Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “Serial Strangler” Volker Eckert Pt. 2

Episode Date: July 15, 2021

As a long-haul trucker, Eckert realized his job afforded him the perfect conditions to kill. And claiming victims was the perfect way to finally complete his macabre trophy — a life-sized human doll, complete with a full head of hair. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of murder, rape, and necrophilia that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. On a chilly fall night in 2004, Volker Eckert was burning the midnight oil, hunched over a table in his quiet living room. He'd worked long hours that week, driving his truck south to Italy and back for a last-minute job, but he didn't mind. He didn't need much sleep, not when there was work to be done. Besides, he could sleep when he was done with his special project. Arts and crafts had never been that interesting to Eckerd before, but perhaps that was simply because he never found the right

medium. Now, though, he was obsessed. Eckerd opened a tube of glue and carefully applied it to the rubber surface he was working on. He was methodical, working slowly, making sure he got it in exactly the right places. Once he was satisfied, he reached for the next piece of his creation. Even as a small boy, the texture of human hair had always enthralled Eckert. As he ran his fingers through the strands, he had to force himself to stay focused on his work. He lovingly trimmed the handful of hair, getting rid of all the split ends and flyaways, calming it until it shone in the dim light of his apartment. Then he placed the strands onto the rubber surface, firmly pressing them down onto the line of glue.

Once the glue was dry, Eckert stood up and took a few steps back, surveying his work. He was pleased. The doll was beginning to look truly beautiful, almost like a real woman. Hi, I'm Greg Poulson. This is Serial Killers, a Spotify original from Parcast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today, we're continuing our deep dive into Fokker Eckert, a man who murdered women across Europe during the early 2000s. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all others Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Last time, we discussed how Eckert's childhood hair fetish drove him to kill when he was just 14 years old. We also followed the beginnings of his murder spree as a long-haul trucker. Today, we'll cover the rest of Eckert's murders and the fateful decision that led police right to his door. We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Bonnie and Clyde, the Lonely Hearts Killers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. These are infamous criminal duels. But you don't need to break any laws to find your perfect business partner because you have Shopify.

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He'd become a long-haul trucker, hoping the job would make it easy to pick up victims as he drove across Europe. And it certainly did. That June, Eckert picked up a 21-year-old sex worker named Sandra Oscevo. He'd lured her to him, pretending to be just another John, but once she got inside his van, he strangled her to death and left her body by the roadside. But there was a part of Sandra he just couldn't part with. He'd coveted her long, shiny hair, which might have been what drew him to her in the first place. Even when he realized the hair was a wig, he felt compelled to keep it.

Eckert's hair fetish had been with him since childhood. when he first became enchanted with his sister's glossy-haired doll. He cherished the doll, often brushing back its shiny locks, and even masturbating to it. But now, as he arrived home to his sparse apartment in Hough, Germany, he was ready to take his obsession to disturbing new lengths. And with Sandra's wig in hand, he had everything he needed to get started. Eckert opened his closet and pulled out a doll of his own. But this wasn't anything like the doll his sister had her.

No, this was a life-size rubber doll that looked almost like a mannequin. Where he got the doll from is anyone's guess, but it seems likely that it was originally intended to be a sex doll. Though if that was the case, it made no difference. To Eckerd, she was just a blank slate full of potential. Her face was still eerily empty, and her body was bare. But he'd soon fix that. He took a seat at a table, then carefully cut long chunks of hair from Sandra's wig.

Then he gathered up the strands and glued them onto the doll. Eckert was essentially building his very own, very creepy trophy case, a place where he could display the souvenirs that he'd claimed from his victims. Vanessa is going to take over in the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or a psychiatrist, but we have done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. As we discussed last time, many serial killers collect trophies

to remind them of their kills. But using a life-size doll to display them is more unusual and potentially more telling. It's especially striking because Eckert had already been attached to his sister's doll as a child. In 1953, psychologist Donald Winnicott coined the term transitional object to refer to things like dolls, stuffed animals, or blankets,

items to which children often develop intense attachments. And though they're usually associated with younger kids, it's not unusual for adults to retain some attachment to a transitional object. In fact, in a 2012 study in Britain, 51% of adults said they still had a teddy bear from their childhood. But this may not be an entirely healthy practice. According to 2012 research from Harvard University, adult attachment to transitional objects can be associated with borderline personality disorder, or BPD.

