In the pre-dawn hours of October 3, 1987, a sense of dread settled over a home in Richmond's Woodland Heights neighborhood. Dr. Susan Hellams, a 32-year-old female neurosurgery resident, was discovered dead by her husband in their residence. He found her partially clothed body on the floor of their bedroom closet. The scene was one of extreme violence; she had been bound, beaten, and sexually assaulted.
The cause of death was determined to be ligature strangulation, with two belts found wrapped around her neck. An intruder had gained access to the home by cutting through a second-story window screen.
The murder of Dr. Hellams sent a wave of fear through Richmond, as it was chillingly similar to the recent slaying of another woman in the city. Investigators were now faced with the terrifying possibility that a serial killer was at large. The perpetrator, who became known as the 'Southside Strangler,' left behind very little evidence, but a crucial biological trace would ultimately lead to his downfall. Semen collected from the crime scenes became the key to unmasking the killer.
The investigation led police to Timothy Wilson Spencer, a 25-year-old parolee who was living in a halfway house not far from where Dr. Hellams was murdered. Spencer was arrested on January 20, 1988, initially for another brutal murder in Arlington, Virginia. As the investigation progressed, the similarities in the method of operation connected him to the string of murders in Richmond. Detectives used a revolutionary forensic technique at the time: DNA fingerprinting. The DNA from the semen found at the Hellams crime scene, as well as others, was compared to a sample of Spencer's blood.
The DNA analysis provided a definitive match, making Timothy Wilson Spencer the first serial killer in United States history to be convicted using DNA evidence. The probability of the samples belonging to anyone else was astronomically low. Spencer was tried and convicted for the capital murder, rape, and burglary of Dr. Susan Hellams, in addition to the murders of his other victims. He received the death penalty for his heinous crimes. After his appeals were exhausted, Timothy Wilson Spencer was executed by electrocution in April 1994, bringing a final, somber close to a case that had terrorized a community and marked a significant milestone in the history of forensic science.
