Elvis Howell is a convicted and executed serial killer, with an at large accomplice and killing partner, Dale Grisco, continuing the murders after a span of dormancy once Howell was dead.
History[]
Howell was a serial killer of women in prostitution, raping them while wearing condoms, beating them to death with police batons, and leaving a calling card of hickeys near their left lips. Howell was the life coach of orphan Dale Grisco, bonding with him over baseball games and gardening work. This was to bring Grisco along as an accomplice, driving him when he was 15 to a teacher named Courtney Gunderson to get Grisco to murder her in the interest of breaking him for purposes of dominance. After Howell raped her, he demanded Grisco to kill Courtney. However, Grisco's conscience Courtney screamed and begged to God made him refuse, leading to Howell choking Courtney to death with the baton in a rage while Grisco saw the whole thing. Howell accused Grisco of "failing" him, which scarred and warped Grisco into devotion toward Howell.
Howell was eventually tracked and arrested, with Serena Stevens' assigned to getting Courtney justice being her first homicide investigation and collar. Howell was convicted and sentenced to death. Grisco and Howell corresponded in letters until his execution date in 2010, where Howell professed his "innocence" and alleged the "real" murderer to be at large. Grisco was preparing for his own copycat killings for police to find by murdering women and dismembering their remains to be buried in fields near his future landscaping company named after Howell, with drug-addicted savant Ernie as his accomplice. Around when Howell was executed, Grisco shot a john named Diego Caldez and raped and suffocated the prostitute with him, Maricela Fernandez. Stevens immediately saw the similarities and knew Grisco was copying Howell as a taunt. Tracking their shared history, Grisco was identified and arrested, along with Ernie, and Grisco confessed to his and Howell's murders. Stevens, who was haunted by the similar details between both sprees, had to know the truth about Courtney's murder when she was doubting which one really killed her. In a tense, then emotional and heated, confrontation during interrogation, Grisco caved and confessed Howell killed Courtney, and Grisco committed his spree to pay Howell back and not disappoint him.
Known Victims[]
- Six unnamed women (raped and bludgeoned to death with a police baton)
- Courtney Gunderson (raped and bludgeoned to death with a police baton; previously attempted to make Dale Grisco kill her)