Script  

This is My Dark Path

On Monday, May 24th, 2004, Albert Kite, a 53-year-old from Aurora, Colorado, failed to show up for work at Carter Douglas, an engineering consulting firm in nearby Denver.  Al, as he was known among his friends and family, was not prone to lateness nor unexplained absences.  So after multiple calls to his mobile and home went unanswered, his boss, concerned that something might be amiss called his sister, Barbara, who was his emergency contact. After Al failed to respond to her calls and then their brother’s, she called the Denver police, requesting they perform a welfare check.  She lived across the country in Virginia and could not check on him herself.

Later that afternoon, the police arrived at the two-story townhouse in Aurora, a Denver suburb where Kite lived. They knocked on the door, eliciting no response, and thus decided to enter the house, fearing he might be in danger. Once inside, they quickly searched the first floor, but, finding nothing out of place, they made their way upstairs.  Again, they found nothing. Then, they proceeded downstairs to the lower floor. It was there, in the basement bedroom, that they found Kite’s body.  Al was lying facedown, with blood spatter located along the wall and the floor around his body.  The room where Al was found was a simple bedroom, ready for a tenant.  A box springs mattress rested on a metal bedframe.  Brown carpet covered the floor, and the walls of the basement apartment were painted white.

The police were shocked by the gruesome scene.  Detective Thomas Sobieski, of the Aurora Police Department, responded to the call and later became a case investigator. He said the crime scene was "the worst I'd ever seen."

Al’s hands were bound with a scord, and his feet were then tied to his hands, behind his back - he had, in essence, been hog tied.  Among the wounds inflicted on Al, was a blow to the back of his head.  This would become important as the investigators recreated the crime scene, indicated that he had been hit from behind and was likely the first strike against Al to incapacitate him.  Al had then been mercilessly tortured for several hours.  The killer had inflicted severe wounds on the bottoms of his feet. A knife had been inserted above his eyeballs and into his ears and shoulders. In all, the killer stabbed Al 22 times.  Just as horribly, his head was almost severed. 

The autopsy concluded that Al died on May 22nd, two days before the police had discovered his body.

But how and why did this happen to Al Kite?  A quiet man, he loved the outdoors, cared deeply for his work and had many dear friends and family.  What had brought on this horrible torture and murder?  Any murder is unjustified, but the uncommonly gruesome killing and the unusual circumstances make the case extraordinary.  These combine to make the theories about the murderer and his motives very disconcerting.  The true crime genre can be titillating for many – allowing people the vicarious experience of immorality and sorrow.  But cases like this remind us that evil exists and any one of us could fall victim at the most unsuspecting moment.

Hi, I’m MF Thomas and welcome to My Dark Path where I explore the fringes of history, science and the paranormal. So, if you geek out over these subjects, you’re among friends here at My Dark Path. We hope you’ll check us out on X, Youtube and Instagram, sign up for our newsletter at mydarkpath.com. We also want to thank our growing group of Patreon supporters.  In particular, I’d like to thank some of our longest supporting patreons -

Finally, thank you for listening and choosing to walk the Dark Paths of the world with me. Let’s follow one now and explore The Lasting Terror of the Al Kite Murder in this 60th episode of My Dark Path.

Part 1

But how had the killer gotten into the house? There were no signs of forced entry, after all. When the police arrived at the behest of Al’s sister in Virginia, everything had looked normal from the outside of the home.

Al's residence was a spacious two-story townhouse, with ample space that he humorously claimed was more than necessary for a middle-aged bachelor with a penchant for the outdoors. In the early 2000s, Al made a practical decision to convert the fully finished basement into an apartment with a bathroom, bedroom and living room.  But the only way into and out was through the front door. Previously, I had thought that the basement apartment was truly independent of Al’s home – instead, it was more of a wing of the home.  Al would be interacting with anyone who rented the space.  I’ve found photos of the home and the basement apartment that I’ll share on MyDarkPath.com.  So, Al’s transformation not only assisted in managing his mortgage payments but also effectively used areas of the house he didn't need.

A tenant had been renting the basement apartment for several years.  But early in 2004, he informed Al of his intention to vacate in the coming months and not renew their lease. Following his departure in May 2004, Al initiated the search for a new occupant. He placed some ads, attracting interest from several potential renters.  And one man, in particular, seemed to be a good match and he arrived on May 18th, 2004 to meet Al in person and tour the basement apartment.

