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David Meirhofer
Background information
Birth name:	David Meirhofer
Born:	1949 Montana
Died:	September 1974
Cause of death:	Suicide
Killings
Number of victims:	four confirmed
Span of killings:	1966–1974
Country:	USA
State(s):	Montana
Date apprehended:	1974

David Meirhofer (June 8, 1949 – September 1974) was an American serial killer who committed four murders in rural Montana between 1966 and 1974. At the time, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was developing a new method of tracking killers called offender profiling, and Meirhofer was the first serial killer to be caught using the technique. Offender profiling is a method used to learn clues about the characteristics of an unknown killer from evidence at the scene of the crime.^[1]

Among his victims was seven-year-old Susan Jaeger, who was taken from her tent at night during a family camping trip. The kidnapper left no ransom request^[2] and no physical evidence.^[3] However, the psychological profiling technique, which was first used in this case, was employed about a year after the kidnapping. The technique led investigators to suspect that the kidnapper was a young, white male who killed for sexual gratification and may have kept body parts of victims as "souvenirs". Further, they believed that the killer may have been arrested for other crimes.^[1] Meirhofer was 23 years old at the time and already suspected in another murder. He denied the charges.^[1] Meirhofter placed a telephone call to Marietta Jaeger, the mother of Susan Jaeger, exactly a year after the kidnapping, and she obtained enough information to help the FBI track him down.^[4] .

Meirhofer had killed Suzie Jaeger, two boys, and a woman.^[3] In September 1974, he confessed to having kidnapped the woman, Sandra Dykman Smallegan, in her sleep during February of that same year.^[5] Smallegan had once dated Meirhofer but had ended the relationship.^[5]

Meirhofer committed suicide in jail,^[5] hours after confessing to the murders.

References