3 potential serial killers caught by police
As defined by the FBI, serial killers are individuals who have killed at least three people. Those considered to be serial killers tend to be identified after these crimes have already been committed.
However, there are certain situations wherein investigators can catch a potential serial killer. This can happen because of strong police work, recovered evidence, or even just sheer luck.
It is incredibly difficult to pin down a potential serial killer. However, the individuals in this article had already begun their journey on a dark, criminal path before they were arrested.
With this in mind, we are going to be looking at three particularly noteworthy cases of individuals who would have likely become serial killers if they had not been caught beforehand.
1. Vincent Stanford
In 2015, Vincent Stanford was 24 years old and working as a janitor at Leeton High School in Australia. Stephanie Scott also resided in Leeton. She was 26 and only a few days away from getting married. She suddenly disappeared in 2015 on Easter Sunday.
Police and the community of Leeton came together to try and find Stephanie, and it wasn’t long before the trail led to Vincent. Mountains of evidence piled up against Stanford, and he eventually confessed to the rape and murder of Stephanie.
Stanford reportedly told a forensic psychologist that murder had been in his mind since he was a young child. Stephanie paid the ultimate price for his morbid fascinations, but there were plenty of other women and young girls who were in his line of sight too.
Stanford reportedly stalked a 12-year-old girl along with two other women. He was found to have more than 1,800 photos of the young girl on his computer, alongside horrifying 'observations' he made in a notebook. If Stanford had not been caught after Stephanie’s murder, he would likely have turned his attention to his other targets, then more women and girls.
The obsessive and violent thoughts and actions of Vincent Stanford are disturbing enough to consider on their own. However, it is even more sinister when you consider what his plans were for the other women he stalked. Thanks to his capture and incarceration, those plans will never come to fruition.
Natural Born Killer, available now on Crime+Investigation and Crime+Investigation Play, tells the definitive story of how police stopped Stanford in his tracks.
2. Mark Brown
41-year-old builder Mark Brown was convicted of the murders of 32-year-old Leah Ware and 34-year-old Alexandra Morgan in December 2022. He murdered the two women – who had been reported missing – within six months of one another in 2021.
Leah and Alexandra – who were both mothers – were sex workers that Brown coerced into meeting via the website adultwork.com. Brown burnt the remains of Alexandra and dumped them in a building site. Leah’s body was never found, but it is thought that he did the same to her while also killing her beloved Pomeranian, Lady.
Alexandra was lured to a remote farm and killed under the premise of an arrangement for sex work. Leah, however, seemed to have a more significant relationship with Brown, and he exploited this significantly.
Mark Brown was given two life sentences, so he will spend at least 49 years in prison. The meticulous and calculated manner of his crimes, along with his deceptive nature, suggest that he may well have preyed on vulnerable women again.
Murders at Little Bridge Farm, available now on Crime+Investigation and Crime+Investigation Play, tells the shocking story of Mark Brown and the double-life he led as a self-proclaimed 'psychopath with a conscience'.
3. James Fairweather
James Fairweather was 15 years old in 2014 when he murdered two people in Essex. The first murder took place on 29th March, when Fairweather stabbed 33-year-old James Attfield to death.
The next occurred on 17th June, when he did the same to 31-year-old student Nahid Almanea.
There is almost no doubt that Fairweather would have gone on to be a serial killer, as he was apprehended while planning to kill again in May 2015.
During his trial, Fairweather was revealed to have had a fascination with serial killers. He had photos of the Yorkshire Ripper and had researched other killers, such as Ted Bundy and Kenneth Erskine. This is what was thought to have fuelled the crimes.
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