Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Bike Path Killer” Altemio Sanchez Pt. 2

Episode Date: June 17, 2021

Avoiding capture as Amherst’s terrifying “Bike Path Rapist” emboldened Sanchez to commit his first murder in 1990. His crimes were escalating — but inexplicably, after nearly two decades of violence, he vanished. Twelve years later, the Bike Path Killer returned. 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, assault, sexual assault, and rape that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. On the morning of September 29, 1996, more than 1,500 people gathered at the University at Buffalo's North Campus. They lined up near alumni arena, each with a number pinned to their chest. It had become an annual tradition, the Linda Yalem Safety Run, a 5K Memorial Race. The event was a fitting way to honor the 22-year-old U.B. student and jogger who had been assaulted and murdered on this day six years earlier.

Her killing had sparked panic in the sleepy suburb of Amherst, New York. For many runners, this yearly event was a way to bring the community together, a small path toward healing the trauma. Over a thousand people regularly attended the race. It helped create a sense of solidarity, even though many runners now felt unsafe on the area's lush bike paths and running trails. The Memorial Run always began with a moment of silence in Linda's memory. Then a bagpipe player would lead the runners to the starting line. This year, as the crowd gathered at the front line and prepared to start running, everyone's mind was on Linda.

But no one was thinking about her murderer, the elusive bike path killer, which is exactly what he wanted. There in the crowd, 38-year-old Altimio Sanchez donned his racebib. Printed under his assigned race number was the name Linda Yaelum, the woman he himself had raped and murdered. No one noticed that the man who fit every eyewitness description and police sketch was there at the race that morning. He'd grown accustomed to hiding in plain sight, and now the bike path killer had returned to relive the thrill he'd gotten from his first murder. Hi, I'm Greg Poulson. This is Serial Killers, a Spotify original from Parcast. Every week we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers.

Today we're continuing our discussion of Altimio Sanchez, the Bike Path Killer of Buffalo, New York. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. In our last episode, we covered Altimio Sanchez's early life and his evolution from serial rapist to murderer. Today, we'll discuss how Sanchez escalated his crimes, transitioning into a serial killer.

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He wanted to report a suspicious sighting. Bob worked the third shift at the American Brass Factory, and he walked the Ellicott Creek bike path every day in his downtime. One day he spotted a co-worker on the bike path. after work. It was Altimio Sanchez. The encounter stood out to him because he knew Altimio lived in the opposite direction of the bike path. Instead of heading home after his overnight shift, he had gone to Ellicott Creek in the early morning hours, and that struck Bob as odd.

Even stranger, when Bob approached Altimio on the bike path, Altimio acted like he didn't know him. He briskly walked away avoiding any further interaction. When Bob saw Altimio at work later, he asked his co-worker what he'd been doing at the bike path after a long shift. Instead of avoiding him again, Altimio admitted to being on the bike path, but claimed that his wife Kathleen was taking classes at the University at Buffalo and that he'd gone to visit her. Bob still thought the whole thing was weird, but he decided to let it drop. However, when police released a physical description of Linda Yalem's killer, Bob realized that not only did his coworker match the police profile,

he'd been near the bike path just days before the murder. Armed with this tip, police checked their records to see if Altimio Sanchez had any previous arrests. His record was clean, but his car matched the color and model that a witness had given after a previous sexual assault. Police also determined that, contrary to Altimio's story, his wife Kathleen was not enrolled at the university. there was no real reason for Altimio to be on the bike path, and his alibi crumbled. Investigators working on the case also realized that Altimio was off work at the time of Linda

Yalem's murder, and that he'd been off work during every other sexual assault that had taken place along the bike path. Suddenly, the 32-year-old was a prime suspect. Hoping for a break in the case, Amherst police began surveillance on Altimio's house, but he didn't exhibit any incriminating behavior, so they eventually stopped following Sanchez to pursue other leads. However, four months later, detectives still weren't any closer to solving Linda's murder. There hadn't been any new attacks, but there was incredible public pressure to solve the case. Without any new evidence, police combed back over the existing clues and came across Altimio's name again. Feeling like they might catch a break, they asked