Oakey Albert Kite, Jr.,was born on May 7th, 1951, in rural Nash County, North Carolina, the son of Oakey Albert Kite, Sr., a distinguished dog trainer and entrepreneur, and his wife, Edith Davis Kite. The family also included an older daughter, Barbara. The younger Oake later adopted the nickname "Al," presumably to stand out from his father. The family was a nurturing environment.

But tragically, Al's mother, Edith, passed away at just 48 years old.  Al was just eighteen at the time and the loss was profound for the entire family. Nevertheless, Al thrived. His high school years at Weldon High School were notable for his friendship with Gail Kay, a bond that persisted after high school despite Al leaving the area to attend college.

Al attended Atlantic Christian College in Wilson, North Carolina, just about an hour away from home, where he earned a degree in business administration. In 1971 with his degree in hand, Al got a job with Stone & Webster, an engineering giant.  His first position was at the Surry Nuclear Plant, about an hour-and-a-half southeast of Richmond, Virginia. After working in an entry level time keeper position, he was eventually promoted to an accountant, then again to a position as a Department Head.

A few years after joining Stone & Webster, he married his high school friend - Gail Kay - in 1976.  He also included Gail’s young daughter Julie, into their family.  Al and his family relocated with Stone & Webster to other sites including Massachusetts, Texas, New York, Nevada, Wyoming and Tennessee. He even worked overseas in Algeria in Northern Africa.  Al and Gail ultimately divorced in 1988, but he remained close to his stepdaughter.

After the divorce, Stone & Webster relocated Al again, this time to California.  There, he worked on projects at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, San Francisco International Airport and Bay Area Rapid Transit. 

In 1998, he was transferred to Colorado. The opportunity was exciting for Al, as the location brought him closer to the outdoor activities he loved, such as golfing, biking, hiking, camping, and skiing. He jumped at the opportunity for another move—one that would be his last.

Al Kite moved to Aurora, Colorado - an area on the outskirts of Denver's metropolitan area – and he bought a townhome in Aurora on South Helena Street.  The townhouse had two stories plus a basement -providing more room than he needed.  When I first heard about the case and it’s location, I spent a Saturday afternoon driving to his townhome.  I found a parking place and found the home.  Like when I found the Amityville Horror House, I resisted the temptation to knock on the door and ask the current owners what they felt.  In both cases, the house is a home to a family, not an exhibit at a sideshow.  So I satisfied my interest simply by walking the neighborhood, trying to imagine how it would have felt to be one of Al’s neighbors…and to have been so close to such a horrible event yet be ignorant to it until the police arrived.

While the date is uncertain, it was soon after he moved to the townhouse that he decided to convert the basement into an apartment and rent it. This extra income was no doubt helpful, as he was laid off by Stone & Webster in 2002. But soon, he found a new position with an engineering consulting firm.

Al’s life changed in some dramatic ways in 2004.  First, as I mentioned, the long-term tenant renting his basement apartment decided to move out, making the apartment available for a new tenant in May.  Second, he began dating a woman Linda Angelopulos…and soon the relationship became even more serious.

And Al, preparing for May when his basement would be vacant, started advertising for a new tenant. 

Part 2

Sometime in May 2004, someone responded to Al's ad to rent his basement apartment.  The prospective renter introduced himself as Robert Cooper.  He told Kite that he had just moved from the East coast and had taken a job with Wells Fargo in the Denver area. 

As someone who manages my rentals, I know the relief that Al must have felt as he talked with Cooper over the phone.  Cooper knew how to put a landlord at ease – he had a job with a big, stable company, had local family in the area and needed an apartment quickly.  These characteristics would signal stability and normalcy – just the qualities a landlord would want in a renter.

And so, over the phone, they agreed to meet so Cooper could tour the basement apartment.  But while he was inspecting his potential new apartment, something happened that Cooper seemingly wanted to avoid.  Kite’s girlfriend, Linda Angelopulos, stopped by.  Al thought it would be nice for her to meet his potential new tenant.  She stepped into the bathroom for a moment, but within that time, Cooper came upstairs and quickly excused himself and left before she could introduce himself.  Linda later commented, “He did not want me to see him at all.”  Although she never met him face to face nor talked with him, she made some observations about him.  She said he had dark, wavy hair, was well-dressed, and was in his 40s. She also noted that he walked with a limp and used a cane.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, she wasn’t impressed with the potential renter – and was happy to hear that he had told Al that he didn’t want to rent the apartment as he left.

