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Convict suspected in womens’ murdersAssociated Press____MELBOURNE — A convict dubbed the “vampire rapist” might be leaving prison soon, and police and prosecutors are trying to link him to the murder and disappearance of several Florida women.John Crutchley, 48, who drained and drank blood from a 19-year-old woman he abducted in 1985, is serving a prison sentence for her kidnapping and rape. The woman survived the attack.Police say Crutchley has been a suspect in the slayings of three other women, but they have found no evidence linking him to those cases.Crutchley, a former engineer for Harris Corp., was sentenced in 1986 to 25 years in prison. He admitted giving a ride to a woman hitchhiker, imprisoning her in his Malabar home for two days, raping her and drawing blood from her with a syringe and then drinking it. The woman escaped when he left the house briefly.Because of gain time and prison policies, authorities say Crutchley could come up for parole from Union Correctional Institution within a year or two.Joe Mitchell, Crutchley’s lawyer in 1986, said Monday that after his client’s arrest, Crutchley offered to plead guilty to the murder of six young women in return for six consecutive life sentences •— a guarantee that Crutchley wouldn’t face death in Florida’s electric chair.“That deal was never accepted” by the state attorney’s office in Brevard County, Mitchell said. The lawyer said he was never given a reason.State Attorney Norm Wolfinger was reported to be traveling Monday and unable to return telephone messages. Wolfinger has acknowledged discussing a plea bargain with Mitchell but has refused to elaborate.Brevard County Sheriff Jake Miller said Monday he had “absolutely no knowledge of any such deal like that”But he said his investigators tried to link Crutchley to “every missing person, every dead body that we — even remotely — could connect him with.”Painstaking detective work eliminated all but three killings that could possibly be linked to Crutchley, the sheriff said. Two of the bodies have been identified and a third has not.But, Miller said, there is not enough evidence to charge Crutchley with any of those crimes.Those are “the three that we have reason to suspect him on but still do not have sufficient reason to charge him,” the sheriff said.The two identified murder victims are Kimberly Ann Walker, 21, of Vero Beach, and Patti Volansky, 29, of Titusville, the sheriff said.Ms. Walker’s father, Larry Walker, told Florida Today newspaper in Melbourne that he had suspected Crutchley for a long time.“I would like to talk with the man,” Walker said. “It’s hard to believe they suspect him of all these crimes and can’t get any proof.”Crutchley’s lawyer said his client became a murder suspect when investigators discovered drivers’ licenses and other identification from various women in his desk at work, following Crutchley’s arrest on the assault charge.Police could not prove any crimes had been committed because there were no bodies; most of the women had merely been reported missing. Some of their bodies have since been found and identified.“He didn’t confess to anything,” said Lt. Bill Thompson, who heads the Brevard County Sheriff’s criminal investigation division, “Crutchley never told us anything about any victims.”Mitchell, who has not represented Crutchley since 1986, said he doesn’t like the prospect of his former client’s release.“I don’t want to overly dramatize, but it’s a pretty frightening thought that a guy who’s a suspect in that many homicides ... may be out walking the streets again,” Mitchell said. “Wherever he goes, I think people have a right to be frightened.”
Newspaper Details
Panama City News Herald
Panama City, Florida, US
Tue, Apr 11, 1995
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Madyson L.
PA, USA 18 May 2021
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