FBI calls serial killer suspect in cold case

A handyman who confessed to killing five people before committing suicide in June is now suspected in an unsolved 2004 slaying, and Clarksburg police said Thursday they will reopen that case at the urging of FBI behavioral experts who have declared James Childers a serial killer.

Childers, 45, of Clarksburg shot himself in a motel June 2 as police closed in to arrest him on murder and arson charges. He had mailed them a package of notes and a two-hour audiotape, confessing to four arsons and five murders.

Only two bodies have ever been found, those of 40-year-old Carolyn Sauerwein of Philippi, who had been shot twice in the head, and 26-year-old Carrie Lynn Baker of Clarksburg, who had been hit in the head with a blunt object.

Police Lt. Robert Matheny said the FBI’s report, which he read from but did not release, recommends West Virginia State Police re-examine a 96-acre property in Braxton County where Childers dumped one of the women.

Police will also work with the state medical examiner on the five-year-old case of a Clarksburg man found dead in his home. They would not identify the victim or comment on whether the man’s body would have to be exhumed, but Matheny said the victim knew Childers, whom the FBI now considers “the prime suspect.”

A second cold case will also be reviewed, but police did not offer any details about it.

Matheny warned, however, that without more bodies, fresh tips or witnesses, or some other new evidence, many questions about Childers may remain unanswered.

“When he took his own life, he took a lot of good information with him,” Matheny said.

If the next search of the family property is fruitless, Detective Mike Walsh said, the investigation could hit a dead end: “There will come a point when we’ve done all we can do.”

Matheny and his detectives also revealed Thursday that investigators found what they called “a hit list” with the names of three women under a bed in the burned-out remains of Childers’ home. Baker’s name was on that list.

Sauerwein and Childers were apparently romantically involved, but it has never been clear how he met Baker.

Walsh said he has tried to talk to the other women on the list, but they have not returned his telephone messages. Both, however, are alive.

Police would not say why they were targeted but said Childers did not appear to be acting on a general hatred of women.

“He had specific connections to specific lifestyles,” Walsh said, “and I’ll have to leave it at that.”

On the day of his suicide, several of Childers’ neighbors described him as friendly, outgoing and quick to help people with household chores. Even police knew him on sight from his frequent strolls through this small city of about 16,000 and never suspected trouble.

Matheny said that made it all the more shocking to discover Childers had also contemplated killing three local law enforcement officers.

In the package of notes, Childers bragged that he had been carrying a gun and could have shot Clarksburg police officers and a Harrison County sheriff’s deputy when he came into contact with them.

Matheny, to whom Childers addressed his mailing, said he was not one of the officers and declined to name them. The boasts, he said, seemed to be nothing more than Childers claiming he was smarter than police.

Childers had no criminal record before the murders, although police planned to charge him with making harassing phone calls to neighbors.

The FBI labeled Childers a serial killer based on characteristics they gleaned from a thorough review of his notes and audiotaped ramblings, Matheny said. Childers killed more than two people, both male and female, at different times and places with different motives. He also committed other crimes, such as the series of arsons, and taunted and challenged police.

The FBI described Childers as egotistical and said he believed no one could judge him because no one could understand him.

Childers never sounded apologetic or guilty, Matheny said. Rather, he fantasized about killing people and blamed his urges on everything from his upbringing to drugs.

“He called himself ’a misfit of the world,”’ Matheny said. “Nothing was his fault.”