Sheriff returned to Flagstaff to coordinate the search. About 7:00, Amy, Chad, and I arrived at the South Rim in the Park Department helicopter. Chad and I decided to call off the decoy operation, since there was little chance that Jason would return to the scene of his previous crimes. Once we landed at the Grand Canyon Village, I called the room phone of our decoy, Janna Colbert. Janna thanked me for providing a free night in the nicest hotel at the Grand Canyon. She was sorry that the decoy effort had not stopped another death. She said she would eat in her room and return to work in Phoenix first thing in the morning.
I noticed a message-waiting symbol on my cell phone when I made that call. In the recorded message, a gravelly woman’s voice said, “Hello Lieutenant Damson. This is Laura Sherman-Jones. Linda Surrett asked that I call you immediately about your Grand Canyon case. My home phone is 212-555-7800 and my office 212-555-1213. If you get this message before midnight Eastern Time call me at home.”
Chad and I walked to our room in the El Tovar to make the call. We called on Chad’s phone, which has a speakerphone cradle.
The first twenty minutes of the call consist
ed of introductions and of me explaining the case. Doctor Sherman-Jones asked an occasional perceptive question. Her questions were so skillful that I could see no direction of her inquiry. Many of the questions regarded the exact details of each of my conversations with Jason. I played her the recording of my first interview with Jason McKinney. We were nearly an hour into the call when Dr. Sherman-Jones began to make comments about our suspect.
The profiler observed, “This afternoon’s murder on the North Rim is quite significant in understanding Jason. As you mentioned, he would not have been missed from his job until his 10:00 shift. Jason could have been lost in the crowds of Phoenix, Las Vegas, or even LA by the time you started looking for him if he had not driven around the Canyon to kill another woman. He could also have easily crossed the border into Mexico. Ask yourself why he didn’t just drive away.”
“Is his killing a compulsion that he can’t control even if he understands the risk?” Chad asked.
“Yes and No. I hate that answer, but it fits the facts. The man who took the real Jason McKinney’s identity used a well thought out plan to escape Australia after the police began to realize that the Bondi Beach deaths could not all be accidents. These killings are the result of a compulsion, but Jason clearly has substantial control of the compulsion. I agree that the Margo Jordan death probably triggered the other Grand Canyon killings. Jason might have come to the US with the idea of a new start and an end to his murder spree. I’ve never profiled a killer who was smart enough to kill this many people and have all of those deaths look like accidents. It’s shocking to think that you don’t even have the proof to indict him. Sending him back to Australia will result in more deaths there.”
Unfortunately, I knew that was true. I asked, “Why do you think he changed from drowning women to pushing them off a cliff?”
“Drowning is a common accident at a beach, and falls are common accidents at the Grand Canyon. Jason wants the deaths to be easy and to be thought of as accidents. In LA, he might run women off the freeway. Here in New York, he might push them under a subway train. He just fits the crime to his environment. I think he gets his pleasure from stalking his victims and not from their suffering. He has used methods that are safe for him and that produce quick deaths for the victims.”
“I still don’t understand the reason he kills. Doctor, why is he killing strangers who all look alike?” Chad asked.
“Jason is crazy in a very special and specific way. These cases almost always involve sexual dysfunction. If I had to speculate, I would guess that Jason had a very early sexual relationship with either his own mother or a mother-like figure. It would have started before he was ten years old.”
Chad uttered a profanity, and Doctor Sherman-Jones said, “Yes, that obscenity is exactly correct in this case.”
“Do you think he’ll kill other women here in Arizona or will he bolt for parts unknown?” I asked.
The profiler thought for a few seconds before she said, “There are two forces in conflict. Jason certainly does not want to be caught. That’s why all of these deaths have appeared accidental except for Jim Otto, and his death was done to prevent Jason from being caught. The second force is Jason’s relationship with you Lieutenant Damson.”
I thought that comment was a crock. “I hardly know the guy. You heard how short my meeting was. I only had a few other conversations. I haven’t spent half an hour with the guy in total. I don’t have a ‘relationship’ with this bastard.”
Doctor Sherman-Jones said, “You might not think you have a relationship with Jason, but he certainly thinks that you and he are playing an important game. You’re the first man to figure him out. He wants to prove that he’s actually smarter than you are. I think he killed a woman on the North Rim just to rub your face in it. He’s saying that you can’t stop him. Jason may feel this single death proves his superiority and move on, but he might also decide to continue to match wits with you. He knows that you’re a county police officer. If he kills again in Arizona, I’ll bet it’s in your jurisdiction.”
Coconino County is huge in land area, and thousands of people visit its attractions or pass through the county on Interstate 40 and Interstate 17 every day.
“Doctor, do you have any ideas of how to catch him?” I asked without any confidence that she would have a useful answer.
“I’ve never been to Arizona. Is there another attraction like the Grand Canyon in your county where there are thousands of out-of-state visitors? Jason needs to either be in a place where there are a lot of tourists or a large city to find women who fit his pattern. I think he’ll assume the Grand Canyon National Park is too well covered. He’ll probably move on to another part of the county.”
