Illinois detective writes book about serial killer Timothy Krajcir

Paul Echols has seen into the soul of a serial killer and is sharing the experience in his new book "In Cold Pursuit: My Hunt for Timothy Krajcir -- The Notorious Serial Killer," which he co-wrote with journalist Christine Byers.

"It's a rare opportunity to look into the soul of a person who has committed so many evil deeds," wrote the former Carbondale, Ill., Police Department detective in the epilogue of the book, which was released this month.

From 1977 to 1982, Timothy Krajcir murdered nine women, five of them in Cape Girardeau. Echols and Byer gave Krajcir nine and a half pages in the collaboration, where readers get a glimpse of Cape Girardeau's only convicted serial killer.

"It's not a platform for him to defend himself, I would have never allowed that," said Echols, now a criminal justice instructor at Shawnee Community College near Ullin, Ill. "He talks about how he is sorry for what he did. He explains what he's like. I thought readers might be interested in what he may have to say."

Krajcir's motivation behind the murders is what most people are curious about, Byers said, giving the bits and pieces of his letters value. Krajcir's statements appear at the end of the book.

Paul Echols

"And when you read it you kind of see that he himself can't explain it much at all. I think it was valuable in that there wasn't a magic answer to be had here," said Byers, a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Before Krajcir's words, though, are those of Echols and how the case against the now 67-year-old convicted murderer and rapist developed once Echols reopened a 1982 Carbondale murder investigation he worked at the beginning of his career. The victim was Deborah Sheppard, a Southern Illinois University student who was killed two blocks from her apartment. Echols reopened her case in 2006.

Krajcir was tied to the crime after an Illinois State Police crime lab retested a piece of evidence for DNA. His confession to Sheppard's murder, and the eight others, came in 2007, after Echols partnered with other law enforcement, including Detective Jim Smith in Cape Girardeau.

"Along the way, we started realizing he had other secrets he was hiding," Echols said. "That's detailed step by step in the book. This didn't just fall in our laps. It didn't happen overnight."

The day of Krajcir's conviction -- he received 13 life sentences for the killings -- is when Echols first met Byers. The duo met a number of times in Carbondale afterward to talk about the case. Echols said Byers was a "giant help" in writing the book, because she was able to take his wording -- often law enforcement jargon -- and make it digestible.

"I journaled everything that took place," Echols said. "It certainly helped to keep the story line in order, and we made a good team. You don't jump into something like this without realizing there's a lot of work involved."

Interviewing Krajcir

Hearing Krajcir confess to the nine murders, especially Sheppard's killing in Carbondale, seemed almost surreal, Echols said.

"I had tried to imagine in my mind exactly what took place on that night," Echols said. "It was kind of like putting a puzzle together where you've got about a dozen pieces that you just can't figure out where they go."

Shortly after Krajcir's conviction in 2007, Echols was contacted by a book agent in New York City. He said he had ethical concerns about writing a novel and turned down the offer. It was after discussions with his department and his family that he agreed. The bulk of the writing, he said, took place from May to July last year.

"Some of my criteria for writing the book were to be ethical, honest, and to have nothing graphic in it. I had to make sure it was done in an appropriate way," Echols said.

Echols will sign copies of "In Cold Pursuit," from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Hastings Books, Music and Video.

Any profits made from book sales are donated to a memorial scholarship in the criminal justice program at SIU in honor of Krajcir's victims.

"In Cold Pursuit" is the third book about Krajcir. "Serial Murder 101" by then-Southeast Missourian reporter Bridget DiCosmo, was published in 2009, and "Predator" by Steven Walker was published in 2010.

ehevern@semissourian.com

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