10 Would Be Serial Killers Who Were Caught After Their First Murder

10 Would-Be Serial Killers Who Were Caught After Their First Murder

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at murderers who had the potential, if not ambition to become serial killers, only to be brought down after their first victim.

Brian Draper & Torey Adamcik

Two teens in Pocatello, Idaho were inspired by Wes Craven’s “Scream” to take up filmmaking. On September 22, 2006, Brian Draper and Torey Adamcik visited classmate Cassie Jo Stoddart while she was housesitting, and took turns stabbing her. They were soon arrested, which led to the discovery of a partially destroyed tape documenting the boys’ ambitions to become serial killers. They had compiled a list of 12 potential targets, including Stoddart. They also filmed themselves gushing about the murder after it was committed. Draper and Adamcik’s open-shut case was one of the defining murders in the modern media age. But it was just one of many crude examples of disturbed people’s drive for attention, no matter how many lives they take.

Scarlett Jenkinson

The UK was shaken in February 2023, when Warrington teen Brianna Ghey was stabbed to death in a park by two classmates. The public condemned Eddie Ratcliffe’s interest in violence and transphobic hostility toward the victim. But the catalyst for his crime was peer pressure from Scarlett Jenkinson, who was obsessed with serial killer lore. She was preparing to target a list of five other children when she and Ratcliffe were arrested the day after Ghey’s murder. Neither killer showed any remorse. They were each sentenced to two decades, with Jenkinson getting a slightly longer, much less finite sentence based on her apparent eagerness to kill again.

Vincent Stanford

For three years, a janitor at Leeton High School in New South Wales catalogued potential victims. Vincent Stanford amassed nearly 2,000 photos, mostly of young students. Finally, in April 2025, he killed beloved teacher Stephanie Scott just a few days before her wedding. He then drove some 70 kilometers to dispose of and photograph the body, stopping to have lunch along the way. These disturbing impulses completely unraveled Stanford’s meticulous scheme during the police investigation. He pleaded guilty to one of Australia’s most infamous modern crimes, before he could have committed more. Stanford was sentenced to life without parole, with an additional 15 years for the killing’s particularly vicious nature.

Alyssa Bustamante

A teenager with a history of depression spent October 2009 trying to lure other kids into the woods in St. Martins, Missouri. Eventually, Alyssa Bustamante used her little sister as bait in the slaying of their young neighbor Elizabeth Olten. Said sister then contacted police the following day after finding blood. Investigators then discovered Bustamante boasting about the killing in recent diary entries, along with a history of violent comments on social media. They also discovered that she had dug two graves in the woods well before she began her hunt. The girl’s plans quickly came to an end with a guilty plea and a sentence to life in prison, plus 30 years.

Daniel Marsh

Another teenager spent months casing houses around Davis, California in 2013. Finally, in April, Daniel Marsh broke into the unlocked home of Chip Northup and Claudia Maupin, and killed the elderly couple in bed. It was only when he bragged to some friends two months later that police were able to track him down. They then discovered Marsh’s deep interest in serial killers, including online research on how to be one. He was already skilled enough to claim two victims during one break-in, with minimal evidence left at the scene. There was enough DNA to secure criminal charges. And a life sentence followed Marsh remarking in a police interview that his actions brought him “pure happiness.”

Livestream CTA:

For more breakdowns of compelling cases and true crime stories, scan the QR code on screen to join WatchMojo’s 24/7 True Crime livestream.

Sharon Carr

Katie Rackliff was stabbed 32 times while walking home in Camberley on June 7, 1992. Exactly two years later, Sharon Carr nearly killed a classmate to commemorate the anniversary of the crime she later confessed to in psychiatric care. She was only 12 years old when she committed her first and only murder. But she told police that she delighted in killing animals, and wrote in her diary that she was still excited by what she did to Rackliff. Carr was sentenced to life in prison, then moved to restricted custody after further assaults and murder attempts. She didn't need to take any more lives to be dubbed in the media as “The Devil’s Daughter.”

Luka Magnotta

Montreal college student Jun Lin was in fact the last victim in a killing spree. Adult film actor Luka Magnotta had already claimed infamy in 2010 by anonymously posting a series of snuff videos involving kittens. This inspired a man hunt that escalated after he took a human life on-camera in May 2012. Magnotta was extradited from Germany in 2014 to face life in prison in Canada. The highly publicized story was the subject of the hit Netflix docuseries “Don’t F**k with Cats,” prompting discussions about legal and public perceptions of animal cruelty. In any case, Lin likely wouldn't have been the last person Magnotta killed if he wasn't brought to justice.

Miranda Barbour

Troy LaFerrara answered a Craigslist ad in Port Trevorton, Pennsylvania in November 2013, only to be killed by young newlyweds Elytte and Miranda Barbour. The couple soon walked back claims of self-defense after they were arrested the following month. But while Elytte confessed to curiosity about killing someone, Miranda claimed to have killed 22 other supposed “bad people.” The media latched onto this wild story of a vigilante Satanist who committed her first murder at 13 years old. By the time the Barbours received life sentences nine months later, investigators had concluded that LaFerrera was their only victim. Still, such extravagant dishonesty supported the assessment that Miranada had the mindset to keep killing.

Mark Twitchell

Among the morbid interests of Edmonton filmmaker Mark Twitchell was the TV series “Dexter.” He first turned that obsession into a horror short, then into reality in October 2008. But instead of targeting a fellow killer, he catfished John Altinger to lure him into a Dexter Morgan-style “kill room.” After Twitchell’s cover-up fell apart, police discovered incriminating materials on his computer and evidence of an earlier attempted murder. The media controversy sparked by this so-called “Dexter Killer” intensified in 2014, when British teen Steven Miles was inspired by the show to kill his girlfriend. But Twitchell had taken the liberty of drafting a self-evaluation of a uniquely warped psyche. His twisted ambitions ended with a sentence of 25 years to life.

Stephan Smerk

For 29 years, Robin Warr Lawrence’s murder in Springfield, Virginia was the perfect cold case. Then, in 2023, forensic genealogy led to the arrest of 51-year-old U.S. Army veteran Stephan Smerk. He pleaded guilty to traveling all the way from his barracks in Arlington with the overwhelming urge to take a life. Lawrence’s fatal stabbing by a home intruder was just random misfortune. Smerk also claimed he probably would have continued had he not built a family. That wasn't enough to get out of a sentence of 70 years in prison. Smerk may not have committed another homicide after 1994, but he described himself as “a serial killer who’s only killed once.”

Who are some other potential or budding killers who were brought to justice before further tragedy? Drop a tip in the comments below.