Serial killer series prompts police to re-open investigations

Police in Ohio and Indiana have launched new murder investigations after a Scripps Howard News Service investigation revealed dozens of clusters of unsolved killings of women nationwide that are likely the work of serial killers. Also, authorities in Nevada acknowledge they are hunting a serial killer, although the public has not been told that the unsolved murders of up to seven women are connected. Through analysis of over 525,000 murders in America, Thomas Hargrove created a database that crime experts say is the most complete accounting of homicide victims ever assembled in the United States. Using the Freedom of Information Act, Hargrove obtained details about 15,000 murders never reported to the FBI. Hargrove also created a Serial Killer Detector, a computer algorithm that flags potential serial killings. Using the Detector, readers and viewers can sort through a database of 185,000 unsolved murders to determine for themselves if serial killers are at work in their communities.