At the Anchorage Diner in Port Aransas Texas, a man walks into the restaurant and tries to make a connection to a waitress in the restaurant. He’s sniffling and spasmodic as the amphetamines in his system course through his body. Ignoring those telltale signs, the bored waitress finds him exciting, and one thing leads to another.

1. The Chameleon' ID's Movie Series Based On Serial Killer Stephen Peter Morin, Survivor Sarah Pisan? Serial Thriller: The Chameleon is a gripping new TV series most likely based on the case of Stephen Peter Morin and Sarah Pisan. Slated to premiere on Sunday, December 6, at 9/8 central, Serial Thriller: The Chameleon is the second installment in.
2. Tonight I learned about the story of Sarah Pisan, who was stalked by serial killer Stephen Peter Morin in the early 1980's. She was featured on an ID Discovery Show called Obsession. It's a pretty crazy story- after Morin killed her co-worker friend Cheri, he set his sights on her, sending her threatening pages and also appearing to Sarah at the gas station she managed.

Stephen Morin Serial Killer Stephen Peter Morin (February 19, 1951 – March 13, 1985) was an Americanserial killerexecuted by lethal injection by the state of Texas. His last victim, Margaret Palm, 2 rode around with him in a car for 10 hours before taking him to.

Review and recap The Chameleon

Two weeks later, that “another” leads to the Sands Motel, in San Antonio, Texas where the same man, a serial killer and Sara Clark, the waitress, hold Pamela Jackson captive twelve days. During that time, the captive is repeatedly raped. During the violent act, he tells the victim he really cares for her, and that’s why she’s not dead already.

The time is 1981. The cars are long and finned, few people use seatbelts, and there were pagers but no cellphones. In the early 1980s, another murderer is on the loose in the same area. The police are on to him as he drives through the desert with his victim. “You’re lucky the cops interrupted, sweet meat, I was ready to go another round,” he cackles. This time too the victim was at least half lucky, in that she survived. The perpetrator was forced to abandon his vehicle and run through the desert scrub brush in a bid to escape. Edward See, who also went by the name of David Penny was arrested for the kidnap and rape of Carole Douglas.

It’s all part of the horrifying three-part series on Investigation Discovery channel on Stephen Peter Morin, who used several aliases, but is sometimes referred to as Robert Generoso. The reason this story of serial killer Morin stands apart is simply that he is far less well known than, say, Ted Bundy, the Poster Boy of all serial killers. Bundy’s name at one time was almost a household word. Not so with Morin. Mention of his name is likely to produce the response: “How come I never heard of him?” One reason may be because of the tag the police gave him – the “Chameleon.” Morin changed his look, his place, his style and his name so many times that he was virtually invisible for the decade of his crimes.

Few criminals are more frightening than a serial killer. Perhaps it’s because there is no species more frightening by nature of their stealth, cleverness, recklessness, and predatory instincts. The number of murders Stephen Peter Morin actually committed is believed to be around thirty, though estimates have been as high as fifty-four. The manipulative killer and pathological liar used several aliases and disguised himself so well that witnesses were unable to pick him out in books of mug shots where he was the only subject.

The ID Channel presentation was obviously produced on a low budget and yet managed to create a mood appropriate to the subject. The use of blue filters and smoky lenses helped to set up the murky world in which the killer operated. The casting director helped the presentation a great deal. The characters are such as you might find in the lonely outposts of western towns. The western saloon where the first episode of the three part series begins features a mix of bikers, lonely hearts, drugstore cowboys, loud music, smoke, drink. A pretty girl dances with a bearded guy who presses a knife flat against her back, suggesting something awful might happen to her.

Stephen Peter Morin Childhood

Soon people start finding bodies along the road or in the desert. The cop who figures mostly in the IC presentation is Mike Brady. Lean, lank, and spare in his use of words, the detective studies the crimes scenes for links. It’s early 1980s and DNA matching, which might have prevented some women from being murdered, is in its infancy. Even if the Morin had no criminal record and there was no trace of his DNA in criminal data banks, DNA analysis could have at least helped them in one of the most difficult tasks police face when tracking down multiple murders. Are the murders in cases linked through DNA?

The same DNA found on multiple victims would set that concern to rest. If the DNA was a match, you have a serial killer. If there is no DNA match among victims, then you have isolated and different killers. Determining that is a crucial first step in multiple victim murder investigations. In the 1980s, the best evidence of similarity between murders was blood evidence. But blood clues were not always left at crimes scenes as whereas DNA evidence often abounds at crime scenes.

