In the episode titled ‘The Signs on Their Bodies’ of Discovery+’s ‘Grave Secrets,’ the focus is on the gruesome and horrific murders of Steven Brian Pennell. As mutilated bodies of women began surfacing in Delaware in 1987, the authorities were in a race against time to put the perpetrator behind bars before he took more victims. However, the hunt lasted for about an hour, and by then, Steven Brian Pennell had killed several women around Route 40.
All of Steven Brian Pennell’s Victims Frequented Route 40
For a couple of years in the late 1980s, Route 40 in Delaware saw multiple brutal killings of different women by the hands of a serial killer named Steven Brian Pennell, who was also known as The Route 40 Killer. Born on November 22, 1957, in Glasgow, Delaware, Steven’s crimes first surfaced on November 29, 1987, when a young couple made the horrific discovery of the remains of a young woman at a construction site off Route 40. When the police reached the crime scene, they identified the victim as a 23-year-old nurse and sex worker named Shirley Anna Ellis. While there was no sign of sexual assault, an autopsy report suggested that she was abused and murdered by a fatal blow to the head by a hammer.
According to her family, she was pursuing a career in nursing and used to hitchhike regularly, which is probably how she met the killer. Despite the best efforts of the police, they couldn’t find any significant leads until Steven took yet another victim along Route 40. On June 28, 1988, he murdered 31-year-old Catherine A. DiMauro, a divorced mother of two who was a regular hitchhiker in the area. A few construction workers discovered her body at a construction site on the following morning around 6:25 am. Similar to Shirley, Catherine was also murdered by hammer blows and strangulation. One of the points of difference was that she was covered in blue fibers, indicating a specific kind of carpet.
In the hunt for the serial killer targeting the women in the area, the investigators decided to send one of the officers undercover, Renée Taschner, disguised as a sex worker, along Route 40, hoping to encounter the perpetrator face to face. While on the lookout for the killer, a sex worker named Margaret Lynn Finner vanished off Route 40 on August 22, 1988. However, her friend had witnessed the 27-year-old get inside a blue Ford van, driven by a white male. Her body was identified using dental records as it was found in a decomposed state near the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal, reportedly about three months after her disappearance.
An Undercover Officer Played a Huge Role in Catching the Serial Killer
After roaming around Route 40 for several weeks, Renée spotted a blue Ford van, which stopped for her. While the driver tried convincing her to get inside, the undercover female officer noticed that the floor was covered with a blue carpet. Faking a headache, she tore a few pieces of fabric from the carpet sneakily and noted down his license plate number, which led the police to Steven Brian Pennell. Upon digging deep into him, they learned that he was a 31-year-old married electrician with two children without any prior run-ins with the law. On September 20, 1988, a 22-year-old local sex worker named Michelle Gordon turned up dead on the rocks in the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal. Similar to other victims, she also frequented Route 40, where she used to hitchhike. The autopsy proved that she was drugged with cocaine by the killer before he tortured her body.
When they ran the fibers of Steven’s van’s blue carpet against the ones found on Catherine, the detectives finally cracked the case wide open as the fibers were a match. Unfortunately, before taking any further action against him, a 26-year-old woman named Kathleen Anne Meyer vanished on September 23, 1988, from Route 40 around 9:30 pm. Consequently, a search warrant was obtained for Steven’s van, in which they found several pieces of incriminating evidence, including the blood and hair of the victims, a torture kit, and the adhesive tape used in the killing of Catherine. Finally, he was taken into custody on November 29, 1988, after several months of wreaking havoc along Route 40. He was charged with murdering three women — Shirley, Catherine, and Michelle. He was not charged for the rest of the murders because of a lack of evidence against him.
Steven Was Convicted of Two Murders Out of the Three he Was Charged With
Several months after getting arrested, Steven Brian Pennell stood on trial in 1989. After hearing all the arguments of the defense and the prosecution, on November 23, 1989, the jury convicted him of killing Shirley and Catherine but acquitted him of murdering Michelle due to lack of evidence. For his horrific crimes, they recommended two life sentences instead of the death penalty. Meanwhile, the defense appealed the decision, claiming that the fiber was obtained illegally by the authorities. However, their appeal was dismissed. Later, Steven also dismissed his very own lawyer and decided to represent himself.
In an unexpected turn of events, Steven Brian Pennell wished for the death penalty for himself. He addressed the court, “This court has found me guilty on the testimony of witnesses. So I ask that the sentence be death as said by the state’s laws and God’s laws. That’s all I have to say.” Thus, on October 31, 1991, he was sentenced to death. In the meantime, his wife, Vera Catherine Pennell, did everything she could to reverse his sentencing, but in vain. During the trial, he apologized for his actions and pleaded no contest to the murders of Kathleen and Michelle. On the morning of March 14, 1992, around 9:45 am, in Smyrna, Delaware, Steven was executed by lethal injection.
Read More: Charles Vines: Who Were His Victims? How Did He Die?