Loren Herzog and Wesley Shermantine

Loren Joseph Herzog and Wesley Howard Shermantine, Jr., a.k.a. "The Speed Freak Killer", were a pair of serial killers and rapists.

Background
Both were born in the town of Linden, California and lived a street away from each other. Loren once told Detective Deborah Scheffel that there wasn't to many kids to play with there, so Wesley was his only friend. Shermantine's father would usually take both boys to hunting and fishing until they were old enough to go on their own. Loren had a brief affair with a woman named Kim Vanderheiden, older sister of Cindi Vanderheiden, who would later become one of his victims. They remained best friends through their high school years and adulthood. They also took pleasure in bullying other individuals, drinking and using drugs, especially, methamphetamine, in their apartment.

Murders, Arrest and Incarceration
Shortly after graduating from Linden High School, they began their killing spree, Howard King and Paul Cavanaugh were their first victims, both shoot to death in their car. In the same year, Shermantine fatally shoot a man named Henry Powell, both cases went unsolved until their arrest. A year later, the nude body of Robin Armtrout was found, she was stabbed to death. Later, woman named Chevelle "Chevy" Wheeler had skipped class to meet with Shermantine but was was kidnapped by him and presumably raped before being killed by unknown causes. Desperate to find Chevy, a search warrant was requested and in Shermantine's hunting cabin, police found negative-type blood, Chevy also had negative blood, but this was not enough to prove that Chevy was killed there. The case went cold until DNA testings were available, results showed that the blood was most likely from Chevy. According to Herzog, Shermantine had also killed an unnamed hunter who had crossed their way on 1994, shooting him to death. On 1998, Cyndi Vanderheiden approached Herzog and Shermantine in a bar and asked for drugs, she was kidnapped by them and raped by Shermantine, she was dragged to an isolated place and stabbed to death. Her body was put inside Shermantine's car and dumped in a different place. Both were finally arrested on March 17, 1999 for the murder of Vanderhaiden after her blood was found inside Shermantine's car. In prison, Shermantine denied any involvement with Chevelle Wheeler or Cynthia Vanderheiden, despite the fact that her blood was found in his car. Shermantine was convicted for the murder of Howard King, Paul Cavanaugh, Chevelle Wheeler and Cyndi Vanderheiden. Shermantine subsequently offered to reveal the location of Vanderheiden's body in exchange for 20,000 dollars, this request was denied. Shermantine was sentenced to death after denying to reveal his victims' bodies and Herzog was convicted for the first murders and for being present during later murders but was later thrown out when he said that investigators forced him to. Herzog served 14 years and released but commited suicide shortly after. Wesley finally reveals the location of Vanderheiden's body and she was found in Calaveras County, identified via dental records. Along with Vanderheiden, the body of Chevelle Wheeler was also found. One day later, more remains were found in Linden.

Modus Operandi
Both men killed only for fun and sport, they would go "hunting", murdering random people by shooting them to death. In some instances, they kidnapped their female victims and raped them, before dumping their bodies in Calaveras County.

Known Victims

 * 1984
 * Unspecified date: Howard King and Paul Cavanaugh
 * September: Henry Howell
 * 1985
 * September 14: Robin Armtrout
 * October 16: Chevelle Wheeler
 * 1994
 * Unnamed hunter
 * 1998
 * November 18: Cynthia Vanderheiden

On Criminal Minds
Herzog and Shermantine were mentioned in the episode Burn, as an example of killers who first killed as a way to find out which is the most satisfying way to kill a person.