In the television production “The Chameleon,” the lead detective is talking with an associate about four other murders with a single connection. A fifteen year old girl, Kim Bryant, murdered from blunt force trauma to the head; Linda Jenkins, beaten, strangled, then dumped in the desert; twenty-two year old Sheila Griffith, strangled; Susan Belotte, 18, also strangled and dumped. All the victims were kidnapped from Las Vegas and murdered within the space of a single year.

Though the main force behind the three-part series was Stephen Morin, detectives failed to link any of these four murders to Morin. DNA analysis would have revealed that the killer of one of these women, Sheila Griffith, was Edward See, who eventually admitted to killing her and four other women. Yet, it was while investigating these four, that Detective Brady got on the trail of Stephen Peter Morin.

The break in the case occurs when Cheryl Ann Daniels is kidnapped and murdered, then dumped in the appropriately named Hell Hole Canyon. In the course of that crime, Morin dropped his wallet and in that wallet was the name and address of another woman the killer was stalking: Sara Pisan. Sara turned out to be a co-worker of Cheryl Ann Daniels. She had met the killer, who had introduced himself as “Andrew,” but spurned his overly aggressive advances. When Detective Brady tracked down Sara Pisan, she told them about Morin and that she had become suspicious of him when her friend didn’t show up for work one day. But having identified a possible serial killer is not the same as apprehending one and Morin’s whereabouts were unknown. His modus operandi was to move from town to town, picking up jobs on occasion and then drifting on. His ability to disguise himself, and his unpredictable movements from town to town, made him dangerous for everyone he came in contact with. Stephen Peter Morin killed on whim, after which he would move on to the next town and the next victim.

You could say that God came to the rescue – assuming the Investigation Discovery version of Morin’s killing spree was entirely accurate. During one of his escape attempts, he came upon Margaret Mayfield Palm, a young woman who was devoutly religious. Palm was either fearless or hid it very well as she, preparing to die, began reciting scripture. Whether this had any effect on the killer is debatable but, in any case, he was trying to avoid capture. Morin tells her to drive him to a bus station in Kerrville, Texas. From there, he’ll head to Houston. He doesn’t kill Margaret Palm, he doesn’t rape her, and he even gives her a chance of escape. When he separates from her near the bus station, she gives him her book of psalms, which he is apparently reading at the bus stop when the police point their guns at him. Palm told police later that they drove around for ten hours reading from her handwritten journal of Bible verses and listening to tapes by Mr. Copeland, a Texas evangelist.

At the time of his arrest, Morin was a suspect in thirty seven violent crimes. Though never convicted for the murder of Cheryl Daniels, Morin was executed by lethal injection March 13th, 1985, for the 1981 murders of only three women: Carrie Scott, Janna Bruce, and Shelia Whalen in Golden Colorado.

Hey friends! In this episode, Shelby tells the girls the story of Sarah Pisan, which leads us straight to a truly terrifying serial killer. Our cocktail for this case comes from the police nickname for our murderer: The Chameleon.

What you’re gonna do is add 1oz clear rum, 1oz simple syrup (colored red with food coloring) and lime juice from half a lime to a shaker. Then mix it all together. Next muddle some mint leaves in the bottom of a glass and add in shaved ice (colored blue with food coloring) and then uncolored shaved ice. Finally, pour the mixture on top, spritz with some seltzer and stir it all together with a mint stem. That’s how you get the Chameleon Mojito!

Now, let’s jump into the story of Sarah Pisan and her horrifying run-in with the Chameleon. In January of 1980, Sarah Pisan decided to move to Las Vegas from Bullhead, AZ with her three young children. She almost immediately landed a job at a Terrible Herbst gas station where she became quick friends with her coworker Cheryl Ann Daniels or Cheri as her friends called her.

When Cheri would get off work, Sarah and the other girls would always see a car pull up as her new boyfriend, Andrew Ireland came to pick her up. Cheri told the girls that he was a bit of a loner and didn’t deal well with people. Clearly falling for the man, Cheri went on to her coworkers about how generous he was and how he acted like a true gentleman. One night when he picked up Cheri, Sarah noticed that Ireland was staring at her through the station windows the entire time. Naturally, it made her feel very uncomfortable, but seeing that her friend was happy, Sarah kept this to herself.

