Robert Mallory and Katherine Latchford

Robert Mallory and Katherine Latchford are linked by a short period of dating before Katherine disappeared in 1980. The relationship later becomes a focal point for Bret Ellis’s suspicions about Robert, but the evidence ultimately distinguishes Robert’s connection to Katherine from the Trawler’s responsibility for the murders.

The relationship before Katherine’s disappearance

Robert dated Katherine in the weeks before she disappeared in mid-June 1980, while he was newly in Los Angeles and staying with his aunt. Bret later gives this account to Dr. Croft as part of his effort to explain why he believes Robert may be connected to the serial-killing case. The relationship is therefore presented through Bret’s recollection and later reconstruction, rather than through a narrated scene between Robert and Katherine.

Katherine’s case and Robert’s private records

When Bret searches the abandoned house on Benedict Canyon, he finds a notebook containing newspaper clippings that trace Katherine’s case from her disappearance through the discovery of her body and subsequent coverage. The articles also address her social and academic life, interviews with people who knew her, mysterious phone calls, and changes in her bedroom. A November 1980 issue of Los Angeles Magazine contains another article about the case. The collection is specific to Katherine: Bret finds no comparable clippings about Sarah Johnson, Julie Selwyn, or Audrey Barbour. Its presence establishes Robert’s sustained attention to Katherine’s story, but not why he kept the material or whether he had any part in her death.

Bret’s suspicion and the Trawler’s account

Bret’s theory rests partly on chronology. He tells Croft that Robert dated Katherine shortly before she vanished and argues that the home invasions and later disappearances appeared to coincide with periods when Robert was in Los Angeles. This is Bret’s inference, not proof of Robert’s guilt. The case had already become difficult to interpret because the victims’ matching injuries and the links between their disappearances were not fully public when the investigation began.

The Trawler’s letter later reframes Katherine’s place in the series. Investigators had privately coined the name Trawler, which entered public reporting after a leaked memo; the letter describes Katherine as a victim who had been targeted before her abduction. It also invokes the killer’s language of sacrifices and gifts, placing Katherine among the women claimed by the Trawler rather than substantiating Bret’s suspicion that Robert was the killer.

The relationship’s narrative significance

The connection between Robert and Katherine makes a documented relationship function as a compelling but incomplete clue. Robert’s dating history and the clippings give Bret grounds to investigate, while the later account from the Trawler exposes the danger of treating proximity and chronology as proof. The relationship remains significant precisely because its meaning is uncertain: it connects Robert to Katherine’s past without resolving whether he knew anything about her fate.