Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast 234: Serial Killer David Meirhofer & the Birth of FBI Profiling w/ Ron Franscell - A True Crime History Podcast
Mar 3, 2022
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Campground Abduction That Sparked The Case
- The Jaeger family awoke to find their daughter Suzie missing from a tent with a ripped seam in June 1973.
- The sheriff called the FBI and thousands searched the area but initially found no leads or witnesses.
Origins Of FBI Criminal Profiling
- FBI agents Howard Teten and Patrick Mullany applied behavioral analysis as a method to narrow suspects in puzzling crimes.
- They treated the Jaeger/Smolligan cases as a low-risk test to create what became the FBI's first criminal profile.
How Early Profiles Narrow Suspects
- The first profile listed 15–20 elements, deducing a likely white male in his twenties with possible military experience and local knowledge.
- Profilers combined experience, logic, and informed guesswork to give investigators a focused starting point.