Catching A Serial Killer! The Bike Path Rapist Altemio Sanchez...Buffalo, New York

the perfect neighbor the pillar of the community some of history's most lethal Killers have led a double life one part Mr Nice he was there smiling on the cover he was the poster boy the other homicidal maniac I got to kill her I got to kill her I got to kill her forensic psychologist Lou Schlesinger has spent decades delving into the minds of murders the notion of a serial sexual murderer lives in his mother's basement and you know kills cats is just incorrect serving detective Jackie seir is an expert in the mechanics of crime the killer has a good working knowledge of this building between them they're dissecting a case that struck fear through a community that Spectre that ghost that Man Without a Face it was all back the anger in his eyes that was the one thing that stuck with me for years and years and investigating if its perpetrator was born to join this most elusive breed of killer I just knew in that moment I was going to [Music] die [Music] with over 20 years experience in homicide detective Jackie seir has headed up some of Britain's most high-profile murder [Music] cases she's in the suburbs of Buffalo the unlikely sight of a crime that sent shock waves through Western New York one of the really special and exceptional things about Buffalo is actually the stability of the community here people feel safe and people that grow up here often come back here to raise their children there's a good standard of living there's stable employment even through some very difficult Economic Times and nowhere is this sense of Tranquility more apparent than in the idilic neighborhood of Amherst Amherst has been voted one of the safest communities in America it's a picturesque Community a community of affluence it's uh where most families aspired to move or live in just a a very nice place to live and to raise kids each year the beautiful setting also attracts over 30,000 students it's home to one of the largest universities in New York State University of Buffalo as most campuses do it has and a a jogging or biking trail fixed to it it runs along Ela Creek and it's a beautiful pave trail that you can run bike roller blade during the fall of 1990 seconde communication student Linda yum had been making the most of the green open [Music] space Lindy Alam originally came from California she was a marathon runner she was training for the New York City marathon she's near the end of her training she's only 5 weeks away on the 29th of September the 22-year-old stuck to her Fitness regime Lindy Alam left her dorm room that morning about 9:30 or so it was a nice sunny day she had a Walkman she popped in a cassette and she went out to do what she did all the time run her roommates were expecting her back in you know a fair amount of time and uh she just never came [Music] back an extensive search was launched along the bike path where Linda was known to have been running major Steve nelli recalls the moment the hunt for the student came to an end they stretched this whole F mile path searching the path the woods and where we're standing now Linda's body was recovered she was shrouded with her sweatshirt covering her torso underneath the sweatshirt her bazer and t-shirt was lifted up exposing her breast her pants were pulled down off of her one leg was there any signs of defensive injuries she had numerous uh injuries upon her face in U in her body abrasions and bruises that indicated that she did try to fight her s despite her efforts Linda's as salant cruy controlled her the S and put duct tape over both her nose and her mouth she was unable to guess any error in fact she was sucking so hard If the duct tape was actually indented into her mouth as the perpetrator raped his victim he inflicted further torment through the use of a handled Gat why would someone use a gat in that sort of case what do you think he was doing with Linda the garage by its very nature where you can render someone unconscious just with a couple twists is a control mechanism and what he did is he did a double Loop so if I could demonstrate he just went over yeah and back and just by one hand cuz now he had both broom sticks in his hand he's able to tighten a garat and bring his victims in and out of Consciousness they left signature garat marks lature marks across her neck you're very close to your victim you're going to be looking in their eyes aren't you you're going to be able to see what you're you're doing to them aren't you that's [Music] correct forensic psychologist Lou Schlesinger has analyzed the minds of some of history's most Twisted serial killers for him the torturous technique carried out on Linda yum raises huge concerns when you use a ligature or manual strangulation to kill someone that tells me it's personal because it's an inefficient way to kill somebody it takes a long time they could fight their way out of it so when you kill with strangulation that is almost always a sexual element involved because you're seeing the victim [Music] suffer and strangulation has been the sorted choice for a class of killer who only get their kicks out of this sadistic Mo during the 1980s Virginia's Southside