The police have convincing evidence that Michael John Anderson killed Katherine Ann Olson, but they can’t explain why. That’s what the headlines on the front page of the Minneapolis Star Tribune said on Halloween 2007. I doubt that the police do not have good guesses as to why.

Rape is a likely motive because Anderson’s bed and the walls of his bedroom were splattered with Olson’s blood. That Olson resisted is a likely scenario because she was shot in the back and there was no sign of sexual assault. He might have tried to rape her but could not because he had no erection. Anderson probably escorted Olson to his bedroom under the pretext that the child she was to care for was there, or he could have forced her there at gunpoint. Anderson had gotten Olson to his home through posting an ad for a child care job on Craigslist, a well-known website.

Anderson may have gotten emotional and sexual gratification out of planning the attack. He may have thought about raping and possibly murdering a woman long before he actually did it. He may have enjoyed the planning more than the attack itself. Many rapists can't get erections after months of fantasyzing about rape.

Rapists often fantasize about rape as a joyful, intensely pleasurable event. Anderson probably imagined that the woman he actually raped would welcome his sexual advances,get a beatific smile on her face, and tell him he was the most fantastic lover ever. He may have imagined she would fall in love with him and they would live happily every after.

When his fantasy did not pan out and she ran from him, he may have gone into a rage. With a gun in his hand, he shot and killed her. Then he was in trouble big time. He had to get rid of the body. He dragged Olson down the stairs, tied her with twine, and dumped her body in the trunk of her car. He drove the car a few blocks away to a park reserve. He walked back home.

Anderson supposedly had two close male friends who are now in shock. “I’m just blank,” one said. “He would never raise a fist to anybody.” Both friends maintain that Anderson was never violent and never showed interest in women.

They did not know who they were dealing with.

The scanty biography published in the newspaper suggests that all was not well with Anderson. At 19, he was a high school dropout who also apparently had dropped out of auto mechanics school. He was working nights and told one of his friends that he now was back into the routine of sleeping. With these two friends, he would play video games, type not stated. The newspaper account also labeled him a “paintball fanatic.” His friends said that they used to tease Anderson. They claimed he was good-natured about it.

Anderson had not seen his two friends in about a month. There is no information of whether he had isolated himself this past month, or years. There is no information about what he did during that time. There is no information about what he had thought about during that time.

What is known is that he planned an attack on a woman. It took planning to place an ad on Craigslist for a babysitter and forethought to disguise that he was 19 years old. He posed as “Amy.”

Anderson is locked up with a million-dollar bail. He no longer can harm young women. I hope the police study this case intensely and then publicize what they find. We can learn a lot about prevention of violence if they do this.

A case study of Anderson would involve a neurological exam that would investigate whether he had a neurological vulnerability to emotional and cognitive dysregulation. Dysregulation means racing thoughts, emotions, and often agitated behaviors and rapid heartbeat, among other things.

A brain scan might be able to pinpoint neurological issues. Depression, bipolar disorders, and hyperactivity/impulsive disorders are usually detectable through brain scans. Did Anderson have sleep deprivation? Did his night job isolate him from enjoyable activities? Sleep deprivation and social isolation could aggravate an underlying neurological vulnerability and contribute to dysregulation.

The brain scan could provide evidence that he may have experienced dysregulation. If he did, then the examiner would ask him how he handled these racing thoughts and emotions. Did he use violent fantasies to deal with them?

Did he talk to anyone about his racing thoughts and emotions, or his violent fantasies? Did it help to talk? Did he ever talk to anyone about painful events in his life? Everyone has these kinds of events. The question is how Anderson dealt with them.

Did Anderson have long-term friendships? What did he talk about with these friends? Did they know what was in Anderson’s heart? Did Anderson feel connected to other people whom he admired, who were doing well in life, and who he wanted to be like? What kind of persons did Anderson admire and want to be like?

It would be important to know what traumas Anderson may have experienced. Some people are masters at covering up the effects of trauma. Something as simple as teasing by friends could be traumatic. Anderson may have seemed to have laughed off the teasing of friends, but did he really?

Another part of the exam would involve how Anderson dealt with problems in his life. Did he consider many different possible solutions, seek the advice of others, anticipate the consequences of the various solutions? This part of the exam involves what is called executive function, which is about how people think.

People who commit the kinds of violent acts that Anderson appears to have committed have tunnel vision. They do not think through the consequences, either for themselves or the people they want to harm. They are only looking at what they think are the immediate rewards. Once they have committed the violent acts, they snap back into realizing that they have done something seriously terrible. It’s too late.

It’s not too late for future victims. If we can commit the time and resources to understanding what is going on for people who commit these acts of violence, we are on the road to effective prevention.

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