Altimio to come to the station for an interview. He was visibly nervous during the interview. Years later, Altimio would acknowledge that he thought he'd been caught that day, saying bluntly, they had me. But despite the overwhelming evidence against him, police never asked for the one thing that would have solved the case, a DNA sample. Amherst police had interviewed a number of other persons of interest, and they asked those suspects to submit DNA samples. But for some reason they didn't request one from Altimio. If they had, they would have conclusively tied him to the bike path murder and the many years' worth of rapes. Instead of DNA, they collected his fingerprints. Even though DNA testing was becoming more common, fingerprints were still seen as a

primary form of evidence in 1990, and investigators had found a water bottle near Linda's body with unidentified fingerprints. They made these the main focus of their investigation. But Altimio's prints didn't match those found on the water bottle. Despite all the circumstantial evidence against him, detectives took Altimio off the suspect list and moved on. Now without a suspect, Amherst police scrambled for new leads. They knew that recreation trails had been the killer's chosen stalking grounds, so they focused their efforts on bike paths in the area.

A policewoman disguised herself as a, decoy victim, hoping to lure the bike path killer. She posed as a jogger, wearing a protective throat guard underneath her workout clothes in case she actually encountered the strangler. While the undercover policewoman walked the bike path, a team of officers wearing camouflage hid in the woods along the trail. They stopped every man who bore any resemblance to the killer, checking their ID and finding out if they had any alibi for the day of the murder.

Curiously, after not collecting a sample from prime suspect Altamio Sanchez, police reportedly began requesting DNA samples from the random men they stopped on the path. Amherst police sent dozens and dozens of samples to the FBI crime lab, hoping to find a match to the DNA found on Linda Yellam's body. The department became even more swamped with potential leads, after Linda Yalem's murder was featured on America's Most Wanted. The episode generated over 2,000 tips across the country. Everyone thought they knew someone who might be a suspect, that investigators were intent on following up on every single tip. Despite the extreme efforts of police, they were no closer to catching their killer. Not now that Altimio Sanchez had been eliminated as a suspect,

and Altimio had learned to exercise greater caution. Even after he realized that he was in the clear, the publicity from America's most wanted made him realize he'd need to lay low. To continue the charade of his normal suburban life, the ruthless killer entered a cooling-off period. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. As a note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or a psychiatrist, but she has done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. Periods of dormancy are a phenomenon we've covered before.

According to criminology professor Arnan Edelstein, serial killers tend to withhold their urges after committing a murder. This so-called cooling-off period can be as short as waiting 72 hours before the next murder, or it can last several years. If or when a killer is living with something like untreated dissociative identity disorder, this cooling off period could allow them to adjust back into their normal identities and live their everyday life. lives. This period between murders not only helps killers maintain the facade of control they exert over their lives, it can also preserve the killer's projected image as, for example, a family man and a model employee. Having others believe that their normal allows a killer to plan and execute their next murder. Altimio had been in and out of cooling off periods for years, even before the murder. He committed an average of three.

rapes each year, primarily in the summer months. Both that cool-off time and this one came from necessity. He had to be careful to avoid being caught. To suppress his violent sexual urges while he was laying low, Altimio began frequenting sex workers. It's not clear when this behavior first started. But we know that Altimio was arrested in May of 1991 for soliciting a sex worker, eight months after his last known attack. The police report noted that Altimio was driving a white 1988 Pontiac Sunbird when he solicited an undercover police officer in downtown Buffalo.

But the charges were reduced to loitering, and Altimio simply paid a fine for the infraction. Just as he'd done previously, Altimio learned from the experience and adapted his behavior accordingly. After the undercover sting, he began to apologize. of only frequenting the same sex workers he'd been with before. Knowing the woman he was paying, rather than picking up a stranger on the street, was another way to reduce the risk of getting caught.

