When a Killer Calls

From John Douglas—the legendary FBI criminal

profiler, #1 New York Times bestselling author, and inspiration

for the Netflix show Mindhunter—comes

a chilling journey inside the mind and crimes of Larry Gene Bell, one of the

most dangerous serial killers Douglas confronted, and the desperate effort to

identify and catch him.

On May 31, 1985, two days before her high

school graduation, Shari Smith was abducted from the driveway of her family

home in South Carolina. Based on the crime scene and the abductor’s repeated

and taunting calls to the family, law enforcement quickly realized they

were dealing with a sophisticated and highly dangerous criminal. A letter arrived

the next day entitled “Last Will & Testament,” in which Shari, knowing she

was to be murdered, wrote bravely and achingly of her love for her parents,

siblings, and boyfriend, saying that while they would miss her, she knew they

would persevere through their faith. The abduction rocked her quiet town,

triggering a massive manhunt and bringing in the FBI, which enlisted profiler

John Douglas. A few days later, a phone call told the family where they could

find Shari’s body.

Then nine-year-old Debra May Helmick was

kidnapped from her yard, confirming the harsh realization that Smith’s murder

was no random act. A serial killer was evolving, and the only way to stop him

would be to use the study of criminal behavior to anticipate his next move

before he could kill again. Douglas devised a risky and emotionally fraught

strategy to use Shari’s lookalike older sister Dawn as bait to draw out the

unknown subject. Dawn and her parents courageously agreed.

One of the most haunting investigations of

Douglas’s storied career, this case details how the

eerily accurate profile he created—alongside his carefully

crafted and stage-managed manipulation of the killer’s psychology—combined with

dedicated police work and cutting-edge forensic science to end a reign of

criminal terror. As Shari’s family took incredible personal risks to lure her

killer from the shadows, Douglas and the FBI pushed criminal profiling to its

limits, culminating in one of his most dramatic and

effective confrontations with a sadistic and remorseless killer.