Timothy Wayne Krajcir: The Multi-State Serial Killer
Background and Early Criminal History
Timothy Wayne Krajcir was born Timothy Wayne McBride on November 28, 1944, in West Mahanoy Township, Pennsylvania. He later took the surname of his stepfather, Bernie Krajcir. Long before he was identified as a serial killer, Krajcir developed an extensive criminal record involving burglary, sexual assault, voyeurism and other offenses against women.
Krajcir entered the Illinois prison system as a young man after being convicted of rape. He spent much of his adult life incarcerated, but during periods of freedom between 1977 and 1982, he traveled through Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. Investigators eventually determined that he used these years to stalk, sexually assault and murder women in several communities.
While on parole, Krajcir attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He earned a degree in the administration of justice and studied psychology. Authorities later believed that his education, combined with his familiarity with police procedures, helped him understand how crimes were investigated and how offenders could avoid leaving obvious connections between cases.
Selection and Stalking of Victims
Krajcir often selected women after observing them in public places, including shopping-center and grocery-store parking lots. He generally preferred women he believed lived alone or could be attacked without interruption. After following a woman home, he memorized or recorded her address and sometimes returned days later.
His usual method was to enter a residence while the occupant was away and wait inside for her return. The victim would unknowingly enter her own home and find Krajcir already there. He frequently carried a firearm and materials that could be used to bind his victims. Several women were restrained, sexually assaulted and killed inside their homes.
Krajcir varied his methods sufficiently to prevent investigators from immediately recognizing a single offender. Victims were shot, stabbed, strangled or suffocated. Some were attacked in their homes, while others were abducted and transported to another location. The crimes occurred in multiple states and were handled by separate police agencies that did not initially know they were investigating the same man.
Confirmed and Admitted Murder Victims
- Mary Evelyn Parsh, 58 – August 12, 1977 – Cape Girardeau, Missouri: Mary Parsh was targeted while her husband was hospitalized. Krajcir entered the family residence at 612 Koch Street and waited for her to return. He apparently believed Mary would arrive alone, but her daughter Brenda was accompanying her. Mary was restrained and shot in the head. Her body was found on a bed beside her daughter on August 15.
- Brenda Kay Parsh, 27 – August 12, 1977 – Cape Girardeau, Missouri: Brenda had returned to Cape Girardeau to help her mother while her father was receiving hospital treatment. She unexpectedly entered the house with Mary and became a second victim. Brenda was bound and shot in the head. Investigators concluded that both women were killed late on August 12, although their bodies were not discovered until three days later.
- Sheila Ellen Cole, 21 – November 17, 1977 – Near McClure, Illinois: Cole was a Southeast Missouri State University student. She disappeared after being abducted from a parking lot in Cape Girardeau on November 16. Her body was discovered the following day at a roadside rest area near McClure, Illinois. She had been shot twice in the head. Her automobile was later located in Cape Girardeau.
- Virginia Lee Witte, 51 – May 12, 1978 – Marion, Illinois: Witte was attacked inside her Marion residence. She was restrained and sexually assaulted before being killed. The case remained unsolved for nearly three decades. Krajcir eventually admitted responsibility and pleaded guilty to her murder in January 2008.
- Joyce Tharp, 29 – March 23, 1979 – Abducted from Paducah, Kentucky: Tharp was kidnapped from her home in Paducah. Krajcir later provided investigators with details indicating that he transported her into Southern Illinois, killed her there and returned her body to Paducah. Because authorities believed the actual murder occurred in Illinois, jurisdictional complications prevented a conventional Kentucky murder prosecution.
- Myrtle Rupp, 51 – April 17, 1979 – Muhlenberg Township, Pennsylvania: Rupp was attacked inside her home on Fifth Avenue in the Temple area of Muhlenberg Township. She was sexually assaulted and killed. Krajcir later admitted involvement and supplied information that investigators believed only the killer would have known.
- Marjorie “Margie” Call, 57 – January 27, 1982 – Cape Girardeau, Missouri: Call was found murdered inside her home. Krajcir had selected her as another woman he believed could be isolated and overpowered. She was sexually assaulted and killed during the invasion of her residence. Her death became one of the five Cape Girardeau murders to which Krajcir pleaded guilty.
- Deborah Renee Sheppard, 23 – April 8, 1982 – Carbondale, Illinois: Sheppard was a Southern Illinois University student living in Carbondale. A friend found her body inside her apartment. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Biological evidence was preserved from the crime scene, and advances in DNA testing eventually connected that evidence to Krajcir. The Sheppard investigation became the crucial case that exposed his wider series of murders.