Strangler Timothy Spencer created torices from belongings found in his victim's homes he had two socks wrapped around her neck and a 16 CL extension Twisted in the ligature Tampa Bay murderer Bobby Joe long would bring his own ligature to the scene of the crime just left the ligature right on the victim why did he do it because for some reason that was arousing to him to see the victim lying there with a ligature just hanging an offer I'm right in here's where I killed her this class of killer is perhaps topped by America's most prolific serial murderer you think you put like five of them five of them in there Gary Ridgeway was the archetypal guy next door but in his hidden life he strangled dozens of prostitutes when I got through having a climax with her I jumped off her how much are you pulling on her neck I'm pulling really hard on her neck how just like this what are you saying to her don't fight don't fight and do and I'll let you go no Ridgeway was never going to let him go he got him in a strangulation hold and he basically said to them if you relax and just let me go through my little sexual thing I'm going to let you go and when she relaxed he then strangled her and killed her I'm feeling I got to kill her I got to kill her I got to kill her they want want to get close and touch the person as she's dying this is what's stimulating for all of these individuals like Gary Ridgeway and long and and so many of them who killed with that method in 1990 in Amhurst Buffalo the community had been Shattered by the strangulation of student Linda yum she was jogging in the middle of the day she was attacked no one saw her coming or going no one saw the attacker coming or going how does that happen detective Jackie seir is on the scene with major Steven negrelli as he recalls the moment detectives received a break in the case a woman called and said she saw a man behind a woman pulling her from behind pulling across this exact Bridge the sighting suggested that the killer was acting with unabated confidence this is a Saturday in the month of September this path is teaming with people he was Brazen enough during daylight hours to grab a victim drag her over the bridge and rape her and leave her right here but as the investigation gathered momentum it became clear that the as salant actions were far from random so the detectives had witnesses that suggested that he'd been staking out the place days before that's [Music] correct and one such witness was a local factory worker who had spotted a work colleague in the vicinity just days before Linda's death and his coworker saw his fellow coworker walking on that path thought it was unusual went to talk to him and his coworker pretend like he didn't see him acted bizarre although the factory worker was brought in for questioning no one suspected the murderer could be this pillar of the community altimo Sanchez he coached the boys baseball team he played on you know Community baseball teams uh through his church all of his neighbors said he's he's the greatest guy you'll mow your lawn for he has a nicest looking lawn in the neighborhood invites him over to barbecues and things like that despite the model neighbor bearing a marked similarity to the perpetrator close colleagues on his shift at the factory didn't take it too seriously there was a father and son who worked at the plant as well and when the composite sketch was out there they used to joke with him and say hey Al this looks just like you and he'd kind of [Music] chuckle the residents of Buffalo couldn't imagine that the perfect husband and all round good guy was concealing a double [Music] life [Music] forensic psychologist Lou Schlesinger and serving detective Jackie seir are unraveling a case that rocked a suburb of Buffalo New [Music] York in 1990 Amherst student Linda yum was sadistically raped and strangled on a local bike path for Jackie seir the Killer's movements reveal a meticulous opport operator this is an incredibly open public space so for him to have the confidence to have staked out this location knowing that he wouldn't be disturbed starts really raising the levels of anxiety of the detectives this wasn't a spontaneous assault this was premeditated and it appeared the calculated killer may have struck before his technique resembled an emmo displayed in a series of sex ATT attacks perpetrated by a character dubbed the bike path rapist the bike path rapist first became known to me when I was a teenager a girl from my high school had gotten raped he would pray in areas where there were either high schools or uh recreational areas that would you know um younger women would typically utilize he was using a knife he was using a gun and then he started using the double ligature Garrett the period of attacks was so prolonged Lisa Redmond's childhood memories would be brought sharply into Focus as she pursued the rapist as an investigator did he cause any other injuries to the victims was there any other violence other than the actual sexual offense one of the rap victims managed to get her fingers underneath the Garrett and he was choking her so hard it actually bent her fingers and years and years later she showed me her fingers were still bent