beauty queen murders/brendaParsh

 Author's note about serial murders, it seems that it is not uncommon at all for serial murderers to choose women who look very similar or very beautiful.  I wonder why that is.  Perhaps for some reason or other these men have gone their whole lives being rejected by beautiful or wealthy women.

Investigation Discovery/Beauty Queen Murders

Brenda decided to try out for the Miss Watermelon Festival pageant in approximately 1968.  Despite having grown up in a small town, she was sophisticated and charismatic; wanted to move to the big city. 

She is very close to her mother Mary and won the Miss Watermelon contest.

In 1974 she graduates college she got her dream job immediately as a fashion buyer she has a boyfriend he wants to be an actorbut did not achieve the success that she did.

In 1977 in the summertime, her dad fell ill so she had no choice but to go back to her small town.  (Her situation reminds me that even if I did have the money to fly back to attend my own father's funeral I knew that if I did it would highly jeopardize my ability to graduate in May 1993 with a bachelors in social work.)

Tragically, Brenda and her mother are immediately ambushed by a killer in the family home.
The killer tied their hands behind their backs and they were shot point blank in the head/ execution style.

Obviously the boyfriend I think his name is Rick was the first suspect.  Police stated that he had an alibi but beings he was with his family the alibi was considered very weak.  Eventually however Rick was cleare

There was a rumor that a cop had been seen in the area about the time of the murders this was heavily investigated and it really looked as if a cop might have been the family's killer.  There were about 5 more murders in the region and they were all done in the similar way, the killer covered his tracks like an expert.   One of the victims was in her mid 60 s. Initially it appeared that the killer was choosing women who look similar to each other

A trucker name Rickets was investigated because he was traveling through the area at the time of the killings and he did have a criminal history but he was ruled out. Remember at this time in history you couldn't do DNA testing all you could do was check the perpetrator's blood type.

November 17th 1977 another female body is found she looks similar to Brenda well actually she was killed in the same way that Brenda and her mother were; the same kind of  gun.  The next victim is  Sheila Cole. Author's note I'm sure I would have been terrified if I were living in Girardot at the time of these killings!

And it must have been horrible to be afraid of the cops, I know what thats like and I know what it's like to have to interact with cops that are terrifying and seem to enjoy belittling you. The word is cops By approximately the fifth killing the  perpetrator cut his hand on the glass when he was breaking through the window;  allowing cops years later to test dna.

Suddenly the killing spree stopped and the cases went cold for 20 years! A new officer reviews the cases.  now a DNA profile  is compiled and they have a match with a perpetrator who has been arrested in Illinois named Timothy KrIjor.

K.  was arrested in Carbondale Illinois for an assault.  they made a link and discovered that he was indeed the one who had killed Brenda and Mary and the others in Missouri.

Author s note these true crime stories make me  think / wonder would it have been better if my life had been cut short at age 30 instead of having to suffer through poverty and homelessness for another two decades. But NO human in their right mind wants to be murdered!

Vicky Abernethy was the friend of Brenda's she has repeat dreams where she was asked to find the killer and not give up. It's too bad that they didn't catch Krijor until he was 63; I wonder what his early life was like and what turned him into a monster.