But having recurring consensual sex with the same woman seems to have eventually stopped satisfying Altimio. He could only derive pleasure from the violent and sadistic rape scenarios that played out in his head. And given that Altimio fit the anger-excitation class of serial sexes, sexual offender, it was only a matter of time before he once again lived out his fantasies of rape and murder. Coming up, Altimio chooses his next victim.

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money-making machine? Your style can make you cash. Start selling on Deepop, where taste recognizes taste. Now back to the story. In the early 1990s, Altimio Sanchez was trying to keep a low profile from the police. He stopped attacking women on local bike paths for a period of time, instead soliciting sex workers to act out his fantasies. But eventually, consensual sex stopped fulfilling his twisted desires.

So after a lengthy cooling off period, the bike path killer was ready to prey on women once again. Majer was a 32-year-old sex worker, and Altimio Sanchez was one of her regulars. Around 4 p.m. on October 30, 1992, Altimio called Majane to make arrangements to have sex later that evening. Shortly after 11 p.m., Majane left her apartment. Her boyfriend watched through the window as she got into the passenger seat of a white, Pontiac Sunbird. Altimio paid Majane $40 and they had sex in the backseat of his car.

But while they were being intimate, a familiar cocktail of anger and excitement stirred inside Altimio. He claims that he had no intention of harming Majain that night, but investigators believe that Altimio came prepared to kill. Majain had no idea that Her John had a rope in his pocket and a plastic bag in the back seat. While they were having sex, Altimio pulled the plastic bag over Majane's head. She resisted, struggling against the strength of her larger, stronger attacker. It's not clear whether Altimio meant to place the bag over her head to excite himself and let her go, or if he intended to suffocate Majain outright.

But whatever his motivation, he eventually reached the point of no return. As Majain resisted, Altimio grew increasingly excited and intensely angry. He pulled the rope out of his pocket and wrapped it around Majane's neck, on top of the plastic bag, sealing it tightly. Unlike his rape victims, whom he'd often bring in and out of consciousness while strangling, Altimio didn't want to take his time with this attack. Majain wasn't strangled so much as she was suffocated. But just like Linda Yalem, Altimio watched Majain die,

and he felt pleasure in exerting control over her. Altimio parked his 88 Sunbird in an industrial area of Exchange Street, carved out by railroad tracks and the I-190 interstate. Under the cover of darkness, in a part of the city that had been largely abandoned, he dragged Majane's body across a field hidden by factories. After draping Majain's fleece jacket across her torso, Altimio covered her with trash that he found in the field. He placed a large piece of fiberglass and a sheet of corrugated. plastic over her, weighed down the debris with several rocks, and positioned a garbage bag in the pile to make it look like a heap of discarded industrial items. Altimio covered the body, but he hid it in plain sight. Perhaps because Majane was a sex worker,

Altimio banked on the fact that there wouldn't be a search and rescue team looking for her, the way they had scoured the bike path for Linda Yaelum near the university. Tragically, this strategy seems to have worked. Two days after Majane left her apartment with a client, her boyfriend filed a missing person's report. But Buffalo Police didn't make Majane a high priority. She was a sex worker who struggled with drug addiction, so the investigation didn't gain much traction. That was until Majain's body was discovered by accident three weeks later. On November 22nd, a man who sold rare plants was looking for wildflowers in an industrial field.

Just before noon, the flower collector lifted a piece of corrugated board with his foot and saw the distinct features of a human head. He rushed to the nearby Amtrak station and called 911. Once her body was identified, Majane's boyfriend provided police with details about the vehicle her last client was driving. A medical examiner took DNA samples from her body, but without Altimio's DNA on file, the case went cold. After murdering Majain, Altimio once again went into a cooling off period.

