DNA Match Brings Serial Killer to Justice

He began killing in 1989, but wasn’t connected to the crime for 15 years. In that time, he raped and assaulted countless men and women, and killed two young boys.

Scott Erskine was born in winter of 1962, in San Diego, California. At five years old, Erskine ran into traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway and was hit by a car. He spent the next 60 days in a coma in hospital, and although he recovered from the accident, he complained to his mother about headaches and often blacked out, which gave him memory loss.

By the age of ten, Erskine was labelled a problem child at school and was put in ‘special’ classes, to be monitored. He began molesting his six-year-old sister, making her give him oral sex. He quickly moved on to abusing her friends, threatening to kill them if they didn’t let him do what he wanted to them.

At 15, he was placed in a juvenile detention centre, which he escaped from. During his freedom, he raped a 13-year-old at knifepoint. The day after, he assaulted a 27-year-old who was out jogging, threatening her with the same knife.

In 1984 on his way to an interview, Erskine beat a teenager unconscious, whilst he attempted to rape him. He was sentenced to four years in prison and whilst in custody, he raped a fellow inmate. Despite his offences in prison, he was paroled four years later.

In 1988, Erskine moved to Florida with a woman he was dating. That year they got married and soon had a son, Brandon. The marriage didn’t last long as Erskine was abusive, kicking his wife in the stomach whilst she was pregnant. She soon left and Erskine moved back to California.

In 1993, Erskine picked up a woman from a bus stop, asking if she would like to come back to his home with him. He proceeded to hold her hostage for several days, continuously sodomising and raping her. Once he was finished with her, he offered her clothes to wear and cooked her a steak, before driving her to the Hyatt Regency hotel, where she was due to meet a friend. She waited five days before eventually calling the police, and Erskine was quickly arrested outside his apartment.

He was convicted of kidnapping and raping the woman and was sentenced to 70 years in prison. He would also be registered as a sex offender, and because of 1997 Wisconsin Act 6, he now needed to submit his DNA.

In March 2001, the cold case team in San Diego reopened the investigation of…