PSYCHOLOGY +

Westley Allan Dodd

Westley Allan Dodd The Vancouver Child Killer

disclaimer : this will not include any imagery, but i will give some links.

A pedophile, rapist and a murderer. When he was 13, he began exposing himself to children in his neighborhood. By the time he entered high school, Dodd had progressed to child molestation, beginning with his younger cousins, and then neighborhood children he offered to babysit, as well as the children of a woman his father was dating. At the age of 15, Dodd was arrested for indecent exposure, but police released him with a recommendation of juvenile counseling.

In August 1981, at the age of 20, Dodd tried to abduct two girls, who reported him to the police. No action was taken. The following month, he enlisted in the US Navy, and was assigned to the submarine base in Bangor, Washington, where he began abusing children who lived on the base.

Once, Dodd offered a group of boys $50 to accompany him to a motel room for a game of strip poker. This time, he was arrested. Despite confessing to police that he planned to molest the boys, he was released, with no charges filed. Shortly afterwards, he was arrested again for exposing himself to a boy and was dishonorably discharged from the Navy. Dodd spent 19 days in jail and underwent court-ordered counselling. In May 1984, he was arrested for molesting a 10 year old boy but received only a suspended sentence. He moved into an apartment block that housed families with children, and worked at fast food restaurants, as a charity truck driver, and other such jobs. He repeatedly molested the pre-school-aged children of a neighbor, but the woman declined to press charges, fearing the experience would be too traumatic for her children.

In 1987, Dodd tried to lure a young boy into a vacant building, but the boy refused to go with him and instead told the police. Prosecutors were aware of Dodd's history of sexual offenses and recommended five years in prison. However, once again, Dodd received minimal punishment because he had not actually touched the boy or exposed himself. He was placed on probation and ordered to seek psychiatric treatment. After finishing probation, he stopped going to treatment and moved to Vancouver, Washington, where he was hired as a shipping clerk.

In the early autumn of 1989, Dodd decided that David Douglas Park in Vancouver, a large, heavily wooded park with several secluded trails, would be a good place to find potential victims. He was arrested several times over the next few years for child molestation, each time serving short jail sentences and being given court-mandated therapy. Dodd's sexual fantasies became increasingly violent over the years; he would later say, "The more I thought about it, the more exciting the idea of murder sounded. I planned many ways to kill a boy."

William James Neer age 10 and his brother Cole LaVern Neer  age 11.

On September 4, 1989 Dodd went to Vancouver's David Douglas Park, with a fish fillet knife and shoelaces, and sought out young boys to kill. Dodd spotted Cole and his brother William. He convinced the boys to follow him off the path and into the woods, where he bound them to a tree with shoelaces and sexually abused them. He then stabbed them to death and fled the scene. Less than 15 minutes later, a teenage hiker found their bodies.

Dodd spent the next few weeks watching Vancouvers manhunt from a distance, filling a scrapbook with press clippings, killing time with masturbation and his diary until the blood lust drove him out to hunt again. Toward the end of October, Dodd plotted his next attack. He was frightened that he would be arrested for the murders of Billy and Cole Neer at David Douglas Park, but when he realized that the police didn't have any solid clues, he began to think about killing again.

Lee Joseph Iseli age 4

On October 29, 1989. Dodd drove across the river into nearby Portland, Oregon, and there he abducted the 4 year old from the playground of the Richmond Elementary School. He took the boy to his apartment, where he molested and photographed the boy in the nude. Dodd choked the boy unconscious and killed him with a rope. He put the boy in his closet.