He wanted to stay off the radar of any subsequent investigations, and just as importantly, he wanted to preserve the illusion of his normal family life. But he didn't stay dormant forever. Almost two years later, on October 19, 1994, Altimio struck again. This time, he raped a 14-year-old. girl behind a junkyard. The attack took place in broad daylight, less than a mile from Altimio's job at the American Brass Factory. It seemed as though he felt emboldened by his continued ability to evade

police. It's a common misconception that serial offenders want to get caught as time goes on, but according to criminologist Scott Bonn, serial killers enjoy the act of murder too much to ever want to be caught. As serial killers becoming critical, increasingly confident in their ability to avoid arrest, they feel they need to take more risks in order to achieve the same heightened level of arousal or excitement. To us, they may appear to be getting sloppy, but they're actually trying to increase the thrill they get from killing. That's why serial rapists and murderers like Altimio might attack victims during the day or near very public places, including his own place of employment. Because Altimio sent,

Sanchez is thought by some experts to be an anger-excitation serial killer. It's likely that committing rapes in secluded areas wasn't giving him the level of excitement that it used to. We also know that control was a key element of Altimio's attacks. It's possible he took higher risks to gain back a sense of control that he'd been lacking. But once he'd escalated his attacks, Alteemio's next move left investigators truly baffled. After almost 20 years of increasingly violent attacks, rapes, and two murders, the bike path killer simply vanished for over a decade. Altimio has said that he began seeing sex workers as often as three times each week during this period.

It was his way of satisfying his aggressive sexual urges, but in that time his hunger for violence and control escalated to ever-increasing. heights. At the time, investigators had numerous theories as to what may have caused such a long absence. While some speculated that the rapist and killer had been incarcerated for other crimes, another theory suggested that he may have become ill or incapacitated. We now know that Altimio was trying to lay low, but in the wake of the bike path killer's apparent disappearance, residents of the Buffalo area assumed he was gone and gradually let their guard down. As residents felt this false sense of security,

recreation along the area's bike paths fully resumed. But that sense of safety had lulled Buffalo and Amherst residents into complacency, and it was unknowingly setting the stage for the elusive killer's long-feared return. On September 29, 2006, 45-year-old Joan Diver dropped her son off at his 9 a.m. daycare appointment. She planned to go for a jog on the Clarence bike path, then run some errands before picking up her son at 11 a.m. She drove her Ford Explorer to a small paved parking lot on Salt Road. The Clarence Bike Path is one of the more rural trails in the Buffalo area, cutting through farm fields and agricultural operations.

It's an extremely isolated area. A sign at the parking lot where Jones started reminds joggers of the risks on the path, warning, be safe, walk with a friend. But many runners and cyclists felt comfortable exercising alone because of the area's quaint, small town atmosphere. Joan ran east along the trail for just under two miles, then turned and headed back towards the parking lot. She was wearing sunglasses and listening to an iPod as she ran. And just like Linda Yalem, her headphones muffled the sounds of approaching danger. But at the last minute, Joan did hear Altimio's approach. She turned towards him and screamed. She even managed to scratch his face with her fingernails. But it was too late. Joan's sunglasses were

thrown from her face when Altimio's double ligature slipped over her head and snapped around her neck. He dragged her by the throat through a dense stand of trees and into a small clearing where he knew they'd be hidden. He chose the clearing for its isolation as well as its elevation. The differing height between the clearing and the bike path meant that it would be difficult for anyone passing by to see or hear the struggle, even though it was mere yards away from the paved trail. Still, Joan fought back, but this seems to have sparked Altimio's anger even more. He beat her and tightened the garret around her neck. Altimio had pulled her running shorts down to her ankles, but his anger overpowered his sexual urges.

He murdered Joan Diver. And for the first time, the bike path killer didn't rape his victim. Then Altimio left Joan's body in the clearing where he'd murdered her and headed back to the parking lot. When Joan didn't pick up her son from daycare that morning, her husband, Stephen, was notified. He was concerned about his wife's unusual absence, but he knew where Joan went running, so he drove to the Salt Road parking lot where he found his wife's Ford Explorer. Stephen looked through the window and saw the water bottle that Joan always brought for her post-run cooldown. It was still full, so he knew that she was still on the trail somewhere.

