True Crime On This Day December 2nd

December 2nd

On December 2nd in true crime, murder in Texas, missing person in New Mexico, serial killer in Alaska, and the missionary murders.

1978

In San Jose, California, the East Area Rapist claimed his 42^nd victim. The identity of the perpetrator was a mystery until 40 years later when Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested for multiple murders and crimes.

More murders and assaults are being attributed to DeAngelo but he could be the most prolific serial killer in the history of the United States.

1979

In Taylor County, Texas, 18-year-old Clifton Charles Russell and an accomplice, William Battee, abducted and murdered 41-year-old air traffic controller Hubert Otha Tobey.

They ended up beating Tobey to death and cutting his throat. They hid the body in a remote area near an abandoned house. Both were arrested a few days later while driving a blood-splattered car.

Their motive for the murder was robbery. Battee was sentenced to 60 years in prison. Russell was sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection on January 31^st 1995.

1980

In El Salvador, four female American Catholic missionaries were raped and murdered by members of the El Salvador National Guard.

Their deaths came during the Salvadoran Civil War which lasted from 1979 to 1992 and brought the Revolutionary Government Junta into power. The missionaries were involved in an international aid mission which was suspected by the Junta regime to be helping bring political opposition into power.

The four women were buried in a shallow grave but exhumed the next day in front of a group of reporters. As a result of the murders, American President Jimmy Carter suspended aid to the country. As the years passed, no suspects were ever brought to justice.

1981

In Anchorage, Alaska, 23-year-old exotic dancer Andrea ‘Enchantment’ Mona Altiery disappeared and was suspected to have been killed by Alaskan serial killer, Robert Hansen.

She was reported missing by her girlfriend after failing to return from a private photo shoot with an unidentified male. She was last seen taking a taxi to the Boniface Mall in the city, just before midnight.

In 1983, when Alaskan authorities managed to get a search warrant for Hansen’s home, they discovered several pieces of jewellery that belonged to Altiery.

In 1984, Hansen confessed to 17 murders and 30 rapes and led investigators to grave sites but only 12 bodies were recovered. He was sentenced to life in prison and died on August 21^st 2014. Altiery fitted Hansen’s victim profile but no body has ever been found.

1982

In Miami, Florida, 28-year-old Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) special agent Ariel Rios was shot in the face and killed during an undercover operation.

He had been shot while struggling with a suspect who was attempting to shoot other ATF agents. Special Agent Rios and his partner, Alexander D’Atri, were sent into the undercover operation to negotiate a large cocaine deal from suspected drug traffickers at the Hurricane Hotel.

Two of the suspects involved in the struggle, Augustin D. Alvarez and Mario C. Simon, were sentenced to life plus 50 years in a federal prison. Five others were sentenced for lesser charges.

In 2016, in Washington, the newly completed headquarters of the ATF was named the Ariel Rios Federal Building, in honour of Rios.

1983

In Papillion, Nebraska, 12-year-old Christopher Walden was abducted in broad daylight. Two days later, Walden’s body was found just five miles away from where he was taken.

He had been sexually abused, tortured, and stabbed to death. His throat had been cut so deeply that he had almost been decapitated. He had been murdered by American serial killer John J. Joubert who was arrested in 1984 after suspicious behaviour around a school.

He then confessed to three murders of young boys between 1982 and 1983, and attacks on several others. Despite his lawyers claiming insanity, Joubert was sentenced to death and executed in the electric chair in Nebraska, on July 17^th 1996.

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