WFSU News
Lunch time! Saka and Akondro enjoy berries, chives, cilantro, and other colorful food. They are awaiting girlfriends as they enjoy their bachelor pad at the North Florida Wildlife Center.
About a half-hour away from Tallahassee, the North Florida Wildlife Center (NFWC) cares for rescued and endangered animals. The public can visit and get a hands-on experience.
On this visit, it’s lunchtime for Akondro and Saka. The black-and-white ruffed lemurs climb into a cardboard box full of cilantro, chives, and berries. Their white fur turns purple as they roll around in berry juice.
“It’s an incredibly simple way to keep our animals entertained,” says Ryan David Reines, NFWC executive director and founder, as the lemurs bounce in and out of the box foraging for their food. “It’s very easy and part of our enrichment program.”
that was the whole fantasy part of it. the police department, the investigations, that was part of it. but my murders, you know, they they were like the high point. the fantasy is only a motivation. there s nothing better than the act itself. joe, i just describe for me the feelings you have during the sexual assault, the raping and the killing. power. how about control? yeah, that s another i get really, really high on adrenaline when, you know, you commit a murder like that. when you make up your mind you re going to perpetrate this crime or any other crime, it s got to be hard to stop in the middle of your action. yeah. i m pretty much focused. i set out to do what i did to those victims that day and i made the decision that i was
going to kill them even actually, even prior before they got into my vehicles. once they got into my vehicles, it was a done, shut deal for me. everyone i talked to about joe kondro thinks he s probably responsible for other molestations and murders. and there are some unsolved cases that match his m.o., but he was careful, perhaps because he knows that if he is linked to another murder, his next stop will be death row. every police report where they thought you, joe, were good for maybe 70 victims, molestations, possibly other homicides. i can t answer that. you don t want to answer that or you just can t? i don t want to answer that. still, like many other guys i interviewed, he was proud of himself. he couldn t resist telling me about other crimes he had gotten away with.
joe was kind of a friend of the family. my daughter s uncle joe. kondro was facing the death penalty in cara s case, but prosecutors were willing to give him a deal if he admitted to the unsolved killing of rima. kondro confessed and the deal with prosecutors spared his life but got him 55 years in prison. before any interview, my process is always the same. i study the case files and try to get to know what kind of killer i m dealing with. from kondro s file, i know he is fairly typical of the rapist/murder. sick sexual fantasies lie beneath the surface. what s unusual is he liked to kill people he knew, an uncommon choice for a serial killer. i want kondro to help me understand this particular criminal type. kondro agreed to meet with me and i traveled to the washington state penitentiary in walla walla.
to be the remains of a human body on top mt. solo. i believe the crime scene can tell me everything that i need to i.d. the offender. the evidence shows we are dealing with what we call a disorganized killer. he didn t plan on killing her. he saw an opportunity and gave in to his vicious desire. once he had a body to deal with, he just stashed it as quickly as he could, which indicates he was probably under the influence of drugs or alcohol. but investigators already had their guy. joseph kondro. he denied his guilt until investigators retrieved his dna from cara s body. as prosecutors shaped their case against kondro, they began to think he could be responsible for other unsolved murders. a decade-old cold case, the disappearance of rima traxler, was too similar to be a mere consequence. once again, kondro was friends with the parents of the missing girl. you know, joe kondro and my first husband grew up together.