the sex attacker cast his net wide over Buffalo's green open spaces so we've got rapes down in this location in the South we've got rapes here we've got the University of Buffalo where Linda was killed so we've got a side up here we've got clusters of locations where offenses happen these you would not know unless you had knowledge of that area he's tailoring his crime and his location to his victims in 1986 17-year-old Hamburg school girl Susie cogins was experiened the terrible wroth of the rapist [Music] firsthand I was walking till a 9:00 class that day I was running late so I had to cut through all the bike path to get to school so I wouldn't be late I heard someone running through the woods I turned over my shoulder to look and I saw this guy I saw the rope in his hand and I thought he must be running his dog or something that but the perpetrator wrapped the Rope around su's neck lifting her off the ground when I went up in the air I couldn't breathe everything stopped in that time in that moment and then he started dragging me back into the woods and the anger in his eyes I just I'll never that was the one thing that stuck with me for years and he was those eyes the way he looked once in a secluded spot the rapist broke his silence he just asked me how old I was and um and if I had ever had sex before I just kept thinking about my family sorry don't like I just kept thinking I'll never see my family again I'll never see my friends again I just know what that moment I was going to die Susie was then subjected to a prolonged rape when he was finished and I'm like what happens next and he says nothing I felt like there was some guilt in his voice and yeah his energy changed completely from the beginning of it till the end of [Music] it as police desperately pursued the rapist charismatic factory worker altimo Sanchez was as popular as ever he was a jock so people at work loved having him on their softball team running with him golfing him he was an outstanding golfer he was a guy that guys want to hang out with despite his jovial demeanor altimo Sanchez's start to life had been far from happy as a child he struggled academically but Sanchez would insist his biggest challenge was out of school living with his alcoholic mother she would frequently remind Al you know you weren't you weren't wanted she openly told him during his life you know when she was pregnant with him that she actually bought kind of a concoction of drugs that would induce an abortion and and use those those drugs uh during her pregnancy the unwanted child had been born into a turbulent home in 1958 in Puerto Rico he was one of four children there was family tension between Mom and Dad and um I believe dad left when he was very young I think he was 2 years old when dad [Music] left his mother uh discovered very early on that his that his father was having an affair and moved the family to New York City [Music] however life in the big city didn't offer a fresh start for the Sanchez family he had spent a lot of time uh with his mother living with different men he one time lived in the back of a car she allowed various men into her life he alleges that those men abused him physically and emotionally during that time period Sanchez stated he also repeatedly saw his alcohol mother being abused by her violent partner for forensic psychologist Lou Schlesinger a child witnessing aggressive behavior against his maternal figure can have devastating consequences in later life the main effect that that has is it desensitizes the child to violence he sees an aggressive boyfriend an aggressive father fig figure who treats women like this and he identifies with the aggressive person rather than identifying with the victim many of history's most despicable Killers have developed a dysfunctional view of their mothers in their formative years as a child the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe regularly saw his father humiliating his mother Kathleen one time John Su spotted Kathleen talking to two men in a pop that's all talking and he slapped her straight across the face so here we have his father saying you this is what you do to be a man and you know um Peter is very much saw women as either madonas or [ __ ] you're basically using your parents as a role model and if that's what your role model is doing it stands to reason you're going to do very similar sorts of things but this crucial mother-son relationship can be affected in other ways serial murderer Gary ridgeway's maladjusted view was at the other end of the [Music] spectrum he talked about having some sexual feelings towards her he described in some detail uh watching her when she was in a bathing suit and and looking at her and thinking that she dressed pretty provocatively during one bath um her uh robe fell open and she was naked underneath and he felt aroused Gary ridway is an individual whose mother was very sexually provocative in an overt sense there's nothing more devastating psychologically for a boy to see that type of behavior in his mother it usually doesn't end well at [Music] all in 1990 in Buffalo New York police had connected the murder of student Linda yum to a string of brazen rapes committed along the