He looks significantly like a man Alice once knew ('knew'- there was one degree of separation, he was in the news, she felt like she knew him, like everything in John's life was fair game to her)- not quite identical, but enough to give her pause. Alice thought the man in question repulsive, but Alice is like that about people; she found the fact that he exsanguinated innocents much less irritating than his manner.

Auspicious, perhaps.

She saw him from across the aisle, and in fact moved closer out of curiosity. She smiles, cradles her prospective purposes. "The true crime section caught my eye," she says; he's blocking part of it.

This is a serial killer litmus test, and a decent conversation starter; Alice isn't actually interested in true crime. Well, not in reading about it.