This is a disorder characterized by unstable moods, self-image, and relationships. Per the DSM-5, some of the signs include impulsive and reckless behavior, intense and highly changeable moods, inappropriate anger, and feelings of dissociation. Eckert was never diagnosed with BPD, but he displayed some of these symptoms for years. And with no one around to keep his troubling, violent urges in check, Eckert was free to continue his spree. Already he was on a roll. In August of 2001, he set out on the road again,

this time bound for the Catalonia region of northeastern Spain. He drove for a couple of days, made his drop-off, and then turned around to head back to Germany, but he had one stop to make along the way. Eckert pulled off the freeway in Yorette de Mar, a buzzy tourist town on the Spanish coast. There he headed for the outskirts of the town to the club district, where he knew he could find sex workers.

But he was picky. Like Sandra, he wanted his next victim to be young, beautiful, and alone. She also had to have the kind of long hair he coveted. Eventually, he spotted 24-year-old sex worker Isabelle Beatriz dears. Excited by what he saw, he rolled down his window and invited her into his truck. Just like Sandra, Isabel was used to getting into strangers' vehicles, and probably didn't think twice about it. it. The German trucker was just another John, business as usual.

But if there was hesitation from Isabelle, Eckert offered an extra incentive that made it hard to say no. As part of his opening gambit, he often told the women he picked up that he'd pay more than their standard rate. All they had to do in exchange, he said, was allow him to tie them up and strangle them a little during sex. Though you might imagine this would be a clear red flag, there's mounting evidence that suggests the desire for consensual choking during sex, either as the choker or the chokee, isn't that uncommon. According to a 2020 study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, almost a quarter of women reported that they'd been choked during sex. This was much more common among 18 to 29-year-olds.

In that demographic, almost 40% had either choked or been choked during sex. Lead author Dr. Debbie Herbenick noted that while some choking during sex is consensual, much of it isn't. Nearly a quarter of the women surveyed said that they'd felt scared or unsafe during sex. Several respondents also said that this was specifically because their partner tried to choke them unexpectedly. Even if a partner consents to choking initially, it's easy for things to get out of hand. This is especially true in couples where there's a significant height, weight, and strength in balance. Eckert was likely counting on this. Once he got his victims into his truck, their fate, were sealed. After Isabel agreed to his offer and climbed inside, he drove out of town,

searching for a more secluded location. He pulled off the road at a freeway junction near the town of Massanet de la Selva. Then he locked the doors and beckoned Isabel into the back, where they'd have more space to fool around. Just as she'd promised, Isabel allowed Eckert to tie her up, and as they had sex, she didn't resist when he put his hands around her throat. By the time she realized that he was squeezing too hard, it was too late. She tried to fight him off, but it only made Eckert more excited. As Eckert felt the fight slowly draining out of Isabel, he began raping her. Within moments, she was dead.

And as far as we can tell, he continued to have sex with her until he finished. Eckert's behavior here suggests that he may have been a necrophiliac. Many psychologists have theorized that necrophilia is motivated by the desire for an unresisting or unrejecting partner. It's worth noting at this point that Eckert had had no significant romantic relationships in his life. He had a few girlfriends in his 20s, but reportedly drove them all away by trying to strangle them. Now in his mid-40s, perhaps he'd accepted that he wasn't cut out for a relationship with a living woman. He didn't want a companion so much as he craved an unresisting object that he could manipulate as he pleased.

this, Eckert likely enjoyed his time with Isabel even after her death. He took his time, cutting off strands of her long, silky hair, then he put it into his pocket for a safekeeping. Afterwards, he threw her body from his truck, leaving her in a deserted clearing just off the freeway. He arrived home the next day where he sat before his rubber doll and meticulously added Isabel's locks to her lifeless head. When he was done, he surveyed his handiwork with pride. It was slowly coming together. He just needed a few more handfuls of hair to complete the picture. Of course, for that, he just needed a few more dead bodies.