- Mildred Wallace, 65 – June 21, 1982 – Cape Girardeau, Missouri: Wallace was attacked and killed in her Cape Girardeau home. Her murder was the last known killing in Krajcir’s confirmed series. As in several earlier cases, the crime involved a home invasion, sexual violence and the deliberate killing of a woman Krajcir believed was vulnerable and alone.
Surviving Victims and Additional Attacks
Krajcir was also responsible for numerous sexual assaults in which the victims survived. He later admitted committing dozens of rapes and attacks over the course of his criminal life. Many were never prosecuted individually because of expired statutes of limitation, insufficient surviving evidence or agreements associated with his eventual guilty pleas.
One known survivor was 72-year-old Ida White, who was attacked in Mount Vernon, Illinois, on September 7, 1981. Krajcir entered her home, restrained and sexually assaulted her, but she survived. The existence of surviving victims demonstrated that murder was not inevitable in every attack, although Krajcir was willing to kill whenever he believed it would prevent identification or discovery.
Why the Murders Remained Unconnected
The murders occurred before modern computerized databases allowed investigators to easily compare similar crimes across state and county boundaries. Cape Girardeau police, Illinois authorities, Pennsylvania investigators and Kentucky detectives were each working within separate jurisdictions. Differences in the victims’ ages, locations and causes of death made the cases appear unrelated.
Krajcir also had no obvious personal relationship with most of the women. He deliberately traveled to communities where he had few connections and selected strangers. Investigators could not uncover a shared workplace, family association or social circle linking the victims to a common suspect.
Although biological evidence was collected in some cases, DNA profiling was not available when the murders occurred. Evidence from Deborah Sheppard’s apartment was preserved for years, eventually allowing investigators to compare it with a sample from Krajcir. The resulting match gave authorities the evidence they needed to confront him about Sheppard’s murder and question him about other unsolved cases.
Confessions and Cold-Case Investigation
By the time investigators identified Krajcir, he was already incarcerated for unrelated sexual offenses and parole violations. In 2007, detectives conducted a series of interviews in which he began admitting responsibility for murders and assaults committed decades earlier. He described his stalking practices, methods of entering homes and details from crime scenes that had never been released publicly.
Krajcir confessed to nine murders. Investigators traveled among Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Pennsylvania to compare his statements with original case files. His descriptions of residences, victim positions, weapons and the movement of bodies convinced authorities that his admissions were credible.
Some cases could be prosecuted directly, while others presented jurisdictional or evidentiary difficulties. In the Joyce Tharp case, for example, authorities believed she had been abducted in Kentucky but murdered across the state line in Illinois. Krajcir was indicted for kidnapping and burglary in Kentucky, but no separate murder conviction was obtained there.
Convictions and Sentences
On December 10, 2007, Krajcir was sentenced to 40 years in prison for the murder of Deborah Sheppard. The conviction was supported by the preserved DNA evidence from her 1982 homicide and by Krajcir’s admission.
On January 18, 2008, he pleaded guilty to the murder of Virginia Lee Witte and received an additional 40-year sentence. The two Illinois sentences totaled 80 years.
On April 4, 2008, Krajcir pleaded guilty in Missouri to five counts of first-degree murder, seven counts involving sexual assaults and one robbery count. The murder charges covered Mary Parsh, Brenda Parsh, Sheila Cole, Margie Call and Mildred Wallace. Although Cole’s body was found in Illinois, prosecutors established that her abduction and related criminal conduct began in Cape Girardeau.
Krajcir received 13 consecutive life sentences in Missouri. The victims’ families accepted the negotiated resolution, which spared them from multiple lengthy trials and removed the possibility of a death sentence. At sentencing, Krajcir thanked the families for allowing him to live, a statement that underscored the absence of meaningful remorse in his courtroom remarks.
Legacy of the Investigation
The Timothy Krajcir investigation demonstrated how a mobile offender could exploit jurisdictional boundaries and the limitations of pre-DNA policing. His victims differed widely in age and lived in several states, but they were connected by his method of stalking women, entering their homes and controlling them through surprise and violence.
His identification also showed the importance of preserving biological evidence from unresolved cases. Evidence retained after Deborah Sheppard’s murder ultimately provided the scientific link that investigators had lacked for approximately 25 years. Once confronted with that connection, Krajcir admitted crimes that had haunted several families and communities since the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Krajcir remains imprisoned under sentences that ensure he will never be released. Although he confessed to nine murders, investigators have considered the possibility that additional unsolved assaults or killings may be connected to him. His extensive history of sexual violence, frequent interstate travel and deliberate efforts to target strangers have made it difficult to determine the complete number of people he harmed.
