In coming weeks, experts working out of the FBI’s behavioral sciences unit will create a psychological profile of the serial arsonist whom authorities blame for starting as many as 20 fires in the Park Ridge area since April.
The profile is the latest tactic by officials trying to find the person responsible for setting fires in Park Ridge, Niles and on Chicago’s Far Northwest Side. Investigators said they believe the same perpetrator is behind a string of suspicious fires, including one that began Saturday morning in a vacant storefront once occupied by a dry-cleaning shop at 1333 W. Dempster St.
By enlisting the help of FBI agents, Park Ridge police hope to catch the arsonist who has eluded them for several months and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage.
“A profile would give us more of an idea of who we’re looking for as far as a suspect,” said Park Ridge Police Chief Robert Colangelo.
And while federal authorities won’t make public their detailed study, local police and arson experts say an accurate profile of the suspect can be pieced together from the telltale clues left behind at every crime scene.
Each crumb of evidence, from the type of accelerant used to the kinds of buildings targeted, provides investigators with a window into the suspect’s mind and method, authorities suggest.
“A crime scene to a profiler is similar to what a fingerprint is to a fingerprint expert,” said Bob Long, spokesman for the FBI’s Chicago office. “We find that the personality traits are very similar in cases where the crime scenes are very similar.”
Police say the evidence gathered so far suggests this much about the arsonist: The perpetrator likes to strike late at night or in the early hours when the chances of getting caught are slim. He or she also probably lives in the area.
Authorities also think the arsonist doesn’t want to hurt anybody. Because only unoccupied buildings and trash bins have been targeted so far, authorities suspect the perpetrator lights fires for the “thrill factor” and the attention.
“He’s liking the fact that all of the television stations are doing stories about him,” said Chicago Police Capt. Tom Cronin, who spent a year studying with the FBI’s behavioral sciences team. “That’s making him feel good. It’s soothing that inadequate personality of his.”
Cronin, who is not involved in the Park Ridge case, is one of only 32 people in the country who has trained with the FBI’s profiling unit. He has created profiles of serial killers and arsonists for the Chicago Police Department and other agencies.
Compulsive arsonists, Cronin said, have a tendency to target structures within their community. As they become bolder, they begin to “spiral” out and expand into nearby areas.
So far, police say the perpetrator has kept to a 10-block radius in Park Ridge, Niles and northwest Chicago. But investigators in neighboring Evanston believe a serial arsonist is responsible for at least a dozen trash bin fires in the north suburb since late May. Officials don’t know whether they’re dealing with the same suspect.
In assembling a portrait of a serial arsonist, profilers begin by gathering all of the available evidence and looking for connections between the crime scenes. They send the information to the FBI’s headquarters in Quantico, Va., where the federal agency maintains a huge database for its Violent Criminal Apprehension Program.
The program tracks thousands of crimes throughout the country, including those of confessed arsonists, Long said. Using the database, the profiler may be able to find arsonists who have committed similar crimes and who can give them an idea of the suspect they’re investigating.
“It’s about 65 to 70 percent accurate in giving a personality profile,” Long said.
Still, profiles provided by the FBI have proved helpful to local agencies. In 1986, Park Ridge police used an FBI profile to catch an arsonist suspected of setting four house fires, officials said. More recently, in 1993, Elmhurst police arrested a 21-year-old drifter with the help of an FBI profile.
“What you’re doing with a profile is looking to narrow the scope of an investigation to a few individuals,” Cronin said.
