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By Brooks A. Mick, M.D.
Mar. 5, 2006 This is URBAN SAFETY PART DEUX. The old term was "caveat emptor," "let the buyer beware," which meant to check out the goods carefully before plunking down your money. After the examples of Natalee Holloway, Taylor Biehl, Julie Popovich, and dozens of young women over the past few years, one would think that they would learn that it is not wise to party too hard, drink too much, and lose judgment about safety precautions. Leaving parties with strangers is certainly inadvisable. Leaving a party alone after having too much to drink is also inadvisable. Heck, leaving a party alone sober isn't such a swift idea! Imette St. Guillen, 24 years old, a college student, pretty, was our on the town in New York City and was reportedly drinking too much, refused accompaniment, and disappeared, only to be found dead after suffering extreme torture. Her long hair was hacked off. She had apparently been bound, burned, raped, and perhaps suffocated while still conscious by having her nose and mouth wrapped in packing tape. It might be good for every mother and father in the world to call their daughters and read them some newspaper stories about this case. Young girls apparently still think the world is a safe place where they can behave like fools and everything will come out right. Have they never come up against evil before? Are they all liberals who think conservatism is the only evil in the world? The police are investigating the St. Guillen case, but so far there are no significant clues other than what one can surmise based on the simple facts of the kidnapping, torture, and death of a pretty young woman and meager associated evidence. Professor James Fox has written a book on serial killing. He has said that the manner in which St. Guillen, 24, was killed and repeatedly raped - her wrists and ankles bound, her signature long hair chopped off and her head wrapped in packing tape - suggests "unrestrained, cavalier cruelty and sadism." In other words, we have a really bad guy--or guys--out there and they are likely to do this again. A Boston paper has reported that a "toughened profiler of serial killers told the Herald she "can't think of being in a worse situation" than how St. Guillen met her fate." Pat Brown, founder of the Minneapolis-based Sexual Homicide Exchange, said "Sexual sadists like to spend a great deal of time with their victims. They have an absolute love of the bondage of the victim, the torture of the victim, watching their fear escalate." Brown and Fox agree that St. Guillen, apparently intoxicated and alone, might have been snatched off the streets of Manhattan by a team of killers, one making the grab from the sliding door of a van while the other kept the vehicle moving, so as not to attract attention. Brown speculates that cutting off St. Guillen's hair may have been done to humiliate her, and as an introduction to the torment to come. Or, the killer or killers might have wanted it as a trophy. The Natalee Holloway case remains unsolved, though many of us have suspicions. The Taylor Biehl case was solved because she was known to have been hanging out with the killer. The Julie Popovich murder has progressed to the indictment of a strong suspect with considerable evidence because she was seen talking to him earlier at a bar. (I have posted extensively on these cases on this site if you wish to review.) But the case of Imette St. Guillen may be harder to crack. There is no significant evidence according to police sources. No fiber found on the packing tape or the body. No fingerprints found. No evidence of any sort other than the body itself and the evidence of binding and torture and mutilation. If the killer or killers are randomly abducting young women--and it is highly likely there will be more--then there will be no link to the victim and the killers may, as in the case of the Hillside Stranglers in Los Angeles, go a long time before they are caught, and may kill many times. If you are a young woman, don't drink too much, don't leave a party or bar alone, and read my piece on this site about "Urban Safety." Stay alert as you walk or travel. You think you are being followed, DO NOT GO HOME AND LEAD THEM TO WHERE YOU LIVE. Once they know that, they can lay in wait for you later, or they can break into your house or apartment. Go to a store or restaurant if one is nearby and open. If you take a taxi alone and the driver heads off on darkened, deserted streets instead of toward your destination, call 911 on your cell phone and leave it on in your purse. If someone dressed like a policeman stops you and they are not in an official-looking car, be very suspicious and avoid going with them into dark areas or into their car or van. The Hillside Stranglers dressed like police at times to lure their victims to their deaths. Don't walk close by buildings; it's too easy to be grabbed and pulled into a dark doorway or alley. If a car, especially a van, pulls up beside you, run and scream, don't wait to be grabbed or to find out if it is someone asking for directions. If someone rolls down the window and asks for directions in a soft voice, don't move close to the car to ask them what they said, Run and scream! But most important, don't drink too much. If you are intoxicated, you will not be alert, you will not react quickly, and you won't remember what you should do. It is not necessary to be drunk to have fun. You can have fun if you are sober. You cannot have fun if you are dead. Natalee, Julie, Taylor, Imette...don't add your name to this list. ------------ About the author Brooks A. Mick: Physician, still practicing medicine but retired from the US Army. Write just for the fun of it, but working on novel in the vein of Tom Clancy's politico-military genre. Email: brooks15@cox.net Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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