But later, Cooper contacted Al again and told him that he did, in fact, want the apartment and wanted to move in soon.  So, they agreed to meet on May 18th so Cooper could give Al his rental application, a security deposit, and the first month's rent.  In turn, Al gave Cooper a key. And just like that, within just a day, Robert Cooper, the killer, had access.

There's some disagreement on the dates here.  Several accounts describe their meeting as being on May 19th, while others say the 18th.  I also believed that the initial visit, the dissatisfying meeting with Linda and the handover of the deposit, first month’s rent and key all occurred on this date.  For all of those events to have taken place at the same time…seemed unreasonable.  So, I’ve found a reference that describes a more reasonable sequence of events – that Cooper did his first inspection on a date earlier than the 18th and it was on that same day he narrowly avoided talking with Linda.  An article from 2019 said that Linda had her chance encounter with Cooper weeks before the 18th.  But whenever that first meeting and tour occurred, Cooper returned on the 18th to pay Al and collect the key.  This is much more reasonable…but I’ve reached out to several people at the Aurora Police department to try to get confirmation.  

This timeline also makes more sense given another odd and disturbing fact.  At the same time Robert Cooper was interacting with Al in May – talking with him on the phone and touring the apartment, he was also interacting with other landlords in the same way.  Cooper was casing multiple apartments and landlords in the Denver area.  I can’t find the exact number of the other landlords Cooper evaluated…but from the stories I’ll share, it would be at least 2 more.

So, just consider this.  The man who called himself Robert Cooper was so invested in killing…that he spent a considerable amount of time in May selecting his victim.

I’m envisioning the phone call between a police officer and a landlord.  Based on Cooper’s cell phone, the police knew the landlords he’d called.  More on that cell phone later.  But the call from the police must have started as a mildly interesting.  Every response from a landlord probably started like this “sure officer – a man Robert Cooper did call me about my rental and came by to see it.  But ultimately, he decided not rent it from me.”  Then, either because the officer explained the purpose of the call or the landlord had heard of the vicious murder of Al Kite, the landlord would have had a sudden, rushing, horrible realization.  Each had been under the gaze of a sadistic killer and that something unknown had averted his gaze to another victim at the last moment.

Years ago in 2017, I had a somewhat analogous experience where my life was likely spared by chance. I had just wrapped up a team dinner in London at a restaurant overlooking the Themes river.  Some of the team had wanted to visit the nearby Borough market, so everyone agreed to go.  But the hour was somewhat late and as we walked, drawing close to the market, we realized it was closing and not worth visiting at the 10pm hour.  So the group broke up, some still thinking they’d walk in the area, but being jetlagged, I decided to take an uber back to my hotel.  When my uber pulled away, just a block away from the market, I still recall dozens of police cars racing toward the area.  I didn't think any more of it at the time until I was back in my hotel room and saw the horror of the London Bridge attack.  Three terrorists drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge before crashing the vehicle and proceeding on foot to Borough Market. The dozens of police cars had been responding to the attack.  There, they attacked people with knives before being confronted and shot dead by the police. Eight people were killed, and dozens were injured.  I’d been standing across the street just minutes before my uber had arrived.  I don’t want to make it into a dramatic event – but I still feel a chill when the memory returns…just how fate allowed me to avoid an attack that killed and injured so many.  Perhaps this is how these landlords felt, once the police called and asked them about this Robert Cooper and they realized how close they were to a life ending event. 

So, who did Cooper visit under the guise of finding a place to live?

A nearby University of Colorado professor was also renting out an apartment and Cooper had met her.  Her description was surprising, especially when compared to the characteristics Linda, Al’s girlfriend, had observed. The professor noted that Cooper spoke with a Romanian accent but did not walk with any sign of a limp or use a cane.  So, how did the professor know what a Romanian accent is?  Perhaps most Americans could identify a person who spoke with an eastern european accent but the ability to detect a specific accent seems unusual.  But apparently, this professor was very familiar with these languages…and knew how to distinguish between them.  And as police found and interviewed others who had Cooper visit them to tour their rental apartments, contradictory accounts emerged.

Some landlords thought Cooper was in his 30s, while others thought he was in his 50s. With some landlords, he had a limp and used a cane and limp.  But for others, he walked without a problem. Cooper would also alternate between American and a Romanian accents.

