Resource Center

Stories

The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast.

These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need.

Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:



Search results for "Serial killers" ...

  • Murder Mysteries

    Scripps Howard developed a computer algorithim that can identify suspicious clusters of homicides of women that have a significant chance of containing serial murders.

    Tags: serial killer; murder; victim; demographic; offenders

    By Thomas Hargrove

    Scripps Howard News Service

    2011

  • Serial Killer Could Have Been Stopped

    After 11 bodies are found in a Cleveland man's home, CBS News questions why police hadn't known a serial killer had been on the loose. The exclusive investigation finds that the police had consistently dismissed rape accusations against Sowell.

    Tags: rape; serial killer; murder; police; Anthony Sowell

    By Rick Kaplan; Katie Couric; Keith Sommia; Armen Keteyian; Laura Strickler

    CBS News

    2010

  • Murder Mysteries

    Schripps Howard News Service has conducted the most complete accounting ever made of homicide victims in the United States. Aggressive use of state and local Freedom of Information laws allowed the wire service to assemble a database of 525,742 homicides, including records of 15,322 killings never reported to the FBI. The "Murder Mysteries" project calculated the homicide clearance rate for every police department in the U.S., prompting four departments to promise reforms. Scripps also developed an algorithm that identified 161 suspicious clusters of unsolved homicides involving women of similar age killed through similar means. Authorities in Gary, Ind., and Youngstown, Ohio, Launched new investigations into possible serial murder in their communities as a result of this project.

    Tags: Murder; mystery; FBI; homicide; killings; serial killer; police department; investigation; FOI; algorithm; computer-assisted reporting;

    By Thomas Hargrove; Jason Bartz

    Scripps Howard News Service

    2010

  • "Murder Mysteries"

    The Scripps Howard News Service has compiled an extensive database of homicide victims in the U.S., by using state and local Freedom of Information laws. The project revealed records of more than 15,000 murders that were "never reporter to the FBI." As a result of the series, several police departments "promised reform," and new investigations into old murders were launched.

    Tags: FOI; FBI; Uniform Crime Report; serial killer; database; freedom of information; violence; criminologist

    By Thomas Hargrove

    Scripps Howard News Service

    2010

  • Fugitive in the Philippines

    The story investigates an “unsolved disappearance and murder of a little boy and two mothers”. It is believed the serial killer is hiding in Southeast Asia, which is where the investigation led and even brought them to the suspect. He was the last known person to see the victims alive and detectives believe the” interview has helped them gather additional information”.

    Tags: murderer; cold case; homicide; mystery; evidence; hiding; criminal; suspicion; vanish; depart

    By Chris Halsne; David Weed; Bill Benson

    KIRO-TV (Seattle)

    2009

  • Homicide in LA

    This series is a story about a serial killer on the loose in South Los Angeles. The story broke after a lead from the one and only surviving victim, who agreed to meet only with LA Weekly. LA Weekly kept the story alive by helping detectives by writing stories and keeping the existence of the serial killer alive. Though, after the story had gone away, 20 years later it has reappeared as the serial killer struck again.

    Tags: murders; LAPD; police; mystery; Grim Sleeper; Southern California; court; law enforcement; detectives

    By Christine Pelisek

    LA Weekly

    2009

  • Holes in the System

    An investigation into serial killer Walter E. Ellis's violent past reveals not only that the state was missing a sample of his DNA, but the sample DNA of 12,000 others. Further investigation shows that Ellis was also "used as a federal informant."

    Tags: databank; DNA; serial killer; Walter; Ellis

    By John Diedrich; Gina Barton; Ben Poston; Ryan Haggerty; Daniel Bice

    Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

    2009

  • Virginia Tech Massacre Investigation

    The series was published around the time of the one year anniversary on the April 2007 Virginia Tech campus school shooting, and published periodically from June to December. It was found that university officials misled the public about how long they knew a gunman was at large, delaying the issued warning.

    Tags: Seung-Hui Cho; Norris Hall; school shooting; gun control; Columbine; concealed weapon; license; serial killer; murder;

    By Dave Ress; Carlos Santos; Rex Bowman

    Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Va.)

    2007

  • The Grim Sleeper

    Pelisek's story details a secret the Los Angeles police were shielding from the public: "that a serial murderer had begun killing Angelenos since 1985, taking a 13-year hiatus before recently resuming his bloody assaults almost exclusively in a poor, black sector of the city." DNA evidence linked a single killer to several murders of mostly young women, drug users and prostitutes. It was Pelisek that informed families of some of the victims that their daughters' murder was the work of a serial killer.

    Tags: police; serial killer; Los Angeles; body dump; murder; cold case; public records; police documents; court documents

    By Christine Pelisek

    LA Weekly

    2008

  • Who Killed Her Daughter?

    "The package of stories focused on the unsolved slaying of four young women within central Virginia that occurred within a seven-month span in 1996."

    Tags: forensics; murder; serial killer; Richard Marc Evonitz; slaying; law enforcement; FBI lab; Darrell Rice; innocent; death penalty

    By Pamela Gould

    Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Va.)

    2007