Serial Killers: Science, a Kenyan Mystery, and a New TV Series

A Kenyan court has granted a 30-day detention to a man suspected of murdering and dismembering women before throwing them into a flooded quarry. Authorities say the suspect has confessed to killing 42 women since 2022, including his wife. There have been concerns that the crimes could also be linked to the kidnappings and arrests of young people during recent anti-government protests. The bodies of the victims were found just 100 metres from a police headquarters, and the arrests came just three days after they were discovered.

FBI pioneer Ann Burgess developed groundbreaking methods for investigating and tracking those obsessed with killing, which are the subject of a new documentary series, Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer. The film explores how Burgess and her unit identified, tracked and interrogated dozens of notorious killers and how she proved effective in the male-dominated world of the FBI. She currently works at Boston College and researches murdered and missing Native American women.

Serial homicide is the rarest form of homicide. By definition, an individual must kill at least three people they did not previously know, with a cooling-off period between murders. Studies of serial killers are dominated by individualised analysis of the perpetrators’ biographies and the causes of their behaviour. Serial homicide is closely tied to a broader social and historical context. It is also a contemporary phenomenon due to relatively recent social and cultural conditions.