Still, one element was consistent among all the landlords who interacted with him—Cooper consistently changed his speech, behavior, and movement with each new landlord.

Another landlord, an older woman, reported being creeped out by the way Robert Cooper inspected her home.  She told the police that he was very interested in the windows, inspecting many of them in the home exhaustively.

The 2018 ViCAP, or Violent Criminal Apprehension Program summarizes a description

Race: White

Skin color: Fair or very fair

Sex: Male

Age: Unknown – but reported between 30 and 50

Height: 5'10"

Weight: 170-180 pounds

Hair color: Brown or black

Eye color: Brown or hazel

Distinguishing characteristics: Possible Eastern European accent

Switching between accents, faking a limp, and changing his appearance, seem to be forensic countermeasures designed to make it more difficult to discover Cooper’s real identity, or at the very least delay the police’s investigation.

But why go to all the trouble of disguising himself just to meet with these landlords?

The popular theory is that Cooper was seeking out a target and that Kite was simply a victim of circumstance. By introducing himself to the landlords as a possible renter, Cooper built up trust with them. The ruse allowed him to enter the renters’ houses and apartments without suspicion. And once he was in, he could determine which one of them was the most vulnerable.  But I find it difficult to square this idea – at least among the other landlords we know about, Al would not have been the most vulnerable person compared with some of the older females he met.  Yet, as Al lived alone, perhaps that distinguished him as the most vulnerable victim.  We don’t know…and as the police are maintaining this as an active case, these details haven’t been released.

Still, I agree with the hypothesis that he was randomly visiting properties to pick a victim for the following reason.  Robert Cooper, as we've seen, was very disciplined in planning and execution, including how he disguised his identity with every landlord he met.  If Al had been his target victim, why would he expose himself to others around the city when he already knew who he wanted to kill?  Additionally, Robert Cooper already knew of his plan to kill no later than March when he purchased the burner phone in Denver.  Had Al been his target in March, could he have known that Al would be renting an apartment later that spring?

In the end, whatever the rational of Cooper’s deranged mind, he did choose Al Kite, and murdered him brutally.

Part 3

I've tried to find a list of all the people who met with Robert Cooper during May – but found nothing definitive.  Again, I've asked the Aurora police department for something.  Since the murder is now 20 years old, I don’t expect that there’s anything new to be gained by trying to contact these witnesses…but I am interested in seeing the geographic dispersion of the properties that Cooper visited.  Where they concentrated in a specific area?  Was Al’s home in that area?  Or was there another criteria used by the killer to select apartments to visit for rent.  What was the range of monthly rents of the visited properties?  We know that Robert Cooper had no issue giving Al Kite over $700 for his deposit and first month's rent.  So, he was willing to invest to accomplish his crime.  The other question that emerges as I think about the types of properties he visited relates to how Cooper moved around the city of Denver.  If you’ve listened to episode 57 of My Dark Path, you know about the serial killer in the 1910s who was likely the Villisca axe murderer, you’ll know that the data that links over 50 murders to one killer comes partially from an analysis of the geographic locations of those crimes.

As I’ve learned over the last year or two, Denver is not a convenient city to move around in, even with a car. By the nature of Coopers movement throughout the city to visit these different properties, it seems unlikely that he was using public transportation.  That’s a hypothesis.  When Al’s body was found, police did canvass his neighborhood.  Given the astonishing planned Cooper deployed, it seems unlikely that he would have taken a bus to escape from the scene.  So, he must have left a car a short walk from Al’s home.  But investigators collected nothing useful about descriptions of unusual cars they saw parked in the neighborhood that weekend.  So, that was another dead end.

A few other facts came to light later.  When the police investigated the crime scene, the found the rental application.  It included the name Robert Cooper, his current address, his social security number, references, and a phone number.  The address, supposedly his sister’s in Denver, was a University of Colorado building.  The social security number belonged to an elderly woman who lived in Indiana.  The reference phone number called a retirement village in Aurora.

But his personal phone number on the application turned out to be a burner phone that he had purchased in March of 2004 – about 2 months before the killing.  Cooper had bought it with cash from a convenience store and waited over 30 days to activate and use it.  He knew 30 days was the period that the convenience store retained their security footage – denying police any way to see who bought it.  And, Cooper kept the phone quarantined from any other part of his life – he only used the phone to contact potential landlords.

