Phone Call From a Serial Killer: Larry Gene Bell

May, 1985. Two days before her high school graduation, Shari Faye Smith was abducted from her parents’ driveway in broad daylight. Her kidnapper taunted Shari’s family by phone for days, calling in the middle of the night and revealing bone-chilling details of his crime.

With little evidence to go on, South Carolina investigators brought in FBI criminal profiler John Douglas and his colleagues, who used the recorded phone calls to create a profile of their UNSUB.

About 2 weeks later, 9-year-old Debra May Helmick was kidnapped in a similar manner. When both girls turned up dead, investigators realized they had a probable serial killer on their hands – and they needed to find him before he could strike again.

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