Serial killer Christopher Wilder may be tied to other unsolved Florida, New York killings
ROCKLEDGE, Fla. - An Australian-American serial killer and a former FBI Top 10 Most Wanted fugitive named Christopher Wilder may still be tied to a number of unsolved murders in Florida and New York.
Wilder, a millionaire race car driver and photographer known as the "Beauty Queen Killer" and the "Snapshot Killer," died in 1984 during a shootout with New Hampshire State Police when he was caught after a two-month murder spree that left at least eight women dead and others missing.
Some of Wilder's victims are speaking out for the first time in a Hulu documentary series, "The Beauty Queen Killer: 9 Days of Terror," which premiered Thursday on the streaming platform.
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The docuseries follows the story of Wilder survivor Tina Risico, who was kidnapped by Wilder when she was 16 years old and taken on a nine-day, cross-country road trip in 1984 during which Wilder forced and coerced the teenager into helping him commit a crime.
Christopher Wilder was a serial killer accused of murdering at least eight girls and women in the 1980s. (FBI)
The "Beauty Queen Killer" drove across the country, scoping out girls in places like shopping malls. He would take their photos and offer them modeling opportunities.
That's how Risico ended up in Wilder's car for nine days.
But the extent of Wilder's crimes still remains unknown, and authorities believe he may be tied to other unsolved 1980s murder cases.
The extent of Wilder's crimes still remains unknown. (FBI)
In 1979, Florida 16-year-old Tammy Jo Alexander's remains were found in Caledonia, New York, though she was not positively identified until 2015. She was wearing an Auto Sports Products, Inc. jacket at the time of her death, when authorities believe she was dragged into a cornfield and shot to death.
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Alexander lived near a truck stop and had been known to hitchhike with truckers before, according to the FBI.
Similarly, Shari Lynne Ball disappeared from her hometown of Boca Raton, Florida, in 1983, before her body was found four months later in western New York. Ball apparently told her family she was traveling to New York with an unknown friend to pursue a modeling career, The Buffalo News reported in 2017. New York State Police haven't ruled out Wilder as a suspect, the outlet reported at the time.
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"It's a possibility that absolutely cannot be ruled out, and it is very intriguing to us," New York State Police Cold Case investigator Christopher Weber told the paper. "It certainly matches Wilder's method of operations. He portrayed himself as a professional photographer. He befriended pretty girls and promised them all kinds of things."
New York State Police have reportedly not ruled out Christopher Wilder as a suspect in Shari Lynne Ball's murder. (NYSP)
Farther south, in Palm Beach County, Florida — where Wilder fled after he was questioned by Sydney, Australia, authorities in the 1969 murders of two teen girls on a beach — Wilder has been unofficially linked to several unsolved murders.
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In 1984, 18-year-old Tammy Lee Leppert's mother, Linda Curtis, reportedly sued Wilder before his death, saying he met her daughter — who vanished from Rockledge, Florida, in July 1983 — on the set of the movie "Spring Break," which she starred in as a participant in a boxing match.
Courtesy: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Leppert also had a history of modeling. Curtis alleged Wilder traveled to Brevard County to photograph her daughter, but she dropped the suit in 1984 after Wilder died, The Palm Beach Post reported.
Wilder also owned several acres of land in Loxahatchee, where a real estate agent found a woman's remains, which have yet to be identified, north of Okeechobee Boulevard in 1982, according to The Palm Beach Post.
The FBI did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Fox News Digital.
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