Two days later when Cheri came into work with tears in her eyes Sarah couldn’t help but show her concern. After asking what was wrong, Cheri exclaimed that her new boyfriend was married and then left the station in an aggravated state.

Chameleon Serial Killer Stephen Peter Morin Crime Scene

The next day, Cheri didn’t show up to work. Immediately Sarah and her other coworker Donna become concerned as Cheri wasn’t the kind of person to not show up to work without any notice at all. That night Sergeant Robert Hilyard and Detective Mike Brady of the Las Vegas Police Department come to the gas station hoping to learn more about Cheri’s work and personal life. They asked Sarah if she knows of anyone that might want to harm Cheri and she tells them all she knows, including the fact that Cheri had a new boyfriend and had just learned that he was married. Sarah gives the detectives the name Andrew Ireland.

The next afternoon, the Las Vegas Police found Cheri’s Jeep abandoned in a shopping center parking lot. Knowing that she would never leave her car, Cheri’s friends and family brace themselves for what they expect to be bad news. The news still wouldn’t come for a few more months. Over that time, Sarah was promoted to manager of one of the Herbst stations known as the “Armpit of the West”. Sarah is also approached by a new customer, Robert Generoso who continually asks her out on a date, which she refuses due to her work commitment and, of course, her three children at home.

It’s now been four months since the disappearance of Cheryl Ann Daniels and while taking a shower in her apartment, Sarah heard her beeper go off. She got out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her to make sure she could her the message clearly. Then a voice came through the beeper saying: “You look good in a towel.”

Sarah, understandably, got very upset and closed the blinds, but her beeper continued to go off. Over the next few months, Sarah continued to receive these creepy beeper messages and as time went on the messages grew more and more vulgar and terrifying. He started telling her all of the things that he wanted to do to her, meaning sexual things, but he also told her fantasies of kidnapping and torture. All the while, Sarah could hear him masturbating in the background. The calls escalated to coming in every few hours; until one call freaks Sarah out so bad that she begins turning her beeper off. The call says, “I can’t wait. First, I’m gonna tie you up, then I’m gonna cut you up.” As if that wasn’t enough, Sarah then heard a woman screaming through her beeper, meaning that not only was someone being hurt on the other end of the call, but that he wanted Sarah to hear it.

Throughout this time, Robert Generoso was continually visiting her at the station and asking her out on a date. Finally, Sarah told him to call her sometime and 15 minutes later he called the station to set up their date for the next night. Before ending the call he says, “I’ve been looking forward to this date for a very long time.” The tone that he had in this statement gave Sarah a bad feeling and something inside her told her not to go. So, she stood him up for their date the next night. Instead, Sarah stays at her station until about 9:30 at night in an attempt to wait him out, so that she would not run into him waiting to pick her up outside of her apartment.

The next night in November 1980, Robert Generoso shows up at the station where Sarah works in a rage. First, he tried to hit Sarah with his truck, but she made it into the booth. Then Generoso bangs on the station door and windows, yelling at her for standing him up the night before. Now, the polite and friendly Robert was gone and replaced with a purely evil man.

Two weeks after Robert’s outburst at the gas station, Sarah heard a strange noise in her apartment and freaked out as her paranoia is really on edge since the beeper calls had escalated in both number and violence. Each call was sexual in nature and would end with the man dismembering, stabbing or shooting Sarah. One night, her beeper went off at about 2 in the morning. At first she could hear whimpering noises coming from the beeper, which she could later tell was a woman. The whimpers turned to screams and Sarah started to hear the sound of chains, which she believed he was using to beat this woman.

The next night, Sarah went in to work at the gas station and gets a call from her mother. Her mother tells her that the Las Vegas Police Department just called her and told them that she had been linked to a homicide. The next call that Sarah got at the gas station was from Detective Brady who told her that she was in grave danger and directed her to lock herself in the gas station and stay out of sight until they arrive.

When the detective finally show up, they tell Sarah the terrible news that she had been waiting to hear for six months: they had finally found the body of Cheryl Ann Daniels. The two detectives explain that at 6pm that day they found Cheri’s lifeless body dumped in the appropriately named Hell Hole Canyon. It was apparent that she had been raped and brutally tortured before she was shot in the back of the head. Detective Brady then informs Sarah that her name and home address had been discovered inside a wallet beside the body.

