Meet Steven Brian Pennell – Delaware’s first and only serial killer.
Between 1987 and 1988, Pennell murdered and mutilated at least five young women, most of whom he abducted from Route 40.
On November 29, 1987, a young couple stumbled upon the body of Pennell’s first victim at a construction site.
The young woman, later identified as 23-year-old Shirley Ellis, was found with her pants pulled down and her bra cut open to expose her breasts. Investigators discovered ligature marks as well as signs of mutilation on one of her nipples.
An autopsy revealed Ellis was killed by a blow to the head, but to everyone’s surprise, the medical examiner found no signs of sexual assault.
Seven months after the first murder, Pennell struck again.
On June 28, 1988, construction workers found the body of 31-year-old Catherine DiMauro.
After arriving at the scene, police immediately realized the case bore eerie similarities to the first murder.
However, this time, the autopsy revealed more than just a similar murder method – DiMauro’s body was covered in tiny blue carpet fibers.
Within the next three months, Pennell claimed three more victims.
The major breakthrough came on September 14, 1988, when an undercover police officer posing as sex worker spotted a blue Ford seven times in 20 minutes.
The driver eventually pulled up to the officer, who immediately noticed the blue carpet. The man attempted to convince her to enter his car, but she refused, claiming that she was tired. However, the officer managed to obtain some carpet fiber and wrote down the license plate number.
Vehicle registration records identified the suspicious driver as 31-year-old electrician Stephen Brian Pennell.
Pennell was arrested on November 29, 1988, and, despite his lawyer’s efforts to argue that the fiber sample was obtained illegally, sentenced to death three years later.
On March 14, 1992, Steven Brian Pennell was executed by lethal injection. His last meal consisted of crab cakes, steaks, corn on the cob, french fries, bread and butter and a cola.
