Season 1, Episode 3 of Cold Case.
Directed by Bryan Spicer
Written by Stacy Kravetz
A serial rapist announces his return via letters to the police, and their only hope of apprehending him is to solve the 1998 murder of his most recent victim, a 21-year-old college student named Gail Chimayo.
Tropes
- Be as Unhelpful as Possible: Bruce refuses to give a DNA sample which could have helped close the case a lot earlier. Like, 5 years earlier.
- Calling Card: Played with. Before committing a crime, the killer leaves a letter with the police.
- Connect the Deaths: The police believe the rapist meets victims along a particular road. A map and pushpins are involved.
- Crime After Crime: The killer mentions that he hadn't entered Gail's apartment intending to kill her. He had intended to rape her but she fought back. Potentially in the struggle, she took off the blindfold and she saw his face, which is why he killed her.
- Dumb Blonde: Carl's girlfriend is a blonde who doesn't like to read, but also doesn't like people telling her she's not smart. Carl is with her purely for physical reasons and does not love her. He tries to make her more like the accomplished women he would rather be with by buying her books, but she has no interest.
- Has a Type: The detectives notice that all of the rapist's victims were intelligent and accomplished young women—art students, music students, etc., whom he'd stalk after they left places like the museum or library, and suspect that he was either jealous of them or acting out a fantasy of dating them.
- Incriminating Indifference: Why Vera became suspicious of Bruce—his rude attitude and refusal to help, while not illegal, is completely the opposite of what one would expect from a grieving boyfriend.
- It's All About Me: It turns out that the reason Bruce didn't want his DNA tested is because it would have revealed that he wasn't sleeping with Gail, apparently finding protecting his reputation more important than finding his girlfriend's killer.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Vera's made out to be a bully for his treatment of Gail's boyfriend, but he presented some very legitimate reasons for suspecting him.
- Locked Room Mystery: Gail's death. The neighbor reports that no one else had entered or left her locked room (other than her boyfriend) the night of her death. The windows were barred.
- Lower-Class Lout: Carl and his girlfriend. They don't read much. Carl grew up in a trailer and his mother was illiterate while his sister was arrested for prostitution. He deeply resents being surrounded by such women his entire life, and his attacks are meant to be part of his fantasy that he is dating these intelligent women.
- Motive = Conclusive Evidence: They don't really show finding any damning evidence against the killer. However, he does break down and confess straight after being confronted with a motive. It can be assumed that because the killer left a lot of DNA evidence at each scene, finding someone with a motive should only be one step away from arresting him and obtaining a DNA sample. Therefore, there is no point in the killer trying to deny it.
- Perp Walk: At the end.
- Serial Rapist: The killer kills only once, but rapes multiple times.
- That One Case: This case was this for Vera in 1998, before the criminal disappeared for 5 years.
