Hunted on Ice: The Search for Alaskan Serial Killer Robert Hansen (6 page)

It seems almost certain that Richard Connell’s book influenced Bob Hansen in some way, but whether the Alaskan serial killer even knew about the story is unknown. He never claimed to have read it or been influenced by it. Still, the similarities between it and his own crimes are uncanny.

Those women that Bob Hansen so brutally murdered and tossed away like trash had families and friends who loved them and cared about them. They had their entire lives ahead of them; their hopes and dreams and fears and loves, and all of them were cut short by the brutal actions of Robert Hansen. For those girls whose bodies were recovered, they were returned to their families and given proper burials. But for the families of Roxanne Easlund, Mary Thill, Megan Emerick, and Celia ‘Beth’ Van Zarten, the wait is not yet over.

There is nothing more terrible for the families of murder victims, and the law enforcement officials who hunt their killers, than not having closure. Perhaps someday the great Alaskan wilderness will choose to give up more bodies, and reveal other evil secrets, hidden beneath the frozen ground.

Bibliography

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/weird/robert_hansen/7.html

http://www.skcentral.com/articles.php?article_id=110

http://www.criminiedelitti.com/2012/10/18/robert-christian-hansen-the-alaska-killer/

http://www.explorenorth.com/

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/e/emerick_megan.html

http://www.nampn.org/cases/thill_mary.html

http://www.alaskahistoricalsociety.org/index.cfm/discover-alaska/FAQS/11

http://voices.yahoo.com/hunting-humans-shocking-crimes-robert.hansen-6624364.html?cat=72

http://www.murderpedia.org/male.H/hansen-robert-victims.htm

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/311ufak.html

http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/Psyc%20405/serial_killer_timelines.htm

Elyria Ohio Chronicle Telegram 09/20/1983

Mind Hunter by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker Pocket Books Copyright 1995

The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell, originally published by Collier’s Weekly 01/19/24

Butcher Baker by Walter Gilmour and Leland Hale Onyx True Crime Copyright 1991