the sunshine city of st. petersburg, florida, becomes the hunting ground for a violent predatory killer, named james, dusty rhodes. once a person makes themselves isolated, they become prey. he moves to st. petersburg after raping and killing a woman in colorado. a month after he gets to town, he rapes a woman at knifepoint. police don t know it yet, but rhodes is just getting started. we re dealing with a very, very disturbed person. i didn t waste any time with a ruse. i didn t care to have a rouse. i chose the force route. because? because i was on a mission, a mission that i felt like force was adequate. being a predator means that you re going out in a mind-set.
because you have a history of assaultive behavior and residential burglars and armed robbery, moving into sexual assault and then there s a homicide. yes. but i have any other victims? no, absolutely not. even though she s unable to extract a new confession, mary believes her interview to rhodes offers important insight into the minds of criminals. dusty is a sexual predator whose crime scenes in my opinion manifest traits of psychopathy, grandiosity, a lack of guilt, a lack of remorse. through sexual aggression, he is sexually gratified and he feels a sense of power and control and whatever else. so it s that deadly combination. rhodes personal relationships deteriorate during his time in prison. his wife divorces him and his children stop all contact.
predator sees the opportunity and takes it and that makes you a predator. first victim in florida is sleeping in her apartment when rhodes breaks in, in the middle of the night. i saw a woman, i thought, through a window. i opened the screen and went upstairs. she was laying down, sleeping. i pulled out a knife and i woke her up. she went to try to scream, i think. i covered her mouth. what is the expression on her face when she realizes there s a strange man standing in her bedroom? she s terrified, as anybody should be. how can you tell that? what you would see in a movie when somebody goes boo around the corner with a knife in their hand. that s not something you re supposed to see when you re sleeping in your own home. she started to cry a little bit.
he was in charge. he was the one out watching and following and the victims didn t know it. it was actually pretty chilling to watch that. when was the mission accomplished in your mind? the point was to have sex. less than an hour later, rhodes finds a woman walking alone to her car in a parking lot. opportunity. to accomplish what i set out to do 15 minutes earlier was there. i m in predator mode. i m now looking for a victim. predator mode means you re focused? i m focused. i m on a mission. she s isolated herself and here is the predator. here comes the lion. the lion has found the cub that s off by itself and that s what a predator does. it s sad but that s the truth. that s what happens. the opportunity is there. it s dark, quiet. the woman is vulnerable. rhodes approaches as she gets into her car. by pulling her car door open,
sad, to be put down, harmed, hurt, in some cases injured. nobody likes to be hurt. although she admits to yelling, his mother says she s a loving parent who never abuses him and never even suspects that his stepfather does. rhodes leaves home as a teenager and starts working in bars and strip clubs. he s arrested as a teenager for grand theft auto, but the charges are dropped. eventually, he is placed in a group home. he marries at 19 after serving time in prison for armed robbery. by the time rhodes is living in st. petersburg at age 24, his anger toward women takes over his life. he s evolved into a violent sexual predator. i wasn t conscious of how this is affecting anybody while i m doing it. that s the scary part. (girl) what does that say?