Trace Evidence Paperback – August 21, 2013

I bought this book for my Kindle about five days ago, and although I am in the process of moving from one house to our new house, and I found myself wanting to sit down and read more of this book!The book starts out with the killer's childhood, and it's a brief but incredibly informative look at what the killer did as a teen. Chilling insight.Roger Kibbe is one of the most disgusting people I have read about, and I have read about other serial killers. His crimes were so awful, and he was so evil and patient and cruel; I just could not imagine what went through this monster's mind. To top it off, the murderer's BROTHER was a Homicide Detective! I disliked the brother as well; he HAD to know. He was giving his brother advice as to how to deal with the police, so the killer had an edge!The tenacity of all the detectives and crime scene analysts, trace evidence experts, etc,, well, I cannot say enough good things about them. Without these caring people, the crimes would never have been solved.It is disturbing to know how political it is with law enforcement, and don't even get me STARTED with the FBI. They were worse than useless in this case, as they have been known to be in many cases. Example: the FBI KNEW who the Unibomber was. Had the Unibomber not sent his "manifesto" for his BROTHER to read, who knows how long he would have gone on?Back to the murders in the Sacramento area, the killer did his henious deeds in one county, dumped the body in an other county, sometimes driving 100 miles to dump the bodies. He knew that the police departments can get "territorial" and not share information. I am a Homicide Detective's daughter, and when I think what my Dad saw and had to deal with, and then, have someone tell him it was "not his case anymore"; it's infuriating. It would have helped so much if all the departments had worked together and created a TRUE task force, instead of the one the Detective's had to try and work with. "Jane Does" were lying in places, even buried, when the person had been reported missing ages ago! Who knows how many people Roger Kibbe murdered? Many more than he was charged with, that is a fact. The killer was married, to an annoying and bossy, yet pathetic woman. Her self esteem had to be so low, or she is such a delusional person, that she did not see the thing she had married. Harriet (his wife) is NOT a sympathetic person. I believe SHE should have been arrested as an accessory to murder after what she did. (I'd write what she did, but I don't want to spoil the book for you). Kibbe was a quiet, non confrontational man, who stuttered when he lied. He looked like ANYBODY, and he was very intelligent. One of his victims got away, and she described what he was STARTING to do; her story sent chills down my spine. His voice "switched" so quickly she wondered if she was with the same person! My God, she was lucky.Although I am happy that this monster is never going to see the light of day outside of prison, and that he is in Level 4, and "misses his arts and crafts" (oh boo hoo), the last sentence of the book was...............well, it was one of those "oh my God" moments.Wonderfully researched and written, (I plan to read more books by this author), I could not recommend this book more highly.

This book is truly a real life horror story. Most of the details are difficult to read about. And the reality that heartless and cruel killers exist in our world surely reinforces the importance of being cautious. The detectives responsible for capturing this monster are to be commended and their determination is what makes them heroes. Very well written, the book was difficult to put down.

Fantastic book! Bruce Henderson is a gifted and talented writer; his book "Trace Evidence: The Hunt For The I-5 Serial Killer" is about the police and forensic investigations into the brutal serial murders of young women in Northern California, committed by Roger Kibbe, beginning around 1977 until his arrest in 1987. Although I'm a California native as well as a huge fan of true crime books, I had never heard of this case before. It was chilling to read about Kibbe's sneaky, wily ways as he hunted girls and young women along the I-5 near Sacramento and San Joaquin County. What made him even scarier was his creepy-quiet, Caspar Milquetoast persona during his day-to-day life - yet he showed his true colors as a cold, roughly violent, and homicidal misogynist when he committed these murders, hell-bent on destroying women's lives - and breaking their parents' hearts - in the worst possible way. Thankfully, he'll never be paroled. Fast-paced, with a fascinating glimpse into the science of forensic trace evidence, this is one of the better true crimes books you will read.

