Collars and leashes are used by murderers to degrade, control, strangle, and even kill their victims, and they're frequently employed by killers who are obsessed with torture and bondage. Like killers who keep their victims as torture pets before eventually ending their lives, murderers who use collars and leashes are particularly intent on dehumanizing their victims, allowing them to treat other people like animals who exist solely to serve their depraved needs and help them fulfill their darkest fantasies, making these killers some of the worst monsters the world has yet seen.
Killers Who Put Their Victims In Collars And Leashes,
David Parker Ray
On March 22, 1999, 21-year-old Cynthia Vigil escaped from the trailer where she had been held captive, raped, and tortured by 59-year-old David Parker Ray and his 39-year-old accomplice, Cindy Hendy, wearing only chains and a dog collar around her neck. Vigil was able to get help, and police arrested the couple as they were leaving the trailer in Elephant Butte, New Mexico.
Authorities searched the trailer, which had been converted into a mobile torture chamber, and they discovered a number of disturbing pieces of evidence, including a gynecologist's table, sex toys, a portable toilet, lists of rules for holding people captive, and a number of videotapes that contained footage of women being tortured. Parker was convicted of torture and kidnapping, and he was sentenced to 223 years in prison on September 20, 2001.
Parker died of a heart attack on May 28, 2002, before police were able to find any concrete evidence of the 40 murders he had boasted about committing before his death. Authorities believe he may have buried the bodies of his victims near the Elephant Butte Reservoir, but their searches have failed to turn up any human remains.
Dayton Leroy Rogers
On a Friday night in August 1987 in Clackamas County, Oregon, 33-year-old Dayton Leroy Rogers's four-year span of torturing, raping, and murdering sex workers, runaways, and drug addicts came to an end when witnesses saw 25-year-old Jennifer Lisa Smith, a woman he had stabbed 11 times while the two were sitting in his truck, escape from his vehicle. Tragically, Smith died at the hospital from her injuries, but her bravery allowed the police to arrest Rogers and connect him to several unsolved murders.
The authorities learned that Rogers would bind his victims with coat hangers and dog collars, before torturing, stabbing, and mutilating the young women and dumping their corpses in wooded areas near Molalla, Oregon. Rogers has been convicted of killing seven women and was given death sentences in 1989, 1994, 2006, and 2015, but all but his most recent sentence have been vacated by the Oregon Supreme Court.
Robert Berdella
On April 2, 1988, 22-year-old Christopher Bryson escaped from the Kansas City home of 39-year-old Robert Berdella by jumping from a second story window, wearing nothing but a dog collar. With Bryson's escape, police and the people of Kansas City learned that Berdella, who was the owner of a shop that specialized in selling oddities and antiquities, had been responsible for raping, torturing, and murdering at least six men and teenagers from July 1984 to August 1987.
Berdella had drugged his victims and subjected them to depraved and vicious acts of torture, including electric shocks, bondage, and sodomy. A search of Berdella's property yielded a journal and photographs that documented his crimes, as well as two human skulls, one of which was in a closet while the other was buried in the backyard. Berdella was arrested and confessed to the crimes in order to avoid the death penalty, but he died in prison of a heart attack on October 8, 1992.
Stefano Brizzi Killed A Cop With A Dog Leash And Then Tried To Dissolve Him Breaking Bad Style
On April 1, 2016, 50-year-old web developer Stefano Brizzi and 59-year-old police officer Gordon Semple got together at Brizzi's London apartment after meeting through the dating app Grindr. According to Brizzi, the two men agreed to engage in bondage, but he strangled Semple to death with a dog leash shortly after the two began. After killing the police officer, Brizzi dismembered the man's corpse, dissolving some of his body in acid (in homage to his favorite how, Breaking Bad) and cooking other pieces of flesh in his oven.
