The Little Rock Slasher

Between August 2020 and April 2021, four brutal knife attacks were reported in the Midtown neighborhood of Little Rock, Arkansas. Just weeks after the final two knife attacks, police came forward with information pointing to a burgeoning serial killer. However, in the time since, this aspiring killer has gone quiet, and it remains undetermined whether he has moved on to new territory or is simply biding his time...

Very early on Monday, August 24th, 2020, police from Little Rock's 12 Street Patrol Division responded to a call from someone on the 2200 block of South Gaines Street, near the intersection of West 22nd. When police arrived moments later, they discovered the body of a 64-year-old named Larry McChristian, who had been reported missing tow days beforehand by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Police Department.

Medical professionals responded to the scene, but declared McChristian dead at the time of their arrival. While his body showed signs of obvious trauma, it was sent off to the Arkansas State Crime Lab for autopsy. While police officials would not immediately reveal McChristian's cause of death, it's believed - based on some information later obtained - that he had been repeatedly stabbed by his killer.

Sadly, not much about Larry Eugene McChristian is publicly known, other than his date of birth, October 23rd, 1955; the area in which he had previously lived, Yellville, a small Arkansas town approximately 2.5 hours north of Little Rock; and his date of death, August 24th, 2020.

McChristian's body had been discovered just after 2:00 AM by a passerby walking through his neighborhood in the early morning hours, who noticed a body laying in a yard and then called police. Afterward, this caller then started knocking on some doors in the area, to alert residents of the grisly discovery made in their neighborhood.

After arriving at the scene, police started going door-to-door, hoping to discover some information about the crime that had taken place, with Larry McChristian's body being found in a yard that wasn't his own. During this canvas, police discovered some video surveillance that positioned to cover at least part of the crime scene. Matilda Buchanan, a woman that lived in the neighborhood, would tell reporters with local ABC affiliate KATV:

"It seems the person who stabbed Mr. McChristian came north, was walking north on Gains (sic) Street and stabbed him, and walked away and came back and stabbed him again and stood there while he died... The thing that's so scary is that it seems to be so random and there doesn't seem to be any relationship to normal activity on this street."

It is not publicly known how Larry McChristian had ended up in this neighborhood, or what had led to him encountering the individual that stabbed him to death. It's unknown what circumstances led to him being reported missing two days earlier - on August 22nd - and if he had been laying in that spot for upwards of a day.

In November of 2020, police officials would attempt to encourage any new tips or leads, after their initial investigation into Larry McChristian's murder reached a dead end. Press outlets in the Little Rock region began publishing information about a $10,000 reward raised by McChristian's neighbors, which they hoped would encourage someone to come forward.

At the time, Little Rock Police spokesperson Eric Barnes told reporters with KATV:

"After reviewing the case, a lot of the facts in the case, we felt like this is the appropriate time to reach out to the public and ask for help, and we're hopeful that we can come up with some tips, try to bring to the next level in the investigation."

During the announcement of this reward and renewed push by investigators, it was announced that the surveillance footage recovered months beforehand had captured images of the killer, but not with enough detail to make an identification... at least, not yet. Police in Little Rock hoped that the public could help them fill in the gaps. Per Eric Barnes:

"Was this somebody this person knew? Was this a complete stranger? Is this something that could've been prevented on the front end? There's a lot of questions that we don't have a lot of information to either develop that suspect and who our suspect is."

This is the story of the Little Rock Slasher.

Months before police would make a public push to catch the killer of Larry McChristian - just a few weeks after his suspicious death, actually - another case unfolded nearby with some odd similarities.

On September 23rd, 2020, a friend of 62-year-old Jeff Welch dropped by his home at approximately 3:00 AM. Welch's home, along the 4200 block of West 12th Street, was roughly two blocks away from Little Rock P.D.'s 12th Street substation. This friend, who later told officers that he was looking for a spot to get out of the heavy rain that morning, stumbled upon the idea of crashing at the home of Jeff, an old friend of his that he'd always called "Old School."

However, just after 3:00 AM, this longtime friend arrived at Jeff's home. There, he discovered the body of his 62-year-old friend, slouched down near his front porch. He appeared to be incapacitated, and by all outward appearances, wasn't breathing. So this friend did the only thing he could do, and dialed 911.