This book is very long and tedious. It gives you a good view into the police side of serial murders. The story itself is pretty interesting as it shows you how the police went about connecting these murders. About halfway through the book it becomes pretty obvious who the murderer is and it leaves you feeling a little powerless. All in all, the book read more like a news report than a true crime novel.Grade: B-

Bruce does an excellent job explaining everything that transpired before the murders during and after. It’s an easy read and the research he has done is phenomenal. You will be captivated by this book and you won’t be able to put it down. The forensic files episode “Knot for everyone” gives you a quick view of the serial killer Roger Kibbe. Bruce Henderson goes into more detail about the investigators, the actual crimes themselves, and how Kibbe was apprehended. Also he’ll go into detail about problems that multiple law-enforcement agencies face when they work together.

This story is about the I-5 CA killer. As a reader we become frustrated because of the jurisdictional issues that the lawmen were up against. The killer kills again and again. What the detectives have as evidence is not enough to charge the killer although they are sure he is the killer. So he goes on a kills again and again. How did they finally catch him?? That is the reason for this book. Very interesting reading but frustrating along with the police being frustrated in that they cannot charge the killer with their evidence.

A brilliant in-depth investigation into the elusive I-5 strangler(not to be confused with the I-5 killer Randy Woodfield).Roger Kibbe,a mild mannered husband and brother to a murder detective ,hid his true persona well.His deep hatred of women ,dating back to his unloving relationship with an abusive mother,resulted in a serial killing spree that began in the eighties.However cops still today dont know really how many bodies could be out there,victims of this cruel ,twisted individual.

If you like CSI type shows, you will love this book. If you like a thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat, you will love this book. If you like true crime, you will love this book. A fascinating look at a case that hinged on trace evidence and 'trace trace' evidence and into the baffling mind of a serial killer.

This was a very comprehensive and interesting book about the I-5 killer prolific in the 1980s mainly. He's not one I've heard of before.What comes across well are the police and investigative personnel in this account and the great job a lot of them did in bringing him to justice. Even decades after they persisted in wanting his prosecution for other girls he'd killed since he was only prosecuted for the one case which really wasn't good enough but seems the best way these days a lot of the time to ensure at least he's banged up and off the streets. Ray Biondi, Vito Bertocchini, Kay Maulsby, Fay Springer, Jim Streeter, Pete Rosenquist and Stan Reed-all of them did terrific jobs. It was a shame the killer's cop brother lost his career as well thanks to his sibling's calling in life.It was good too that in a couple of the cases the girls' families were lucky enough that the police started investigating right away instead of waiting on that obligatory 48 hours. Their families KNEW those girls better than anybody after all. It should really always be the case.I was so mad to read in the first case that the girl he first took was only where she was because nobody had maintained the roadside signage and it was covered by foliage and therefore she ended up taking a wrong turn. It is upsetting to think how consequences can occur when something like this gets overlooked.Something I found quite fascinating was the killer being stopped on a traffic violation.....reminiscent of Peter Sutcliffe and Ted Bundy as well. It's often the little things. I had hoped that the victim that got away Debra Guffie would do well and get off drugs. The author said she'd dropped out of sight. I looked online and she is in Oregon now but sadly still not clean according to what I read. Such a shame as she was a bright lady and also a very helpful witness indeed. Unlike the killer's extremely unhelpful wife. Just as well nobody she gave a stuff about ever got hurt the way she helped destroy evidence. Disgusting behaviour.The author had an odd way of writing NewYork as one word. I've never seen it put down on paper like this ! Oh, and he spelt slough as sluff which was a big old ouch. Same for "a extensive criminal record" as opposed to AN.However, they were pretty much all the errors I spotted. Very well researched indeed.

Interesting pity it was not fiction but it did happen so sad for the victims and their families some children left without a mother Kibbe is an evil psychopath hope they kill him in prison by castration with no Anesthetic. He's a coward.

I was completely absorbed by this book from the first page - no theories of his own put forward by the (very talented) author just plain, hard facts concerning the case but enormous empathy for the victims families. Extremely well written and did not want to finish it!