10 Serial Killers Caught DECADES After Their Crimes

10 Serial Killers Caught DECADES After Their Crimes

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today were looking at ten serial killers who went decades without being caught.

David Parker Ray

The Toy Box Killer was never technically convicted of a single murder. However, authorities strongly suspect that he was involved in about sixty killings, most of which were conducted in his sick Toy Box. This was the name of the soundproof semi trailer in which Ray took, imprisoned, tormented, and eventually murdered his victims. Most of these crimes occurred in the 1980s, long before Ray was captured in 1999. However, Ray claims that his crimes go back much earlier, and he even told his wife that he murdered his first victim in 1957, when he was just eighteen years old. If this story is true, that would mean Ray went 42 years between murdering his first victim and getting caught.

Terry Rasmussen

Known as The Chameleon Killer owing to his many aliases, Terry Rasmussen was officially convicted of one murder but has been linked to at least five more. He is strongly suspected of killing the Allenstown Four, four victims that were found inside barrels in New Hampshires Bear Brook State Park. These victims are believed to have died between 1978 and 1981, and one of them was found to be the biological daughter of Rasmussen. He is also suspected of murdering his girlfriend, Denise Beaudin, who disappeared in 1981. But the death that finally brought Rasmussen down was that of Eunsoon Jun, another girlfriend that Rasmussen murdered in 2002. He was arrested for her murder that same year - decades after supposedly killing his other five victims.

Robert Lee Yates

A seemingly normal man, Robert Lee Yates served many years with the United States Army, serving as a helicopter pilot between 1977 and 1996. By the time he left the Army, he had already murdered three people. His crime spree dates back to 1975, when he shot and murdered Patrick Oliver and Susan Savage while they were picnicking near Walla Walla. He then went quiet until 1988, when he killed Stacy Hawn. But most of Yatess murders occurred in the late 1990s, after he had left active service. He murdered thirteen people around Spokane County between 1996 and 1998, bringing his total body count to sixteen. He was finally arrested and charged in 2000, 25 years after shooting Oliver and Savage.

Robert Durst

Famed subject of HBOs The Jinx, Robert Durst definitely killed two people and possibly four others between 1971 and 2003. Authorities strongly suspect that Durst murdered his first wife, Kathleen McCormack, who disappeared in 1982. Fast forward eighteen years, when Durst murdered his friend, Susan Berman in December 2000. He also killed his neighbor, Morris Black, in 2001, but he was acquitted of murder, with Durst successfully claiming self-defense. Aside from those core three, Durst is also a suspect in three other disappearances, including that of Lynne Schulze, who visited Dursts store in 1971 and subsequently vanished. It wasnt until The Jinx aired in 2015 that investigators re-examined his past, and he was convicted of Susan Bermans murder in 2021.

Rex Heuermann

For many years, the Long Island Serial Killer was one of the most famous examples of a modern-day serial killer eluding justice. News of the killer broke in late 2010, when the remains of four victims were found alongside Ocean Parkway near Gilgo, New York. Seven more were found throughout the following year, all of them scattered around Ocean Parkway. This remained a tantalizing mystery until 2023, when a New York architect named Rex Heuermann was arrested and charged with some of the murders. Police have since connected Heuermann with many older crimes, including the murder of Sandra Costilla, which occurred in 1993. As of 2025, he has been charged with murdering seven women, including Costilla.

Samuel Little

The FBI has officially linked Samuel Little to sixty murders, making him the most prolific serial killer in American history. However, his true body count is likely much higher, with Little himself confessing to 93. Littles penchant for murder came on the radar in 1982, when he was arrested for murdering Melinda LaPree. However, a grand jury declined to indict him, and he was released. But indeed, Little had begun killing people around this time. His earliest confirmed victim is Annie Stewart, who was killed on October 11, 1981, but Little confessed to murdering Mary Jo Brosley as early as 1970. He was finally arrested on September 5, 2012 - a full 31 years after his first confirmed victim had been killed.

Lonnie David Franklin Jr.

This serial killers nickname is indicative of his long span. Lonnie David Franklin Jr. is better known as The Grim Sleeper, so named because he was inactive between 1988 and 2002. Franklins first confirmed victim is 29-year-old Debra Jackson, who was killed in August 1985. However, authorities strongly suspect his involvement in the death of Sharon Dismuke, who was murdered a year and a half earlier. Franklins final victim was Janecia Peters, who was found dead in January 2007. All told, The Grim Sleeper killed between 10 and 25 people. He was finally arrested on July 7, 2010 and charged with ten counts of murder, decades after his crime spree began in the mid 1980s.

Gary Ridgway

In the early 1980s, five bodies were found near Washingtons Green River, leading authorities to suspect a serial killer. The Green River Killer was born, and funnily enough, Gary Ridgway was suspected pretty much immediately. Ridgway was considered a suspect in the disappearance of Marie Malvar, and he was even interviewed by the police, but they were unable to link him to the crime and he was released. By the time he passed a polygraph in 1984, he had already murdered dozens of people. In fact, of Ridgways 49 confirmed victims, all but four were killed between 1982 and 1984. His last known victim was Patricia Yellowrobe in 1998, and Ridgway was finally arrested in 2001.

Dennis Rader

BTK was finally brought down by his own hubris. Its poetic. Active in Kansas between 1974 and 1991, BTK killed at least ten people and often sent taunting letters to the police, fashioning himself as a criminal mastermind. And indeed, he was smart enough to get away with it. For a while, at least. After a thirteen year hiatus, BTK again began contacting police and media, and in 2005, he sent a floppy disk to Wichitas KSAS-TV. Police then used personal data that was stored on the disk and traced it to one Dennis Rader, a local Cub Scout leader and president of a local church council. He was finally arrested on February 25, 2005 - 31 years after his crime spree began in 1974.

Joseph James DeAngelo

Justice often comes, but sometimes it comes late. Such was the case with Joseph James DeAngelo, who for a long time was known by various monikers, including The Visalia Ransacker, EARONS and The Golden State Killer. His crime spree began in 1974, and between then and 1986, he committed dozens of sexual assaults and murdered at least thirteen people. He was also known to taunt the police, often with obscene phone calls. His story became one of the most infamous cold cases in California history, but thanks to the magic of genetic genealogy, DeAngelo was finally caught and arrested in April 2018. By then, DeAngelo was 72 years old, and his first victim had been dead for over four decades.

Can you think of any other examples? Let us know in the comments below!