FBI SEEKS SIMILARITIES IN WOMAN'S KILLING, OTHERS

PERU, Ill. -- The FBI is looking into possible connections between unsolved homicides nationwide and the slaying of a Kennewick, Wash., woman.

Richard G. Meyer of Scott City, Mo., is accused of killing the woman.

Details of the crime have been given to the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program in Quantico, Va., which will look for matching patterns from other homicides, law enforcement officials said.

Until he was charged with murder, Meyer's criminal record was limited to one incident. The 42-year-old construction worker was arrested for driving while intoxicated last year.

Meyer was charged Tuesday with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of concealing a homicide and one count of criminal damage to property in connection with the July 11 death of Ernestina M. Hinojosa, 43.

Meyer is accused of stabbing Hinojosa to death in a Peru motel room where he had lived while working on a pipeline trench project.

Police have said Meyer told of dismembering Hinojosa's body before putting the remains into three coolers and dumping them in a cornfield five minutes from his motel.

Peru Police Chief Glenn Fredrickson said his department has received numerous calls from different states inquiring about the slaying, the Daily Times of Ottawa, Ill., reported. Callers have mentioned unsolved homicides in their own areas involving women who were decapitated, Fredrickson said.

The FBI's VICAP program looks at both solved and unsolved homicides that involve abduction, randomness, a sexual motive, or the possibility of being part of a series, said Gary Fuhr, an FBI spokesman.

FBI agents examine the data for similarities in how a person was killed and who the possible suspect might be, Fuhr said. "The information gets very specific," he said. "It can lead profilers to determine the type of car driven, the murderer's type of work."

The more evidence that is provided to profilers, the easier it becomes to draw conclusions, Fuhr said.

Meyer is scheduled to appear in a LaSalle County, Ill., court Friday. He will be represented by Dan Bute, lead attorney for the Illinois public defender's office in LaSalle County.

The decision of whether the death penalty will be sought has been waived, said Michael James, LaSalle County state's attorney. James' term as a prosecutor will end next year, he said, since he lost a primary election in March.

"The trial will be sometime after December," James said. "I decided to leave this for the next prosecutor."

James did decide to charge Meyer with two counts of first-degree murder. The first charge alleges that Meyer stabbed Hinojosa with the intent to kill her. The second charge suggests Meyer was aware that by stabbing Hinojosa he could kill her.

"These charges give an alternative to a jury," James said. "If they don't accept argument 1, perhaps they'll take argument 2."

Police had few leads in the killing until Monday, when Meyer was arrested in Rock Island, Ill., after he was found by police lying on a sidewalk with facial injuries. The police found that Meyer had a warrant for criminal damage to property stemming from the discovery of a hacksaw, knife, and a large amount of blood in Meyer's motel room.

Meyer is being held on a $2 million bond.