Almost everyone in the United States has heard the names Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, and the Zodiac Killer, who are all serial killers who shook the country with their crimes.
Other serial killers have also reached headlines across different states. Some took years or even decades to be identified, and in some cases were never caught at all.
With stories of killers roaming the streets while avoiding detection, while unsolved case numbers continue to grow, many people wonder:
Are there still active serial killers in the United States today?
The short answer is yes. Investigators and criminologists believe active serial killers still exist in the US in 2026.
But the longer answer is far more complicated, which is why this article explores why no exact number can be confirmed, how unsolved homicides may or may not be connected, and which suspected serial offenders in the US still remain unidentified today.
How Many Active Serial Killers Are in the United States?
There is no confirmed official count of active serial killers in the US.
Some media sources have cited estimates suggesting there may be 25 to 50 active serial killers in the United States at a given time, though the FBI has stated that the true number cannot be quantified.
The Murder Accountability Project reports 34% (roughly 352,397) of homicides reported between 1965 and 2024 as unsolved, and some of these could be linked to a single individual.
However, unresolved cases or suspected links between crimes do not necessarily point to large numbers of active serial killers.
There are many reasons a cold case remains open, and while in some situations, multiple unsolved crimes may eventually be connected to a single offender, in others, they may turn out to be entirely unrelated.
Are Active Serial Killers Less Common Today?
Yes. Serial killings appear significantly less common compared to previous decades, especially before the 2000s.
True crime media often brings modern serial killer cases and unsolved murders into public attention, which can make it feel like serial killers are widespread and frequently avoid detection. Research, however, points to a long-term decline in serial homicide, with no clear evidence of a major modern increase.
The 1980s had the highest serial killer activity in the US, with 823 offenders recorded across the decade and victim counts reaching as high as 404 in a single year (1987). Both figures have fallen steadily since, dropping to an average of just 48 active killers per year by the 2010s.
One estimate from criminologist James Alan Fox in 2025 suggests an approximate 80% drop since the peak period.
Several changes help explain this decline.
- Fewer opportunities for stranger-based encounters: In earlier decades, people could travel long distances with less information and fewer easy ways to communicate, so meeting unfamiliar people along the way was more common.
Hitchhiking and roadside assistance from strangers were also more widely accepted, which increased contact t between people who didn’t know each other, and giving serial killers more opportunities to strike while staying undetected.
Nowadays, mobile phones make it easy to get directions or call for help, and travellers choose rideshare apps over hitchhiking. People are also generally more cautious around strangers, which has cut down on those kinds of spontaneous interactions.
- Faster identification through DNA evidence: DNA profiling, which was first used by the FBI in the US during the 1990s, has changed how investigators connect crimes and identify offenders.
Instead of relying only on eyewitness accounts or patterns across separate cases, forensic teams can now compare biological evidence like blood, hair, or skin cells against existing records. As DNA databases have expanded, matches can sometimes link a suspect to multiple incidents across different states.
Newer genetic genealogy tools can also help investigators identify suspects through family DNA connections.
Even if a suspect’s DNA is not stored in a database, investigators may find partial matches to relatives, allowing them to narrow down possible identities through family trees and shared ancestry records.
Together, these tools reduce the time it takes to connect separate cases to the same offender and progress investigations.
- Reduced anonymity in everyday movement and activity: Daily movement is now far easier to trace than it used to be. CCTV systems capture public spaces while GPS tools track travel routes. Even routine actions like using digital payments or driving past automatic license plate readers can leave time-stamped records that help reconstruct where someone has been.
For example, during the investigation into the murder of Moriah Wilson, investigators placed Kaitlin Armstrong at the scene through GPS data from her Jeep. The data showed she was in the area of the victim’s residence around the time of the shooting, while a neighbor’s Ring doorbell camera captured the sound of Wilson screaming, followed by gunshots.
Missing person cases also progress faster than before, since people can report disappearances immediately using phones rather than having to travel to a police station, and investigators can access digital traces within hours.
These systems reduce the amount of time someone can move through public spaces without leaving a trail, which can speed up early stages of investigations and lead to more captures before offenders can commit serial murders.
What Makes Someone a Serial Killer?
A serial killer is someone who kills multiple victims in separate events, with a break in time between each offense (known as the cooling-off period).
In 2005, the FBI adopted the definition of “the unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender in separate events,” though many researchers prefer a threshold of three, arguing that it better shows a repeated pattern of behavior. They also suggest that the lower cutoff can make the overall ‘serial-killer problem’ look worse than it really is.
Serial Killers vs. Mass Murderers
Mass murder involves several victims killed in one continuous incident, usually in a single place and over a short period of time.