But the University of Colorado medical school would return as a potential link to the case.  First, the convenience store where the burner phone had been purchased was just off campus.  Second, several of the vacant apartments visited by Cooper were only advertised in the medical school library.  And third, the address on his renter application was that of a university building. 

All of this would come out later, as evidence of an extraordinary level of discipline and planning. But first, the events of May 22nd need to be fully understood.

Again, I find Cooper's evil discipline to be extraordinary.  The level of planning required stretched back months before the horrible day of May 22nd.  While he didn't know Al's name on that day he bought the burner phone, he knew the horrors he'd inflict on someone in the coming months.

Part 4

So, what happened on the morning of Saturday, May 22nd?

Al was up early that morning, driving his girlfriend Linda to the airport so she could start a week-long business trip.  When he dropped her at the terminal, she said she'd call when she landed.  They spoke twice that afternoon.  At the time of the first call, he’d just completed some home repairs with a neighbor and was enjoying his Saturday.  The second call was about 3:30 mountain time that afternoon.  Later, Linda said the first call was normal with Al happy and active.  But the second call…was odd.  Al was unexpectedly terse with her.  And that was the last time she or anyone knowingly spoke or interacted with Al.  What happened the rest of the day, the last day of his life, is conjecture based on evidence.  Only man who called himself Robert Cooper knows for certain.

Linda knew Kite had talked with Cooper about getting help moving a recliner from his living room in the basement via the stairs.  It's this fact that creates the hypothesis that during the move Cooper had Al in a vulnerable position, allowing him to take Al by surprise.  This is moment where Cooper delivered the blow to the back of Al’s head that the autopsy identified later.

After the surprise attack, Cooper moved Kite to the basement bedroom where he was found by the police.  There, Cooper bound and tortured Al for hours.  I don’t think it’s necessary to repeat the horrors the Robert Cooper inflicted on Al…other than to say the wounds were designed to prolong the torture and the near decapitation, like the rest of the wounds, were excessively violent.

The autopsy determined that Al had died on the 22nd.

His evil act complete, Cooper started a rigorous effort to clean the crime scene.

First, he filled a sink with bleach then started loading it with everything he had touched or used in the murder.  The kitchen knives went in first.  Cooper had used at least 6 of them, followed by the honing or knife sharpening rod that he’d used to brutalize Al’s feet.  He also dropped a house key, a pen, and a drinking glass into the bleach.  

He proceeded to wipe down the house for fingerprints.

After that, Cooper took a shower, wore several items of Kite’s clothing, ate some food, and slept in his bed. The fact that he took the time to do so indicates that Cooper knew nobody would be in Kite’s house for a while, further supporting the theory that Cooper chose his victim based on minimizing his risk.

Given the organized nature of the murder, sleeping in Kite’s bed and wearing his clothes were not likely random events, but a part of his plan.  It served no practical purpose, but it seems that doing so satisfied some sort of psychological need or fulfilled some sort of fantasy. What that need or fantasy was, however, remains a mystery.

Sometime during the night, Cooper took Al’s GMC pickup truck and withdrew $1,000 from an ATM at a nearby Wells Fargo.  Police eventually would find the ATM and look at the security camera footage.  But Cooper had been prepared – the photo showed him wearing a ski mask that only showed his eyes and nose.  He’d also been wearing gloves while performing the withdrawl – leaving no fingerprints. 

After visiting the ATM, Cooper had driven back to Cooper’s townhouse – but instead of returning truck to the garage, he left it parked a block and half away.  Inside, he left the ATM receipt.  Then, upon entering the townhouse, he placed one last item in the sink of bleach – Al’s car keys.

Sunday morning, before he left Kite’s house, he completed two more tasks – he took the trash with him and poured bleach down the drains.

But he left two clues as he disappeared – a small bloodstain on the basement stairs and the rental application crumpled in a trash can.  Two clues that would help police start to understand the crime…but ultimately leave them frustrated and without answers. 

Part 5

And now we return to the period when we opened this episode, the afternoon of Monday, May 24th.  After finding Al’s body and starting their search, the police immediately started to form hypotheses.  Their immediate observations drove the first at the scene.  To explain the almost unreal physical torture that the killer had inflicted, the police believed that the murder must have been a crime of passion.  But soon, this hypothesis had to be discarded.  There was no one in Al’s life who really disliked him or could ever be counted as an enemy.

