It was December 18, 1975, and some fishermen were floating through the quiet waters off the

coast of the resort town of Pataya, Thailand.

When they found the body of a young woman, floating in a tidal pool, she was wearing only

a flowered bikini.

The young woman's body was taken in for forensic testing, but at first detectives weren't

able to make too much progress.

They did testing and found out that she had alcohol and his sheathe in her system.

So they thought that she may have had too much to drink or smoke too much, maybe gone for

a late night swim and gotten disoriented.

Unfortunately, this was something that police had seen before with Western tourists.

They went around to local hotels, but no one seemed to know who the victim was.

So for the moment, she was anonymous.

It was months before Thai authorities were able to determine that the young woman's

name was Theresa Nolten.

She was an American from Seattle, and her drowning had not been an accident.

She had been strangled, and she would be the first of many victims.

Theresa had stopped in Thailand on her way to Nepal.

She was supposed to study Buddhism and a monastery there.

But on her last night in Bangkok, she got way laid.

She met someone who befriended her, charmed her, and offered to take her to the beach.

This man, the serial killer, was handsome, mysterious, spoke several languages, and was charming

and charismatic.

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