MUNCIE, Ind. -- Good old fashioned police work as opposed to personality profiling will lead to the arrest of a serial assassin terrorizing the Washington D.C. area, says a Ball State University criminologist.

Assembling a profile on the nation's first serial assassin is impossible because no such person has existed in this country's history, said Bryan Byers, a criminal justice professor.

"I see experts in the national media coming up with the person's personality profile and what led them to do it," Byers said. "That would be impossible because we don't know anything about this person. It is just pure speculation."

In the last few weeks, nine people have been killed and two others wounded in the Washington D.C. metro area. All of them were cut down by a single bullet fired from a distance with a high-powered rifle as the victims went about their everyday tasks.

"Police found clues as a result of Monday's murder of an FBI analyst," Byers said. "They will eventually track the person by going over leads, talking to people and doing their jobs."

The increasingly brazen shooter has established patterns, including preferring suburban gas stations, firing a single round and not letting two days pass without killing. The person may also enjoy taunting police because of a tarot card found at one shooting scene.

The reward for information leading to capture of the killer has grown to more than $500,000.

Byers believes personality profiling has become highly publicized due to the movie "Silence of the Lambs," as well as the television show "Profiler."

"There is a lot of mystery to it because of the movies, but it is a very inexact science," he said. "It works when you have a lot of previous examples to go on. But, this is a unique case. There is very little to base any profile on."

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, contact Byers at bbyers@bsu.eduor (765) 285-1530.)