Unusual police sketch

Victoria police are looking for a gentleman who matches this composite sketch in connection with a knife attack. (Via Arbroath)

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Objection! Badgering.
Anonymous

Officer: Sir, Where were you the night of the stabbing?

Suspect: Who?

Officer: You, sir! Where were you?

Suspect: Who?

Officer: You deaf son? Where WERE you?

Suspect: Who?

Officer: Release him, this guy knows nothing.
Secret_Life_of_Plants

His ancestors:

http://www.maitres-des-arts-graphiques.com/-Expo2/-EXB19.html
Anonymous

wow, i knew him growing up and stopped talking to him a few years ago. he doesnt look anything like the drawing tho which i find pretty funny but it sucks that he would do something so wierd and crazy. he wasnt a psycho kid or anything but he did have a few bursts of panic/rage/violence sometimes
Daemon

Yeah, I saw that sketch in the local news, and have been wondering whether they have a really bad sketch artist, or if the guy was just a mutant.
ndollak

@ #23 (JFrancis) – Some police sketch artists know the correct proportions for the face, some don’t. I applied for work as a police sketch artist, and was told I was “over-qualified.” So apparently drawing ability is considered a secondary qualification for that position. The primary qualification is most likely unrelated to artistic skills, like having a close friend or relative already on the force.

Can we get a follow-up to this, with a mug shot of the guy for comparison, please???
Anonymous

that is the IT at my office. holy crap.
glib909

Looks like they’ve been making human/mothman clones.
Anonymous

Oh, the horror! KILL IT WITH FIRE!
Anonymous

Living in a proported high crime area (if you believe the rhetoric that comes out of Ann Arbor, anyway), I have some latent fears of something like this happening in my neck of the woods. I wish a speedy and full physical recovery to the victim. I doubt she’ll every really heal emotionally.

Apoxia @44:
I’m really glad I didn’t go to look that up. Unfortunately, I have a very vivid imagination and you describe the deformity really well. Worse, I just had a baby four months ago and I’m both relieved that it didn’t happen to my son and horrified that such things can happen. Good thing I was taking those pre-natals.
P1rat3

I’ll keep an eye out for when they release an actual photo of him and submit it.

I live in Victoria and the story of the stabbing is just awful. The stabbee woke in the night when she heard the thief noises coming from downstairs and went down to investigate, Escobar stabbed her, her screams woke her husband, who then raced downstairs to capture the stabber. Unfortunately, Escobar had managed to sever the woman’s femoral artery with his knife so the husband had to let the thief/attempted-murderer go in order to save his wife from quickly dying from blood loss.

This story makes a good foil for the one about the student snicking off the hand of the burglar with his samurai sword.

Even in sleepy old Victoria, don’t go investigating noises without some backup.

She could have used a samurai sword of her own.
Anonymous

This is the new way sketch artists are trained to make composites. The old way — trying to make a “real” looking person, but keeping that person generic — wasn’t that effective. It was found that exaggerrated features in a simple drawing were better for recognition purposes. Clearly this is an example of this philosophy, not a “bad drawing.” If the real-world success of this type of drawing matches the research, then we’ll see more of these. The alternative is more people who look exactly alike, which is what the old style produces.
jfrancis

PROTIP: the eye line is about in the middle of the head, not 2/3 of the way up. I’m certain a police sketch artist would know this, so…

Now I really want to see this guy’s photo.
Lilah

It looks like the artist drew one side of the face and then folded the paper and traced the other! Just like how an elementary schooler would cut out a paper heart.
Rusty Idols

One of us! Gooble Gobble!
pjcamp

I do believe that’s a Houyhnhnm.
Anonymous

I am so creeped out by that.
hail_diskordia

@lmao exactly… though he appears to have been lobotomized recently
DarthVain

Art Class Called…

…Here’s your money back.
Keith

I didn’t know Paul Dano & Butch Patrick had offspring. Huh.
Bloodboiler

The eye witness probably insisted that his eyes were in this forehead, and the sketch artists had to do as he was told.
Anonymous

@ 31, not only can he transform, he can transform into multiple people. This guy is dangerous, no doubt. With that sort of power he is unstoppable.
Ian_McLoud

Not wanting to see something horrible, but wanting to learn the definition of “anencephaly” I went to wikipedia.

I was confronted with a fucking crazy image and am now in need of a serious drink.
Antinous / Moderator

A caricature may be better for identification purposes than an accurate drawing or a photo. It’s made to be seen by humans, not robots. And humans filter and rearrange what they see, particularly with human faces. If this is the way that the witness sees him, it’s quite possible that this will be how others will see him, even if it’s not particularly accurate.

