Danni King
It's generally presumed that serial killers select their victims randomly, but a new study has revealed that they may actually pre-select their victims using a specific critera.
Experts claim there may be a reason why notorious serial killers such as Ted Bundy and Ed Kemper chose their victims - and it's due to their resemblance to their mums.
The study showed that murderers likely picked women who shared similar facial features with their mothers due to childhood trauma.
It's been previously noted by researchers that victims of Bundy shared similarities to his mother, Louise, as well as his first serious girlfriend, while Kemper openly admitted to targeting women who mirrored his mother.
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"Studies have shown that features of the victimology such as age, sex, class and elements of physical appearance do influence an offender's choice of victim," researchers wrote.
"It is also common…that many serial killers seek out victims with similar physical characteristics to an opposite-sex parent or close family member who inflicted childhood trauma.
"This has been noted in criminal cases wherein offenders will seek out those who represent a previous person who has wronged or hurt them," they noted in the The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles.
A forensic intelligence tool that can identify 'subtle facial geometry' shared by victims has been developed by scientists to help police try to piece together unresolved cases, the team at Murdoch University said.
Researchers have been cable to compare faces 'more reliably' as the new software analyses facial measurements from photographs, including corners of the eyes, chin and nose.
This could explain some of Bundy's choices, as the majority of his targets had long hair parted in the centre - a hairstyle his mother wore throughout his childhood.
Deciding to target these specific women may have been due to a traumatic childhood incident, experts claim, and Bundy was raised believing his mother was his sister, eventually discovering the truth during his teenage years.
Between February 1974 and February 1978, Bundy killed at least 30 women. He has also been linked to more killings throughout the US.
"Theodore Bundy has been reported as having a proclivity for a particular hair colour (brunette victims), notably with their hair parted in the middle," researchers wrote.
In contrast, Kemper - known as the 'Co-ed killer' - openly spoke about choosing female college students who shared similarities to his mother, who he had shared an abusive relationship with.
His mother and her friend were his final two victims, murdered in 1973, before he turned himself into police and confessed to all his crimes.