Amber Swartz's killer identified

[kadrmas15]

Well, supposedly Amber Swartz's killer has been identified although I am weary of these people that do mass confessions to various murders. However he did plead guilty to killing another little girl in 1999 in San Jose and he was not suspected of being a mass child killer until he was arrested in 2000 for the rape and kidnapping of an 8 year old girl who he held for two days before she was able to escape. She was kidnapped in Vallejo which is about 7 miles north of Pinole where Amber Swartz was kidnapped. This guy, Curtis Dean Anderson is also a suspected in other child abductions and murders that occurred in the East Bay Area during the 1980's and 1990's. While this does not completely clear Tim Bindner it does call into doubt his guilt.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/19966870/detail.html

[MegtheEgg86]

Thanks for the link. I've always kind of wondered--how do you feel about Bindner as a suspect, kadrmas? I've always been curious about your take on it.

[kadrmas15]

Hmm, well I will say that I have gone back and forth on Bindner. But I did always have a feeling that leaned towards him not being involved. I guess it is because what bothered me about Bindner is that they never had a smoking gun on him. In fact they had nothing solid on him at all. It seems that Bindner was targeted more for his politically incorrect, eccentric behavior and opinions than for any real evidence they had. Bindner lived in the East Bay area so I guess I do not find it unusual that he would be around various communities there. It just seems to be a classic case of tunnel vision by detectives and because of this they overlooked other people that later turned out to be the actual killers in at least two of these cases.

Now granted I understand detectives are human beings like anyone else and that they make mistakes. However the problem is they do not admit to making mistakes, well at least when a person is wrongly accused they do not admit it. The media coverage of Bindner also put his image in the public mind. Like that eyewitness who saw that mysterious car on the day Angela Bugay disappeared. I DO think he saw the killer of Angela but that the killer was not Tim Bindner, rather it was the guy that actually killed her who was not arrested until more than 15 years after her 1983 death. That car was later found junked in Los Angeles and the guy who was eventually convicted in the case, commuted frequently between the Bay Area and the Los Angeles area at that time. Plus the man the eyewitness saw was clean shaven yet at that time Bindner had a full beard. Was Bindner's behavior bizarre? Yes. However it hardly makes him a killer. Plus Kim Swartz seemed quite paranoid to me which I imagine would be common in anyone that had been through what she had. However I would also be inclined that she was one that was pressuring police to focus on Bindner because she was so sure that he did it.

But this is common for this tunnel vision to occur and for detectives to want to clear case files by trying to pin them all on one suspect. When this happens it is sad and unfortunate as most of the time mass killings like this are done by different people and not by the same person and so when the tunnel vision occurs it allows the real killers to escape detection and they are allowed to continue killing. What are your opinions on this Meg the Egg?

[WongStuff]

You beat me to it. Here another article link.
http://www.mercurynews.com/topstories/ci_12761821

[MegtheEgg86]

Originally Posted by kadrmas15

Hmm, well I will say that I have gone back and forth on Bindner. But I did always have a feeling that leaned towards him not being involved. I guess it is because what bothered me about Bindner is that they never had a smoking gun on him. In fact they had nothing solid on him at all. It seems that Bindner was targeted more for his politically incorrect, eccentric behavior and opinions than for any real evidence they had. Bindner lived in the East Bay area so I guess I do not find it unusual that he would be around various communities there. It just seems to be a classic case of tunnel vision by detectives and because of this they overlooked other people that later turned out to be the actual killers in at least two of these cases.

Now granted I understand detectives are human beings like anyone else and that they make mistakes. However the problem is they do not admit to making mistakes, well at least when a person is wrongly accused they do not admit it. The media coverage of Bindner also put his image in the public mind. Like that eyewitness who saw that mysterious car on the day Angela Bugay disappeared. I DO think he saw the killer of Angela but that the killer was not Tim Bindner, rather it was the guy that actually killed her who was not arrested until more than 15 years after her 1983 death. That car was later found junked in Los Angeles and the guy who was eventually convicted in the case, commuted frequently between the Bay Area and the Los Angeles area at that time. Plus the man the eyewitness saw was clean shaven yet at that time Bindner had a full beard. Was Bindner's behavior bizarre? Yes. However it hardly makes him a killer. Plus Kim Swartz seemed quite paranoid to me which I imagine would be common in anyone that had been through what she had. However I would also be inclined that she was one that was pressuring police to focus on Bindner because she was so sure that he did it.

