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At first, Morgan thought the case could be quickly closed, for the killer had raped Bennett, and Morgan tapped into the DNA databases of the SBI and the FBI. The answer was disappointing.

No match.

As months passed, Morgan questioned hundreds of people. Inquiries at pawnshops about the stereo were fruitless. And every time he ran more suspects through the DNA databases, he got the same response.

No match.

Police department psychologist Michael Teague talked to Bennett's friends to see whether she knew anyone who would want to kill her, and all he got was a picture of a bright, happy woman, with the best personality, who hated exercise and loved dogs, who was about to start a new adventure with her college sweetheart.

"I really wish I'd met her," Teague said.

Christmas came and went. February turned into March. Still no sign of the stereo. Still no trace of the killer.

Fears of repeat crime

The combination of rape and murder taps into deep human fear. The volume of fictional rape-murders in TV programs, movies and novels could leave the impression that the crime is rampant. In fact, according to the SBI, there were just 11 rape-murders in North Carolina between 1992 and 2001.

Experts say the crime is uncommon because the person who commits it is rare. Psychologist Margo Wilson of McMaster University in Canada said a sexual murderer has traits that are at the far end of the behavioral bell curve. Most men, she said, are "slightly deaf" to a woman's refusals because evolution has programmed them to think that with persistence, she might say yes. Similarly, most men are capable of violence but only when necessary.

Yet, "We know from lots of work that's been done on sexual-assault offenders that they're not bothered by someone saying no. They are just totally deaf," Wilson said. "These guys who do this, for whatever reason, have the parameters all set wrong."

Criminologist Dwayne Smith at the University of South Florida cautioned that each case is unique -- although a murder with a rape usually is not premeditated when a rapist kills in panic to prevent the victim from identifying him or applies excessive force to subdue her. But in a small fraction of all rape-murders, Smith said, the killing is "part of the overall sexual atmosphere."

"Here's the other thing," Smith said. "If this individual is killing for the sexual pleasure, he will continue. If he's mobile, he'll take it out of Wake County."

At first, Smith said, such killers are organized, and, most frustrating for police, they're astute at avoiding capture. Eventually, the killer breaks down psychologically and becomes more impulsive. That's when he makes the mistake that leads to his arrest. But by then, he has killed again.

N.C. State University psychologist Margaret Zahn, who also studies murder, agreed with Smith that in many respects, Bennett's killer fits many of the general outlines of sexual murderers.

"This person scares me to death," Zahn said. "He's going to strike again."

That prospect was uppermost in the minds of Morgan and Teague. In searching for Bennett's killer, every minute is precious to prevent another murder. On the other hand, another murder would provide more information.

"When you have a sample of one, you don't have a sample," Teague said.

"God forbid that it happens again," Morgan said. "But it would give us a pattern. It would allow some verification."

Hiding in plain sight?

Again and again, Morgan and Teague returned to the puzzling theft of Bennett's stereo. Years of police work had taught Morgan that if a sexual murderer takes anything from a victim, it's something intimate and personal -- a lock of hair, a piece of jewelry. A small shelf-top stereo would not appear to carry the same totemic value. Then again, maybe it did.

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