In July 2006, the Valley was dealing with two sets of serial killers. One, the Baseline Killer was targeting and raping women in south Phoenix. The other, the Serial Shooters, were randomly shooting pedestrians in the east Phoenix area.
Because of the danger and tension gripping the Valley, Phoenix police, along with Silent Witness, set up tip lines and asked the public to help find these serial killers. On the witness stand this morning, Phoenix police detective Clark Schwartzkopf said that some 2,000 calls came in during a single two-day period in mid July.
Because of this, “there were a lot of mix ups between task forces,” Schwartzkopf said. Some of the tips intended for the Baseline Killer case were being routed to the Serial Shooter investigators and vice versa.
On top of it, there were a lot of off-the-wall calls that weren’t helping. “I had one person call and say they thought it was the Zodiac Killer, the infamous Bay Area serial killer,” the detective testified. “I had psychics. I had people with crystal balls. I had all kinds of people calling in to tell me who they thought it was.”