Police responded to the scene a short time later and would later describe it as suspicious. They discovered that Jeff Welch had several puncture wounds on his neck, and it was later determined that these wounds were homicidal in nature. However, from the jump, it seems like investigators were less-than-certain about that, with a police statement from immediately after the crime reading:

"After the preliminary investigation, it was not readily apparent that the, deceased black male, subject had died as the result of a homicide."

Regardless, the body of Jeff Welch was sent off to the state crime lab to be analyzed, and medical examiners later ruled his death a homicide. Fingerprints were used to officially identify the body as Jeff Welch, who investigators estimated had been killed just a short time before his body was found, at approximately 2:00 AM on the morning of September 23rd. Why he had been killed was anyone's guess.

In the months to come, both of these cases would remain unsolved. As far as I can tell, police made no obvious connections between the two, and wouldn't until the following year, 2021.

The victim in the first case, Larry McChristian, had been brutally stabbed to death and left to bleed out in a stranger's lawn. There seemed to be no obvious connection between him and the person whose yard he died in; it seemed that the killer had simply killed him there, and then left before the body could be found.

Meanwhile, the victim in the second case, Jeff Welch, had been killed on his own front porch. He had suffered some stab wounds to his neck - "puncture wounds," per the police report - and his body was found by an old friend a short time later through mere happenstance.

Other than the two victims dying via bladed instrument in the Little Rock region, there seemed to be no obvious connections. But as I mentioned, that would change months later... when the offender struck again.

In the early morning hours of Sunday, April 11th, 2021, 43-year-old Debra Walker was attacked by an unknown subject along the 1900 block of South Pulaski Street.

Just after 3:00 AM, Walker - who was walking by herself along the road - was attacked by an unknown man and stabbed more than a dozen. Shortly thereafter, a phone call was placed to local police, and officers responded to the scene at approximately 3:33 AM. When police found Debra Walker, she was stumbling and bleeding along the road, and was taken by ambulance to the nearby University of Arkansas Medical School, where she was treated. Thankfully, she survived, but had suffered significant injuries due to fifteen stab wounds she had received.

During questioning, Debra Walker claimed that she was walking near 19th and Marshall Streets when she was approached by a stranger who pulled out a knife and began stabbing her without any provocation. After doing so, the man ran off in an undetermined direction. She claimed that the man appeared to be a young black male with a slender build, who stood over six feet tall.

Police would attempt to use this information to track down the attacker, but would have their hands full in the immediate future.

The following morning - April 12th, 2021 - the body of a middle-aged black man was discovered by police officers at approximately 6:33. The body was found at 2710 Wright Avenue, approximately one block away from where Debra Walker had been attacked, and was sent off to the Arkansas State Crime Lab for an autopsy.

This incident was believed to have taken place hours before the body was discovered - early on the morning of April 12th - but the exact timeline was never quite established in a public forum.

Two days after the body was found, April 14th, the body was identified as 40-year-old Marlon Franklin, who was homeless at the time of his death. Because of his transient lifestyle, sadly, not much information about him has been publicly learned, but his next of kin was notified of his passing, and information about his death was forwarded to the FBI... who had taken a vested interest in this story days beforehand.

Following the attack on Debra Walker, the Little Rock Police Department had been contacted by the FBI, whose Behavioral Analysis Team had been tracking the knife attacks in the region. They had begun developing a psychological profile of a serial killer, who - it seemed, at least - had struck twice the following year and was now active again following a cooling-down period.

On April 29th, 2021, just a couple of weeks after the most recent knife attacks (which had resulted in one dead and another seriously wounded), Little Rock Police decided to release a video to alert the public.

Titled "Safety Alert 04-29-2021," the video featured Police Chief Keith Humphrey informing the public about the rash of recent attacks which police believed were likely the work of a single killer.

With this announcement, police officials in Little Rock also released some surveillance footage of the offender, which was likely taken from the knife attack that resulted in the death of Larry McChristian in August of 2020. In this footage, the offender starts walking down what looks like a residential sidewalk in the dead of night, before turning around and circling back. This is likely what had been described by a neighbor from the McChristian attack, who described the killer stabbing McChristian and then walking back to watch him die.