Up next, Eckert adds to his trophy doll. Hi, it's Vanessa from Parkast, and I'm here to tell you about my new 10-episode limited series, obituaries. They're some of the most iconic figures of all time, celebrated in death for their individual achievements and impact on society, but in life, the relationships they kept tell a different story, one of unexpected connections that yielded extraordinary change. Every Wednesday on obituaries, join my co-host Carter and me as we explore the shared legacies of prolific pairs from the past, from the mutual traumas of entertainers Marilyn Monroe and Ella Fitzgerald, to the unlikely admiration between visionaries Mark Twain and Nicola Tesla. Each episode of Obituaries digs

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Instant room upgrade. Stop taking bad travel advice. Start comparing hundreds of sites with kayak and get your trip right. Kayak, got that right. Now back to the story. In August of 2001, 42-year-old Fulker Eckert murdered another sex worker, 24-year-old Isabel Beatrice Diaz. Before dumping her body, he took strands of her hair

and brought them back to his apartment in Hough, Germany, and glued them onto a life-size doll. Unfortunately, nobody reported Isabel missing, and her body wasn't discovered by the highway for two months. The Spanish police investigated the murder, but Eckert left them little to go on, and the case stalled. But even though he was in the clear, it seems that for the next year or so,

Eckert stopped killing altogether, although we can't know for sure because there are gaps in the reporting and some of his victims have never been identified. But we know that by the following summer, as Eckert was driving back from a trucking job in France, he felt the urge to strike again. In August of 2002, after finishing his drop off, Eckert stopped in the town of Tuor. He picked up 23-year-old Benedicta Edwards, a sex worker who was originally from Sierra Leone, when Eckert offered to pay her more if she agreed to be tied up and throttled, she accepted, but she never saw the money. As soon as she was tied up inside his vehicle, Eckert strangled Benedicta to death.

Then he took his usual trophy, a few strands of her hair as well as something new. This time, he also kept Benedicta's handbag. After he was done collecting trophies, he dumped her body on a footpath on the outskirts of the town and headed home to Germany. Back at his apartment, Eckerd added strands of Benedicta's hair to his life-size doll, and hung her handbag from the doll's stiff shoulder. It's believed that most serial killers keep trophies because the physical reminder lets them relive their crimes. But building a doll out of murder trinkets is a little more niche. With every kill, Eckert took home new accessories to add

to his creation. This desire to complete his display may have been a motivation for him to keep killing. As far as we can tell, he wanted to make his doll a convincingly lifelike, but unresisting woman, complete with accessories, makeup, and a beautiful head of hair. But he wasn't in a rush. He bided his time, waiting for the right opportunity to strike. And finally, about 10 months after he killed Benedicta, he was sent to the Czech Republic on a trucking job. This was a familiar hunting ground for him. When he first moved to Ho from East Germany in the mid-1990s, he'd made a number of trips across the border to the Czech Republic. It's believed that he even killed two women there, though details of those alleged crimes are scarce. Now, in June of

2003, he was returning to his old stomping crowns, a seasoned killer with a well-honed MO. Like always, once he'd completed his job, Eckert drove to the nearest city of Pilsen, where he picked up a woman who will call Yitka. Unfortunately, we don't know much. about this woman, but based on Eckert's other victims, it seems likely she was a sex worker. Once Yidka got into his truck, Eckert strangled her to death, cut off some of her hair, and then dumped her body by the freeway, as carelessly discarded as the rest. But this time, he added a new element to his routine. Eckert took photographs of Yidka's lifeless body using a Polaroid camera.