Linda, Al’s girlfriend, described his attitude toward people as:  "If somebody would've said, 'Give me all of your money,' he'd ask why, but he'd give it to you."  Al's sister said he was "very compassionate…he had a goodness about him."

And so, police started to pursue their next hypothesis – that the murder was a robbery.  They saw that debit and credit cards were missing.  That afternoon, they found his truck with the ATM receipt.  They also checked his credit cards and found that substantial activity had occurred after his time of death.  The police haven't released details so we can't surmise what they might tell us.  Later, the police would use the amount of the withdrawal as an indication the murder was not a robbery.  Al had more than $1,000 in his bank account, and Cooper had ample time to take more if he wanted it.  And so, robbery was also discarded as a hypothesis.

The police soon realized that Al’s cell phone was missing. The police started to trace his phone and, then identifying Cooper’s phone, started to track both phones.  And they were surprised to find both of them on the move in the Denver area.  The police quickly started a search and found both phones.  But neither were in possession of the killer.  The phones had been dropped in the Five Points area of Denver in an area where there was a consistent homeless population.  The killer, like everything else he’d done, had planned ahead, knowing that transients would use the phones.

While the detectives wrestled with the challenge of finding Al’s murderer, his family and friends grappled with anguish of losing Al.  Al’s body was held by the coroner for a week or so before being released to his family. His earthly remains were transported to his birthplace, Halifax, North Carolina.  On June 2nd, 2004, a congregation gathered for a memorial service and Al was laid to rest in the church cemetery. 

Unfortunately, Al’s murder remains unsolved to this day, almost 20 years later as of this recording.  What evidence there was did little to identify the killer.  A composite drawing was made of his likeness.  The police artist used reports from the landlords who interacted with Cooper, Al's neighbors who saw him at a distance, and the photo taken at the Wells Fargo ATM.  The Aurora Police distributed it.  But nothing came of it.

As the facts of the case came together, law enforcement started to piece together a profile of his assailant, incorporating various leads and observations that, while speculative, became integral to the investigation.

1.     The killer may have come from the East Coast and New Jersey in particular.

2.     The killer may have a female relative in the area like a mother or sister.

3.     The killer may have some connection to Wells Fargo or banking in general.

4.     The killer may have some association with the University of Colorado Hospital or medical school.

5.     Lastly, police theorized that the killer may have attempted to become a police officer due to his use of psychological diversions he deployed after the crime.

While the police have maintained an appropriate level of secrecy with other facts in the case, it appears that none of these theories have helped find the killer.

Now, what of other clue that Cooper left?  Remember that police had collected a blood sample from the wall of the stairwell going to the basement apartment.  This DNA evidence was entered into the FBI's National DNA Index System but no matches have ever been made.  Still, with the advent of genealogy testing, the Aurora police and FBI have been constructing a family tree for the suspect. This was the technique used to identify Joseph James DeAngelo, also known as the Golden State Killer. He was apprehended in 2018 through the use of genetic genealogy where investigators used DNA from crime scenes linked to the Golden State Killer and compared it with genetic profiles available on open-source genealogy websites. This process eventually led them to DeAngelo's distant relatives, and subsequently to him, with police finally confirming his identity through direct DNA comparison. The hope is that Robert Cooper might be identified through the same technique, yet, no progress has been shared with the public.

But some evidence from the DNA sample has been released to the public.  In 2017 Aurora Police Department hired a laboratory in Virginia to evaluate the DNA collected in that blood sample.  The lab created a DNA-based composite sketch of the suspect. This cutting-edge technique suggested that the perpetrator was a Caucasian male, aged between 40 and 50 years at the time of the crime, with genetic roots tracing back to southeastern Europe.  Photos are on on www.mydarkpath.com. 

So without any immediate leads and DNA evidence coming up dry, three theories have emerged in recent years. 

The first hypothesis suggests a link between the murder and Al's professional background as a chief accountant and department head overseeing substantial engineering projects, including the Surry Nuclear Plant in North Carolina and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories in California, and the project he completed for Stone & Webster in Algeria.  We’ll call this the “Al’s Job” hypothesis.

The second theory suggests a considers the possibility that this act was a "practice kill." In this scenario, the murderer was a contract assassin who needed to be tested via a real-world killing.

