Matt Bergstrom was a serial killer who murdered at least five women in Manhattan over a five-year period and another woman in Houston, Texas. He also assaulted a prostitute but was not convicted due to a lack of evidence.
History[]
Detectives Briscoe and Curtis arrested him on suspicion of assaulting and torturing a woman named Catherine Lansing, and uncovered evidence that tied him to several murders. He offered to reveal where he buried his victims in return for the D.A.'s office taking the death penalty off the table. Eventually, however, the detectives discovered Lansing had in fact been assaulted by someone else, and that Bergstrom had played the D.A.'s office for fools. As part of the deal he made with ADAs McCoy and Carmichael, he had immunity for the other murders, and they could not knowingly convict him of a crime he did not commit.
Ultimately, however, McCoy and Carmichael tricked him into believing that they had evidence tying him to a murder committed in Texas, and that they were going to extradite him there, where he would be quickly executed. Panicked, he confessed to the torture-murder of one of his New York victims in exchange for a life sentence without the possibility of parole. (L&O: "Agony")
Known Victims[]
- Houston, Texas: Anna Lasky
- Seattle, Washington: Leslie Dawes (assaulted; was non-fatally strangled)
- Manhattan, New York City, New York:
- Beth Aldredge
- Unnamed woman (tortured by cutting, burning, and raping with his fist; killed by unknown causes)
- Four unnamed women
- Erica Davies (assaulted; was non-fatally strangled)
- Two unnamed women (both harassed)