Stephen went home to grab his bike, planning to ride along the trail looking for Joan. But when he returned to the parking lot on Salt Road, his wife's SUV was gone. Stardled, he called the police. Around 2 p.m., sheriff's deputies checked Salt Road and confirmed that Jones' truck was missing. That's when suspicion fell on Stephen, and police questioned his version of events. Stephen insisted that he'd seen the Ford Explorer at the parking lot, but he couldn't explain why it wasn't there anymore, and he still had no idea where his wife might be. What Stephen didn't know was that he was being watched when he first checked on his wife's vehicle.

Altimio was lurking in a dense stand of trees on the edge of the parking lot. He had murdered Joan Diver just moments ago, and he watched nervously as Stephen approached Joan's SUV and looked through the windows. Whether he wanted to throw the investigation off, or whether he just panicked knowing that someone was looking for Joan already, Altimio made a snap decision. He would break his own protocol and use his dead victim's keys to move her vehicle. Knowing he would have to act fast, Altimio rushed through the parking

lot to Joan's SUV once Stephen left. He was nervous the man might come back. Plus, he was also feeling exhausted from fighting and killing Joan. Altimio was sweating, and he hastily fumbled with the key inside the hot parked car, which had been cooking in the sun for some time. As he turned the keys in the ignition and started the vehicle, a small beat of sweat dripped onto the steering column. Altimio shifted the vehicle into gear and drove three miles west, parking the SUV on a grassy shoulder of a road that intersects with the bike path. It was far enough away from Jones' known starting point that anyone looking for her would be confused about what had happened. Almost 48 hours passed before the search party found Jones remains. She was hidden in the

underbrush of the clearing, where Altimio had left her, covered by her blue sweatshirt. Investigators initially suspected Stephen murdered his wife, but gradually investigators noticed some startling patterns. At the heart of Joan Diver's death was a story that had become extremely familiar to local police. A woman was attacked with a double ligature on a bike path. And the date of Jones' killing, September 29, 2006, was the 16th anniversary of Linda Yalem's murder. An article in the Buffalo News detailing Jones' death. pointed out the similarities, calling it an eerie coincidence.

There was something else that suggested this might be more than a mere coincidence. On September 26th, just three days before Jones' murder, an envelope with no return address was delivered to Buffalo Police Headquarters. Inside was a Buffalo News article from the previous year discussing the bike path killer. Someone had carefully saved the article for all. almost a year, then sent it to the police station just days before another murder that fit the bike path killer's M.O. When police initially received the newspaper clipping, they didn't read too much into it, but after Joan Diver's murder on the anniversary of Linda Yalem's

killing, it seemed as though someone was taunting them. Over the coming days, it was clear to everyone in Western New York, the bike path killer had returned. Coming up, the investigation gains steam. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong. Bro, Skycoin, way better than points. Never fly during a Scorpio full moon. Just tell the manager you'll sue.

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 2006, Buffalo, New York's bike path killer returned after a 12-year absence. 48-year-old Altimio Sanchez murdered Joan Diver, a 45-year-old woman who was jogging on the Clarence bike path. After murdering Joan in the woods off the trail, Altimio returned to the parking lot and watched Joan's husband, Stephen, looking through the windows of her SUV.

Once Stephen left, Altimio took Jones keys and drove her car to a pull-off three miles west of where she had actually gone jogging. Initially, police focused their investigation on Stephen. His version of events didn't add up, and authorities claimed that he became less cooperative with police as the investigation wore on. But investigators quickly recognized that the killing fit the same ammo of the elusive bike path killer. Buffalo police also noted the fact that Jones' murder took place on the anniversary of Linda Yalem's death 16 years earlier. According to Greg McCrary, a former FBI criminal profiler who worked out of the Bureau's Buffalo office, anniversary dates were significant to Altimio. Investigators would later realize that he had even attended the Linda Yalem-Memorial run in 1996,