Chad and I replied simultaneously, “Sedona”. Our hometown was the second most visited place in the county after the Grand Canyon. Over four million tourists a year drive through town to see the dramatic red rock formations and shop at the dozens of art galleries and innumerable tourist trinket shops.
I thanked Dr. Sherman-Jones for her help, and she said I could call her anytime about the case. It was time for Chad and me to return to Sedona. We were determined that there would be no murders in our town.
CHAPTER 33
Before returning to Sedona, Chad and I went to El Tovar. Alan Markley was working in the dining room, and we asked Tony to send him out to talk with us. I explained the situation with Jason McKinney. I let Alan know that we had called off the decoy operation. After some discussion, we decided that Alan would remain undercover for a few more days. It would be useful to have someone living in the Colter House in case Jason contacted someone he knew in the dorm. There was always the chance that Alan might hear something useful.
Next, Chad and I asked Tony to send out Will Blake. Will had mentioned that he’d hiked with Jason. I hoped that he’d taken photos of some of their hikes.
I introduced Chad as my partner from Sedona, and we asked Will to step into a nearby room. I explained, “Will, we’ve found your car unharmed at the North Kaibab Trailhead. We’ll return it in a few days after our crime scene technician is finished processing it. Jason McKinney has disappeared, and we suspect he’s taken another vehicle from that trailhead parking lot. The man you know as Jason McKinney is our main suspect in Jim Otto’s death and in the murder of several women. He assumed the identity of a young man who died suspiciously in Sydney last December. His name is not really Jason, but we don’t know his real identity yet.”
Will’s face showed shock. “Jason and Jim were friends. Why would he kill him? It doesn’t make sense.”
I thought the news would be a surprise to Will, but he seemed not to accept that the man he knew as Jason McKinney could be a murderer. It was difficult for me to believe at first that the friendly desk clerk was a serial killer. However I no longer had any doubt.
“We think Jason killed a woman on the Bright Angel Trail about the same time Jim was hiking up that trail the evening before he died. Our theory is that Jim saw Jason waiting along the trail for the victim to arrive. Jason killed Jim so that he couldn’t connect him to the scene of the crime,” I said.
“Why would Jason kill that woman and need to cover it up? He is a normal guy, a really nice guy,” Will asked.
Will was still in complete denial. If other friends could feel that way about Jason, they might be a resource in helping him escape.
I wanted Will’s help. I explained, “Jason seemed normal to me too, but we now think he’s a very dangerous serial killer. When the police got suspicious in Australia last year, he took the identity of another young man and came here to the US. We don’t even know his real name.”
Will seemed to digest the information, and I continued, “We’re looking for photos to use in our search. Do you have any photos that include Jason?”
“Sure. I have photos from some of our hikes in my room.”
“Is there anything that you remember about Jason that would help us locate him? If he is a serial killer, you might
be able to help us find Jason before he kills again,” Chad asked.
“Mostly Jason seemed normal, but there was one peculiarity that several of us noticed. Some of the guys keep track of single women who check into the hotel just in case they’re lonely and want a little companionship. Jason was the only guy who was interested in women over forty. We thought he had peculiar tastes, but I never actually saw him with an older woman. Jason never talked about his sex life, but I thought maybe he got tips from these women if he kept them from being lonely.”
“Is there anything else strange about this guy?” I asked.
“Jason told really funny stories about Australia and about his family, but I noticed that he sometimes told new stories that didn’t quite agree with his previous ones. In one story, he had a little sister who was a child prodigy, but a couple of months later he claimed that he was an only child of an opal-mining mother and an American tourist who was passing through Alice Springs - that sort of thing. The stories were funny and no one paid much attention to the embellishments he was adding."
Chad followed up, “Did he say anything that might lead us to his real identity?”
“One Australian girl I dated said that Jason was from Sydney. She could tell by his accent and slang. Jason claimed to be from Sydney, but also said he was born in a cave house in Alice Springs. The girl I dated said that was BS. She was certain he didn’t grow up in the outback.”
We went to the Colter House with Will and chose three photos that showed clear images of Jason’s face. We took the whole digital chip in case we found better ones later. They could be cropped to show only Jason and printed on eight by ten paper. We wanted every law enforcement officer in Coconino County to have a copy of the best photo we could produce by tomorrow morning in case Jason had not been captured by then.
Next, we obtained permission to search Jason’s room from the management of the Colter House and his roommates. With those OK’s, it was easy to obtain a search warrant from a Flagstaff judge. We may not have needed the warrant, but I didn’t want to take any chances. It was after dark when we entered the room. Chad had retrieved his crime scene kit from his trunk. We took fingerprints from Jason’s mouthwash bottle and shaving cream can. We also took his comb and razor for DNA samples. I would send the prints to Australia as soon as possible.
The Murders at El Tovar Page 19