Grim Sleeper Task Force members met with Federal Bureau of Investigation profilers recently to discuss the decades-long case and see if the federal agency had any suggestions about how to catch the elusive killer who has evaded the Los Angeles Police Department since 1985.

“They research serial killers and they go out and interview them to try and figure out why these guys are doing what they are doing,” said detective Cliff Shepard, who attended the sit-down meeting with the feds on September 30.

In an eight-hour meeting near Quantico, FBI profilers suggested that local cops continue to canvass the neighborhoods and look through past field interview cards for people who were stopped by patrol officers dating back to the mid-80's. However, the latter may be an impossible task because patrol officers make contact with over 300,000 people a year. Also, much of the earlier information has since been destroyed.

The FBI profilers believe that the Grim Sleeper “doesn't look or behave like a monster,” said Shepard. “He is not like John Wayne Gacy or Hannibal Lecter.”

“This guy is just an average kind of Joe,” he said. “He is not going around telling people what he is doing” like BTK killer Dennis Rader who anonymously boasted about his dastardly deeds.

The FBI noted that the killer spent some time with his victims' bodies before leaving the scene, such as covering some of them with debris. “It seems like he is comfortable with what he is doing and was not concerned about being caught right then,” said Shepard. “It is not like in the movies where the killer has them locked up cages. “

DNA and ballistics have linked the Grim Sleeper to the murders of 10 women and one man killed almost exclusively along a section of Western Avenue.

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