Serial murder happens across separate events, and the offender returns to kill again after a period of inactivity, which can range from days to months or even longer.
Active vs Unidentified Serial Killers
We can differentiate between offenders believed to still be committing crimes and those who are unknown but tied to older, unresolved cases.
- 1. Active Serial Killers: An active serial killer is someone investigators believe is currently committing murders or may still be capable of killing again. In many cases, police may not know the offender’s identity.
- 2. Unidentified Serial Killers: An unidentified serial killer is an unknown offender linked to multiple murders through evidence or behavioral analysis, but who may no longer pose any ongoing threat.
They could be dead, incarcerated for unrelated crimes, or simply dormant.
Unsolved homicides that may share similar patterns can sometimes be grouped together, but that doesn’t automatically mean the same person is still responsible or still active. Cases often remain open because evidence is limited and links between incidents haven’t been confirmed.
Because of that, the number of offenders thought to be actively operating at any given moment is often far lower than the volume of cold or unsolved cases may suggest.
Who Was the Last Known Serial Killer in the US?
There is no official “last” serial killer in the United States, since cases are identified and confirmed at different stages of investigation and prosecution.
However, some of the most recent active serial killers that were caught include:
- Sean Lannon killed at least five people across New Mexico and New Jersey, including his ex-wife. He was arrested in Missouri in March 2022. He claimed to have killed 16 people in total, 15 of them in New Mexico. Lannon was sentenced to 35 years for one murder in 2022, then pleaded guilty to the remaining charges in 2024, adding another 60 years to his sentence.
- Kenyel Brown, known as “The Metro Detroit Serial Killer”, was identified as a suspect in a series of robberies and murders in Wayne County, Michigan. He was linked to six killings across multiple cities between December 2019 and February 2020. In February 2021, police attempted to arrest Brown, but he shot himself and later died in hospital.
- Heather Pressdee is an American nurse convicted of murdering three patients by lethal injection between late 2022 and early 2023 in Western Pennsylvania. She was also charged with additional counts of attempted murder, and investigators linked her to multiple other patient deaths during the same period. In 2024, she pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to three consecutive life terms, along with additional decades of imprisonment.
Current Unidentified Serial Killer Cases
Several suspected serial killers in the US remain unidentified today, including:
1. The Long Island Serial Killer
The Gilgo Beach murders became one of America’s most notorious serial killer investigations after authorities discovered multiple bodies near Long Island beaches while searching for a missing escort.
Investigators linked many victims to online escort advertisements posted on Craigslist, but the case has remained unsolved for years.
2. The West Mesa Bone Collector
The West Mesa Bone Collector case involves the discovery of the remains of 11 women in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2009, with most victims having disappeared between 2003 and 2004. Investigators believe the remains were likely buried by the same offender, leading to the belief that the case may involve a serial killer.
Despite extensive investigation and multiple individuals attracting law enforcement attention over the years, no official suspect has ever been charged or definitively linked to the crimes, and the case remains unsolved.
3. The Chicago Strangler
The Chicago Strangler refers to a theorized serial offender potentially linked to a series of strangulation and asphyxiation deaths of women in Chicago. Since 2001, numerous cases with similar victim profiles and methods have been identified, and many remain unsolved.
Most victims were women in vulnerable situations, often found in abandoned or low-traffic areas across parts of the city. Some related cases have been closed following arrests, while others remain open.
The Unforgotten51 Project has noted at least 51 unsolved strangulation and suffocation deaths of women in Chicago over a two-decade period.
In 2018, the Murder Accountability Project reviewed clusters of unsolved homicides and identified possible links that suggest a potential series of connected crimes, though no single offender has ever been officially confirmed.
4. The I-70 Killer
The I-70 Killer is an unidentified serial killer linked to a series of murders in the Midwestern United States in 1992. The known victims include six store clerks killed along Interstate 70, often in small specialty shops located near the highway. Most victims were young women working alone, and in one case, a male victim is believed to have been mistaken for a woman.
Despite witness descriptions, no suspect has ever been publicly identified.
5. The Eastbound Strangler
The Eastbound Strangler is an unidentified offender linked to the 2006 murders of four women in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey. The victims were all killed by strangulation and positioned to face East, which contributed to the case’s nickname.
Despite investigation efforts, no suspect has been identified, and the case remains unsolved nearly two decades later.
6. The Dayton, Ohio Strangler
The Dayton Strangler refers to an unidentified serial killer linked to a series of murders in Dayton, Ohio, between 1900 and 1909. The case involves the deaths of five women and one man, with attacks occurring over nearly a decade.
Despite multiple arrests and at least one wrongful conviction during the investigation, no offender was ever definitively proven responsible.
