DNA convicts Timothy Spencer as the Southside Strangler

With this episode being only the sixth overall in the entire series, the season one hallmarks were still apparent. The supers (A video "super" is any text or graphic that appears on screen. Super is abbreviated from superimposed.) were still the early/original style, and the framing of each interviewee was tight. Thankfully these episodes from the later 1990s were still 4:3 and not higher definition. Originally airing on Halloween in 1996, this episode already looked and flowed smoother than the series pilot, The Disappearance of Helle Crafts.

Reggie Tucker, the grieving husband of the late Susan Tucker, gave a heart-wrenching interview. His grief was still palpable nearly ten years after his wife's murder. Joe Horgas came across as the no-nonsense detective that he was known to be. Paul Mones spoke with the normal prose one might expect from an author, but I think his interview added to the episode's narrative. I'm consistently surprised that the authors' books about various Forensic Files' cases aren't more popular – at least if Amazon's quantity of ratings is a reliable indicator.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Another surprising anecdote was where evidence at the Susan Tucker crime scene was recovered from. Police collected the sheets, a nightgown, and a large sleeping bag that covered the victim. They also found head and pubic hairs around the bedding and in the bathroom sink. But additional hair evidence was found on a washcloth, outside on the clothesline. Why had Timothy Spencer bothered to hang a used washcloth on the line, outside?

Timothy Spencer's victims' timeline

Timothy Wilson Spencer began his life of crime early, having multiple convictions for burglary while still in his teens. It was interesting to note that Spencer had also set fire to his mother's car at one point – arson is frequently considered an early hallmark of a serial killer. At some point, Timothy Spencer's burglaries intensified and began to include rape and murder. There also seems to have been a degree of torture, considering how he left the majority of his known victims tied up. It was believed Spencer would use ligature strangulation to render his victims to near unconsciousness, only to revive them and repeat the process. Heinous.

His known victims cover a period of nearly four years, but the majority of Spencer's murders occurred within just a 10-week period in 1987:

• 1/25/1984: Carol Hamm, (32 years old): Arlington
• 9/19/1987: Debbie Davis, (35 years old): Richmond
• 10/3/1987: Susan Hellams (32 years old): Richmond
• 11/22/1987: Diane Cho (15 years old): Richmond
• 11/27/1987: Susan Tucker (44 years old): Arlington

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Recall that David Vasquez had been convicted for Carol Hamm's murder in 1985 and was already serving a 20-year sentence for second-degree murder. Vasquez was a 38-year-old who worked as a janitor and lived with his mother nearly 30 miles from Arlington. But two witnesses placed David Vasquez in the vicinity of Carol Hamm's home around the day she was killed. Arlington County detectives picked up Vasquez and questioned him a number of times, attempting to solicit a confession. This didn't take long; David Vasquez was reported to have an IQ near just 70.

It was DNA that linked Timothy Spencer to most of the 1987 murders, but the DNA evidence collected from the Carol Hamm crime scene was inconclusive. Despite this, the similarities to Spencer's other crimes were so numerous that Hamm's murder was reattributed to Timothy Spencer in 1988. On January 4, 1989, David Vasquez was granted an unconditional pardon. A year later, Vasquez was compensated the sum of $117,000 for his erroneous, five-year incarceration.

The timeline above was based on internet research. Our episode specifically indicated that the Diane Cho murder occurred "two weeks later" (after the Davis and Hellams homicides), but actually it was nearly seven weeks separating the killings. It's also notable that a mere five days elapsed between Cho's murder in Richmond and Susan Tucker's homicide 100 miles away in Arlington.

FBI profile of the Southside Strangler

In an attempt to assist police in Richmond and Arlington, the FBI's resources at Quantico were recruited. I didn't realize until I was studying the map between Richmond and Arlington, but Quantico lies between them, only about 35 miles south of Arlington on the Potomac River.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

R. Steven Mardigian was labelled "Special Agent, FBI" in his episode interview. But it should be known that R. Stephen Mardigian (also Steve Mardigian) is the President and CEO of The Academy Group, a private forensic behavioral science firm out of Manassas, Virginia. I'm not sure how active the firm has been of late, but in 2014, they listed half-a-dozen retired FBI profilers on staff, including Roy Hazelwood. Along with Robert Ressler and John Douglas, Hazelwood was an early pioneer of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit.

The profile provided for the Southside Strangler wasn't entirely surprising. I shared a commentary about this perception in the case of Stuart Knowlton's abduction of Cassie Hansen. I'm not sure the profile's observations narrowed the scope of potential suspects much – in fact, the presumption that the majority of serial murderers are Caucasian might've initially led investigators astray. The other unsurprising observations included:

• Between the ages of 18 and 30
• Was the quiet type / loner
• Held a menial Job
• Had a troubled relationship with his mother
• Began his crime spree with arson
• Lived or worked near where he'd committed his first crimes

A serial killer and a series of firsts

Forensic Files would go on to air another 394 episodes after this one (if you don't include the six 'special' episodes). The Timothy Spencer case was the first of only a few of the episodes that describe a serial killer, spree killer, or mass murderer. But with its focus on forensic evidence, Forensic Files wouldn't have missed the case where DNA was first used to convict a serial murderer in the United States. Spencer was also the first man executed in the U.S. based on DNA evidence.

Where is Timothy Spencer now in 2024?

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Timothy Wilson Spencer was convicted of the rape and murder of Susan Tucker. The jury sentenced Spencer to death on July 16, 1988. Next in Richmond, Spencer was again convicted on the same charges in the murder of Debbie Davis on September 22, 1988. Again, in January 1989, Timothy Spencer received another death sentence in the rape and murder case of Susan Hellams.

Over the next five years, Spencer and his attorneys filed multiple motions and appeals to have his sentences reduced and his convictions overturned. Though DNA was still a relatively new identification method in criminal trials, the United States Court of Appeal upheld the convictions, ruling the evidence and technology reliable. Spencer's final appeal in the Susan Tucker case was decided March 1, 1994. Timothy Wilson Spencer was executed in Virginia's electric chair on April 27, 1994. He gave no final statement and was pronounced dead at 11:13pm ET.