CHAPTER 443: CHAPTER 272 THE LAS VEGAS SERIAL MURDER-DUMPING CASE_1

"In September 1988, in the suburbs of Los Santos, on Joker Road, 13 women of varying ages disappeared without a trace within half a month. No clues were found. The investigating officer suspected a passing circus troupe might be involved. An investigation was conducted, but nothing unusual was discovered."

"After the disappearances had ceased for a month, the detective in charge decided to suspend the investigation."

This case had no apparent causes or consequences; it was simply a series of sudden disappearances of women in a specific location during a particular timeframe.

The missing persons ranged in age from over fifty to as young as thirteen.

Beyond that, the missing women had no clear commonalities in occupation or other aspects. Their places of disappearance were scattered all over Joker Road. Furthermore, the times they vanished varied widely, offering no valuable patterns.

No... that wasn’t entirely true. All the women had been alone before they disappeared, and all were near the Joker Mile section of the road.

This was the only common thread in the case.

Dean’s fingers rapidly tapped away on the keyboard until he finally brought up information about Joker Road.

It was a suburban road, 23 kilometers long, that passed through three towns, two forests, and one cornfield. It connected to the city, so traffic generally consisted of local residents or commuters.

In such areas, students were typically picked up and dropped off by school buses.

So, how did the perpetrator, or perpetrators, choose their targets?

Moreover, the number 13 is considered special throughout the West.

This stems from medieval Europe.

This is partly a reference to Christian beliefs. Jesus’s Last Supper had 13 attendees, including the betrayer. Consequently, the number is considered ominous and associated with betrayal and death.

Furthermore, the number 13 was deemed by people from that era to be the devil’s number, related to witchcraft and evil.

Many movies and TV shows reveal that people in the West have a particular aversion to the number 13. Some apartment buildings even omit a 13th floor entirely.

Therefore, Dean speculated that this case might be related to cult crimes, such as sacrifices or summoning demons.

This was getting interesting.

Because such cases often followed a distinct pattern: they were frequently group-related.

What did this entail?

It meant that these types of cases often occurred within a specific, fixed group, such as the residents of a particular area, members of a certain profession, or a specific organization.

These groups would have their own spiritual beliefs and regular collective activities. When committing crimes, they would cooperate closely and maintain strict secrecy. Often, they used other identities as cover. Sometimes, the crimes even involved the collective participation of an entire village or town.

So unless a survivor managed to escape and report it, these crimes were hard to expose.

Given that the case had reached the FBI and that all the victims were residents of the three towns near the highway, it was highly unlikely that a local was the perpetrator.

Dean thought for a moment and turned his attention back to the file, specifically the part about the circus.

In this region, itinerant circuses often traveled between continents, performing shows. They led lives that weren’t particularly affluent and also had a less-than-stellar reputation.

Their arrival was often accompanied by a rise in theft, prostitution, robbery, illicit affairs, and other such incidents.

The problem was, the file detailed the thorough investigation conducted by the original detective.

Ostensibly, this circus—the prime suspect—had no opportunity to commit the crimes. Furthermore, before the detective even arrived, the families of the missing women had already turned the circus upside down, clearing it of suspicion.

Dean could question the professionalism of the original investigating detective, but he would never doubt the combat prowess of Los Santos residents.

That place was notorious throughout the United States as a capital of crime.

Let’s just say this:

You might be walking down the street with a pink phone, and a young gang member might shoot you full of holes for no reason, then casually talk about it as if it’s nothing.

Furthermore, many households there had one or more members with gang affiliations.

So, if that circus had aroused even the slightest suspicion, its members absolutely would not have escaped unscathed.

This gave Dean a headache.

Simply examining the files didn’t give him any direction for cracking the case.

The only thing that still seemed suspicious to him was that small circus.

But now, a full 13 years had passed since the incident.

Even if the file contained details of every member of that small circus, tracking down these itinerant individuals after thirteen years, without a unified, cross-continental registry in the United States Federation, would be a daunting, life-draining task.

Dean suspected that merely locating these people would consume an enormous amount of time.

This was not in line with his need to solve cases quickly and gain Experience Points.

So... this case could take a hike!

After some thought, Dean didn’t delve further into that particular case. Instead, he began to categorize all the cases according to his needs.

His first criterion was region. The cold cases he was examining spanned all the states and counties of the United States Federation.

If he chose a case at random to investigate, even if he solved it, he might not find another suitable case in the same area.

This would mean consuming a lot of time in transit.

Therefore, he decided it was better to select a region first.

He was currently at an outdoor training camp more than a hundred kilometers from downtown Los Angeles.