How Christopher Wilder Enticed Women With The Promise Of Modeling Jobs Before Brutally Murdering Them

Christopher Bernard Wilder's crime spree lasted for about six weeks.

Also known as the Beauty Queen Killer and the Snapshot Killer, Wilder was an Australian-American serial killer who took at least a dozen young women and girls captive in his cross-country crime spree in early 1984.

The Beginning

Born on March 3, 1945, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, to Coley Chapman Wilder, an American naval officer, and June Wilder, an Australian woman, Christopher Wilder was the oldest of four sons of the couple.

The first recorded criminal activity of Christopher Wilder happened on January 4, 1963, at age 17. On that fateful day, Wilder s-exually assaulted a 13-year-old girl. He was apprehended and sentenced to probation.

Before his crimes in the United States, and after his release from probation, Wilder faced several other charges of sexual misconduct.

Crime in the United States

Christopher Wilder was responsible for a series of murders in Florida and Georgia in 1984. The first victim was Rosario Teresa Gonzalez, a 20-year-old spokesmodel who went missing after leaving the Miami Grand Prix with a Caucasian man in his thirties.

Wilder's former girlfriend, Elizabeth Ann Kenyon, also disappeared after being seen with him at a gas station near Miami. Two women, Gonzalez and Kenyon, were aspiring models and their remains were never found. Wilder then abducted and murdered 21-year-old Theresa Anne Ferguson, whose body was discovered in Canaveral Groves.

In Georgia, Wilder abducted Linda Grover from the Governor's Square Mall in Tallahassee. He had approached her with an offer to photograph her for a modeling agency, but when she declined, he assaulted her. He bound, raped, and tortured Grover, blinding her with a blow dryer and super glue, and passing an electric current through copper wires attached to her feet. Despite the brutal treatment, Grover managed to escape and lock herself in a bathroom while Wilder fled with her belongings.

These murders were part of a series of crimes committed by Wilder, who was eventually killed in a shootout with law enforcement in New Hampshire. The bodies of Gonzalez, Kenyon, and Ferguson were never recovered.

On March 21, Christopher Wilder approached Terry Diane Walden, a 23-year-old nursing student and mother, in Beaumont, Texas, and asked her to pose as a model. She declined, but they crossed paths again on March 23, when he kidnapped her. Wilder raped and fatally stabbed her, then disposed of her body in a canal. Her remains were discovered on March 26. After the murder, Wilder fled in Walden's rust-colored 1981 Mercury Cougar.

On March 25, Wilder abducted Suzanne Wendy Logan, a 21-year-old, from the Penn Square Mall in Oklahoma City. He drove her 180 miles north to Newton, Kansas, where they checked into a room at the Interstate 35 Inn. The following morning, after having breakfast, he took her to Milford Reservoir, near Junction City, Kansas, where he stabbed her to death and left her body beneath a cedar tree.

On March 29, Christopher Wilder abducted 18-year-old Sheryl Lynn Bonaventura in Grand Junction, Colorado. They were spotted together at a diner in Silverton, where they mentioned their plans to travel to Las Vegas with a stop in Durango. The following day, they were seen at the Four Corners Monument before Wilder checked into the Page Boy Motel in Page, Arizona. Around March 31, Wilder shot and stabbed Bonaventura to death near the Kanab River in Utah. However, her body was not discovered until May 3.

On April 1, Wilder targeted 17-year-old Michelle Lynn Korfman, who was participating in a Seventeen magazine cover model competition at the Meadows Mall in Las Vegas. A photograph was taken of Wilder stalking her during the event. Korfman's body remained undiscovered near a rest stop in Southern California until May 11, and her identity was established in mid-June through dental X-rays.

In April, Christopher Wilder abducted and assaulted 16-year-old Tina Marie Risico in California before taking her with him on a cross-country journey.

They traveled through various states, including Indiana, where they abducted 16-year-old Dawnette Sue Wilt and subjected her to rape. Wilt managed to escape but was injured. Risico informed authorities that Wilder was heading to Canada.

In New York, Wilder abducted and killed 33-year-old Beth Elaine Dodge before heading north. In Massachusetts, he attempted another abduction but was unsuccessful.

The End

On April 13, Christopher Wilder stopped at a service station in New Hampshire and encountered state troopers Leo Jellison and Wayne Fortier. A scuffle ensued, during which two shots were fired.

One bullet struck Wilder and exited through his back, while the other hit him in the chest. Wilder died from his injuries, and Jellison, though seriously wounded, eventually recovered. Among Wilder's belongings, a copy of the book "The Collector" was found.

After his death, Wilder was cremated in Florida, and his estate, valued at over $7 million, was divided among the families of his victims as ruled by a court-appointed arbitrator in June 1986.

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