area's bike paths and trails what made this so bizarre is these were broad daylight attacks but then for the next 2 years the brutal crimes ceased poof he vanishes off the radar [Music] just a short drive away from the Tranquil bike paths Exchange Street in downtown Buffalo seemed A Million Miles [Music] Away the red light district was worked by prostitute maane merer mjan merer was turning tricks sometimes she would stand on Corners a lot of times she she would give her number to people and they would call her but on an October night the vulnerable 32-year-old was picked up by the wrong man a John called her she went out to the curb got in his car took off she was never seen [Music] again okay so this is the actual building right up to the fence line yeah is where M Jane me's body was found bless her detective Jackie Saia is joining Lisa Redmond as she revisits an industrial Wasteland that in 1992 was the site of a horrific murder a man actually picking wild flowers found her in the brush it was not clear like it is now it was overgrown and her body Not only was it camouflaged by the foliage he actually put a piece of corrugated plastic over the top of [Music] her when her body was discovered what condition was her body in she was lying prone there was a plastic bag right around her head at the neck and then another garbage bag over the top on closer examination M Jan's cause of death was undeniable there was evidence of ligature strangulation on mjane she had the double ligature marks on her neck but due to the circumstances that she was a prostitute that she was covered the way she was the investigators at the time did not put two and two together that she was a victim of the bike path rapist did the detectives form an impression of of who could have done this though what type of person would have done this they thought that it would be someone that she knew or was familiar with because of the way the person had painstakingly taken the time to try to hide the body as police chased up leads they were unaware that one of mjane mea's regular clients was a local Family Man leading a double life altimo Sanchez [Music] in 1996 in the green suburbs of Buffalo New York 6 years had passed since the murder of Linda yum in the wake of her tragic death the local community was determined the young student would never be forgotten because Linda was a runner there was something created called the Linda yala Memorial Run it's an annual event and it's to raise awareness about women's safety issues Before the Race would start there would be a moment of silence and then a bagpipe would lead the runners down to the starting line amongst those taking part in September 96 was competitor 635 local man altimo Sanchez it turned out that alteo Sanchez uh was a bit of a runner he belonged to the running club at American brass it was seemingly a typical act for one of the communities all round Good [Music] Guys detective Jackie seir has come to Chik toaga the neighborhood in which Almia Sanchez set up home with his college sweetheart 10 years previously Chi toaga is a an incredibly safe quiet suburb low crime and it's great schools and that's why Sanchez and his wife picked this location to raise their family he had two sons he was very involved in his community nothing remarkable about him he just seemed like a neighbor he was the guy that uh you know when snowfall came he'd be out there with his snow plow plowing out your driveway he was um a member of his local Church community where he was coaching the softball league his family were well known he was here for a long time so he'd established ties in his working life at a nearby brass Factory Sanchez was also well-liked fellow worker Ken chakai would regularly chat with the fork driver as his night shift Drew to a close and your first impressions of him he was just a nor normal guy normal guy very nice guy s spoken uh I can't say anything bad about him was Sanchez ever in trouble at work or were there any issues you good worker yeah was there any gossip about him or rumors he was going with the church the community his family belonged to the church the great guy nobody in Buffalo believed that altimo Sanchez had anything to do with the murder of Linda Yen having worked extensively with the FBI Professor L Schlesinger is fully aware that for many a serial killer is hard to spot the notion of every serial sexual murderer being weird and a loner lives in his mother's basement and you know kills cats is just incorrect to further understand those capable of concealing a heinous double life the psychologist is meeting an offender who ruthlessly targeted women how did you feel when you were raping someone oh I felt powerful this inmate is a serial rapist who remained undetected within his community for over a year and a half someone who knows very little about this topic what could you say to help them understand the mind of a of a serial rapist for me I hated myself I felt that I I uh was inadequate the sex offense is not about sex it's it's about it's about the power and control issues it's about the self-esteem issues it's about a person who is desperate to be accepted and validated as a person while you were raping women you were