Police are reluctant to label a murder as a possible serial homicide.

Most well-known serial killers have victims numbering in the dozens, have sent taunting letters to the police or have done bizarre things to the bodies.

While there are many wonderful police investigators out there doing some very fine work, the majority of the time it is not brains that catches serial killers.

We assume people we know can't be serial killers.

Often, a serial killer has no felony record.

In reality, serial killers are of average intelligence.