Davis stabbings are likely the work of a local serial killer, experts say

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Davis police are hunting a monster. And it’s highly likely the suspect is a serial killer, experts say.

The person behind three stabbings in the normally quiet college town is likely full of rage and has targeted his victims with no clear connection to one another, criminal experts told The Sacramento Bee. Given Davis’ relative isolation, 15 miles west of Sacramento and surrounded by farmland, the suspect probably lives in the city.

It’s also possible the person responsible is battling mental illness.

“The chances that these cases are not linked is very small,” said Mark Safarik, a former Davis police detective and investigator with the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit. “One of the things here is we don’t really have a motive, Davis is a relatively small community, and it’s very likely these cases are linked.”

By definition, Sararnik said, two or more homicides separated by time are serial killings.

The nature of the killings has added to the gravity of the case. The first two victims died of multiple stab wounds after being attacked in city parks. The third was a homeless woman stabbed multiple times through her tent; she was in critical condition Tuesday.

“It could be someone so rageful, so intent on doing harm that he’s just seeking out the most vulnerable,” said Michael Vitiello, a criminal law scholar at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law. “Think about the violence, the rageness that you have to have.”

Law enforcement officials have not definitively linked the three attacks, but have said they share similarities, including the “brutal nature” of the crimes. Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig said law enforcement agencies in the region are responding with “all hands on deck.”

Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel said, to his knowledge, the city has never encountered a wave of stabbings similar to this one in at least the past 40 years.

“This is different,” he told reporters Tuesday. “ These attacks were particularly violent and brazen.”

Davis police are likely being cautious before labeling the crimes the work of a serial killer.

“Once you label someone as being a serial killer, the case takes on a whole other life,” Safarik said. He said media attention intensifies and task forces are formed, attracting law enforcement from around the nation.

“It’s going to change the dynamics of the case,” he said. “They want to be absolutely certain.”

Stabbing murders are not rare, but serial stabbings involving multiple victims are uncommon, law enforcement officials said.

“It’s a completely different kind of crime,” former Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness said. “It’s up close and personal. You’ve got to feel the force of the weapon as it penetrates the body.

“Stabbings are not rare, certainly, but a serial stabbing? I’m not thinking of any.”

A series of stabbings presents an unusual challenge to law enforcement.

When victims are killed by gunfire, the shots are often heard by others, hastening police response to the scene. In stabbings, however, there may be little audible evidence, giving suspects extra time to flee, experts said. All three of the Davis attacks have also occurred at night, police said.

The first killing occurred Thursday, when 50-year-old David Henry Breaux was found dead in the city’s Central Park. Breaux, known in the community as the “Compassion Guy,” was likely killed hours before his body was found, meaning there were no witnesses to the act, Pytel said.

There appeared to be a witness to the killing of UC Davis student Karim Abou Najm, 20, in Sycamore Park on Saturday night. Police said a neighbor heard a disturbance and went outside to find Najm suffering from multiple stab wounds.

Multiple people were also nearby when a homeless woman was stabbed late Monday in an encampment near Second and L streets. Police conducted a “detailed search of the downtown Davis area,” the department said. Still, after a brief call to shelter in place, an army of officers from multiple jurisdictions ended the manhunt without a suspect in custody.

Police said they were looking for an assailant described as a “light-complected male,” between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-9. The man had a “thin build wearing a black or blue sweatshirt, black Adidas pants with white stripes, black shoes carrying a brown backpack.”

Investigating stabbings

If the attacks are connected, the fact that the victims were stabbed may help investigators connect the crimes. There may be evidence, particularly DNA evidence, left at the scene of attacks in which the suspect and victim came into close contact.

“Without knowing the facts of a particular case, it is possible DNA is left behind in stabbings,” said former Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, whose office helped break the notorious Golden State Killer case using DNA and genealogy. “Given the latest technology and advancements in DNA, I would anticipate law enforcement is doing everything it can to identify potential forensic evidence.”

Pytel, the Davis police chief, said his department was consulting with the FBI to help determine whether the attacks are the work of a serial killer. Experts said knives are an uncommon weapon used in serial killings.

“The reason stabbings are less likely in serial killings is it’s harder to kill,” Vitiello said. “You need to get close and it’s more likely you’ll be detected.”

Homicides in general are also extremely rare in Davis. There were just nine homicides in the city between 2012 and 2021, according to the California Department of Justice. And the city had just one last year, according to records maintained by The Sacramento Bee.

One of the more heinous killings came in April 2013, when then-15-year-old Daniel Marsh used a hunting knife to slice open a screen window on an elderly couple’s south Davis condominium.

Marsh, who had covered his shoe soles with tape to quiet any noise, slipped inside the bedroom and butchered 87-year-old Oliver “Chip” Northup and his 76-year-old wife, Claudia Maupin.

Marsh, who eventually was sentenced to 52 years to life, told investigators he watched the couple sleep before stabbing them more than 60 times.

There have been recent high-profile mass stabbings in North America.

Last weekend, three people were injured during a random series of stabbings in Toronto, Canada’s largest city. In October, a man was charged in connection with the stabbings of eight people, two fatally, on the Las Vegas strip. He was later found unfit for trial.

And in Albuquerque, New Mexico, last year, a 42-year-old man was arrested after police said he rode around the city on a bicycle and stabbed 11 people over the course of a weekend.