When a Killer Calls: A Haunting Story of Murder, Criminal Profiling, and Justice in a Small Town (Cases of the FBI’s Original Mindhunter Book 2)

On May 31, 1985, sixteen-year-old Shari Smith was abducted from her family's driveway in South Carolina, two days before her high school graduation. The abductor made repeated, taunting calls to the family, and law enforcement recognized they were dealing with a dangerous criminal. Shari wrote a letter before her death expressing her love for her family and faith. The FBI brought in profiler John Douglas to help investigate. Days later, the family learned where to find Shari's body. When nine-year-old Debra May Helmick was kidnapped from her yard shortly after, it became clear that a serial killer was responsible. Douglas developed a strategy to use Shari's lookalike older sister Dawn as bait to catch the unknown subject, and the family agreed to participate. This case details how Douglas's criminal profile, combined with his psychological manipulation of the killer, dedicated police work, and forensic science, led to the capture of Larry Gene Bell, one of the most dangerous serial killers Douglas encountered. The investigation pushed criminal profiling to its limits and resulted in one of Douglas's most dramatic confrontations with the killer.