The literature on sexual homicide and serial murder has offered mostly descriptive or anecdotal accounts. What seems to underscore these crimes is a series of paraphilias (i.e., sexually deviant behaviors) that give rise to violent conduct. Neither the motivational nor the trauma-control model offers a detailed conceptual account of the etiology and process of paraphilias, especially in relation to lust murder, or erotophonophilia. This article demonstrates how the motivational and trauma-control typologies are assimilable, making possible an integrated theoretical paraphilic schema. It explains how paraphilias as a system of behavior function as motive in the sexually sadistic act of lust murder. It also explores the implications of the conceptual synthesis for clinical forensic treatment and law enforcement practice, suggesting detailed study of its use relative to profiling, tracking, detention, and apprehension of sadistic sexual killers. The article suggests that future studies would do well to assess the explanatory and predictive capabilities of the integrated model. Clinical investigations are also warranted as they may yield important findings about the paraphilic process in relation to the treatment of particular sexual offenders. Figures, references