It was an extra memento he could pocket before driving away, leaving his victim, in his dust. As far as we can tell, European police forces seemed not to have noticed there was a serial killer on the loose. At this point,

Eckerd had murdered at least four women in the space of two years, leaving a trail of bodies in three countries, the Czech Republic, Spain, and France. Unfortunately,

none of the countries seem to suspect theirs might not be an isolated case, so there was no apparent need to cooperate or share information with their neighbors.

If they had, they might have realized that a serial killer was moving through Europe. If anyone noticed, Interpol could have stepped in and Eckert might have been stopped. But as it was, information was siloed between the countries. As an EU citizen, Eckert could travel freely across borders, but the continent's police forces didn't enjoy the same freedoms. This fragmentation was a godsend to Eckert.

He'd been flying under the radar for years, and that worked just fine for him. Another thing that worked in Eckert's favor was his careful victim selection. By targeting women in the sex trade, who are more vulnerable to violent crime and less likely to involve the authorities, Eckert allowed himself a certain degree of cover. And whether it was intentional or not, he also targeted young women who were immigrants and therefore even more vulnerable. Some may have entered the country illegally, which magnified their distrust of police because they knew they risked being deported. Even for those who immigrated legally, they were young women living on the fringes of society with few relatives or friends nearby. And to top it all off, the deaths of sex workers are notoriously much more likely to go unsolved.

It's possible that Eckert knew this and intentionally went after these types of women. It's also possible he simply saw sex workers as easy, disposable prey. Whatever the case, the authorities weren't connecting the dots. And until somebody figured it out, Eckert's trail of bodies was only going to keep growing. Which is exactly what happened. In the fall of 2004, 45-year-old Eckert made a delivery to the Lombardy region of Italy. On his way back, he stopped in the small town of Ritzato. He picked up 25-year-old Ayabe Gali, a sex worker who was originally from Ghana.

Eckert lured Ayabee into his van, pretending to be just another client. Once she was in the back of the vehicle, he went through his usual routine, like clockwork. He strangled the young woman to death. Afterward, he cut off her hair and kept a lipstick he found in her jacket. He also snapped some Polaroids of her body. We can't be sure when it started, but it was around this time that Eckert added a sinister new element to his MO. According to one report, Eckert performed amateur post-mortems on some of his victims.

It's not clear exactly what this entailed, but since postmortems typically involve cutting into the body and examining its internal organs, it's safe to assume he was mutilating his victims. As horrific as it sounds, mutilating or dismembering victims after their dead is fairly common serial killer behavior. In a 2009 paper published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, Finnish researchers identified common traits among offenders who mutilate their victims. These include educational and mental health problems in childhood, inpatient psychiatric treatment, self-destructiveness, and schizophrenia. As far as we know, Eckert never had inpatient treatment for mental illness, nor was he diagnosed with schizophrenia, but he did demonstrate disturbing behavior during his childhood. Not only was he perversely and violently obsessed with hair, he brutally murdered a classmate when he was just a teenager. So although mutilation,

was a new aspect to Eckert's M.O., it tallied perfectly with his history and fit perfectly into his regular routine. After completing his post-kill rituals, Eckert left Ayabee's body on the side of the road and drove north back toward Germany. Six months later, in February of 2005, Eckert returned to Catalonia, Spain on his way back from a job. He stopped by the small municipality of San Soderne-Dur-Mort and picked up a Russian sex worker named Marie Veselo As soon as she got into his truck, Eckert tied her up. She'd agreed to this in exchange for more money, but soon he began strangling her and refused to stop.

As ever, he didn't let go until she stopped breathing. Once she was dead, he climbed into the driver's seat and rope north, towards the town of Figeras. On a quiet back road, Eckert pulled over. He went through his usual routine, cutting off her hair, taking polaroids of her body, and possibly conducting an amateur post-mortem. Then he left Mari's body by the side of the road and drove home.

