The Trawler’s Escalating Campaign

The Trawler’s conflict with Los Angeles and its residents develops from covert intrusions into a staged campaign of abduction, murder, intimidation, and deliberate misdirection.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

A Pattern of Missing Animals

The Threat Takes Shape Early Intrusions A sequence of home invasions begins around the San Fernando Valley. Witnesses describe a masked intruder and unexplained disturbances, but the incidents appear scattered and do not yet reveal a clear target or purpose. The Animals Disappear Pets vanish before some attacks, sometimes across an entire neighborhood. The repeated losses create an invisible warning system, though residents do not know how to read it. The Trawler is already shaping fear through preparation: the crime begins before anyone recognizes that a crime is coming.

The First Victims and the Unseen Stalker

Abduction Replaces Intrusion Katherine Latchford Katherine disappears after the Trawler has allegedly made silent calls, entered her home, and left warning signs. Her body is discovered later, and the concealed violence of the killing becomes an early marker of a criminal pattern that authorities do not yet understand. Sarah Johnson Sarah vanishes after leaving a party and stopping near a record store. Her disappearance repeats the pattern of missing pets, strange calls, and unexplained changes around a victim’s home. The Trawler’s conflict with the city is no longer limited to trespass: people are being taken, while the clues that might expose the killer remain scattered and deniable.

A Body Displayed in Public

The Trawler Claims Attention Julie Selwyn’s Discovery Julie’s body is found at Shadow Ranch Park, arranged in a way that makes discovery part of the crime. The placement breaks the distance between the killer’s private rituals and the public’s ordinary spaces. A Killer Named Reports connect Julie to earlier victims and the Los Angeles Police Department’s private nickname, The Trawler, becomes public. The growing attention does not immediately protect anyone: the revelations arrive after the attacks, and the killer’s staged presentation keeps turning investigation into an audience for his work.

Audrey’s Disappearance and the Letter

The Killer Shapes the Investigation A Fourth Missing Girl Audrey disappears from a shopping-center parking lot after telling friends she wants to go home. Reports of calls and a record poster strengthen suspicion that her disappearance belongs to the same sequence, but no one knows where she is or whether she is still alive. The Trawler Writes Back A letter sent to the Los Angeles Times describes victims as offerings and attacks as part of a continuing project. Its language confirms the killer’s staging and appetite for recognition without yielding a name or dependable lead. The public receives more horror than protection, and the letter widens the conflict by making the press and investigators participants in the Trawler’s narrative.

The Last Sacrifice and the Unsolved Threat

The Campaign Survives Its Suspect Audrey Found After Robert’s death, Audrey’s body is found in the soundproofed room at the Benedict Canyon house. The discovery links the abandoned property to the Trawler’s staged violence, but it does not establish that Robert committed the murders. A Final Claim, Not an Arrest The Trawler’s later letter takes credit for Audrey and insists that Robert was the intended recipient of the killer’s gifts, not the culprit. Another girl, Leslie, is abducted after the apparent climax, and the Trawler is never captured. The campaign’s final conflict is therefore unresolved: an alleged mastermind dies, but the actual killer remains free.

Late spring through summer 1980

Summer 1980 through January 1981

Late September 1981

October 1981

November 1981 and the weeks afterward