Thursday, September 6, 2007

Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: Profiling for Dummies Case # 1

I thought I would start a series of homicide cases that will make newbie profilers and wannabes feel good about their profiling skills! Here is Case Number One! Ready?

Who Killed Kelly Gorham?

Nursing student Kelly Gorham went missing in Maine. She was engaged for two years to Jason Twardus. They broke up in June. Kelly went missing in early August and her body was found in a shallow grave during a search on the property of Brian Twardus, Jason's daddy.

Now put on your thinking caps! The police have not yet named a suspect in this crime, so you can be the first to figure out who could have committed this murder.

If you get this one right, you can go for the extra credit question!

Who COULD have killed Kelly Gorham? (warning: attorney profiling required for the answer to this one).

Hint: There is only one answer to the first question. There are a dozen answers to the second question depending on the lawyer's ability to tell tales and the estimated gullibility of the jury.

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's just as ridiculous as the case of Andrea Peterson, who had called the police 10 times in the prior month trying to get them to stop her ex from stalking her. Then when she was found murdered, he was merely "a person of interest" and still out on the street the last I heard. It infuriates me because we have stalking laws that will support the police detaining this stalker long before he murdered his viction, but THEY WON'T USE THE LAWS.

This is State of Texas, and I just got a newsletter from a senator cavalierly mentioning why the State, in its last session opted for yet more lame diversionary and rehab programs rather than funding more prisons. Why? Because it costs $43 a day to keep the prisoners, and they didn't think they wanted to incur THAT expense. We let everyone walk here. Nobody cares as long as the politicians have plenty of money for special projects and superhighways to accommodate a big contributor.

Anonymous said...

There is not much to go on to profile hear is there? I mean We dont have enough facts or background information and we only have 2 possible suspects that we know of. Either of the two could have killed her but there is the possibility that someone else did, although unlikely, it is also possible they were in it together. Also it doesnt state who broke up with who, if it was Kelly that broke up with Jason then there would be motive for Jason, Maybeim not very good at this, but I believe we need more information on this such as, was there relationship happy, violent, etc? Also what is Jason and Brian's background, Is their mother in the picture? Did she leave them? Could jason have once before had someone he loves leave him and has snapped at this second instance. Also I dont understand what Attorney Profiling means. Looking forward to hear from you.

scratch said...

anybody could have killed kelly gorham, but like the last person said, theres very little info to work with.
i need to know what kind of relationship jason and kelly were in.
i need to know what kind of persons jason, his father, his mother or even family members are.
i need to know if someone else liked kelly but jason got to her first
i need to know the reasons for their breakup
i need to know how many times they called themselves btw their breakup and kellys time of death...
i need to know the strenght of jasons relationship with his mother and father and his sister if he had one.
theres quite a lot of qiestions to be asked.
i really cant say at this npoint who killed kelly.....

Pat Brown said...

For those of you who are ACTUALLY taking my post seriously (NOT Peraph who gets sarcasm): it's sarcasm!

We KNOW who killed the girl.
Attorney "profiling" (more sarcasm) is when the attorney tries to dish up any explanation barring men from Mars to claim an alternative suspect did it.

Let me make his easier for you.

Husband and wife heard screaming at each other.
Neighbors hear man shout, "I hate you, you bitch wife! I want you to die!"
Neighbors hear nine rounds of gunshots go off.
Husband is seen running from the house with gun in hand.
Husband is found with gun that fires nine rounds with no ammo left in the gun.
The ballistics match.

The lawyer says the husband didn't do it, that there is another explanation. THIS is attorney profiling. As a profiler I have been asked to create a theory for defense attorneys to use in court with open and shut cases. I refused to cooperate.

Anonymous said...

Not so cut and dry when you consider that 2 men with criminal records were the last to see Kelly alive--her landlord, John Durfee, and lover, Calvin Degrenia. Both men tell inconsistent accounts of their activities the night before Kelly fails to show up for work. Calvin brags to his sister that he has killed a woman in Texas and in Maine, and is heard by another witness saying he had Kelly for super and the rest of her is in Durfee's freezer. DNA of 2 unknown males found on an item retrieved from Kelly's grave....

Unknown said...

so a little lost here so i am going to go back to the beginning and for now ignore the comment from others. Mind you if this is indeed a real case I do not know of it. I am answering based on what was first given in the initial post. Your looking for the attorney alternate story saying Jason could not have done it, despite the fact that they broke up in June and the body being found in his father’s yard. Giving a two month laps between her brake up and disappearance and death; as Jason’s attorney my process would be as follows. (Mind you I know nothing of this case if it is indeed a real case or not. Nor am I taking into account the comments.)
I would first looking into the background of the victim and theorize before the jury that someone who watched the victim, stocked her, or knew of her relationship with Jason framed him.
If it was indeed a stocker I would say out of jealousy he would kill her for choosing Jason over him/her or rejected him/or her. They placed her body in a shallow grave as punishment denying her a proper burial for their rejection of him/her.
If it was someone who knew the victim I would theorize the shallow grave spoke to their disregard or shamming of the victim. That Jason as a former boyfriend was the idea patsy.
Now looking at the brief description of the crime I would profile the killer as being disgusted with the victim or in a rush shoving her in a shallow grave. If the killer had not taken the time to place her in Jason’s dad’s property I would speak to the crime as a crime of opportunity not taking time to bury her fully. I would also theorize the killer was enraged with the victim the placement of the body says the killer wanted her to be found whether to justify he or she was invincible enough to live the body were it could be found and not feel as if they would be caught. If you want the victim not to be found you would dig deeper or even bury her in another place then the back yard of her former fiancĂ©’s dad’s place.