David Carpenter

David Joseph Carpenter, a.k.a. "The Trailside Killer", is a convicted serial killer and rapist who was active during the 1970s and 1980s.

Background
Carpenter was born and raised in San Fransisco, California. His father was an abusive alcoholic and his mother was very domineering and also abused him. By the age of seven, he was stuttering so badly that it was impossible for him to socialize. As a result, he was often teased. He was also forced to take part in extracurricular activities such as ballet and violin lessons, which only led to more teasing. Later, he wet the bed and engaged in animal torture, two of the three indicators of the MacDonald Triad. At the age of 17, he was jailed for molesting two of his younger cousins. Released after only a year, he continued molesting children until he got married in 1955 and had three children, Michael David, Gabrielle Louise and Circe Anne. Over the years, Carpenter made a living working various jobs, including as a salesman and as a printer. He also did some service in the Coast Guard, from which he was honorably discharged. Though Carpenter constantly demanded sex from his wife, he continued stalking women. In 1960, Carpenter befriended a woman and lured her into the woods in Presidio, where he bound her with clothesline, beat her with a hammer and stabbed her in the hand. Luckily, a military patrol officer caught him in the act. Carpenter fired at him with a gun, but missed and was injured by return fire and arrested.

The next year, Carpenter was sentenced to a total of 14 years in prison for one count of assault with intent to commit murder and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon. While he was serving his sentence, his wife divorced him and he was found by the prison psychiatrists to have sociopathic personality disorder and an IQ of 125. He was released after serving only nine years and quickly remarried, though his second marriage also failed. From the end of January until the beginning of February, he committed a series of attacks against women. On January 27 all in one day, he forced a woman out of her car by hitting it with his own and tried to rape her. Though he stabbed her, she got away and was able to remember his license plate number. He then broke into another woman's home, kidnapped her, raped her and stole her car. On February 3, he stole a woman's car and then raped another woman. Her infant child was present during the attack and was treated well by Carpenter, who was arrested the same day. While awaiting trial, he tried to escape along with four other inmates, but was caught quickly. He made a plea bargain and was convicted of robbery and kidnapping. Not long after he was paroled to a federal halfway house in May of 1979, he is believed to have escalated to murder. While he was committing murders, Carpenter took courses in computer printing at the California Trade School. After getting his degree, he got a job as a typesetter instructor.

Killings, Arrest and Incarceration
Carpenter's first suspected victim was 44-year-old Edda Kane, who went hiking in the Mount Tamalpais State Park on August 19. She was found the next day, shot in the back of the head with a .44. In September, Carpenter was released from the halfway house and moved in with his parents. On October 21, he stabbed Mary Frances Bennett to death, a crime he wasn't connected to until decades later. He didn't kill again until March the following year, when he stabbed Barbara Schwartz, who was walking her dog. A witness saw the whole attack, ran for help and gave the rangers a description of the attackers, though it later turned out to have been wrong. When a pair of prison issue glasses were found at the crime scene, investigators looked for suspects among convicted sex offenders, but found no good leads. Meanwhile, Carpenter, who had been injured during the attack, claimed to have been injured during a robbery. He bought a new pair of glasses for himself, but because he didn't fit the description, he wasn't suspected. In October, Carpenter killed Anne Alderson, who went jogging in the woods. In late November, Carpenter claimed another victim, Shauna May, raping and killing her and leaving her near the body of another victim, Diana O'Connell. A further search uncovered the bodies of a murdered couple, Rick Stowers and Cindy Moreland. By now, people were becoming aware that a predator was active in the area and were warned to stay away from nature paths. Possibly in order to change his M.O., Carptenter lured his last known victim, Heather Scaggs, by arranging with her to sell her a used car. After her disappearance, the investigators, now a multi-agency task force consisting of local law enforcement as well as FBI, took an interest in Carpenter due to his connection to the victim and prior sex offenses; he hadn't shown up in prior searches of released sex offenders because he was technically serving a federal sentence even though he was free. When Carpenter was arrested, the investigators searched his car and found several guides to local hiking trails. They also later recovered the .38 Carpenter used in his killings, which he had left with a friend. There were also several witnesses who placed him and his car at the locations of several attacks. On May 24, the body of Heather Scaggs was found hidden under some bushes. Of the then eight murders attributed to Carpenter, he wasn't charged with those of Edda Kane and Barbara Schwartz due to a lack of evidence and wasn't charged with the murder of Heather Scaggs. Put on trial, Carpenter was found guilty of the first-degree murders of Rick Stowers, Cindy Moreland, Anne Alderson, Diana O'Connell and Shauna May and was sentenced to be executed via gas chamber. In 2009, San Fransisco police reexamined evidence from the 1979 murder of Mary Frances Bennett and connected her death to Carpenter with DNA evidence. He remains on the San Quentin death row to this day. At the age of 84, he is the oldest member there.

Modus Operandi
Carpenter primarily targeted young women who were hiking in the woods. After subduing them with a blitz attack, he would kill them either by shooting them with a handgun execution-style or by stabbing them, sometimes also binding them with wire or clothesline. During his later murders, he would also rape his female victims.

Known Victims

 * Unspecified date in 1947: His two unnamed cousins, 8 and 3
 * Unspecified dates in 1948 to 1955: Numerous unnamed children
 * July 1960:
 * Lois DeAndrade
 * Officer Wayne Hicks
 * 1970:
 * January 27:
 * Cheryl Lynn Smith
 * Wilma Joyce
 * January 29: Sharon O'Donnell
 * February 3: Barbara
 * 1979:
 * August 19: Edda Kane, 44
 * October 21: Mary Frances Bennett, 23
 * 1980:
 * March 8: Barbara Schwartz, 23
 * October 11: Rick Stowers and Cindy Moreland
 * Richard "Rick" Stowers, 19
 * Cindy Moreland, 18
 * October 15: Anne Alderson, 26
 * November 28:
 * Diana O'Connell, 22
 * Shauna May
 * May 2, 1981: Heather Scaggs, 20

On Criminal Minds
Carpenter was mentioned during a flashback in Tabula Rasa when Morgan remarks that the unsub also attacks high-risk victims in low-risk locations. Reid also remarks that Carpenter used blitz attacks while the unsub approaches his victims with a ruse. Carpenter may also have been part of the inspiration for the Footpath Killer, as they had similar nicknames, stuttered, attacked people in the wilderness, used blitz attacks, and killed them with shots to the head.