copycat killer targeting prostitutes in Edmonton

copycat killer targeting prostitutes in Edmonton. It's one way to explain the discovery Thursday of another slain prostitute in Strathcona County, a top serial killer expert told Sun Media. It came just days after the start of the Thomas Svekla murder trial. Charged with the second-degree murder of local prostitutes Theresa Innes and Rachel Quinney, Svekla told police he found Quinney's body near Fort Saskatchewan in 2004, not far from where cops found Innes's body in Svekla's sister's garage in 2006. Jack Levin, one of the foremost experts on serial killers and author and co-director of the Brudnick Center on Conflict and Violence at Northeastern University in Massachusetts, said the case of the most recent victim, Brianna Torvalson, is intriguing. Unlike most of the other 15 women found slain around the city in recent years, her body was left where it could be found quickly. Levin said that's a hallmark of a copycat killer in search of their own 15 minutes of fame. "I wouldn't be surprised to find more than one serial killer (working around Edmonton), but it's somewhat more likely that this is a copycat phenomenon, especially with (Torvalson's) killing coming so early in the (Svekla) trial.
"It's the ideal time to strike, when people are thinking about (slain prostitutes). The attraction is this element of irony, where the alleged killer is being tried yet new killings are being committed on the streets. "It's almost a taunting of law enforcement," he said. University of Alberta criminologist Kevin Haggerty said the publicity could encourage killers to use Strathcona County as a body dump. "Once an area gets a reputation as a safe dumping ground I don't think it's unusual that a new body should be found there. "Southeast Edmonton and Strathcona County have a reputation as a private place to take prostitutes. Continuing reputations like that generate their own outcomes." Haggerty expects police will continue to be overwhelmed by prostitute killings in Canada until laws governing the practice are changed. "What creates the problem is the law itself, which pushes it out into unsafe areas." Meanwhile, Torvalson's parents and sister issued a brief media statement yesterday saying she was a "loving, caring, beautiful, irreplaceable soul ... who struggled with many demons and a drug addiction that drew her to street life. "Brianna's murder has created a hole in all her family's life that can never be filled ..." the statement continues.
The family said they hope her death "serves as a reminder to all parents to never miss an opportunity to let their children know that they are loved and to never give up on those that are struggling." The statement did not include the names of the family members. Torvalson's former roommate, Patrick Wight, said he lost contact with her after she became "heavily involved with drugs."
"I would hear about her periodically, and every time worse than the last ... even her family had not heard from her in some time," he said.
"I knew her as a bright young girl with a (promising) future. It is a tragic ending that didn't need to be."