It's not clear how long it took for the bodies of Mari and Iobi to be found, or how extensively their deaths were investigated. But Eckerd gave himself some cover by leaving long gaps between his murders, long enough to make it hard for the authorities to notice a pattern. According to criminologist Scott A. Bonn, the cooling off period is to a serial killer what coming down from a narwhal, narcotic high as to a drug addict. It's a time of rest and

recomposure. Bonn also notes that the length of a cooling-off period can vary wildly between killers from days to years and that it ends when the urge to kill becomes overwhelming. As far as we know, Eckert managed to curb his darkest fantasies

for more than a year and a half. But in October of 2006, as he was traveling through France on his way back from a job, his urge consumed him once again. stopped in the city of Reims, a glamorous destination known as the unofficial capital of the Champagne wine-growing region. But Eckert wasn't interested in the sights and flavors of wine country. He had only one thing on his mind and headed for an area of town where he knew he could find sex workers.

He picked up 28-year-old Agneska Bose, a Polish immigrant, and strangled her inside the cab of his truck. After taking his trophies and his Polaroids, Eckert dumbed. her body in a secluded spot and drove home. Back at his apartment, he took out Agneska's hair and a scarf he'd taken from her body. He painstakingly glued strands of hair onto his rubber doll, then draped the scarf around its neck. As Eckert took a step back and regarded his creation, he smiled to himself. The doll had almost a full head of hair and was beginning to look something like a real woman. At least that's what it looked like to him. And soon enough, She'd be ready.

A beautiful girlfriend he could call his own. Up next, Eckert's luck finally runs out. Make Mother's Day even more special at Whole Foods Market. Kick off brunch or dinner with quality cheese and charcutory with no synthetic nitrates. Then go seafood. There's an abundance on sale at Whole Foods Market, where it's all sustainable while caught or responsibly farmed. At the bakery, grab seasonal treats like their strike.

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Find your euphoria. Discover the Euphoria Elyxer Collection by Calvin Klein. Now back to the story. By the fall of 2006, 47-year-old Fulker Eckert was almost done dressing his murder dummy. All he needed now were some finishing touches, maybe some jewelry to make things sparkle, and of course, more hair. Fortunately for Eckert, his job as a truck driver allowed him to cross paths with numerous women. And as the year drew to a close, he was gearing up for yet another murderous trip across the border. For his next killing mission, Eckert returned to familiar territory.

He'd had regularly driven through the Spanish region of Catalonia, and a year and a half ago, he'd killed there. One afternoon that November, he arrived in the quaint world village of San Giulia de Ramiz. There he picked up 20-year-old Melena Petrofa, a sex worker who'd moved to the region from Bulgaria. A recent immigrant who likely had no family in the area, Malena fit Eckert's victim profile perfectly. If she disappeared, no one would likely miss her, but though Eckert thought he was being careful, he was about to make a very big mistake. Once Malena was inside his truck, Eckert strangled her to death. Afterwards, he repeated his normal routine.

He cut off her hair, took Polaroids, and likely performed a post-mortem. But when Eckert climbed back into the driver's seat, ready to find a place to dispose of her body, he realized he had a problem. He'd been so eager to kill that afternoon that he'd misjudged his timing. It was still broad daylight and wouldn't be dark for hours. He knew he couldn't safely get rid of Melaina's body until after dark. So Eckert searched for an inconspicuous place where he could park and wait out there. the sun. He eventually pulled into the parking lot of a local football stadium. There was no game

today, so the lot was completely deserted. Eckert settled in behind the wheel and waited for darkness to fall. However, unbeknownst to Eckert, he wasn't as alone as he thought. Outside a nearby factory, a technician was installing a new set of CCTV cameras, and they had just started recording. As he adjusted a camera so that it focused on the factory gates, the technician happened to pan across the parking lot and captured Eckert's truck. In a mostly empty parking lot, the truck stood out. What's more, it had Eckert's name and business logo displayed prominently across its rear. Of course, the technician thought nothing of it at the time, and Eckert remained totally oblivious. So, once it was dark,

Eckert clambered out of his truck into the deserted parking lot without a second thought. Then he dragged Melania's body out with him. He left her in an hour. He left her in an hour. alleyway beside the lot, then got back on the road to drive home, leaving all thoughts of Elena with her body. Unsurprisingly, the naked body of a dead woman in the parking lot of a football stadium didn't go unnoticed for long. When local police arrived at the scene, they immediately checked local CCTV cameras. Their search led them to the footage from the newly installed factory camera, and that's

where they got their big break. While the footage didn't capture Eckerd in the act of dumping Melania's body, it showed that he was in the area where her body was found at exactly the right time. This made him a prime suspect, and thanks to the logo on his truck, they knew exactly who he was. The Spanish police contacted German authorities and asked them to arrest Eckert. They likely thought that this would be a straightforward investigation. They had a body, a chief suspect, and substantial evidence.