in a relationship with with women well I was in this case I was married you were married did you feel you led a double life in a sense that nobody even knew you were capable of something like this oh absolutely mean about the I mean I I was I had regular work I worked hard uh I was responsible I enjoyed activities with other people when different people that knew you from the community and whatnot realized what had happened were they pretty shocked oh yeah yes didn't have a clue that you were capable of this in fact the uh I remember the prosecutor uh dur during the case made a statement in court that you know in all other aspects of my life this is the guy you would want your daughter to bring home because I was a steady person I right talk well smart right but I had this dark side that I was going out and raping in his work as a profiler Professor Lou Schlesinger has also experienced this chameleon like ability in a class of killer that remained invisible to all around them there's a large group of Serial sexual murderers who have families and are married and work and have friends and acquaintances she got sick got her a glass of water uped her a little bit and then went ahead and Tighter it up and then put the bag over her head and strangled her over a 30-year period in Kansas Dennis Raider murdered 10 people all the while the respected Scout camp leader hid an assortment of sworded behavior frequently tying himself up within the local Woods he was very big into autoerotica what he did was to leave the campsite where the Boy Scouts were and then he attached a camera to on a cord and would take photographs of his his accomplishments most people believe they can detect deviancy and particularly danger in others when they really can't in some cases in Riverside County during the 1990s model citizen Bill saf's murderous identity was even more impenetrable he was supplying equipment to the police department the same Police Department that was investigating him a homicide victim was found one morning when uh two of the investigators were with Bill and their pager went off and Bill made the comment to them oh did you find another body if a person interacts with you and makes jokes and seems like a normal guy why would you possibly suspect that he's capable of such extreme deviancy [Music] in 2006 in Buffalo New York over a decade had passed since the bike path rapist had last struck as time went on and there were no more attacks I I really believe that the community became less guarded they believe that maybe he left the area was in prison or possibly dead collectively the community still had it in the back of our minds that's where we pushed it because everyone wanted to believe deep down that we were safe on the 16th anniversary of Linda yam's murder respected neighbor and loving husband altimo Sanchez had been out with his wife at an office reunion he was photographed at a Downtown Bar at a party with a drink in his hand uh with his wife you know with his arm around his wife but amidst the celebrations no one could have guessed how altimo Sanchez had spent the [Music] day a few hours earlier in nearby Clarence it had been a typical Friday morning for mother Joan dver and her young family they sat at the kitchen table and they had breakfast together they talked about we go to a movie tonight cuz it's Friday night she had dropped her 5-year-old off at daycare and decided on a beautiful September day to go for a jog in Clarance Joan parked her car in her usual spot before heading out along the bike [Music] path but as the morning Drew to a close the 45-year-old didn't reappear from her run at the normal time of pickup for daycare mom didn't show her son kind of stood at the window and looked out the window like where's mom with no sign of Joan an extensive search was mounted detective Jackie sair is joining Steve nelli as he retraces its final steps a couple of Boy Scouts and a scout leader they just want to help the diver family so they're out here volunteering searching one of them kind of bent down peered in and he could see underneath the Shrubbery an overgrowth he could see what appeared to be a human [Music] hand it was in fact Joan [Music] diver what did she actually look like when she was here she was laying on her back her pants were down her shirt had been lifted up exposing her breast you could see that she had been in a struggle you could see that there was some marks on her body although not witnessed for over a decade the method of murder had a chilling familiarity those distinctive double ligature marks on her neck so even after the 12 years had passed it's almost like a a Tex copy of what happened before all Theo was lining up the time of dat a secluded bike path a white female Jer the ligature everything's going down that path it's the bike path it's bike path it's bike [Music] path as detectives discovered the victim's car had been moved lab tests cast out any doubt that the perpetrator had returned what came back was one droplet of sweat on the steering column uh where you put the key in they were able to obtain DNA sample from that exact key tumbler that DNA that was discovered was in fact the DNA of the bike path [Music] rapist that Spectre