Serial Whisperer Silenced

Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) officials said they have been successful in silencing the so-called “serial whisperer,” who had made repeated harassing phone calls to female Harvard undergraduates over the past two years.

HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano said yesterday that police in Boca Raton, Fla. contacted the suspect at HUPD’s request earlier this year and no incidents have been reported since.

Last fall, students expressed frustration with what they perceived to be HUPD’s inability to stop the phone calls, which were not being made from an area under HUPD’s jurisdiction.

Students contacted by the whisperer this year said he usually called between 8 and 10 a.m., asking if they knew who he was and telling them he was “crazy about you.” Some students were called just once, while others received upwards of 25 calls.

Three students said they had been called early this fall by the whisperer, but only one reported the incident to HUPD. That student said HUPD put a trace on her phone and the calls quickly ceased.

HUPD located the caller in South Florida last year by tracing the incoming calls of students who were contacted by him, according to Catalano.

Catalano said that after corresponding with the Boca Raton Police Department and district and U.S. attorneys in the area earlier this year, HUPD asked local police to locate the suspect and order him to stop calling. When he agreed and complied, according to Catalano, HUPD no longer needed to continue the investigation.

“We try to solve the problem [in] whatever is the most reasonable and appropriate way,” Catalano said. “After we had enough information to believe this was the caller, we asked him to cease and desist, and there was an immediate dropoff of calls.”

Catalano said he was not aware of any students pressuring HUPD to arrest the caller.

“Most of the time, they just want the calls to stop,” Catalano said.

—Staff writer Daniel K. Rosenheck can be reached at rosenhec@fas.harvard.edu.