Chapter 2: To the Road Less Traveled
While, they were driving in the car, Sam was flipping through Stacy's file, before heading to the mother office, iStahar Clinic, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Sam knew already what he would find.
It was the same with the other victim's. All seven were women, who had difficulties with getting or staying pregnant, and were either alone or had little or no relatives or friends. They were able to get pregnant through the clinic and during their third trimester, they were murdered. Somehow, their children were removed from their stomach.
Their deaths were all the same: blood drained, stomach sliced opened, baby removed, but womb was still intact. No signs of struggle or trauma besides the obvious gaping hole in their middle and their organs arrange in a neat pile beside the body.
Police reports say the crime scene had no other suspicious traces of blood except for the victim's and was clear of any incriminating evidence. Their blood was found on their hands and under the pile of organs. It brought about the assumption that the victims were, either, alive during the draining of their blood or the dissection, to remove the baby.
If so then why hadn't the mothers called out for help or at least cried out from the pain?
Damn it if it didn't hurt, because there weren't any toxins found, in the little blood that was left. Their blood was cleaned of any anesthetics or paralysis. Also, there was no bruising on their hands, feet or mouth to say the victims were restrained.
So, why hadn't they called out for help or at least fought their attackers?
This all caught Bobby's attention. There wasn't much blood in the body or around the body to imply a struggle or that the body was brought back to where the victims where found. The women were always placed out in the open where they could easily be found. The last time anyone ever saw them was when they came out of the clinic to visit friends and families. They were murdered before or after the appointed times.
Witnesses remembered, Stacy leaving the restaurant and heading into the alley. They didn't hear Stacy screamed or cried out for help. Only, Stacy's friend, Hennessey, scream was heard, when she came out looking for Stacy and found her dead.
Three nights ago they had interviewed the friend, but she refused to talk or she couldn't. Hennessey (Dean grinning at the name) hadn't seen Stacy, since she started going to the clinic and had gotten pregnant. Stacy would call from the clinic, but it was only after her eight month, was she allowed to leave. The clinic was afraid that something might happen to her and her baby.
Sam had felt fed up and frustrated, after. There was nothing, much to go on and it left the trail cold.
There was no reason, to take these women? So, why even take their babies?
The crime photos were always the same. The women were fully dressed with the pile of organs beside them, starting from big too small. It reminded him, sickly of the toy pyramid, with its rainbow colored circles stacked on top of each other.
Who could have done such a thing? Who was capable of pulling it off?
Bobby made an interesting speculation, surrounding the blood on the hands, that the women did it to themselves. That was impossible because of the 'no-blood' factor. They had to be already dead because of the blood loss or at least in pain.
If she was possessed then it would make sense, because of the disposition of the cut on the torso. Like the others, Stacy was right handed. The cut was made by someone, who was left handed.
The police believed a serial killer(s) or an organization, which either killed pregnant women and their babies, or they killed pregnant women for their babies, that were the culprits behind the murders.
The frequency of the murders was what tipped Bobby off to the case. It was the fourth time that a series of these deaths occurred. Each time, it would happen in a different city and state within the last two months.
It was hard to keep track of the murders. They hardly made head line news and after eight pregnant women were killed. The culprit skipped town to move on to another. All murders were in connection to the iStahar Clinic.