But this is common for this tunnel vision to occur and for detectives to want to clear case files by trying to pin them all on one suspect. When this happens it is sad and unfortunate as most of the time mass killings like this are done by different people and not by the same person and so when the tunnel vision occurs it allows the real killers to escape detection and they are allowed to continue killing. What are your opinions on this Meg the Egg?

I'm always on the fence, basically. I used to be an adamant proponent that Bindner was guilty, but for years I haven't been very sure. In John Philpin's book Stalemate about the Bay Area abductions, it sort of seemed as though Philpin leaned towards Bindner being guilty as well--he was portrayed as utterly calculating and highly intelligent, and that was how, allegedly, he was able to avoid having any real evidence tied to him. He was too damn smart and never slipped up, supposedly.

But I have a hard time with that. I struggle with reconciling a highly intelligent, calculating killer with Bindner's outward personality--someone who latches onto everything childlike, illogical, and perhaps socially taboo. He doesn't seem to exist in reality. He lives far too deeply in a fantasy world than to come back down to earth and execute crimes that leave little to no evidence behind. I just don't see it. He's an utterly weird and very suspicious dude, but I think I have to agree that LE has spent far more time and attention trying to find something to nail him with than on the actual investigation itself.

Kim Swartz didn't develop her suspicions about Bindner until later in the investigation, IIRC. I can certainly understand her grief and worry, but I wonder if the police had anything to do with that.

[Tighthead]

I read Stalemate and thought Binder to be guilty of being a complete kook, but not the murders.

I seem to recall that Philpin failed to address the fact that Binder's vehicle was not a match with the one that was seen shortly after Swartz went missing. Other than creepiness, of which there was plenty, there wasn't much in the way of good evidence.

[JenniferS.]

Originally Posted by Tighthead

I read Stalemate and thought Binder to be guilty of being a complete kook, but not the murders.

I seem to recall that Philpin failed to address the fact that Binder's vehicle was not a match with the one that was seen shortly after Swartz went missing. Other than creepiness, of which there was plenty, there wasn't much in the way of good evidence.

Unsolved Mysteries had a totaly different focus on this story then missing reward did.
Originally when Amber went missing it was said on missing reward that the strange car had couple who drove away with her in it. And that a group of neighbor hood kids said a kid was playing in the neighbor hood that they didnt know. The show called it the mysterious kid. And they had a witness sighting. A lady was in a store at the register and a little girl comes up to her saying i'm amber swartz garcia a couple times. Then she walks away with a mysterious couple and a little boy. The Woman said at the time she didnt realize she was missing. Imagine my suprise when unsolved mysteries never mentions any of this and only focuses on bender. What happened to the original story?

[Jason K]

I've never been able to find the Amber Scwartz/Tim Bindner episode...is it out there anywhere? I'm reading Stalemate right now and would really like to see it.

[WishfulDreamer]

Originally Posted by JenniferS.

Unsolved Mysteries had a totaly different focus on this story then missing reward did.
Originally when Amber went missing it was said on missing reward that the strange car had couple who drove away with her in it. And that a group of neighbor hood kids said a kid was playing in the neighbor hood that they didnt know. The show called it the mysterious kid. And they had a witness sighting. A lady was in a store at the register and a little girl comes up to her saying i'm amber swartz garcia a couple times. Then she walks away with a mysterious couple and a little boy. The Woman said at the time she didnt realize she was missing. Imagine my suprise when unsolved mysteries never mentions any of this and only focuses on bender. What happened to the original story?

That's very interesting! Not very many people would know Amber by her full name, or at least she's usually referred to without "Garcia" being added in.

[JenniferS.]

Originally Posted by WishfulDreamer

That's very interesting! Not very many people would know Amber by her full name, or at least she's usually referred to without "Garcia" being added in.

The woman said she didnt know the little girl was missing till she saw the report on tv.

I was reading on the unsolved mysteries wiki and it says a man in prison admitted to taking amber and dumping her body in new mexico on the side of the road.. first i heard of that. I would think if that was true someone would have found her body way before now.