The third, and perhaps most chilling, scenario considers the possibility that this act was simply a random killing by an extraordinarily disciplined serial killer. In this scenario, a serial killer might have chosen Al Kite as a target without any discernible motive…only to satisfy his blood lust.  We’ll call this the Anonymous Serial Killer.

I think it's worth looking at each of these hypotheses – as each of them are supported by other cases.

What I find fascinating is that all three have well documented examples that show all 3 are imminently possible and aren’t simply flights of fancy.  And I’ll explore these case studies in the next episode.  It’s hard to find the right words to say about the horrible loss of Al’s life.  So, I’ll simply share Dylan Thomas’ poem that he wrote in 1947 when his father was going blind.  Given what we know of Al Kite and the way he lived, perhaps he’d want us to contemplate the meaning of this poem as we live each day, not knowing the day nor time of our passing from this mortal life.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And with that, dear listeners, thank you for walking the dark paths of the world with me…and finding the light even in the darkest corners.  I’m grateful for you and your support.  Until next time, good night.

Let’s start with the Al’s Job Hypothesis.  Of the three, this is the only one that involves the pre-selection of Al as the target.  And, as you’ll see in a moment, there’s another unsolved murder of a man who worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories at the same time that Al did.  As I shared earlier, we know Cooper scouting multiple rental properties at the same time he looked at Al’s.  And these actions by Cooper make investigators think that Al was chosen at random instead of being the target.  But let’s flip that around and consider that, if a killer was targeting Al but wanted to make it look random, he would have deliberately left a trail of clues showing that he looking at multiple landlords….or multiple victims.  What better way to convince investigators who no doubt would be looking at all of Coopers behaviors…that Al was picked at random or perhaps as the easiest to kill.  You

Sharon Hagan, a criminal profiler with the California Department of Justice, said about the crime, “The behaviors that we are seeing here [is indicative of] someone who is very experienced, is very comfortable being with a dead body. That is unusual. He’s done this before.”

The way in which Kite was murdered was also analyzed on the show The DNA of Murder with Paul Holes in 2019 in the episode Killer Roommate. In it, Holes discusses the murder with Lindsey Philpott, author of several books on knots and an expert on bindings. Julie Quinn, an intelligence analyst, was also invited on the show.

First, they examine the way in which Kite was hogtied.

Cooper “could be a sailor of some sort - somebody from the Coast Guard, somebody who’s had some experience in wrapping things tightly.” Philpott says.

But the way in which he was tied up was unusual when compared to how people are traditionally hogtied. Typically, the bindings "only go from the wrists to the ankles," he said, but he was bound in a more extreme fashion in Kite's case. Bindings were present around his upper arm, just above his elbow, and around his knees as well.

Quinn remarked that the way in which Kite was tied was similar to the method employed by the Turkish Hezbollah, a terrorist organization that is also known for using a form of torture known as falaka, which consists of the beating of a person’s feet, which ties back to another aspect of Kite’s murder. As aforementioned, Kite’s feet were beaten, and many thus believe that his murder may have been linked to the Turkish Hezbollah.

“[Falaka is] a way to extract information… it’s basically a beating to maintain compliance.” Julie Quinn says. Whether or not the foot beating was performed to extract information from Kite, however, is still a topic of contention. Some believe Kite’s murder was a thrill kill, while others believe there may have been political motivators.

Holes believes that both theories are correct.

“[The killer] moves away from [the Turkish Hezbollah],” Holes surmises, “He’s now not getting [the] gratification of [torturing] somebody. And so now he becomes [a] predator… Al just happened to be the person that he chose.”

So while many serial killers have a type, based around some sort of fantasy they have - Nelson Andreu of the Miami Police Department says that “Generally, serial killers select their victims based on certain physical and/or personal characteristics” - or to serve as a replacement for someone who they perceive as having slighted them, Cooper seemed to select his victim, or victims based on how easy it would be to kill them, how isolated they were, and other factors that have little to do with their physical appearance or life circumstances.

This droplet of blood was analyzed on the show The DNA of Murder with Paul Holes. The DNA analysis revealed him to be in his 40s at the time of the killing, and of south European descent. They even narrowed down his ancestry to the Balkan region, which includes Romania, explaining the Romanian accent.

Part 3

The case of Mike Emert, for instance, provides a striking similarity and many hypothesize that the man who killed Emert was the same man who killed Kite.

But first, some background information.

