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The Australian peering into themind of America's worst serialkiller

Washington: Angela Williamson is the first to admit it: "I was a very weird child."

Growing up in Bundaberg, Williamson dreamed of being Dana Scully, the FBIagent and medical doctor played by Gillian Anderson in The X-Files.

At eight years old, she decided she would undertake a PhD in science. It was adecision that put the Queenslander on the unlikely path to a career overseeingDNA testing on some of America’s most famous criminal cases - including themurder of child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey.

WORLD NORTH AMERICA CRIME

By Matthew Knott

November 10, 2019 — 5.20am

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Last year Williamson played a key role in identifying the most prolific serial killerin American history: Samuel Little, a 79-year-old man who is believed to havemurdered 93 women across 19 states.

Williamson, 42, is a senior official at the US Department of Justice and serves as aliaison to a special FBI unit for violent crimes. Her focus is cracking open coldcases - specifically murders and sexual assaults - that have remained unsolved formany years.

More than a job, it's an obsession.

"These are the underdog cases, the people who have been left behind," Williamsontells The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in an interview near her office inWashington, DC.

Although she has lived in the US for more than a decade, Williamson retains anAustralian accent and dry sense of humour. "There is a lot of job security here,"she says, referring to the higher rate of serial killings in the US than in Australia.

Williamson is used to working behind the scenes, but her role in the Little casehas pushed her into the spotlight.

The week before our interview she was in Chicago giving a presentation to theworld’s top police chiefs, and she recently featured on the US version of 60Minutes. In August, the International Homicide Investigators Associationpresented her with an award for investigative excellence.

Queensland-born Angela Williamson, a forensics expert at the Department of Justice. JOSHUA

YOSPYN

Department of Justice official Angela Williamson receives an award from the InternationalHomicide Investigators Association alongside colleagues James Holland and ChristiePalazzolo.

Her involvement in the Little case began in December 2017 at a law enforcementconference in Tampa, Florida. Williamson was chatting to a Texas Ranger namedJames Holland, an expert at interviewing sociopaths and psychopaths. The pairwere approached by some local officers who asked whether they knew anythingabout a man named Samuel Little.

Little was in jail in California for killing three women, but the officialssuspected he had also committed murders in Florida.

A few months later, Holland called Williamson and said they ought to take a lookat "this Little guy". She turned to her colleague, Christie Palazzolo, and asked ifshe had heard of him. She had, and suspected he may have murdered a woman inOdessa, Texas.

They had no reason to believe that Little would admit anything, or even talk tothem; he had always maintained his innocence. But they decided to give it a go.

"We thought: what's the worst that can happen?" Williamson says. "He tells us tobugger off."

Williamson, Palazzolo and Holland travelled unannounced to the Los Angeles jailwhere Little was incarcerated and asked to speak to him. Holland interviewedLittle while Williamson and Palazzolo observed from a separate room. ("He hadsome issues with women," she notes wryly.)

The first half hour or so was unproductive but then, when asked about Odessa,Little admitted to killing a woman there. "We had this crime scene photo in frontof us and he was describing it down to the colour of the victim's shirt," Williamsonrecalls. "We thought: 'Wow, we've got something here!' "

Samuel Little is believed to be the most prolific serial killer in US history. AP

Then, over 49 straight days of questioning, Little confessed to murder aftermurder - more than those of Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer and the Manson Familycombined. Most of the women were on society's fringes: prostitutes, drug addicts,people he figured the police wouldn't work hard to find.

Although Williamson's speciality is forensics, there was next to no DNA evidenceavailable for these cases. Her main role was combing through crime databases,searching newspaper clippings and contacting local police departments toconnect Little's confessions to specific victims.

So far the team has been able to corroborate 51 of Little’s confessed killings, andanother 12 confirmations are pending. In October the FBI announced it believedall Little's confessions are credible.

"He says he chose people who wouldn't be missed, but he was wrong about that,"Williamson says. "The relatives are often overwhelmed to find out whathappened. We notified a sister of one victim just this past weekend."

Williamson, who earned her PhD at the University of Queensland, first came tothe US in 2002 when George Washington University recruited her to help developa vaccine for infectious diseases.

After taking a class in forensic scienceat the university, she decided tochange her career path. This was herchance to live out her childhood dreamof being Dana Scully - albeit withoutthe paranormal elements. After a fewyears working in Queensland, shereturned to the US to take up a role atBode Technology. The firm operatesone of the world's top private DNAlaboratories and was responsible foridentifying victims of the September 11attacks - a task that continues to thisday.

While working as the company's headof forensic case work, Williamsonoversaw the DNA testing of JonBenetRamsey's longjohns in 2008. "I used a Queensland sampling method that otherlabs weren't using over here at the time," she says. The evidence led investigatorsto formally clear Ramsey's immediate family members of her murder, whichremains unsolved.

She also oversaw the DNA testing that led to the release of the West MemphisThree - a notorious group of Arkansas teenagers accused of killing three youngboys - after 18 years in jail.

JonBenet Ramsey's murder remains unsolved. AP

Asked how she copes with the macabre crimes she encounters, Williamson says:"People say there is no crying in baseball - well there is no crying at crime scenes.

"You have to compartmentalise things ... For all the evil people you come across,you also meet people who are dedicating their lives to making the world betterand safer."

The public's biggest misconception about forensic evidence, she says, is that thereis "a magic computer where you put in the DNA profile and the guy's face, socialsecurity and address pops up".

"That doesn't happen. It can be tedious, backbreaking work. You have to berelentless and keep plugging away."

There have been several advances in DNA technology over Williamson's career,but she says a recent "gamechanger" has been the growth of genetic genealogyservices used to trace family trees. They allow investigators to identify criminalsamong the relatives of those who upload their DNA profiles.

Joseph DeAngelo, the so-called Golden State Killer, was arrested in April 2018after police used  public genealogy databases to link him to DNA from the crimescenes.

While there are obvious privacy concerns about the practice, Williamson says it isinvaluable in solving crimes and providing justice to victims' families.

"There are 240,000 unsolved homicides in this country and that is too many," shesays. "Everyone's story deserves an ending."

Angela Williamson's big cases

Samuel Little: The former cemetery worker and ambulance attendant isbelieved to be the most prolific serial killer in US history. In 2014 he wassentenced to life in prison for killing three women in California in the late1980s, but law enforcement officials long suspected him of committing

The men known as the West Memphis Three, pictured in 2011 after their release. New testingfound no DNA evidence found at the crime scene could be linked to the jailed men. AP

other murders. He has now confessed to 93 killings and 51 of these havebeen corroborated by investigators.

JonBenet Ramsey: The child beauty queen was killed at age six in herfamily home in Boulder, Colorado. An unusually long ransom note -demanding $US118,000 for the child's return - was found in the Ramseys'house. Police initially suspected JonBenet's mother Patsy of writing thenote, but this has never been proven. In 2008 Boulder's District Attorneypublicly exonerated the Ramsey family after commissioning a new DNAanalysis at the private firm where Williamson worked.

The West Memphis Three: In 1994, three Arkansas teenagers known as theWest Memphis Three were convicted of killing three boy scouts as part of asatanic ritual. Celebrities such as Johnny Depp and Eddie Vedder wereconvinced the teenagers were innocent and campaigned in their favour. In2007, new testing found no DNA evidence found at the crime scene couldbe linked to the jailed men. They were released in 2011 on a suspendedsentence.

Matthew Knott

Matthew Knott is North America correspondent for The Sydney Morning Heraldand The Age.

Angela Williamson, JonBenet Ramsey and Samuel Little. Photo: Joshua Yospyn/Wires