All that notwithstanding, it’s a pretty bad drawing.
Anonymous

This is Lou Diamond Phillips for SURE!
folkclarinet

It resembles some of Picasso’s cubist faces showing all views of a face in one plane…
sfeeney

Re comment #40 – I’m not sure what school of forensic art is teaching artists to make realistic yet generic looking composites. Current programs (such as the forensic facial imaging course at the FBI Academy) teach artists to draw realistic faces in proper proportions with details specific to the witness’s description. The last thing a forensic artist wants to hear from a witness is that the face looks generic. Elements of caricature can definitely be useful, and the sketch can only be as good as the witness’s description, but current teaching (at least in the USA) tends toward realism (no slight towards Canada intended :)
arkizzle / Moderator

DarthVain@24
made me lol
Anonymous

It shouldn’t be hard to catch this guy… he has no brain so he should be easy to outwit.
Little John

From the Times Colonist follow-up story pointed to by P1RAT3 @#5:

He turned himself into police Saturday evening.

Now the artist has to add in a uniform to the original sketch.
Hanglyman

Wow, the Submariner has really let himself go.
Anonymous

Looks like he drew one half of a guy with a indy-emo do then got lazy and did a layer-duplicate-flip-horizontal on it.
Phikus

WITNESS: Ok, so the guy had a widow’s peak, but absolutely no forehead at all…

SKETCH ARTIST: Really? No forehead at all?

WITNESS: That’s right, the widow’s peak went pretty much right down to between his eyebrows…

SKETCH ARTIST: (Erases top of drawing he was working on) Ok… (Continues to sketch)

WITNESS: (Peers over at sketch in progress) And his ears were like two rubber bands glued to the sides of his head…

SKETCH ARTIST: You’re kidding, right? (Looks incredulous at witness)

WITNESS: That’s right…

SKETCH ARTIST: (Erases again…)
apoxia

#44

Sorry, I didn’t know wikipedia had some graphic photos there.

For everyone who wants to know what anencephaly is without the potential for psychological damage, it is a neural tube defect where the top of the tube where the brain forms does not properly close, meaning the top part of the skull doesn’t form. The brain sticks out of the skull and is often abraded away within the womb. All babies die shortly after birth, if not before, and have very characteristic and potentially disturbing physical characteristics. Often when an anencephalic child is born a hat is placed on the head in order to prevent the parents from being unduly disturbed by the deformity.

If you have been traumatised by an image, perhaps it would be a good reminder to remember to take increased doses of folic acid if you are a woman and intending to become pregnant. Increased folic acid will significantly reduce the likelihood of a child being born with a neural tube defect.

/public service announcement
dculberson

Sonic is all grown up and has turned to violence!!
jimh

Somehow I knew this thread would generate lowbrow humor.
Aaron Suggs

As reported on BB in 2007: Caricatures are more effective than police sketches.

This sketch artist apparently took that research to heart.
Anonymous

Eddie Munster has a ‘roid problem.
J France

I was all chuckles until I read the femoral artery bit – deliberate or not, there are some things that would strike nothing but fear and absolute panic… not to mention pain. The femoral artery runs right next to a big chunk of nerves.

Sometimes i wish I could just look at something, chuckle, and not do the rest of the reading. Facts ruin everything, damnit.
caldrax

i was thinking they must be looking for an owl that crossbred with jay leno
SuperDoop

Sonic? I was thinking it looked more like Eddie Munster.
Kevin Carson

I guess this kills Pete Rose’s chance for the Hall of Fame once and for all.
P1rat3

The already caught him. His name is Alexander Escobar: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Charges+laid+Esquimalt+stabbing/1998813/story.html
Mr_Voodoo

@34 JIMH
That was cheeky of you.
electrobrain

They better get Dick Tracy on the case because it looks like Little Face is on the loose! It would be a better picture if it were Gouldized, though, and probably present a equal chance of locating the suspect.
sleze

Wasn’t this guy in an episode of Family Guy? “I have to DRAW you!”
@hrustar

My God, look, David Byrne is a criminal.
Church

@P1rat3, no picture? I want to see what this guy really looks like. Did he actually escape from an Edward Gorey book?
RevAladdinSane

Alas, Eddie Munster has followed the other child stars into a life of crime.
mdh

Who, Who, Who dunnit?
Phikus

P1rat3@~4: Too bad there is no photograph in your linked article. I wonder if the guy actually has a forehead.
Day Vexx

I’m also submitting my request for an actual photo of the guy. The sketch looks ridiculous!
Lobster

It’s an owl! :O
funkadelic73

MOTHMAN.
Adam Stanhope

@36 Apoxia:

Thanks for the reverse tip re: Anencephaly. Those are some frightening pics!
apoxia

I thought anencephaly was fatal.

(BTW, don’t google image search anencephaly unless you have a monster sized unicorn chaser standing by)
Antinous / Moderator

Was he 6′-8″?
Cowtown2

Oh God. I knew Tim Tebow would crack eventually.
jphilby

That’s the most serious unibrow *I’ve* ever seen.