How Investigators Identify Serial Killers
One reason serial killer statistics stay debated is how hard it can be to connect separate murders to the same person.
Before a pattern can be confirmed, investigators work through case linkage, which seeks to determine whether different crimes are actually related.
Case linkage pulls together different strands of evidence, and investigators look at:
- Victim profiles, including age, gender, lifestyle, occupation, and how much risk the victim may have been exposed to in their daily life.
- Crime scene details, such as the cause of death, weapons used, level of force, and how a body was handled or left at the scene.
- Repeated similarities across cases, including patterns that pop up across otherwise unconnected incidents, which can begin to suggest a shared offender when they appear consistently enough to rule out coincidence.
Analysts also look for what’s called a “signature” or “calling card,” which is a repeated behavior that isn’t needed to carry out the crime.
These can show up in things like how a victim is positioned or small details that reappear across scenes without a clear purpose.
Any pattern can help connect cases when they appear consistently. At the same time, offenders don’t always leave a signature, and some change or avoid those behaviors over time.
Forensic and Digital Tools Used in Serial Crime Investigations
Investigators use a mix of forensic and digital tools to determine whether different crimes might be linked to the same person.
DNA evidence can connect biological material from separate crime scenes, showing that the same individual was present in more than one case.
Fingerprint databases work similarly by matching prints collected at different locations to a single source.
Geographic profiling helps map where crimes take place to look for patterns in movement or areas an offender may operate in.
When several of these tools point in the same direction across different cases, investigators can start building a stronger case that a series of crimes is connected to one offender.
The Limits of Case Linkage
Even with these tools, linking cases isn’t always straightforward. Evidence can be missing, degraded, or never collected in a way that allows comparison across jurisdictions.
In some situations, cases that initially seem connected are later separated after more information is discovered, and investigators will have to dismantle working theories they had already begun building the case around.
Why the US Still Struggles to Detect Serial Killers
Even though the FBI and other law enforcement agencies continue working to identify and track serial offenders, several barriers can make detection difficult.
Across states, different local agencies operate independently, so murders in separate cities or regions aren’t always compared early in an investigation. If a serial offender is moving between areas, related cases may be handled in isolation instead of being reviewed as part of a wider pattern.
Researchers call this linkage blindness, where separate cases show similar patterns but aren’t connected across jurisdictions. A homicide in one county might resemble a case hundreds of miles away, yet those similarities can go unnoticed because the information isn’t shared or reviewed together.
Some offenders also move between regions to avoid detection, taking advantage of jurisdictional boundaries and delays in communication between agencies. A well-known example is Ted Bundy, who operated across multiple states in the 1970s when interagency communication was limited, and records were not easily shared.
Today, coordination has improved through national databases and digital reporting systems that let agencies share evidence and case details more quickly.
Even so, differences in resources and reporting practices can still create gaps in investigations.
Over-Linking and Under-Linking Serial Killer Cases
Serial killer investigations can often fail in two completely opposite ways:
Over-Linking Cases
Sometimes, unrelated murders are grouped together because they appear similar.
One controversial example is the Smiley Face Murder Theory, which connects dozens of drownings involving college-aged men across multiple states. Many investigators dispute the theory and argue that the deaths are unrelated incidents.
Over-linking can inflate victim counts or create the appearance of a serial killer who may not actually exist.
Under-Linking Cases
Other times, investigators fail to connect murders that are actually related and treat cases as isolated incidents.
Under-linking tends to happen most often when victims come from marginalized communities, where cases may receive less scrutiny or fewer investigative resources.
Without anyone recognizing a connection, an offender can continue killing for months or even years undetected.
Why It’s Hard to Prove Serial Patterns
Serial murder investigations often depend on connecting crimes that were never originally linked. That process can be difficult because:
- Crimes may span multiple years or cross state lines, making early patterns easy to miss
- Evidence can be incomplete, degraded, or collected in ways that don’t allow for comparison later
- Victims may seem completely unrelated, even when their cases are connected
- Different agencies often investigate incidents on their own, without knowing what’s happening elsewhere
Any one of these factors can delay the recognition of a pattern, and in many cases, several of them are present at once.
Final Thoughts: Are There Current Serial Killers in the US Today?
Yes, there are active serial killers still existing in the United States in 2026.
But we’ll likely never know how many offenders remain unidentified.
Some unresolved cases likely involve offenders still operating today, while others probably involve killers who died, stopped offending, or were imprisoned for unrelated crimes before anyone connected the murders.
Although serial murder is a serious issue, recent research has shown it is far less common and far more difficult to sustain undetected than in past decades.
Curious about how communities and cities can protect themselves from serial killers and other offenders? Find out more about crime and security across the US through our blog.