The next snippet of footage is less grainy, but similarly hard to make out. It features the offender walking across the street, past a stop sign, towards a figure on the other side of the road. Based on the circumstances, we can presume that this is the attack on Debra Walker from April of 2021.

Following the murder of Marlon Franklin, the third in less than a year, investigators publicly announced that the incidents I've covered in this podcast were likely linked... possibly committed by the same individual, who was theorized to be a burgeoning serial killer.

After the two most recent attacks from earlier in April - the attack on Debra Walker and the death of Marlon Franklin - investigators had linked their cases to the two from the year prior, which were still unsolved. All four of the knife attacks were centered around Little Rock's Midtown area, near the 12th Street Station. All victims had been stabbed or slashed with a knife, and featured similar wounds. And all attacks seemed to be against strangers walking alone at night; in particular, between the hours of 1:00 and 4:00 AM.

During the initial announcement of this killer, Police Chief Keith Humphrey announced an increase of patrols in the area, and insisted that these attacks were not linked to any others in the state. He likely said this to try and dissuade anyone from publicly linking this case to others in the geographic region, wanting to highlight the specific details from these four cases which they believed were linked.

Following this announcement in April of 2021, Little Rock Police received an influx of tips - reportedly more than 50 within a 24 hour span - but it is unknown if any of these led anywhere, with the case disappearing from headlines almost immediately thereafter.

The killer - who has become known as the "Little Rock Slasher," "The Little Rock serial killer," "The River City Ripper," "The Rock City Ripper," and "Jack the Knife" - has been spotted at least twice in surveillance footage. Sadly, the footage is from too far away to compile a detailed description, but we do know that he is believed to be a tall, slender black male standing more than six feet tall. He has been seen wearing a dark-hooded sweatshirt and pants, as well as gloves, and is considered armed and dangerous.

Because of where the crimes took place, the killer is likely familiar with Little Rock's Midtown neighborhood. All of the knife attacks took place within a 3-mile radius. Little Rock Police announced in one of their original statements:

"There is a strong possibility the person who did this continues to work and/or live in our community. He likely has familiarity with the area in which the victims were attacked."

All four of the attacks are believed to have taken place in the early morning hours, between 1:00 and 4:00 AM, indicating that the killer has a nocturnal schedule... or at least, did during this time frame (between August of 2020 and April of 2021).

However, it seems like this killer doesn't necessarily have a "type." If anything, he is likely an opportunity killer... someone that doesn't go after a specific victim type, but is willing to attack anyone and everyone (making him perhaps more dangerous to the public).

All of the victims were a bit older, with the youngest victim being 40-year-old Marlon Franklin in April of 2021; but the only surviving victim was a woman, Debra Walker.

Three of the victims were white, and one was black.

Did the killer choose to target these people because they were available to him? Most likely. It seems like there isn't much of a color barrier to this killer, as they attacked white and black victims. While their victims were older, that might have been due to a cost/benefit factor (older victims are less likely to be able to properly fight back).

Regardless, with the long gap in between the 2nd and 3rd killing, this killer seems to have cooling-off periods, one of the traits indicative of serial killers. Because of these, there is no set timetable for him to attack again... it could be months, years, or maybe never. Perhaps the publication of these attacks in April of 2021 caused him to stop entirely, worried that the FBI was onto him. Or maybe he's simply biding his time, waiting to strike again.

I first learned about this story when I was researching the Katie Janness case, which I covered in an episode earlier this year. For those that haven't listened to that episode or might not remember it...

Katie Janness was a woman that was killed in the Midtown neighborhood of Atlanta, along with her dog, Bowie. The crime took place in July of 2021, and was particularly brutal: the killer had butchered Katie and Bowie with a knife, and then took the extra steps of mutilating Katie's body. It's a gruesome crime that I still have trouble thinking about; especially since the crime took place in a public place, in Atlanta's Piedmont Park, at approximately 1:00 AM.

When I was researching that story, I learned about the Little Rock Slasher through some comments on Websleuths. There, some of the users were pointing out the similarities between Katie's murder and the crimes that had taken place in Little Rock just months beforehand.

