Hunted on Ice: The Search for Alaskan Serial Killer Robert Hansen (5 page)

“My God.” Glenn Flothe whispered, immediately remembering what John Douglas had said about some killers keeping a journal of their crimes. This wasn’t a diary, but studying the map, Flothe realized that it might be even better. The map appeared to be a guide to the murdered girl’s graves.

“Look at this.” One of the officers said to Flothe, dangling a thin silver chain in front of him. Flothe stared at the necklace, a small silver charm, shaped like a fish, twirling gently before his eyes. He had heard a lot about this piece of jewelry, had even seen pictures of it. It was Andrea Altiery’s custom-made fish necklace. Andrea had been missing for two years now, and her most prized possession had just been found in Robert Hansen’s attic.

Chapter Five

While Robert Hansen languished in a jail cell, District Attorney Victor Krumm decided not to charge the baker with murder just yet. He wanted to wait until he had the results from the ballistic tests being done on the suspected killer’s weapons. But Krumm did take what he had before the grand jury, and on November 3, 1983 they indicted Hansen on four counts; first degree assault and kidnapping, second degree theft, insurance fraud, and five counts of weapons violations. Hansen pled not guilty on all charges, and bail was set at $500,000.

No one came forward to bail the baker out, especially not his wife. Darla Hansen was living a virtual nightmare. She was stunned by her husband’s arrest, and even more so by the accusations that were being levied against him. She knew Bob had his problems, but she had no clue that he might be capable of the violence police were suggesting he had committed.

Now Darla felt like the entire city of Anchorage was blaming her too, whispering about her, staring and pointing. She was ashamed and embarrassed, and she ached for her children, who were being harassed and teased by the other kids at school. She avoided going out in public as much as possible, instead choosing to remain indoors, where she mourned her troubles and cursed her husband.

Meanwhile, all of Hansen’s weapons had been sent to the FBI crime lab in Washington DC, and on November 20
th
, they notified Alaska State Troopers that all of the shell casings found at the gravesites had been fired from Bob’s .223 Mini-14 rifle. There was no doubt now that Alaska had the serial killer they had been hunting for years.

The evidence against Robert Hansen was overwhelming, and both he and his attorney, Fred Dewey, knew it. Dewey told his client that prosecutors had more than enough evidence to convict him, and in all likelihood he would be convicted. In order to spare his wife and children any more pain and publicity, Bob Hansen reluctantly agreed to plead guilty.

On February 18, 1984, the admitted serial killer stood before Judge Ralph E. Moody and pled guilty to the murders or Eklutna Annie, Joanne Messina, Sherry Morrow, and Paula Golding. Judge Moody set a sentencing date for one week later.

Both Hansen and his attorney knew that this was just the beginning of the former baker’s legal troubles. The police had evidence implicating Bob in many of the other disappearances, and a suspected map that might lead them to their graves. New charges were bound to be filed against him, and if authorities discovered other bodies, even more charges after that. Bob Hansen, and his family, could be in the headlines for years and years to come. Dewey suggested that they try to work out a deal with the D.A., and Hansen reluctantly agreed.

On February 22, 1984, Robert Hansen signed a plea agreement before his attorney and District Attorney Victor Krumm. In exchange for a full confession, the D.A. promised Bob he would only be charged with the four cases he already pled guilty too. In addition, he would allow him to serve his time in a federal penitentiary rather than state prison. Hansen had insisted on this last part because he was worried about doing time in the state penitentiary. From his past experiences in jail, Bob knew that women killers are not viewed kindly by the inmate hierarchy, and if he were sent to the state pen, he would probably serve some very hard time.

Once all parties had agreed to the deal and signed the plea agreement, Robert Hansen, in chilling detail, began confessing to his crimes. He started out by insisting that he only visited prostitutes because there were some sexual pleasures he enjoyed, but didn’t feel he could ask his wife to perform. His disgust for the prostitutes was evident, while the implication that Darla was a ‘good’ girl, and the street whores were ‘dirty’, was clearly expressed.