Brizzi's terrible crime was discovered when his neighbors called the police to report the sickening smell coming from his apartment, and law enforcement officials searched his home and discovered Semple's remains. Brizzi admitted to killing the police officer, first claiming he had been compelled by Satan to take Semple's life and later stating he had accidentally choked the man to death while playing a strangulation game. Brizzi was sentenced to life in prison on December 12, 2006, but he committed suicide in his cell on February 6, 2017.
Robert Ben Rhoades Created A Torture Chamber In His Tractor Trailer
On April 1, 1990, a highway patrol officer stopped to investigate a semi-truck that was parked on the side of an interstate in Arizona, only to find a woman, handcuffed, naked, and screaming, and 44-year-old Robert Ben Rhoades, the driver of the vehicle, inside. Rhoades, who had converted the cab of his truck into a torture chamber, was arrested for unlawful imprisonment, aggravated assault, and sexual assault, and the detective investigating the case was able to link him to multiple unsolved killings, including the murder of 14-year-old Regina Kay Walters.
Officials got a search warrant for Rhoades's home, and they discovered several photographs, including an image taken of Walters wearing a dog collar shortly before she was killed. In 1994, Rhoades was convicted of the first-degree murder of Walters, and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Bobby Joe Long Used Rope Collars To Torture And Kill His Victims
On November 3, 1984, 30-year-old Bobby Joe Long abducted 17-year-old Lisa McVey and took her to his apartment where he raped and sexually assaulted her for 26 hours before the teenager was able to convince her captor to release her. Less than two weeks later, police in Tampa, Florida arrested Long on November 16, 1984 for kidnapping and assault, and during the course of the interrogation, he admitted that he had raped and murdered more than 10 women over the course of an eight-month period.
Most of Long's victims were sex workers; he would take them to his home, tie them up and, place collars made of rope around their necks, using this ligature to choke the women while he raped them.
On September 24, 1985, Long pled guilty to his crimes and received 26 life sentences without the possibility of parole, as well as seven life sentences with the possibility of parole after 25 years. However, the following year, Long was convicted of an additional murder for killing Michelle Simms, and he was given the death penalty and sent to Florida's death row.
John Taylor Left His Victim In The Dog Collar That Would Lead To His Arrest
On August 20, 2001, the body of 16-year-old Leanne Tiernan, who had been missing since November 26, 2000, was discovered in a shallow grave by a hiker in the Lindley Woods in West Yorkshire, England. The teenager had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death, and she had been wrapped in plastic bags, with zip ties on her wrists and a dog collar around her throat. With few clues to help them track Tiernan's killer, the police found out which stores in the area sold the distinctive dog collar left behind by her murderer, and they ultimately learned that a number of those collars had been purchased by John Taylor, a 46-year-old delivery driver.
When investigators searched Taylor's home, they found twine and zip ties that matched the ones used to bind Tiernan's body, as well as another dog collar exactly like the one that had been placed around the teenager's neck. Taylor confessed to abducting and killing Tiernan, and he was given two life sentences on July 8, 2002.
Todd Kohlhepp Kept His Victims Chained And Collared In A Cage
On November 4, 2016, officers used cell phone records to track the last known whereabouts of 30-year-old Kala Brown, a young woman who, along with her boyfriend, had been missing since August 31, 2016. The records led them to the 95-acre Woodruff, South Carolina property of 45-year-old realtor Todd Kohlhepp. When they heard sounds coming from a metal shipping container, they discovered Brown inside with chains around her neck and ankles. Her boyfriend had been murdered, and she had endured months of rape and torture, only being allowed outside of the container for short periods of time and given food just once a day.
Police arrested Kohlhepp, and they eventually learned he was a registered sex offender who had been arrested for kidnapping and raping his 14-year-old neighbor in 1986 when he was only 15. While in custody, he also confessed to killing a total of seven victims, including an unsolved quadruple homicide that occurred on November 6, 2003. Kohlepp has been charged with kidnapping and multiple counts of murder.