Joseph Robert Kondro (May 19, 1959 – May 3, 2012), known as The Longview Serial Killer, was an American serial killer implicated in the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of three children in or near Longview, Washington 8-year-old Rima Traxler, 12-year-old Kara Rudd and 8-year-old Chila Silvernails in the 1980s and 1990s. Kondro confessed to the first two murders and was strongly suspected in the third, and possibly linked to the disappearances of many other young girls in the region, before his death in prison of natural causes in 2012. Early life, psychopathic tendencies and criminal history Joseph Kondro was born on May 19, 1959 in Marquette, Michigan, to a Chippewa mother with six other children. He was adopted at birth by John and Elenor Kondro, who raised him in Iron River, Michigan before the family moved to Castle Rock, Washington. He attended a Catholic parochial school. As he would later admit to police, Kondro showed psychopathic tendencies from an early age, including engaging in frequent fights with other children, killing animals (including neighborhood pets), wielding a knife, and drinking alcohol as early as age 7. Kondro would subsequently elaborate on these early signs of psychopathy by explaining in detail his lack of empathy and violent desires, comparing himself to an alligator lying in wait, coming up occasionally to feed. He also admitted to molesting young girls while still a child himself, developing fantasies about murder as he grew older, and began amassing a lengthy criminal record including auto and petty theft, drunk driving, domestic abuse, drug dealing and forgery. Kondro had several children but was unable to care for them, in significant part due to drug addiction and his recurring troubles with the law. Disappearances of Chila Silvernails and Rima Traxler In the early 1980s, authorities were baffled by the unexplained disappearances of several young girls in southwestern Washington. Among these was Chila Silvernails of Kalama, who vanished in 1982 on her way to catching a school bus. Her nude body was found the day after her disappearance; she had been raped and strangled. Kondro had dated Silvernails’ mother, but he was not initially suspected in the crime. On May 15, 1985, Rima Traxler, a third-grader at St. Helens Elementary School in Longview, went missing. She had been a well-behaved and academically successful child with little in the way of conflicts or behavioral issues, so the community suspected that