Bob enjoyed picking up these girls, but he was loath to pay them for their services. Sometimes, he would simply rape the women, and if they cooperated fully, he would let them go. If they didn’t, well… Here he simply let the sentence trail off.

 He typically took the same course of action every time he got a girl into his vehicle. His first goal was to try and gain control, and often he would begin by grabbing the girls by the hair, pulling their heads back, and shoving a gun in their face. He needed to terrify them immediately, he explained, in order to insure their cooperation.

While still holding the barrel of the gun pressed against their face, Hansen said he would then proceed to give them a little speech.

 ‘Look, you work in a dangerous profession’, he would say, ‘you know there’s some risk to what you do. If you cooperate, and do exactly as I say, I won’t hurt you.’ He told the girls they should consider this a learning experience, and be more careful about who they went with next time.

He admitted that sometimes he would take them to his house first, if Darla wasn’t around and he had the opportunity, but more often than not he would drive directly to Merrill Field. There, he would fly the abducted women out to his remote cabin by the Knik River, and brutally rape and torture them until he had his fill.

Confirming what investigators had long suspected, Hansen went on to say that afterwards, he would strip them, sometimes blindfold them, sometimes handcuff them, and then set them free in the wilderness. He always allowed them a little time to get a head start, and then he would begin the hunt.

With little emotion, and a deadpan voice, he told those listening how he would then stalk the girls, hunting them, tracking them, until he found them and killed them. It was just like going after a ‘trophy Dahl sheep, or a grizzly bear’, he said.

The police were horrified, but silent, as they listened to the repulsive killer’s admissions. They couldn’t begin to imagine the absolute terror these poor girls had felt while they were being hunted and stalked like wild game. The investigators deeply regretted that Bob Hansen wasn’t eligible for the death penalty.

*********

Although Hansen and his attorney had feared that the aviation map would easily lead police to the other buried bodies, they need not have. Authorities knew it would be almost impossible to pinpoint any graves just from the markings on the map. So, on February 23, 1984, they took Robert Hansen up in a military helicopter and had him direct them to the spots where he had buried his victims.

At his direction, they flew out towards the Knik River, not far from where Paula Golding and Sherry Morrow had been found. The ground was completely frozen, and covered with a deep layer of snow. Investigators knew that any remains Hansen might point out now could not be recovered until spring. They would have to come back later to begin excavating the graves. But they marked each spot with an orange stake, and took the additional precaution of using orange spray paint to mark any nearby trees.

They then flew on to Jim Creek, in the Matanuska-Susitna area, and then veered the helicopter south, down towards Horseshoe, and Figure Eight Lakes.  By the end of the day, Robert Hansen had revealed the gravesites of 12 unknown victims. None were recovered that day, and it would be months before investigators knew whether the serial killer was telling the truth.

**********

On February 27, 1984, Robert Christian Hansen stood before Judge Ralph E. Moody to receive his punishment. Judge Moody sentenced Hansen to 461 years in prison, plus life without parole. Days later, the convicted killer was taken to the Anchorage International Airport and flown thousands of miles from his home. His plane touched down in the state of Pennsylvania, and he was driven directly to the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary to begin serving his time.

Two months later, when spring arrived in Alaska, authorities began the grim task of trying to locate the remains of Robert Hansen’s victims. On April 24, they recovered the body of Sue Luna, near the Knik River, and Malai Larsen in the parking area near the old Knik Bridge.

The next day they found DeLynn Frey, who was buried near Horseshoe Lake, and the following day, the body of Angela Feddern near Figure Eight Lake, and Teresa Watson, buried on the Kenai Peninsula.

Three days later, on April 29, 1984, they located the remains of Tamara Pederson one and a half miles from the old Knik Bridge.

The search was slow, tedious, and extremely difficult. In many of the locations that Hansen had pointed out, officers found nothing at all. But they didn’t think the killer was lying. It was more likely that wild animals had discovered the remains and carried them away.

But police refused to give up, and their persistence finally paid off on May 9
th
, when they discovered the body of Lisa Futrell buried in a shallow grave just south of the old Knik Bridge.

