Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Today in History - 13 April 1984

Mass Murderer Wilder commits suicide


Christopher Wilder dies after a month-long crime spree involving at 11 young women who have disappeared or been killed. Police in New Hampshire attempted to apprehend Wilder, who was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List, but Wilder apparently shot himself to death in a scuffle with state troopers to avoid capture.
Australian-born Wilder was a wealthy race-car driver who lived in an estate in Boynton Beach, Florida.


Authorities believe that Wilder began his kidnapping, rape, and murder spree on February 26 when Rosario Gonzales, a part-time model, disappeared. A week later, on March 5, Elizabeth Kenyon of Coral Gables also disappeared. When a private detective began looking into Kenyon's disappearance and interviewed Wilder, he suspected the man's involvement. However, before police could look any further into the matter, Wilder disappeared.

For a month, Wilder traveled across the country finding new victims. His typical method was to approach attractive young women in shopping malls with offers of modeling jobs.

After Wilder's death, the parents of Rosario Gonzales went to Wilder's estate to see if their missing daughter was buried there. Police arrested four members of the Gonzales family for trespassing. Later, the families of the victims filed claims totaling $50 million against Wilder's estate.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

my girlfriend and i-who lived in Lockport, ny in april 1984, were the last two women i believe, to talk to Christopher Wilder, and live, as he was passing through NY.
We were holding a yard sale on Niagara St., Lockport-just two blocks from Kenyon's Variety store-owned by Elizabeth's parents. Wilder stopped and gave us his business card, looking to do a "portfolio" on us. Told us he was friends with Elizabeth and her family-and had stopped there. We had no car available and had our two toddlers running around, and i was married, and we told him "Thanks, but no thanks"! He was very cool and casual and polite, no pressure on us in any way. Said to pass his card along if we knew of anyone who might be interested. 3 days later he was dead. We had no idea at the time who we were talking to,an FBI wanted killer of women. For a long time afterward-both of us girls had some shivers and nightmares on that meeting-realizing how lucky we were!