However, what the Spanish police didn't know was that Eckerd had left a trail of bodies behind him in five separate countries, and that was going to complicate things. For years, Eckert had been evading capture by taking lengthy breaks between his murders and staying in constant motion. His jobs took him all over Western Europe, but two weeks after murdering Molina, he finally ran out of road. On November 17th, Eckert arrived in the industrial city of Vesseling, Germany. to report at a haulage company. But instead of a new shipment to deliver, Eckert found himself staring down at a team of police officers. With no way to escape, he was immediately apprehended.

At first, he seemed calm and even nonchalant about it all. In fact, when the police questioned him about Melaina's murder, he feigned ignorance. He said he knew nothing about a body or why his truck had been spotted just yards away from where it was dumped. But after about an hour, Eckert did something strange. He told one of the police officers that he had a headache.

He got these headaches often, he explained, and the only thing that would help was special medication that he kept inside his truck. He asked the police to go to the truck and bring back the medication. They agreed, but investigators found a lot more than a bottle of painkillers. Inside Eckert's van, officers discovered three Polaroid photos lying on the front seat,

each showing the dead body of a different woman. Astonished, the officers began searching the vehicle for more evidence, they soon found two lengths of rope and a series of handwritten notes describing Eckert's murders in detail. Eckert had to know that his truck was full of incriminating evidence. So sending the police there was more or less a confession, and soon after that, he made the confession official. Once the police confronted him with the evidence, he admitted to six murders over the past 30 years. That included Sylvia Unterdurfel, the classic

he'd killed when he was just 14. An official suspected this was only the tip of the iceberg. At some point, investigators raided Eckert's apartment and discovered his ghastly rubber doll, which was unlike anything they'd seen before. With such a disturbing detail, it's little wonder that word of Eckert's crimes spread quickly. Soon, police in Spain, Germany, and across Europe

were working together to build a picture of Eckert's movements over the years. They also looked into unsolved murders that matched his M.O. Unfortunately, a lack of cooperation between the country's created roadblocks and a tug of war between the German and Spanish authorities soon began. Since the Spanish police had been the ones to identify Eckert and issued the warrant for his arrest, they wanted him extradited to Spain. But the German police wanted to take charge of the inquiry themselves. Eckert had committed his first crimes on German soil, they argued,

and was a German citizen. Ultimately, the Germans won out. Using Eckert's credit card records, employment logs, and satellite tracking technology, authorities plotted out his movements. They also shared his DNA with 32 countries across Europe and asked for the details of any unsolved murders that could be linked to him. By this stage, the Spanish police were cooperating fully with the Germans, and even sent some other officers to help with the investigation. But cooperation from other countries, including France, Italy and the Czech Republic, was still lacking. Despite this, investigators were able to connect Eckert to seven more murders, bringing

his total kill count to 13. With so many victims, keeping things quiet was impossible. The press latched onto the story of Europe's border-hopping serial killer and the case made headlines in several countries. But watching the story unfold from his jail cell, Eckert was upset. What bothered him in particular was that the media was portraying him as a modern But Eckerd never saw himself that way. In fact, he saw himself as distinct from the man who had committed these crimes.