participating in the 5K race that honored his first murder victim. Serial killers often try to relive the thrill they received from a significant murder, especially during long periods of inactivity. Some do this by collecting and engaging with trophies from their victims, perhaps a piece of jewelry or a snippet of hair, while others revisit the crime scene, particularly on the anniversary of a killing. McCrary chokes this behavior, up to narcissism. He believes that revisiting the locations of his crimes, or in Joan Diver's case,

reliving his first murder on its anniversary, was a way for Altimio to savor what he saw as his power over his victims. But Altimio was about to find out that he wasn't as untouchable as he'd come to believe. In the years since his last attack, investigators had finally sequenced DNA from a Jane Mazur's murder and linked it to the bike path killer. Working on the hunch that the killer had returned, investigators needed a sample from the latest murder. However, Joan wasn't raped, so they didn't find any DNA in her body. But with suspicions mounting that this homicide was linked to the others, police shifted their search for DNA to something they suspected the murderer had touched, Jones' vehicle.

Forensic investigators combed over the interior of Jones Ford Explorer, using masking tape to pick up stray fibers and wiping hard surfaces with swabs to check for DNA. At last, in November of 2006, the results came back from Central Police Services. A single drop of sweat was found on the steering column near the ignition. DNA analysis confirmed that the sweat belonged to the bike path. killer. A police task force started comparing the bike path killer's DNA to dozens of rape cases that fit a similar MO going back over two decades. They realized that the killer had committed far more rapes than investigators previously realized. Within that task force, a small contingency of

detectives noticed that there were two Delaware Park rapes that fit the MO of the bike path rapist. they realized that one man, Anthony Caposi, may have been wrongfully imprisoned for two of the real rapists' crimes. But in order to prove Caposi's innocence, they had to find and convict the bike path killer. A break in the case came on December 4, 2006. Dr. John Simich from the Central Police Service's crime lab informed the task force that, based on the DNA evidence, they were looking for a Latino male. An FBI profiler working with the task force also determined that the killer most likely had frequent encounters with sex workers in the Buffalo area. He based this theory on the fact that the murderer had previously killed a sex worker, Majer, suggesting that it probably wasn't his first time soliciting sex in exchange for money.

The task force poured over case reports and compiled a list of every Latino surname mentioned in rape reports and homicide investigation. One member of the task force also cross-checked those names or any history of arrest for soliciting a sex worker. In the process of the investigation, the task force came across the 1981 rape report of a Buffalo State college student who had seen her attacker at the Boulevard Mall three days later. Since they were now focusing on Latino men,

police decided to re-interview the owner of the vehicle spotted at the mall, Wilfredo Caraballo. Wilfredo had previously been reluctant to help police, but now he was willing to admit that his nephew, Altimio Sanchez, had borrowed the car on the day that it was spotted at the mall in 1981. Wilfredo was now living in a different state, but detectives were able to get a voluntary DNA swab from his brother, Eriberto Sanchez-Caraballo.

Lab results revered that Eriberto wasn't the killer, but he was a close relative. With these two back-to-back bombshells, the investigation now zeroed in on Altimio Sanchez. By early January 2007, Altimio was under 24-hour surveillance. His street was dotted with unmarked police cars, and detectives followed him wherever he went, hoping to get the evidence they needed. The entire case hinged on investigators acquiring a sample of Altimio's DNA, But since he was the primary suspect, they didn't want to just ask him to submit a sample.

If he realized he was about to be arrested, he might try to skip town, or even worse, go on one last killing spree. In order to avoid drawing Altimio's suspicions, the Erie County Assistant District Attorney authorized the task force to follow their suspect and collect an abandoned sample. That could be a saliva sample from something that he discarded or otherwise left in a public. place. On Saturday, January 13th, detectives followed Altimio and his wife Kathleen to sole restaurant in Amherst, about three miles from the side of Altimio's first murder. Investigators blended in at the bar, watching Altimio and Kathleen eat dinner. When the loving husband and his wife got up to leave, detectives swooped in and collected a dish, straw, and linen napkin that Altimio had used, but they wanted to have backup samples in case anything went wrong in the lab.