that ghost that Man Without a Face it was all back but as his reign of terror entered a third decade the identity of Buffalo's elusive serial killer was about to be unveiled in September 2006 in Buffalo the murder of jogger Joan diver had marked the return of the bike path rapist after more than a decade's absence as a serving detective Jackie seir is in no doubt as to the impact of this tragic development to come back after a 12year break would have been an enormous shock to the team of investigators because you have to relive and pull all of those files again and start practically from the beginning with a DNA sample indicating an Hispanic male the list of suspects shrank down until an historic case left just one name there had been a rape and the woman had seen the rapist a few days later at the mall followed him out and got his license plate as the owner of the vehicle had a cast iron Alibi the lead had drawn a blank but years later as police reconed him the owner admitted a relation had borrowed the vehicle we said who was driving your car that night and that's when he the first time we heard this name and he said it was my nephew his nephew's name has popped up a couple times previous in this investigation he said it was altimo [Music] Sanchez it was like getting hit in the face with a baseball bat because after all these years we finally had a name to this faceless monster that had been terrorizing the women of this [Music] community with a direct DNA match the churchgoing softball coach was questioned by detective Lisa Redmond at first he didn't believe I was a police detective made me show him my badge his attacks were about controlling women he couldn't control her she was in charge it unnerved him at one point he said I think you're something else and I noted that he said something not someone you're refer to me as something as news of the arrest spread local residents struggled to comprehend the identity of the unmasked killer neighbors going on TV saying that we had the wrong guy that we were wrong altimo Sanchez's wife I really don't think that she had any idea what was going on in the morning he commits a murder at night he's with a work party with her and while she's pregnant with one of their children he's out raping or he's patronizing prostitutes I don't think she saw any of this madness that that dark side of him at all the factory night shift workers colleagues were left equally mystified when the news came that the bike path rapist was arrested the one gentleman I interviewed said that's great he's he's off the streets finally and then they said you know it's it's Al Sanchez and he he swore and said why are you picking on Al it couldn't be [Music] Al but those who had experienced the Dark Side of altimo Sanchez were in no doubt that police had got the right man I remember running as fast as I could to the TV and I'm like oh my God that's him I saw those eyes and I just remember falling to my knees I just started [Music] crying it was just it was finally over it was finally over basically what we had was a monster living amongst us that we never realized was there in court altimo Sanchez would be sentenced for the murders of Linda yum maane merer and Joan diver he's looking like he's a broken man you know his head's bowed you know his hands are clasped in front of him such a slap in the face to see him play that role because he absolutely was not sorry for any of his victims he was sorry he was caught whilst altimo Sanchez presented himself as remorseful other Killers who deceived all around them have played out their final acts of freedom in different ways Gary Ridgeway quietly faced his victims how do you plead to the charge of aggravated murder in the first degree as charged in count 5 guilty Dennis Raider reveled in detailing his heinous crimes got on top of her and then strangled her through the Bel at that time but to fully appreciate these coldblooded killers Professor Lou Schlesinger believes you have to look to the past if you want to understand an offender don't go by how he appears in court take a look at what he did what he did tells you what the offender is really like and altimo Sanchez's brutal history undoubtedly Bears the Hallmarks of this most dangerous class of killer the guy next door who was simply invisible Sanchez shares the characteristic of many serial sexual murderers these offenders are in a class of their own in as much as those who see them in their environment they don't see somebody who's mentally ill who psychotic yet they all have a dark side and they're extremely dangerous and extremely violent although the average person doesn't see [Music] it [Music] [Music]

Channel: Dan Oshier Productions

Views: 2,574,929

Keywords: buffalo, new york, killers, homicide, investigation, western new york, discovery channel series, dan oshier productions, Altemio sanchez, bike path killer, rapist, crime shows, unsolved mysteries, murder, serial killer, famous murder, death, detectives, amherst new york, crime story, mystery solve, unsolved mystery, cnn, discovery channel, documentary, aerial video, drone video

Id: 3tou8h3P1Tg

Length: 44min 54sec (2694 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 09 2017