William Devin Howell (born February 11, 1970) is an American serial killer who was convicted of murdering seven women in 2003.

Their bodies were discovered in two locations, including an area behind a shopping plaza on Hartford Road in New Britain, referred to by Howell as his "garden".

The person who discovered this principal body dump, at the start of 2005, by which time the remains were mostly skeletal, had been looking for an area to hunt in.

[8] Howell later told an informant that he tried to engage Roberts in a sexual act and, when realizing that she was a transgender woman, strangled her.

Arizmendi's boyfriend, a convicted drug dealer, was immediately a suspect in her disappearance but was ultimately cleared after passing a polygraph test.

The sister told police that Arizmendi was a heroin user and sex worker who was living in a motel in Wethersfield along with her boyfriend.

[14] They also found 6 videotapes of Howell having "bizarre" sex with women, but the videos were shot in a way to ensure that their faces were not clearly visible.

[8] In January 2007, shortly after the trial began, Howell entered an Alford plea to first degree manslaughter, meaning that he did not admit to the crime but conceded that the prosecution had enough evidence to make a conviction likely.

Howell later cut off the tips of her fingers, dismantled her bottom jaw and disposed of the body parts in Virginia.

A practicing attorney, Howard first contacted Howell in July 2015, when he was serving a fifteen-year sentence for the murder of Nilsa Arizmendi.

After pleading guilty to the remaining six murder charges on September 8, 2017, he exclusively gave detailed confessions to Howard in letters and recorded phone calls.