How detectives investigating serial killers use the same tricks as scientists tracking an epidemic

Savage diseases and serial killers may appear to strike randomly. But the twin terrors could have much more in common than first thought - as both have been found to hunt and kill their victims in a predictable pattern.

It means the tricks used by detectives in tracking down serial killers, like Suffolk Strangler Steve Wright, can now also be used by scientists to pinpoint the location where an epidemic started. When tracking serial killers, such as the Suffolk Strangler Steve Wright who killed five prostitutes in the Ipswich area in 2006, police create a 'geographic profile' showing where their victims were found.


Most serial killers prey on people close to home because it is too expensive and difficult to travel far away from where they live. But they rarely target their close neighbours.

By processing these three key pieces of information, detectives can hone in on where the killer lives. The exception to this was Fred West who, alongside wife Rosemary, between 1967 and 1987, raped and murdered at least 12 young women and girls. Many of the crimes took place at their homes, in Gloucester.

Queen Mary University of London biologist Steven Le Comber discovered that using the same method of geographic profiling can help pinpoint where a disease broke out. He said: 'Correctly applied, geographic profiling shows great promise as a useful component of policy relating to the control of a wide variety of infectious diseases.

'The targeting of interventions like this is more efficient, environmentally friendly and cost effective than untargeted intervention.' By mapping the locations of its dead victims, he was able to locate the exact wells where malaria broke out in Cairo, Egypt. His study revealed that the buffer zone used in criminology, where the area around the criminal's home is less likely to be hit by the crime, also occurred in biological systems.

It said: 'Assuming suitable habitats are randomly dispersed throughout the surrounding area, then as the distance from the anchor point (usually a home or workplace) increases, the total number of suitable habitats increases.' If the technique continued to work well, then it could prove invaluable in stopping pandemics before they start.

In the future health care workers may be able to GP software to input and track the geographic locations of patients who've contracted deadly, communicable diseases. Then, if an epidemic pattern began to emerge, doctors could go straight to the source and administer antivirals or vaccines before the killer gets out of control.

This could stop disease far more efficiently than trying to immunize everyone in a large geographical area.