I had an idea for a slasher film where a serial killer goes on a rampage in Las Vegas and gets defeated in typical fashion but manages to escape. I also had an idea for a sequel where they continue their evil activities in a small town in a nearby state.
The question is physical proximity aside between California, Oregon and Washington which state do you think would be the best for a criminal as described above on the run to hide out in?
Northeastern California, and Southeastern Oregon have some fairly isolated places to hide. The same might be true for Eastern Washington, but I’m not sure. There are some small towns around, but there is a lot of open country where you could camp out and nobody would know you were there. And then there’s the desolate coastal area of Southwest Oregon…
Washington. Nobody knows anything about their neighbors and that’s the way they like it.
The SE part of Oregon is mostly a vast, empty, desert. But because there are few people, everybody will know who you are.
Best to try and disappear in a crowd rather than a small town or sparsely populated area anywhere.
Hell, I live in a rural area in NW Oregon. If I see people walking, driving, biking, down the back roads, I will offer a friendly wave. If you don’t wave back, you are not from here and are suspect. It is like that in a lot of rural areas.
The idea that you can disappear in a small town is laughable, to anyone that lives in a small town. No town, just camping out or passing through? You will stick out like a sore thumb.
You will need gas, maybe some supplies, food, get a flat fixed or car repaired. People will comment on you and ask other people. If you do not belong there you might as well have a flashing light on top of your car.
Yup.
Hide your murderer in a city. Small towns know who, and to a large extent where, everybody is.
And a serial killer continuing their activities in a small town, where (murder mysteries to the contrary) the ordinary number of murders in a year may be zero, and even if there is one generally it’s utterly obvious whodunit? After the first stranger murder, everybody’s going to be up in arms. In any rural area of those states, quite literally.
This is remarkably similar to your last thread on fugitives hiding. You might pick some useful clues out of that thread. And would-be responders here might do well to look at the collective wisdom last time. Might save some typing.
Is it better to hide in some remote area where you will stand out to the few people who do live there or better to hide in downtown LA with a million people around you and blend into the crowd?
Join the circus. Wear Clown makeup all the time.
Fall in love with a trapeze artist.
No one will ever find you.
Seriously, I live very remotely. Every person in 40 miles of us knows my husband.
You can’t hide from people out in the woods. You’ll have to eat and survive. Unless you’re a very good outdoorsman. Have plenty of ammo. And a way to get shelter.
A city full of people and change your looks is smarter.
If we go there how about the French Foreign Legion? I thought they were a refuge for people who needed to get away from their old life and get a new start.
Yeah, okay… First you have to travel legally to France. Then you have to meet the requirements like being a male between 18 and 40 and physically fit. They don’t accept candidates who are wanted for serious crimes like murder or drug trafficking etc.
So, are you saying the circus is less restrictive (easier) to join?
Any clown can get a job at the circus.
Just do like many others in the past have done and go to Alaska. For some reason, criminals think Alaska has no law enforcement, no internet, and that they can just disappear. It doesn’t usually work out, because their only skill is in being a - you know - criminal.
I think hiding in a remote region, assuming you don’t leave a trail leading them right to you, would be smarter since authorities are likely to broadcast a photo of you so there’s a better chance of being spotted by random people rather than where there are no people around to see you.
But there are practically no places in even the Western states where there literally were no people around to see you. At least at “last post” type of places you are bound to be noticed, and those are just the places the authorities would visit to ask around about a fugitive. Along the same line, any hunter, extreme sports enthusiast etc. that sees you out there in the middle of nowhere is bound to remember you, precisely because there are so few people around.
When I travel to my remote cabin out in the Boreal forest, any car, let alone a person on foot, I see on the last dozens of miles is like a beacon sounding an alarm. I think it would be vastly better to hide out in the city crowds, where the sheer mass of bodies and faces grant you a decent level of anonymity.
Guys like Eric Rudolph that evaded the law for years in the woods had local help / sycophants, who would not disclose to the authorities what they had seen / done. That changes the ball game.
If you can find a remote enough region that you can avoid anybody seeing you (there probably are a few left, at least if you’re trying to avoid being seen and are good at it), you’ll find yourself dealing with the reasons those places are left: they’re generally quite inhospitable, and take considerable skill plus a good deal of luck to stay alive in, even presuming that you started out with the right equipment for the particular conditions. And anybody who does see you, as has been noted, is going to notice you and remember you.
And the OP specified the serial killer continuing their activities in a small town; not that they were snatching an occasional victim off the wilderness areas of the Pacific Coast Trail. (Which might make an interesting book; but personally I’d have the killer defeated by a broken ankle caused by a single misstep.)
The person you bought gas from, the boored store clerk that sold you some supplies, the farmer who saw you driving down a road you don’t belong on, everyone will all remember you. Flo at the local diner will mention you to Officer Bob, the local deputy, who usually stops in for coffee and a ham sandwich every afternoon. If he shows her a picture, Flo will tell him, “that’s the guy!” Neither Bob nor Flo needs to remember the last 1000 people that they saw, just your murderer trying to hide out. He, they will remember. They only see a few people each day and you will be remembered.
I live in a small crossroad community of about 1000 people spread out. I know where you went to high school, who your parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents are. Probably your family history several genarations back. May have dated your grandma, etc. You can’t really hide anything you do in a small town. An sparsly populated area makes it harder, not easier.
Let me guess, the OP Cmyers1980 has lived in an urban environment for most of their life. There, your murderer will be just another guy in a black hoodie and jeans, one of dozens you saw today.
Eastern Oregon, western Washington, northern California, are beautiful places. I recommend a road trip before you invest too much time in your novel.
I would pick Oakland, California.
We’ve had the odd local news story of individuals hiding from police toting arrest warrants. They might get by a few days or a week. With help from family and friends. Eventually they find them.
We had a guy who killed his girlfriend and their baby in a drunken/drugged fit.
He went to his Grammys house. She found out the murder happened the next morning and gave him her car and cash she could get and sent him to Indiana. And kept her mouth shut.
They did find him. He had ran the car into a river. Stolen another. Robbed a liquor store.
But a bar fight got him picked up in Missouri. On his way home, they said.
Grammy got charged with obstructing justice.
She kept the secret for half a year.
Moral: make sure Grammy’s on your side in these things.