The head belonged to Heidi Balch, who was murdered and dismembered at age 25 in New York, according to a statement issued on Monday by the Hopewell Township, New Jersey police.
Detectives had long suspected a link between the head and Rifkin after he was arrested in 1993 and questioned but they had been unable to identify the head until now, police said in the statement.
During questioning, Rifkin said he dismembered his first victim, a prostitute, and put her head and legs in streams in New Jersey, police said.
Rifkin was convicted of nine murders and is believed to be responsible for at least 17 deaths, most of them prostitutes.
He is serving a 203-year prison sentence. Chicago Tribune online article 27th March 2013
Twenty-five years ago an astounding confession by this man Joel Rifkin led authorities to the discovery of seventeen women he had brutally murdered. Their body parts dumped in waterways, woods, under mattresses, in oil drums and even kept at his mother’s house. Rifkin remains one of New York’s lethal serial killers. Inside Evil: Mind of a Killer s1e1: Joel Rifkin, 20198
Joel Rifkin is currently serving a 203-year sentence for killing 17 women starting in 1989. ibid.
‘It’s a chaotic wrestling match that seems to take for ever.’ ibid. Rifkin, re strangulation
‘Just an endless sea of chaos.’ ibid. Rifkin, re serial killing
A 34-year old New York man will be in court this morning. Joel Rifkin has told police he is a serial killer. Rifkin on Rifkin, news, Sky Crime 2021
I just created a nice little secret life for myself. ibid. Rifkin
No more thought than stomping on a bug or a cockroach. ibid.
Most of the women he looked at fell victim to drugs like so many people in that era and wound up on the streets. ibid. rozzer
Rifkin told the police about the sixteen other women he had killed. ibid. prosecutor
The most prolific serial killer in New York State history. ibid.
After his first conviction, Joel Rifkin pleads guilty to nine other murders. His sentence is extended to 203 years to life in prison. ibid.
RIGBY, LEE murder: Crimes that Shook Britain TV -
It was an attack of unimaginable brutality. The killing of a soldier on a busy London street signalled a new type of terrorism. Crimes that Shook Britain s/a Britain’s Worst Crimes, CI 2014
His attackers were two young British men ... They drove their car into the soldier, knocking him over before attacking him with knives in a frenzied manner. ibid.
The attackers remained at the scene. ibid.
A conspiracy theorist claimed Lee Rigby’s murder was a hoax and taunted his family by publishing their address online, a court has heard.
Chris Spivey, 52, allegedly made a string of outrageous claims about the soldier, including that his family were involved in a conspiracy with M15 to incite anti-Islamic propaganda.
The court heard how the tattoo artist and self-styled internet journalist even claimed that Fusilier Rigby did not exist and that his relatives had doctored their family pictures. He also allegedly accused the 25-year-old of being a rapist and said his wife Amy West was involved in the ‘hoax’.
Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court heard how Spivey made the bizarre accusations on his website where he regularly publishes opinions about world events.
The court heard how he first began taunting Fusilier Rigby’s mother the day after her son was murdered in Woolwich, south east London, in May 2013. Mail online article 30th July 2015
RILEY, DENA & RICHARD DEAN DAVIS: The Killer Speaks TV - Mail online -
‘This was a pathological sick disturbed deviant relationship.’ The Killer Speaks: Twisted Love s1e4, expert, 2013
In 2006 thirty-eight-year-old Dena Riley and her boyfriend, convicted sex offender Richard Davis, raped, tortured and murdered two Missouri women. ibid.
‘I would not have acted or done the things I did was I not on Meth. And popping so many pills.’ ibid. Riley
A Kansas couple pleaded guilty to murdering a mother of four, raping and torturing her in a drug-fuelled attack caught on tape and then dumping and setting her body alight in the woods.
Richard D Davis and Dena D Riley, of Independence, Kansas, were sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison for murdering Michelle Huff-Ricci, the 36-year-old woman they suffocated in April 2006.
The hearing in Clay County, Missouri, served as a formality as Davis is already on death row and Riley was given nine life sentences for the rape and torture of Huff-Ricci – in addition to rape, torture and murder convictions for another victim, Marsha Spicer, and a guilty plea for kidnapping and raping a five-year-old Kansas City girl. Mail online article 29th August 2012
RIVERA, CHRISTHIAN BAHENA: True Crime Recaps 2021 -
The last time Mollie was seen alive she was out for a run in her home town of Brooklyn, Iowa … On July 18th 2018 she never came home. True Crime Recaps: Mollie Tibbets Went Out For Her Daily Jog But Never Came Back, Youtube
The silouhette of a runner with a poneytail can be seen in the distance … A black Chevy Malibu is seen going back and forth … The driver: it was Christhian Bahena Rivera. ibid.
Mollie’s DNA was found in his trunk. ibid.
RIVERA, JUAN: Oddee online -
You never committed the crime, but the cops broke you down so much psychologically during their interrogation that you were coerced into confessing, netting you 20 years in prison that you didn’t deserve.
That’s what happened to Juan Rivera, who was exonerated in 2012 of his wrongful conviction and imprisonment for the 1992 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in Waukegan, Illinois.
Rivera was found guilty three times, even though DNA evidence linked the sexual contact with another person. Each conviction was consequently reversed, and the third reversal finally stuck when a judge ruled that he could no longer be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Oddee online report, ‘10 of the Worst Wrongful Imprisonment Cases’
RIVERA, LUIS et al: People Magazine Investigates TV -
Dan [Markel] sitting in his car in the garage, the window smashed out and Dan slumped over the wheel … Dan has been shot twice in the head at close range … People Magazine Investigates s2e7: Marked for Murder, ID 2017
The custody of the children was an ongoing issue. ibid.
Cell phone records and surveillance video give police enough evidence to move in on their suspects. ibid.
Mounting evidence against the Adelsons [family of ex-wife] ibid.
ROBERTSON, DONALD: Dark Water: The Murder of Shani Warren TV -
The abandoned car belonged to a 26 year old secretary: Shani Warren. Saturday 18th April 1987: The body of a woman is recovered from Taplow Lake. It would remain a mystery for 35 years. Dark Water: The Murder of Shani Warren, captions, Channel 5 2023
Her hands were tied behind her back with a red jump lead. The only footprints the police found were made by stilettos. Shani was wearing stilettos. A black jump lead was tied as a noose. A blue cloth was tied around Shani’s mouth. ibid.
Mystery Of The Lady In The Lake. ibid. newspaper headline
Police discovered striking similarities between a number of attacks on women in different parts of the country. ibid.
ROBERTS, MICHAEL: The Beast of Bermondsey: Michael Roberts TV -
This is Michael Roberts … He is under arrest for a terrifying spree of rapes and burglaries which terrorized a South London community. For twenty years he had been on the run. The Beast of Bermondsey: Michael Roberts, CI 2013
The victim had been beaten around the head with an iron … She had also been raped. ibid.
Several months later he struck again. The violent rapist was apparently attacking elderly women. ibid.
Michael Roberts was suspected of five terrifying attacks on elderly women dating back to the late 1980s. Four of the women had been raped, all of them viciously beaten and one stabbed to death. ibid.