Anthony Allen Shore

Anthony Allen Shore
Born	(1962-06-25) June 25, 1962 Rapid City, South Dakota
Other names	The Tourniquet Killer The Strangler
Criminal penalty	Death
Conviction(s)	Child molestation, Drug possession, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual assault
Killings
Victims	4+
Span of killings	September 26, 1986–July 6, 1995
Country	United States
State(s)	Texas
Date apprehended	October 24, 2003

Anthony Allen Shore (born June 25, 1962) is a serial killer/paedophile who is responsible for the slayings of one woman and four girls. He operated from 1987 to 2000, and was known as the "Tourniquet Killer" because of his use of a ligature with either a toothbrush or bamboo stick to tighten or loosen the ligature. The instrument was similar to a twitch, a tool used by farmers to control horses.

Background

Shore's parents were both with the United States Air Force; he was born in South Dakota where his father was stationed. Because of his parents' enlistments in the military, Shore's family moved nine times before he entered high school. He has two sisters. Although he possessed much musical talent, he did not pursue a career in music, but had instead became a telephone lineman. He married and had two daughters, but later divorced. He later married and again divorced.

Murders

Laurie Lee Tremblay

Shore's first known victim was Laurie Tremblay, who was killed in September 1986. Shore had attempted to sexually assault her. She was strangled.

Maria Carmen Del Estrada

Maria Carmen Del Estrada, 21, was killed in April 1992. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. She was a Mexican immigrant from the state of Guerrero who came to the United States to have a better life. She was a small, petite woman, standing at a height of 5 foot 1 inch and weighing 104 pounds. She worked as a nanny with her best friend, Rosa. On April 16, 1992, Carmen's half naked body was found in the back of a Dairy Queen.

Selma Janske

On October 19, 1993, Shore entered the home of a fourteen-year-old female, then bound and sexually assaulted her; however, he did not kill her, and instead fled the scene on foot.

Diana Rebollar

Diana Rebollar, 9, was killed in August 1994. She had been beaten, sexually assaulted and strangled. She lived in the Heights area of Houston, at the front of a small duplex. One day, she went to the neighborhood store to buy a bag of sugar. Employees of the store saw her leave the store safely, but she never returned home. She was found the next day on a loading dock behind a building. One lead for police was given by a neighbor who described a van that frequented the area. She was connected to the Carmen Del Estrada case by the killer's MO: a rope with a bamboo stick attached was found around her neck.

Dana Sanchez

Dana Sanchez, 16, was killed in July 1995. Shore offered her a ride in his van. He made advances to her, which she resisted; she was then strangled. Seven days later, an anonymous telephone call to a local news station, actually made by Shore, directed police to her body.

Investigation

Shore had been convicted of molesting his two daughters, and as a result he was required to provide police with a DNA sample. This was done in 1998. In 2000, detectives pulled Carmen Del Estrada's case from the cold files and tested DNA evidence from underneath Carmen's fingernails and received a full genetic profile. The results were not immediately matched to Shore because of problems at the lab. As a result of an audit, the lab was closed in 2002; certain samples, however, including those taken from Estrada's nails, were sent to another laboratory for retesting. The results were not matched until 2003. Shore was arrested for Estrada's murder.

Eleven hours into his interrogation, Shore confessed to the murders of Carmen Del Estrada, Diana Rebollar, and Dana Sanchez. He also confessed to the 1987 murder of fourteen-year-old Laurie Tremblay and the 1994 rape of a fourteen-year-old girl. Tremblay was walking to school when she was killed and dumped behind a Mexican restaurant; however, detectives had no way of linking this killing to the other three murders because Tremblay was strangled with a ligature. When asked why he switched to a tourniquet, Shore replied, "because I hurt my finger while murdering Tremblay."

Trial and conviction

Despite Shore's confession to the murders of four people and the rape another, prosecutor Kelly Siegler decided to charge Shore for only Carmen Del Estrada's murder, because it contained the most forensic evidence. The jury found Shore guilty of capital murder, and, in the sentencing phase of the trial, learned that they had convicted a serial killer. During the sentencing phase, they put Shore's only surviving victim on the stand, who told a compelling story. Less than one hour later the jury sentenced Shore to death, which Shore, himself, asked for.

Shore awaits execution on Texas's death row in Livingston, Texas. During his confession, Shore hinted that there were other murder victims, and he remains the prime suspect in the I-45 serial murders.