True crimes - Chester's Brian Jarvis saw dark side of sunny Florida in high-profile cases

Editor’s note: This story describes several mass-murders committed in the state of Florida. Some readers may find the details disturbing. Chester — Few small local police forces can say they’ve been led by a personable celebrity like police Chief Brian Jarvis. With his retirement soon upon him, Jarvis, 52, looks back on an eventful past that included some high-profile cases fit for TV and movie treatment. When he was a detective in the state of Florida, he helped put at least three serial killers behind bars. Jarvis recently returned from Florida and an on-camera interview for “Crimes That Shook the World II,” to be aired in January on the Discovery Channel. The show will document some of the most heinous crimes of the last decade. One is a case that Jarvis was integral in solving, thanks to what he calls his “computer geekiness.” He wrote a program that cross-checked multiple leads, and that eventually led to Aileen Wuornos, the country’s first documented female serial killer. The FBI uses a similar program today called Orion. A couple of weeks after Jarvis set up the program, Wuornos’ name, and that of her lover, kept coming up, again and again. One lead led to another, dates and locations began to correspond, and a police sketch was generated. The police were soon able to arrest Wuornos at a biker hangout called the Last Resort Bar, which now capitalizes on its notoriety with a slogan offering “ice cold beer and killer women.” She was charged with murdering seven middle-aged men and dumping their bodies along the Interstate in Ocala County. Jarvis said each victim had been shot in the back six or seven times with a .22 caliber firearm. And each time, the victim’s car was abandoned along the highway, its front seat pulled forward indicating that a small person or a female had used it last. The police also found artifacts from each of the victims in Wuornos’ possession. She was eventually convicted. Her story became a major motion picture titled “Monster” and starring Charlize Theron, whose resemblance to the real Wuornos amazed Jarvis. Jarvis’ experience with mass-murderers in the Sunshine State doesn’t stop there. There was Danny Rollings, who killed young women at the University of Florida, and Joe Nissensohn of South Lake Tahoe, who committed several murders in Tacoma, Washington. The Nissensohn case broke when Jarvis questioned his wife, Sheryl, in connection with another case. The police initially did not have enough evidence to charge her husband — but when Jarvis saw Sheryl turn white and start chain smoking, he knew he was onto something. She told a shocking story. She and Joe would drive around, and he would pick up women. In two cases, he had sex with the women and then chopped them up, one woman in the back of the car and another in the woods. She did not witness the murder in the woods, but did see the bloody blanket he carried back to the car. After the police confronted Joe with his wife’s story, he beat the heck out of her, and she too became a victim, Jarvis said. He doesn’t know why Joe didn’t kill her too — but believes she would be in extreme danger if Nissensohn ever got out of jail. Coming home to Orange County Jarvis started his police career in 1978 in Newburgh before moving to Florida. He returned to Orange County 10 years ago when he accepted the job of police chief in the Town of Chester. He hasn’t had to investigate any mass-murders in this quieter time. He recalls many nuisance calls associated with the former New York City-run homeless shelter at Camp LaGuardia, and fires and break-ins at the former Pius XII school for troubled youth. But his time in Chester did include some of the most disturbing incidents of his career. His worst experience was when Officer Bob Ferrara suffered horrendous injuries while responding to a call late one night in July 2005. An SUV driven by Daniel Mooney, who was evading police with his headlights off, slammed head-on into Ferrara’s police cruiser. “I remember watching ‘Law and Order’ that night, an episode where the detective got shot, and wishing that I never had to deal with anything like that,” he said. “Next thing I knew the phone rang, and everyone was at the hospital hoping Bob would pull through. Anybody else would have died, but Ferrara is the exception to the rule.” He also had to face down the high rate of traffic fatalities in Chester when he first came on board. Through the good work of his officers, he said, Chester has not seen a highway fatality in two years. The department has grown by leaps and bounds during Jarvis’s tenure. He’s seen the department grow from six officers and a chief to 20 officers, two detectives, and three sergeants. The department offered 16-hour service when he started, and now it’s on duty round the clock. He would like to see the town police get out of their cramped quarters and into a new and roomier location. He would also like to see the village and town consolidate their forces, which he believes will happen a little further on down the road. When asked what he will miss when he leaves, his voice softened with emotion. “The community and the people,” he answered. “We have such a strong community, the people are fantastic. We’ve built bonds with the people and they support us. So many people really make you feel welcome.” The worst part of the job is “that you lose emotion and become detached when it comes to crime.” When he hears of a shooting, stabbing, or any killing, he looks first at the evidence without being affected by the horror of the crime. Although Jarvis will retire in two weeks, he will continue to be involved in the work he truly loves — working with computers to solve crimes. He has been sharing his passion and experience by teaching classes across the country. What has been a monthly two-day excursion to various states to teach will become weekly excursions in his retirement. He will continue to teach but he will also continue to learn from those meets on his travels. His parting advice: “Continue to learn throughout your life.”