Of the twelve graves Bob Hansen led investigators to, police had recovered seven bodies. Eventually, they would find two more, Andrea Altiery, whose fish necklace had been found in Hansen’s attic, and a young female whose identity police were not able to discern. Four of the seventeen women Hansen is suspected of killing have never been found. They are:

Roxanne Easlund

Mary Thill

Megan Emerick, and

Celia, ‘Beth’ Van Zarten

Despite the fact that police could not find these last four suspected victims, they felt fortunate to have recovered as many bodies as they had. For they knew only too well that most corpses, be they animal or human, did not last long in the Alaskan wilderness.

Afterword

For two years after his conviction, Bob Hansen’s wife and children struggled to remain in Alaska, the state they considered their home. But the continual harassment never ceased, and in 1986, Darla Hansen divorced her husband and moved her family to the lower 48 states.

In 1988, Robert Hansen was returned to the state of Alaska and incarcerated as one of the first inmates at the brand new Spring Creek Correctional Center in Seward. He remains there today.

The record keepers at Pope & Young initially stated that Hansen’s conviction as a serial killer had nothing to do with his world record wins in trophy hunting. But after numerous complaints, and outrage from other hunters, they soon removed his name from their record books.

Eklutna Annie has never been identified, and on February 21, 2003, Alaska State Troopers once again asked the public for help in identifying her. They described her as a white brunette, with a possible mixture of American Indian or Asian heritage, aged somewhere in her early to mid-twenties. For the first time, they also released pictures of the jewelry found with the body, in the hopes that someone might recognize it. No one did. Her burial was paid for by the state of Alaska, and she is interred at the Anchorage Memorial Cemetery, where a small bronze plaque marks her grave.

Hansen told investigators that Eklutna Annie was his first victim, but he did not know or couldn’t remember her name. She was either a topless dancer or a prostitute, he said. He had abducted her with the intention of bringing her back to his house, but on the way the girl had tried to escape and in a panic he had killed her. He thought the woman had mentioned that her family lived in Kodiak, but he couldn’t be sure.

Alaskan authorities are still trying to identify Eklutna Annie, and would welcome any information about her or her identity from the general public. It is their belief that she might have come to Alaska from either Washington or California.

 While confessing to the murders, Robert Hansen also admitted to raping at least 30 other Alaskan women who he did not kill. Most of these assaults were never even reported. How many girls Hansen actually killed remains a mystery. He is officially attributed with 17 murders, but some estimates put it as high as 37.

There are three marks on Hansen’s aviation map, near the deep, icy waters of Resurrection Bay, two of which police believe are the gravesites of Megan Emerick and Mary Thill. Despite the fact that Hansen was in Seward on both of the days that Megan Emerick and Mary Hill vanished, he has denied any involvement in their disappearances. He has also refused to admit that these three markings near Resurrection Bay are burial sites.

Police, however, do not believe him. It is their opinion that these were Hansen’s first kills, and his preferred type of victim. But Bob Hansen was no Ted Bundy who could charm beautiful college co-eds into his vehicle. He was ugly, nerdy, and sounded like the stuttering cartoon character, Porky Pig, whenever he spoke. It seems unlikely that any young females, other than those looking to make money off of him, would have accompanied him willingly.

State Trooper Glenn Flothe would later say, “He tried to make us think that he had some kind of moral code. But the reality was that these street girls and the girls in the bars were easier victims.”

What propelled Bob Hansen to become a horrific serial killer remains a mystery, but many people believe it began with a short story published way back in 1924. At that time, Richard Connell wrote a book entitled
The Most Dangerous Game
. The story was about a big-game hunter named General Zaroff, who owned an uninhabited island surrounded by jagged and dangerous rocks. Instead of marking these rocks to warn passing ships, Zaroff was content to let the vessels plow into them, damaging their hulls, and sinking them to the bottom of the freezing depths.

General Zaroff welcomed these shipwrecked souls to his island because he had become bored with hunting tigers and leopards and elephants. Just as a drug addict constantly needs a bigger and better high to sustain his addiction, Zaroff needed a more intelligent and challenging animal to hunt. And, just like Bob Hansen, General Zaroff would let these castaways loose on his island, then stalk them, track them, and hunt them down to kill them.