Do Clues in Student Slaying Point to Serial Killer?

March 3, 2006 — -- She was brutally raped, suffocated and mutilated, then dumped in a Brooklyn lot wrapped in a blanket. Now experts believe whoever killed graduate student Imette St. Guillen probably did it before -- and may strike again.

"This is one of the unusual kind of Hollywood-type cases that we don't see too often, which is why it's so extremely frightening to us," said Pat Brown, a criminal profiler and CEO of The Sexual Homicide Exchange.

"Most serial killers -- and I do believe this was a serial-killing crime -- are anger retaliatory killers. They tend to do crimes that are much quicker. … But this crime is what we call a sexually sadistic serial killer who very much enjoys the entire process of the torture and the murder," Brown said.

Police discovered the body of St. Guillen -- who would have turned 25 today -- Saturday night, bound with shoelaces and wrapped in a floral hotel bedspread, after an anonymous caller phoned 911. Her face, hands and feet were confined with packaging tape. Police believe St. Guillen was raped, strangled and, ultimately, suffocated.

Police sources told the New York Daily News that she was sodomized, her dark hair was chopped short, her genitals were sliced, a tube sock was jammed down her throat, and her face was covered with vertical strips of clear packing tape.

Brown said the level of torture was "too outrageous and too sexual" for the killer to be someone like an angry boyfriend. "He probably has killed before," she said. "This would not be his first killing. It's just too involved. … He's increasing his fantasy. He wants more and more excitement out of his fantasy so he's perfecting his work."

She said the way her face was taped also could indicate the killer wanted to watch her face as she died -- "a very, very high level of sadism."

Who he could be remains a mystery, but Dr. Michael Baden, chief forensic pathologist for the New York State Police and an expert witness in many high-profile cases, said police seemed to have good trace evidence -- tape, hair fibers, a rape kit, possible tire marks or shoe prints at the scene, as well as security tapes from areas near the Manhattan bars where St. Guillen was last seen alive. All could help lead to a suspect.