A list of events in 1986 related to serial killers.
January[]
- 1 — Yeyson Liendo Mamani is born.
- 24 — Anthony McKnight is apprehended.
- 27 — Kevin Sweat is born.
- ? — Harold Glenn Smith is apprehended.
February[]
- 6 — Ángel Díaz Balbín is apprehended (final time).
- 9 — Ángel Díaz Balbín died.
- 14 — Jocelyne Bourdin is apprehended.
- 14 — Marc Fasquel died.
- 26 — Daniel Camargo Barbosa is re-apprehended.
- 26 — Muthukutty Chandran is apprehended.
March[]
- 8 — Alexey Kruglov is born.
- 13 — Terri Rachals is apprehended.
- 14 — Michaela Röder is apprehended.
April[]
- 2 — The "Honolulu Strangler"'s victim, Louise Medeiros, is found.
- 6 — Marta Eugenia Zamora Martínez, María Gabriela Salas Zamora, María Auxiliadora Salas Zamora, Carla Virginia Salas Zamora, Alejandra Sandí Zamora, Carla María Sandí Zamora and María Eugenia Sandí Zamora are murdered by "El Psicópata".
- 6 — Jason B. McColley is murdered by Michael Terry.
- 15 — Lynda Moore is murdered by the "Connecticut River Valley Killer".
- 17 — Maartje Tamboezer is murdered by John Duffy and David Mulcahy.
- 19 — Andrey Pavlov is murdered by Sergey Golovkin.
- 19 — Robert Black's victim, Sarah Harper, is found.
- 19 — "Connecticut River Valley Killer"'s victim, Bernice Courtemanche, is found.
- 20 — Richard Louis Hunter is apprehended.
- 20 — Cynthia Jocelyn Zarzycki is murdered by Arthur Ream.
- 21 — Lora Heedick is murdered by Roger Kibbe.
- 25 — "Connecticut River Valley Killer"'s victim, Eva Morse, is found.
- 25 — Carla Maxwell is allegedly murdered by Paul Rhoades (suspected victim).
- 29 — Linda Pesce is murdered by the "Honolulu Strangler".
May[]
- 2 — Gary Ridgway's victim, Maureen Sue Feeney, is found.
- 4 — Janelle Cruz is murdered by Joseph DeAngelo.
- 4 — Suzanne Denise Harrison, Bryan Drew Boone and Gena Lee Turner is murdered by Jerry McFadden.
- 5 — Cécile Bloch is murdered by François Vérove.
- 5 — Jerry McFadden's victim, Suzanne Denise Harrison, is found.
- 6 — Tina Kimbrew is murdered by Faryion Wardrip.
- 6 — Faryion Wardrip is apprehended (murder of Tina Kimbrew).
- 7 — Manuel Pardo is apprehended.
- 10 — Jerry McFadden's victims, Bryan Drew Boone and Gena Lee Turner, are found.
- 12 — Lisa Strong is allegedly murdered by Paul Rhoades (suspected victim).
- 18 — Anne Lock is murdered by John Duffy and David Mulcahy.
- 18 — Michael Lupo is apprehended.
- 26 — Verna Patricia Williams is murdered by Michael Hughes.
- ? — Mikhail Makarov is apprehended.
June[]
- 4 — Gladys May Hensley is murdered by John Charles Bolsinger.
- 6 — Atalay Filiz is born.
- 6 — Alexey Vygovsky is born.
- 7 — Kim Chan-il is murdered by Jeong Du-yeong.
- 16 — Donna Weis is allegedly murdered by Timothy Gribble (suspected victim).
- 28 — Danny Figueroa is apprehended.
July[]
- 22 — Franc Cano is born.
- 28 — Kenneth Erskine is apprehended.
- 28 — Edmund Kolanowski died.
August[]
- 7 — Willie Steelman died.
- 17 — Stephen Richard Smith died.
- 25 — Giancarlo Giudice is apprehended.
September[]
- 3 — Anthony Robinson is born.
- 4 — Wayne Nance died.
- 27 — Michael Ihde is apprehended.
- 29 — Bruna Cristina Oliveira da Silva is born.
October[]
- 10 — Michael Player died.
- 24 — Shannan Gilbert (suspected victim) is born.
- 24 — David Martin Long is apprehended.
- 27 — Vernon Brown is apprehended.
- 31 — Robert Rozier is apprehended.
- ? — Bryan Maurice Jones is apprehended.
November[]
- 7 — John Duffy is apprehended.
- 14 — Cynthia Coffman and James Marlow are apprehended.
- 20 — David Allen Rundle is apprehended.
- 28 — Michael Terry is apprehended.
- ? — David Birnie and Catherine Birnie ("Moorhouse murders") are apprehended.
December[]
- 1 — Johnny Avalos is born.
- 9 — Nicholas Brent Gibson is born.
- 12 — Roberto Gerardo Castro Mora and Francis Eduviges Salazar Suárez are murdered by "El Psicópata".
- 31 — Nicolae Vlad is born.
Unknown[]
- ? — Allen Leroy Anderson is apprehended.
- ? — Omid Barak is born.
- ? — Polatbay Berdaliyev is born.
- ? — Hugh Bondurant is apprehended.
- ? — Galina Bolshakova is apprehended.
- ? — Inez Brennan is apprehended.
- ? — John Brooks is apprehended.
- ? — Robert Edward Brown died.
- ? — German Christan is born.
- ? — Hong Minxiong is apprehended.
- ? — Dariusz Kotwica is born.
- ? — Ivan Kulesh is born.
- ? — Monu Kumar is born.
- ? — Michael Laurence is apprehended.
- ? — Dmitry Lebed is born.
- ? — Lin Benjian is apprehended.
- ? — Lin Zongcheng is apprehended.
- ? — José Carlos Martins is apprehended.
- ? — "Nikopol Maniac" is born.
- ? — Jorge Walter Nuñez is apprehended.
- ? — Daniel Lee Siebert is apprehended.
- ? — Igor Silkin is apprehended.
- ? — Yuri Starostin is born.
- ? — Georgy Strogalyov is apprehended.
- ? — Wen Jinlong is apprehended.
- ? — David Franklin Young is apprehended.
- ? — An unidentified woman and an unidentified man are murdered by Ángel Maturino Reséndiz in 1986.