The detectives take Sarah back to the police station and ask her to look through a large photo album of mugshots and asked if she could identify “this” man. After looking through the photos, which seemed to vary from white suspects to hispanic suspects, Sarah questioned the detectives wording. Detective Brady assured her that all of these photos were one man and that they believed that this man was intent on killing Sarah.

Eventually, Sarah comes across pictures she recognizes as Andrew Ireland and Robert Generoso. The detectives tell Sarah they believe this man is one of the most brutal and sadistic serial killers they have every come into contact with. This man is Stephen Peter Morin.

Chameleon Serial Killer Stephen Peter Morin Crime Scene Photos

Stephen Peter Morin, a drifter from Rhode Island, is believed to have begun his career as a serial killer as early as 1969, at the age of 18. Morin would find names on tombstones that were around his age and send for their birth certificates. Over the years he accrued many new aliases this way. He would go by Edward See, David Penny or Ray Constantine, just to name a few. He changed his look, style and name so many times that he earned the nickname “Chameleon” from the police and remained virtually invisible to investigators for almost a decade.

At this time, in early 1981, Detective Brady has four murders with a single connection. 15 year old Kim Bryant, dead from blunt force trauma to the head; Linda Jenkins, had been beaten, strangled and dumped in the desert; 22 year old Sheila Griffith, strangled; 18 year old Susan Belotte also strangled and dumped in the desert and, finally, Cheryl Ann Daniels.

Only one detail connected each victim: they were all kidnapped from Las Vegas and murdered within the space of a year. The police knew that they were linked in this way, but they were not yet aware that the same man committed all of these horrific acts.

Chameleon Serial Killer Stephen Peter Morin Serial Killer

Now, Morin appeared to be stalking and attempting to make Sarah his next victim. Luckily, God decided to intervene before Morin could enact his horrific plans on the young mother.

In the early morning hours of December 11, 1981 in San Antonio Texas, Morin shot and killed 21 year old Carrie Marie Scott in front of Maggie’s Restaurant, her place of employment. Apparently, Carrie had interrupted Morin while he was in the process of stealing her car. Morin later claimed that he never intended to kill her and had even pleaded with her to leave him alone, but then he says something came over him and his gun went off.

Later that day, driving around in Scott’s car, Morin abducted Margaret Palm from a local shopping center and tells her to drive him to a bus station in Kerrville, Texas. Morin plans to travel from there to Houston, Texas. The two drive around for ten hours, while Margaret prays and Morin plans his escape. He doesn’t kill or even rape Margaret, but instead gives her a chance to escape. Before she leaves him at the bus station, Margaret gives him her book of psalms. The police find him reading this book when they pull up to finally arrest the elusive murderer.

At the time of his arrest, Morin was a suspect in 37 violent crimes, spanning from coast to coast. I know what you’re thinking, that’s a record to rival Ted Bundy, how come I’ve never heard of this guy before? Well with the number of aliases he had, Morin could only be definitely proven guilty of a few of those suspected crimes. Unfortunately, he is not convicted for the murder of Cheryl Ann Daniels, but Morin is convicted and charged for the killings of Carrie Marie Scott, Janna Bruce of Corpus Christi, Texas and Sheila Whalen of Golden, Colorado. He was sentenced to death.

On March 13, 1981, 37 year old Morin is brought in for his execution by lethal injection. After struggling for 40 minutes to find a vein due to Morin’s extensive drug abuse, a medical technician finally managed to slip a needle into his arm at 12:44am. Stephen Peter Morin is pronounced dead 11 minutes later.

Sarah Pisan, now in her late 50s, lives along the coast of Southern Oregon. She published a book about her horrifying experience with Morin published in 2013 titled, Sarah’s Story: Target of a Serial Killer. While there seems to be no justice for Cheryl Ann Daniels, I believe that her murderer is long gone and many other women were allowed to live safely in a world without Stephen Peter Morin.

Thanks for joining us for this story! If you want to hear more of the details of this case you can listen to the episode on any platform where you find podcasts or right on our homepage here on the website. If you would like to dive further into this case on your own you can do so by reading Sarah’s book noted above or watching the first episode of the Investigation Discovery show “Obsession: Dark Desires” entitled “Paging Sarah” or by checking out my other sources included below. Until next time…

Bye mom!

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