A second team of detectives followed Altimio and Kathleen to a boarder's bookstore in the nearby town of Cheektawaga. They sat at a cafe inside the store and drank coffee from ceramic mugs. Once again, as Altimio left the cafe, investigators grabbed his mug and bagged it up for analysis. The following day, the task force received a call from Dr. Simich at the Central Police Services Crime Lab. Simich was put on speakerphone and announced to the room of detectives, You've got him. Police knew that Altamio would be at work that evening, so they staked out the parking lot of the factory,

then started following him home when his shift ended on Monday morning. Altimio quickly realized he was being followed and pulled over not far from the factory. He was blocked in on both sides and taken into custody. News spread like wildfire across the Buffalo Reefat. The bike path rapist had finally been caught. But when reporters named Altimio as the suspect in custody, shock and disbelief coursed through a circle of friends and relatives. Neighbors considered Altimio a model citizen. One of his coworkers actually lashed out when told that Altimio was the rapist and murderer, insisting that it wasn't possible.

Initially, Altimio stonewalled police. He refused to acknowledge his guilt and aggressively insisted on his innocence with swagger and bravado. Even in his pretrial appearance, Altimio pleaded not guilty. But once it became clear that his DNA conclusively linked him to the crimes, he agreed to plead guilty. At the time, New York State inexplicably had a five-year statute of limitations on rape cases. Because Altimio's last known rape was in 1994, he could not be tried for any of the rapes he'd committed. The law had been changed, less than a year before Altimio's arrest. But because the new law didn't retroactively apply to older cases,

Altimio was still free from prosecution for the rapes that investigators knew he'd committed. However, Altimio was tried and convicted on three counts of second-degree murder, a crime with no statute of limitations. On August 14, 2007, Judge Christopher Burns sentenced him to 75 years to life in prison, the maximum penalty for those charges. Judge Burns told Altimio during his sentencing, You showed no mercy, and you deserve none. While Altimio's trial was unfolding,

members of the task force pleaded with the district attorney to release Anthony Caposi, who they knew was innocent. But first, they needed to show the DA conclusive proof that Altimio and not Caposi had committed the Delaware Park rapes. Police evidence files had long since discarded the rape kits from the assaults Caposi was wrongfully convicted of. But detectives managed to track down a hospital file at the Erie County Medical Center that contained slides from every rape patient they treated between 1973 and 2002. The DNA contained in those slides finally linked Altimio to the 1983 and 1984 rapes that Caposi had been convicted for. After spending nearly 22 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, 49-year-old Anthony Caposie was exonerated on April 2, 2007.

He was subsequently awarded $4.25 million by the state of New York for his wrongful imprisonment. As for Altimio, police still have no idea why the bike path killer resumed his crimes after such a long pause, and attempts to get an explanation from the murderer have yielded nothing. But the comforting thought is that, just like those queries, Altimio Sanchez is going nowhere. Thanks again for tuning it to serial killers. We'll be back soon with a new episode. For more information on Altimio Sanchez, Amongst the many sources we used, we found Bike Path Rapist,

a cop's firsthand account of catching the killer who terrorized a community by Jeff Schober and Detective Dennis Delano, extremely helpful to our research. You can find more episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from podcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. Have a killer week. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from podcast. Harcast. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cutler, sound design by Jay Cohen, with production

assistance by Ron Shapiro, Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Bruce Kitovich. This episode of Serial Killers was written by Brian Petrus, with writing assistance by Abigail Cannon, fact-checking by Cheyenne Lopez, and research by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood. Serial Killers stars Greg Paulson and Vanessa Richardson. Hey there, Carter again. As we close out, here's a reminder to check out my new Parcast Limited Series Devious Dads. For 10 weeks, we're exposing the men who were far more flawed than fatherly, ruining anyone who stood in their way, even their own families.

Follow Devious Dads free only on Spotify. Do you want to hear something? Spooky. Some monster. It reminded me. 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 podcast. 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 Hicks. 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 podcasts.