Robert Christian Boes Hansen[2] (February 15, 1939 – August 21, 2014), popularly known as the Butcher Baker, was an American serial killer active in Anchorage, Alaska, between 1972 and 1983, abducting, raping and murdering at least seventeen women.
He pleaded no contest to assault with a deadly weapon in the former offense; the rape charge involving the sex worker was dropped as part of a plea bargain.
[4] His modus operandi is believed to have been to stalk a woman to learn her habits, eventually picking her up in his car and forcing her at gunpoint into his home, where he would rape her, then stab or shoot her.
[15] On June 13, 1983, Hansen offered 17-year-old Cindy Paulson $200 to perform oral sex; when she got into the car, he pulled out a gun and drove her to his home in Muldoon.
[16] When he awoke, he put her in his car and took her to Merrill Field, where he told her that he intended to take her to his shack near the Knik River area of the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, accessible only by boat or bush plane.
Paulson, crouched in the back seat of Hansen's car with her wrists cuffed in front of her body, saw a chance to escape when he was busy loading the cockpit of his airplane, a Piper PA-18 Super Cub.
[17] Paulson later told police that she had left her blue sneakers on the passenger side floor of the sedan's backseat as evidence that she had been in Hansen's car.
While she pleaded with the clerk to phone her boyfriend at the Big Timber Motel, Yount continued on to work, where he called the police to report the incident.
When Anchorage Police Department (APD) officers arrived at the Mush Inn, they were told that Paulson had taken a cab to the Big Timber Motel.
Detective Glenn Flothe of the Alaska State Troopers had been part of a team investigating the discovery of several bodies in and around Anchorage, Seward and the Matanuska-Susitna Valley area.
Flothe contacted Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent John Douglas and requested help with an offender profile based on the three recovered bodies.
Douglas thought the killer would be an experienced hunter with low self-esteem, have a history of being rejected by women and would feel compelled to keep "souvenirs" of his murders, such as a victim's jewelry.
[19] Supported by Paulson's testimony and Douglas' profile, Flothe and the APD secured a warrant to search Hansen's plane, vehicles and home.
On October 27, 1983, investigators uncovered jewelry belonging to some of the missing women as well as an array of firearms in a corner hideaway of Hansen's attic, which included a .223-caliber Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle.
Of these eighteen women, Hansen was only formally charged with the murders of four: Sherry Morrow, Joanna Messina, Eklutna Annie and Paula Goulding.
He pleaded guilty to the four homicides the police had evidence for (Morrow, Messina, Goulding and Eklutna Annie) and provided details about his other victims in return for serving his sentence in a federal prison, along with no publicity in the press.
[3] Hansen died on August 21, 2014, age 75, at Alaska Regional Hospital in Anchorage due to natural causes related to lingering health conditions.