Gerard John Schaefer Jr. (March 25, 1946 – December 3, 1995) was an American murderer and suspected serial killer who was imprisoned in 1973 for murders he committed while he was a sheriff's deputy in Martin County, Florida. Schaefer was convicted of two murders, but was suspected of many others. He frequently appealed against his conviction, but privately boasted, both verbally and in writing, of killing more than thirty women and girls. In December 1995, Schaefer was stabbed to death in his prison cell.
On July 21, 1972, Schaefer picked up two teenage girls named Nancy Trotter and Paula Sue Wells, who were hitchhiking, while he was on patrol. The following day, he abducted them, took them to a remote forest and tied them to trees where he threatened to kill them or sell them into prostitution. However, Schaefer was called away on his police radio, leaving the girls tied up. He vowed that he would return.[citation needed]


Nancy Trotter reenacts her binding and restraint by Schaefer for a Martin County police photographer
Trotter and Wells, who were aged 17 and 18, escaped their bonds and went to the nearest police station, which was actually their kidnapper's own station. When Schaefer returned to the woods and found his victims gone, he called his station and claimed that he had done "something foolish", explaining that he had pretended to kidnap and threaten to kill two hitchhikers in order to scare them into avoiding such an irresponsible method of travel. Schaefer's boss did not believe him and he ordered Schaefer to the station, where he was stripped of his badge and charged with false imprisonment and assault.[citation needed]

After posting bail, Schaefer was released. Two months later, on September 27, 1972, Schaefer abducted, tortured, and murdered Susan Place, aged 17, and Georgia Jessup, 16, and buried them in Oak Hammock Park in Port Saint Lucie, Florida. In December 1972, Schaefer appeared in court in relation to the July abductions. Due to a plea bargain, he was able to plead guilty to just one charge of aggravated assault, for which he received a sentence of one year.
In April 1973, over six months after they vanished, the decomposing, mutilated remains of Place and Jessup were found. The girls had been tied to a tree at some point and had vanished while hitchhiking. These similarities to Schaefer's treatment of the girls who had escaped led the police to obtain a search warrant for the house he and his wife shared with Schaefer's mother.[citation needed]

In Schaefer's bedroom, the police found lurid stories he had written that were full of descriptions of the torture, rape, and murder of women, whom he routinely referred to as "whores" and "sluts". More damningly, the authorities found personal possessions such as jewelry, diaries, and in one case, teeth from at least eight young women and girls who had gone missing in recent years.