Personally, I find it unlikely for there to be a connection. Not only are Little Rock and Atlanta a sizeable distance apart - more than 500 miles - but each of these crimes seemed to feature a familiarity with the area itself. Whoever committed the crimes in Little Rock seemed to be intimately familiar with the Midtown area there; and whoever killed Katie Janness seemed comfortable enough to murder her in a public park, with at least a handful of potential witnesses lurking in the surrounding area. Also, the crime to Katie Janness had featured a distinct type of overkill - more than 50 stab wounds, as well as mutilations to her body, neither of which seem to have been features in the crimes from Little Rock.

That being said, it is possible that there is a connection. Maybe the killer from Little Rock decided to expand his reach after being outed in Arkansas in April of 2021, and moved on to a new territory: Atlanta. If this individual had moved east to Georgia in 2021, they would have had a couple of months to get familiar with the area around Atlanta's Piedmont Park before killing Katie in July of 2021. I know this is a stretch, but in the absence of answers, it's just a theory.

So after learning about the connection between Katie's murder and the Little Rock Slasher, I continued to do some digging. I wasn't able to find a similar case in the American Southeast, but I did find a standalone story that raised my eyebrows.

In November of 2021, just months after the murder of Katie Janness, a 14-year-old boy named Ryan Rogers was murdered in Miami, Florida. The body of the teenager was found near the I-95 overpass in Palm Beach Gardens on November 16th, approximately one day after he went missing. Police quickly developed evidence leading them to a suspect, 38-year-old Semmie Lee Williams.

Williams was a homeless drifter that lived primarily in Florida, but had a criminal history extending as far away as California. In 2014, he had beat and strangled an elderly man, leaving him to die in a ditch, and was later found unfit to stand trial before being restored to competency two years later. He was then mandated to spend the next couple of years in a residential facility, which he did between 2018 and 2020. After that, though, his trail seems to grow fuzzy, with a lot of his whereabouts only being accounted for in videos he published to Youtube and social media sites... in which his mental illnesses are laid bare for the world to see.

Semmie Lee Williams is clearly someone that is mentally unwell. In these videos he posted online, he made claims that "police put implants in his eyes" and also alleged "that he was being stalked, persecuted and sexually assaulted by strangers and cults" (according to an article on Oxygen.com). He also claimed to have been harassed by numerous groups in the past, including "the KKK, Free Masons, Nazis, Neighborhood Watch, the Illuminati and gang bangers."

Following his arrest, a judge ordered him to undergo meetings with two court-appointed psychologists to determine his competency to stand trial. They ruled him competent, but agreed that he had struggled with mental illnesses for some time - namely, schizophrenia.

While Williams has yet to stand trial for the killing of Ryan Rogers, it is possible that he has been living a transient lifestyle for quite some time. While he is believed to have mainly stayed in the Miami area, it's impossible to tell where he went in the months after his release from the residential facility in 2020. Only time will tell whether he has a connection to this story - or any others.

This story has attracted some local attention in Little Rock, but other than that, hasn't seemed to make a lot of noise in the true crime world... despite this featuring what seems to be the first few killings from an aspiring serial killer.

Four cases, including three deaths, were reported within a single calendar year, but it seems like this killer has gone quiet in the year or so since. As I mentioned, perhaps this killer got scared by the attention received shortly after police announced they had linked the four stabbings together. To me, this implies that this killer likely follows the case in the press.

Who knows? He may be listening to this podcast.

With federal investigators involved, this killer likely knows that any misstep - no matter how big or small - will likely lead to his capture and permanent detainment.

Shortly after the announcement of this story back in April 2021, it attracted the attention of a local vigilante in Little Rock known as "ShadowVision," who has vowed to hunt down the man responsible for these killings. On Facebook, "ShadowVision" wrote in May of that year:

"I know that the serial stabber is keeping an eye on my page here. So this is a threat to you: when I find you, I will show you what I do to serial killers. I am hunting you right now."

Only time will tell whether or not "ShadowVision" gets to carry through on his aspirations to become Batman, but I would heavily encourage anyone with information in this case to call it in to (501) 371-4636 or email it to ASKLRPD@littlerock.gov. A reward of $20,000 is available for anyone that provides information that leads to the apprehension of a suspect.

Until such a time, the stories of Larry McChristian, Jeff Welch, Debra Walker, and Marlon Franklin will remain unresolved.