BALTIMORE (AP) - Investigators now say very little about the Washington-area sniper, and when they do it is unclear to some whether they’re talking to the public or trying to manipulate a serial killer.

Criminal experts said Wednesday that every televised word may actually be crafted to deceive a shooter who enjoys the attention he is getting from killing nine and wounding two in neighborhoods surrounding the nation’s capital.

“I think now you can’t tell the difference between information and disinformation,” said Charles Patrick Ewing, a forensic psychologist at the State University of New York at Buffalo. “Today they’re talking about how they don’t have enough description to compile a composite sketch.

“I mean, why say anything at all about that?”

On Tuesday, FBI analyst Linda Franklin was identified as the hunter’s newest victim, shot with a single round to the head in a Home Depot parking structure. Emboldened investigators, who got the most detailed witness statements yet, said they were confident the descriptions would help catch the killer.

Barely 24 hours later, Montgomery County Police Capt. Nancy Demme said the descriptions weren’t enough to put a face on the killer. “I know that’s not what the public wants to hear,” Demme said.

But it may be what the shooter wants, and authorities could be happy to provide it, Ewing said. “They may have more than they’re letting on and they’re trying to lay low until they can move in.”

It is a marked difference from how local officials acted when the killing started more than two weeks ago.

On Oct. 7, one day after Montgomery County Executive Douglas Duncan declared schools safe havens, a 13-year-old boy was shot as he walked toward class. A tarot card known found nearby said “Dear Mister Policeman, I am God.”