Many people assume serial killers strike at random, but new research suggests some offenders may narrow down potential targets in advance using particular criteria.
According to specialists, there may be an explanation for why infamous killers such as Ted Bundy and Ed Kemper appeared to gravitate toward certain women: in some cases, their victims resembled their mothers.
The study indicates that some murderers may choose women with facial similarities to their mothers, potentially linked to traumatic experiences earlier in life.
Previous research has highlighted that several of Bundy’s victims reportedly shared traits with his mother, Louise, and with his first serious girlfriend. Kemper, meanwhile, is known to have acknowledged seeking out women who reminded him of his mother.
“Studies have shown that features of the victimology such as age, sex, class and elements of physical appearance do influence an offender’s choice of victim,” researchers wrote.
“It is also common…that many serial killers seek out victims with similar physical characteristics to an opposite-sex parent or close family member who inflicted childhood trauma.
“This has been noted in criminal cases wherein offenders will seek out those who represent a previous person who has wronged or hurt them,” they noted in the The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles.
At Murdoch University, scientists have created a forensic intelligence tool designed to detect “subtle facial geometry” shared across victims—something they say could assist police when reviewing cold cases.
The team says the software allows faces to be compared more consistently by examining measurements taken from photographs, such as the positioning of the eyes, chin, and nose.
That approach could shed light on Bundy’s pattern of targeting women with long hair parted down the middle—an appearance associated with his mother during his childhood.
Experts suggest that focusing on such a specific “type” may be connected to earlier psychological distress. Bundy was allegedly raised thinking his mother was his sister and later learned the truth as a teenager.
From February 1974 to February 1978, Bundy murdered at least 30 women, and investigators have long suspected he may have been responsible for additional deaths across the US.
“Theodore Bundy has been reported as having a proclivity for a particular hair colour (brunette victims), notably with their hair parted in the middle,” researchers wrote.
Kemper—often referred to as the “Co-ed killer”—also spoke about intentionally selecting female college students who he felt resembled his mother, with whom he had a reportedly abusive relationship.
His last two victims were his mother and her friend, both killed in 1973, after which he went to police, turned himself in, and confessed.