According to his lawyer, Alexander Schmidt Gall, Eckerd always spoke about himself in the third person, whenever he described an attack or a murder. He was not only emotionally detached from his crimes, but on some level he felt he truly hadn't committed them. Earlier, we discussed the possibility that Eckerd had borderline personality disorder, or BPD, which is sometimes associated with a social person who

which is sometimes associated with an attachment to childhood toys. One of the hallmarks of BPD is dissociation, or an involuntary escape from reality, characterized by a disconnection between thoughts, identity, consciousness, and memory. One of the most common forms of dissociation is depersonalization, or a feeling of detachment from oneself. It's often described as feeling like you're watching yourself from outside your body. If Eckert was truly dissociating, it's possible that this is exactly how he experienced his crimes.

Of course, we'll never know for sure. We don't have much insight into Eckerd's state of mind, either during his crimes or after his capture. But we do have one telling quote from Schmidt-Gal, who spent a lot of time with him after his arrest. Schmidt-Gall said, he had the emotion rising up in him, and he had no way to suppress it. He knew he was an outsider. He was suffering from this. Perhaps this suffering explains why Eckert deliberately sent the police into his truck, where he knew they'd find incriminating evidence against him.

On some level, Eckert wanted to be stopped. But in the summer of 2007, as Eckert sat in jail awaiting trial, he was finally feeling the full weight of that choice. Even his sister Zabina considered him a monster and refused to visit. It's hard to blame her, but for Eckert, his sister's rejection was the last straw. Somehow, in his twisted mind, he held onto the belief that even if his crimes were revealed, his loved ones would still stand by him. Instead, Eckert spent his 48th birthday alone, ruminating over his darkest thoughts and his sadistic crimes.

And on the following day, July 2nd, Eckert took his own life. Unfortunately, his death marked the end of the entire investigation. There would be no trial and there would be no real closure. For more than three decades, Eckert was at large traveling across international borders. He spent most of his time on the road alone, and for these reasons, there are significant gaps in our knowledge of his movements and crimes. Officials are almost certain that he was responsible for more murders than the 13 they knew about. In fact, some of the women in his Polaroids were never identified, but by ending his life

before he could be tried, Eckerd ensured that his victims would never get real justice. And this was in keeping with the man he'd always been, a calculated predator who hunted vulnerable women on the fringes of society, who saw his fellow humans as little more than a collection of parts. He took what he wanted and disposed of the rest, all to suit the world as he saw it. No one else mattered to Folker Eckert. Well, unless you count a doll. Thanks again for tuning it to serial killers. We'll be back soon with another episode. For more information on Fulker Eckert, amongst the many sources we used, we found Nick Davies

reporting in The Guardian extremely helpful in our research. You can find all episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. Have a killer week. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cutler, sound designed by Billy Pace, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro,

Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Bruce Kitovich. This episode of Serial Killers was written by Emma Dibdin, with writing assistance by Jane O. and Joel Callan, fact-checking by Haley Milliken, and research by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood. Serial Killers stars Greg Poulson and Vanessa Richardson. Hi, it's Vanessa from Parcast, and I'm here to tell you about my new 10-episode-limited series, Obituaries.

They're some of the most iconic figures of all time, celebrated in death for their individual achievements and impact on society. But in life, the relationships they kept tell a different story, one of unexpected connections that yielded extraordinary change. Every Wednesday on obituaries, join my co-host Carter and me as we explore the shared legacies of prolific pairs from the past, from the mutual traumas of entertainers Marilyn Monroe and Ella Fitzgerald, to the unlikely action. admiration between visionaries Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla. Each episode of obituaries digs deep into the lasting impressions made between two legendary figures and how their entanglements changed the course of history. These meaningful duos may have passed on, but the profound effect they had on each other

and us will live on forever. Follow the Spotify original from Parcast, Obituaries. Listen free only on Spotify. Want to hear something spooky. Some monster, it reminded me of Bigfoot. Monsters Among Us is a weekly podcast featuring true stories of the paranormal. One of the boys started to exhibit demonic possession. Stories straight from the witnesses' mouths themselves.

Something very snake-like lifted its head out of the water. Hosted by me, your guide, Derek Hayes. Somehow I lost eight whole hours. Listen now on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up getting ready for bed is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hixed. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not crime beat.

Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcast. Thanks.