Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Phoenix Sniper Case Gets Weirder

As if it weren't bad enough, the Phoenix sniper case may include a third shooter.

The informant also said [Samuel] Dieteman asked her if she had heard about the shooting of man on a bicycle on Camelback Road, around 89th Avenue "about a month ago." Four of the shootings attributed to the Serial Shooter occurred on Camelback Road, including one near 86th Avenue on May 31. That victim was walking. But a bicyclist was shot in the 4000 block of West Camelback Road in March.

The source said Dieteman told her he was with a man who is "currently incarcerated," that they had used a shotgun and that they were in a truck. Hausner has not been recently incarcerated, raising questions about whether a third accomplice was involved.

By the way, the 4000 block of West Camelback is a hike and a half from where the pair were arrested. The covered a huge amount of territory.

The pair, Dieteman and Dale S. Hausner have now more or less turned on each other. Or at least Hausner has turned. He claims that the shootings were Dieteman's work, though police say that it was his car and his guns that were used in the crimes.
"I don't see Sam as a coldblooded killer, but if they've got evidence saying he is, there's not much I can do to refute that," Hausner, 33, said in the Maricopa County jail.

With a friend like that, a serial killer doesn't need a prosecuting attorney. Anyway, from the start Hausner seemed the smarter one.
Police who interviewed Dieteman said the two took turns shooting people in the Phoenix area over the course of more than a year. Investigators also found a map of the shooting locations around town and news clippings about the case last week when they searched the apartment the men shared.

Hausner said he kept clippings and the map because he found the case interesting.

Following the case in the news is, of course, typical behavior in a serial killer
He said his brother had introduced him to Dieteman and he let him move into his apartment about a month ago because he felt sorry for a guy with no job or home.

A pretty easy lie to catch.
Hausner's 11-minute interview ended abruptly when his attorney, Garrett Simpson, arrived at the jail.

Just like an attorney to interrupt a perfectly good self-incrimination.

The original reports stated that a surveillance photo had led to the arrests, but did not explain how. Apparently, an informant, the same one mentioned above, saw the photo on the news and went to the police. She described Dieteman as a person who had beat a man half to death for putting mustard on Dieteman's burger at a fast food place.

Charming.

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