On January 4th, 2001, a Washington realtor by the name of Mike Emert was ambushed by a client and killed in one of the houses he was showcasing. James Doyon, a King County detective, later said that “It appears that he may have reconnoitered and actually singled out this home as the best place to assault Mike,” due to the relative isolation of the house.

Obviously, so far, connecting the two cases would be absurd. Sure, both men were killed by their clients, but to call the cases related would be a stretch.

But here’s the thing. Emert had talked to his wife about the client before the meeting, casually mentioning that the client had an East coast accent, was in his early 50s, had a limp, and used a cane. He had joked about the strange manner in which the client behaved, saying, before he left that morning, that he was going to go meet a “weird dude.”

Doyon stated that it was likely that the cane was a ruse, for it would be hard for the killer to have overpowered Emert, who was fairly fit, otherwise. “I think it’s possible that the weapon was this cane.” He said,  “And the cane might have been one of these sword canes or a cane with a knife in it. So maybe the initial blitz assault to stun Mike was striking Mike with the cane from behind. The knife portion of the cane was used to kill Mike. Mike was nearly six feet tall, weighed 187 pounds. I think we have an offender here that was able to overcome a man of Mike’s stature and then drag his body perhaps about 18 feet from one room to where he came to rest. The water in the shower was turned on, and the two faucets in the vanity sinks were found running. That, to me, speaks of an attempt to get rid of any trace evidence. Hair, fibers, things like that would be washed down the drain. He’s cleaning his hands off in the sink, cleaning the weapon off in the sink. This was probably not this individual’s first murder, or certainly not his first violent assault.”

His body was discovered hours later by the homeowner of the house he had been showcasing, who had been told when to expect them to be gone by and was expecting the house to be empty. But it wasn’t.

Emert had been stabbed 19 times, beaten, and placed under a running shower in the bathroom. His car was gone, and would later be found in the Kirkland Park Place shopping center. His wallet would be found on top of a payphone at Colman docks, missing his ATM card, which his killer had used to withdraw money from his account. His phone was also gone, and would later turn up with several outgoing phone calls, although the nature of those calls has never been released.

Does this all sound familiar? It should.

Yet for all of these similarities, there are still striking differences.

The killer had dragged Emert upstairs, leaving a trail of blood behind, and also left the bathroom sinks and the showerhead on. The case lacks the neat and tidy nature of Kite’s murder. In addition, Emert’s diamond wedding ring and valuable watch were never found. In the case of Kite, however, the killer had not stolen any physical items. Are these cases really related?

It must be noted, however, that it is possible, given that the murder of Mike Emert occurred in 2001 and the murder of Al Kite, in 2004, that the killer, if we assume only one person was responsible for both of their deaths, had simply, in the three year interim, made modifications in the way he killed, perfecting his MO, or modus operandi.

Working off of that assumption, let’s take a look at the perpetrator of the crime.

In 2011, the DNA of GAry Kreuger, a former police officer - which, remember, was one of the traits on the list of possible traits that Kite’s murderer might possess - who turned instead to a life in crime, become a bank robber, was finally inputted into CODIS right after his death, matching DNA found during the investigation into Emert’s murder.

Krueger had also been tied to three previous murders - that of Terry Dolan, Jim Barry, and Mario Vaccarino. However, the way in which he murdered each of them was unexpectedly different. Dolan was shot outside a gas station in a staged robbery, Barry was stabbed in his office, and Vaccarino was beaten to death.

Police are of the opinion that he may have been a hitman. Not necessarily a professional, a killer-for-hire, per se, but perhaps someone who killed out of favor to his friends. Vaccarino’s death, for one, was definitely a favor to Krueger’s friend, Joe Massimino, who succeeded union boss Vaccarino after he was murdered and became the new union leader.

However, the police could not find any reason why anyone would have ordered a hit on Mike Emert. He had no enemies.

But the cases are still too similar to be mere coincidence, leaving us with a few possibilities.

Perhaps the murders were indeed, unrelated, but Cooper, as yet another forensic countermeasure, had mimicked the Emert case to lead police astray.

Or, maybe, Krueger, after having killed three people for one reason or another, had developed a liking for senseless violence and the “thrill of the kill,” as people call it, and began murdering random strangers, starting with Emert, and then moving on to Kite.

Whatever the truth, this baffling case still remains unsolved. Anyone with information should contact Detective Thomas Sobieski of the Aurora Police Department at 303-739-6710.