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Jerry Lee DUNBAR
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Drugs
- Kept decomposing bodies in his motel rooms
Number of victims: 2
Date of murders: May/June 1989
Date of birth: 1961
Victims profile: Deirdre
Smith, 27 / Marilyn Graham, 29
Method of murder: Strangulation
Location: Fairfax/Alexandria,
Virginia, USA
Status: Sentenced to life in prison on January 12, 1990
In Virginia in 1989, Jerry Lee Dunbar
disposed of the remains of two victims this way: 27-year-old Deirdre
Smith, who was discovered in May under the floor of a motel room on
Route 1, and 29-year-old Marilyn Graham, who turned up in June under a
bed in the Alexandria Econo Lodge.
In Smith's case, the killer first kept
her body partially hidden under his bed for two days, then subsequently
placed it in the crawl space under the carpeted floor. Her presence
seemingly didn't bother him, because he didn't move out of that room
until three or four weeks later. Both girls' bodies were eventually
found after other guests complained about the stink.
Motel Slayer Convicted Of
Alexandria Murder; 2nd Woman's Body Found Under Bed
By Robert F. Howe - The Washington Post
December 2, 1989
Jerry Lee Dunbar, who
pleaded guilty Monday to murdering a woman in a Fairfax County motel
in May, was found guilty in Alexandria Circuit Court yesterday of
strangling a woman at an Alexandria motel just days after the first
crime.
Dunbar, who waived the right to a jury trial,
was pronounced guilty of first-degree murder by Circuit Judge Donald H.
Kent in the 90-minute trial. The 28-year-old Alexandrian will be
sentenced Jan. 9 and faces possible life imprisonment.
Dunbar, who was arrested the day after the
Alexandria victim's body was found, told police that he took the woman
to the motel, where they drank beer and used cocaine...
Pain, Regret At Murderer's
Sentencing; Family Members Recall Va. Victim
DeNeen L. Brown - The Washington Post
January 13, 1990
Deirdre Smith's family needed to meet the man who
killed their daughter and stuffed her body under the floor of a
motel room on Route 1. They came to Fairfax County to size him up,
and when he was sentenced yesterday to life in prison for first-degree
murder, they left satisfied, they said, that the man was "nothing."
They were only sorry, they said, that he thought
Smith, 27, a former debutante turned cocaine addict whose decomposed
body was found in May, was not more than that.
Jerry Lee Dunbar, 28, a meat
cutter with no fixed address, also was sentenced Tuesday in the June
murder of a 29-year-old woman in Alexandria, whose body was found under
a motel bed.
SEX: M RACE: B TYPE: T MOTIVE:
Sex.
MO: Strangled women after sex;
kept decomposing bodies in his motel rooms.
DISPOSITION: Convicted on two
counts, 1990.
Michael Newton - An Encyclopedia of Modern
Serial Killers
