FBI’s Highway Serial Killings Initiative: 500 Murders on Interstate Highways in 30 Years

“This map shows the more than 500 cases in our Highway Serial Killings Initiative database; the red dots mark where bodies or remains have been found along highways over the past 30 years.”

They’re gruesome statistics, a map with red dots pinpointing the location of more than 500 victim’s bodies discovered along interstate highways in a 30 year span. The FBI has taken action and announced a new “serial killer initiative”.

According to the FBI, an astounding 500 victims of unsolved homicides and other vicious crimes have been found with a potential “200″ suspects. Ten suspects have been arrested who are believed to be involved with 30 homicides, one a trucker suspected in seven murders, Bruce Mendenhall, 56, of Albion, Ill..

“The victims in these cases are primarily women who are living high-risk, transient lifestyles, often involving substance abuse and prostitution. They’re frequently picked up at truck stops or service stations and sexually assaulted, murdered, and dumped along a highway.

The suspects are predominantly long-haul truck drivers. But the mobile nature of the offenders, the unsafe lifestyles of the victims, the significant distances and multiple jurisdictions involved, and the scarcity of witnesses or forensic evidence can make these cases tough to solve.”

It was VICAP, or the FBI’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, which created a national “matrix” of the 500 victims:

“The database—which contains information on homicides, sexual assaults, missing persons, and unidentified human remains—is available to law enforcement throughout the country over a secure Internet link on our Law Enforcement Online (LEO).

ViCAP analysts have created a national matrix of more than 500 murder victims from along or near highways, as well as a list of some 200 potential suspects. Names of suspects—contributed by law enforcement agencies—are examined by analysts who develop timelines using a variety of reliable sources of information.”

“Lot lizards”

This is a world that dwells on the fringe of the American landscape, of truck stops and prostitutes, of women’s bodies being discovered along the long stretches of interstate highways, travel stops, and motels that crisscross the nation. Called “lot lizards”, without a CB radio, they’re “impossible to detect”:

Women who work truck stops are called “lot lizards” by their customers, or johns. Without a CB radio, they are almost impossible to detect.

If you’re not looking for prostitutes, odds are you won’t see them, said Jim Reynolds, who travels with his brother Richard Reynolds. Richard Reynolds spends much of his week on the road hauling furniture.

“If you’re looking, if you go to a certain channel on your CB, they are right there,” Jim Reynolds said.

Some truckers find it easy to tune out the prostitutes and drug traffic. Others find it intolerable and infuriating.

It’s day and night, nonstop,” said Joe Laginski, a trucker from New York City who hauls frozen food. “They knock on your door and wake you up when you’re supposed to be sleeping. You can’t even sleep sometimes because you’re worried they are going to steal something or break your window and hit you with something.”

Laginski, a Catholic who sports a cross on the front of his rig, said that when one truck stop increases its security, the prostitutes head to another one.

“They move somewhere else for a half a day, then just move back,” he said. “And they bring drugs in nonstop.”
–The Sandspur

In July of 2007, trucker Bruce Mendenhall, 56, of Albion, Ill., was charged with one count of criminal homicide as well a suspect in five other cases:

“NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A man arrested Thursday and charged with killing a woman at a Nashville truck stop last month is suspected in at least five other similar slayings in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and Indiana, police said.

Bruce Mendenhall, 56, of Albion, Ill., was charged with criminal homicide after being questioned by police at the same truck stop along Interstate 24 in north Nashville where Sara Nicole Hulbert, 25, was found dead with gunshot wounds on June 26.”
—–
“Mendenhall was taken into custody when the detective spotted what appeared to be blood inside the cab, police said in a news release.

During questioning, the driver gave a statement implicating himself in Hulbert’s death, as well as the death of Symantha Winters, 48, of Nashville, whose body was found June 6 stuffed in a trash can at another truck stop in Lebanon, 26 miles east of Nashville. She was also shot.

Police, who have been investigating whether the two Tennessee slayings were related to each other and a series of other slayings of women across the South, said Mendenhall also implicated himself in one death in Alabama, another in Georgia and two in Indiana.”
–FOX News

On October 10, 2008, Land Line Magazine, a blog for truckers, reported that Mendenhall was incarcerated in a Davidson County Jail in Tennessee, charged with the homicides of four women, a suspect in three other murders, and faces charges of implementing a murder plot from behind bars:

“On Thursday, Oct. 9, Mendenhall again appeared in court on new charges: that he tried to organize the slaying of three witnesses and two police detectives in his case.

According to WSMV-TV, prosecutors said in court Thursday that they had proof Mendenhall asked two cellmates to kill the five, including witnesses Lori Young, David Powell and Richard Keim. Mendenhall also ordered hits on policemen Pat Postiglione and Mike Freemen, the two main investigators in Mendenhall’s original case.

Young spent four days riding in Mendenhall’s truck, and later moved to Albion, IL and rented a house from Mendenhall. Powell, a convicted sex offender and Keim both hung out with Mendenhall. Powell once dated Mendenhall’s daughter, the TV station reported.

WSMV reported that Mendenhall told police that Powell and Keim helped him murder some of the women he’s accused of killing, though police doubt his story.”

In 2006, the interstate highway system, of over 46,800 miles of interconnected highways, turned 50 after President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized the Federal Aid Highway Act in 1956.

According to Wikipedia, there 10,000 truck stops or travel centers in the U.S.. Truck stops originated in 1940′s after truckers were unable to locate a reliable source of diesel fuel. According to Truck Stop Plus, there are “more than a million trucking carriers in the United States”.

Some of the statistics dealing with the big semi-trucks that haul freight across the country, 24/7:

“There is currently an estimated peak hour demand for approximately 287,000 truck parking spaces at commercial truck stops and travel plazas and public rest areas serving Interstate highways and other NHS routes carrying more than 1,000 trucks per day.”

“Approximately 10 percent of truck parking spaces are in public rest areas and 90 percent were in commercial truck stops and travel plazas.”
–thfrc.gov

Then there’s the victims, whose stories appear in newspapers across the country:

May 5, 2006:

MOUNT AIRY, Md. – Police believe a woman found dead Thursday morning along Interstate 70 was killed at another location and left on the road.

Maryland State Police said the woman was white, 25 to 30 years old, 5 feet 4 inches, 100 pounds and appeared to have injuries to her upper body. She was pronounced dead at the scene about 6 a.m. by a forensic examiner, and her body was taken to the Office of the State Medical Examiner in Baltimore for an autopsy.

Two people called police to report they had seen the woman along the shoulder of the highway, east of Bill Moxley Road, police said.

The woman was fully clothed and seen on the right side of the road. Police said the woman was not struck by a vehicle, and believe she was killed at another location.

The body was found a few hundred yards from a rest area, and investigators did not find any identification on or around the woman.

Police closed the rest area for a short time, and truck drivers at the rest area were contacted, interviewed and released, police said. The area was canvassed for signs of an altercation or assault, and none were found.
–The Herald Mail

March 29, 2007:

BERNALILLO COUNTY, N.M. — Investigators are examining the body of a woman found along Interstate 40.

The naked body was discovered by construction workers in a field near Tijeras Canyon on Wednesday, reported Action 7 News.

Bernalillo County sheriff’s investigators said they have very little information to go on.

They describe the woman only as having dark hair and a slender build. They do not know her age, name, or how she got there.

Investigators think the woman’s body had been in the field for more than a week before it was discovered.

Investigators are asking anyone who may know a missing woman or have any information on this investigation to please call the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office at 505-798-7000.
–KOAT.com

Nov. 20, 2007:

CORSICANA – Police said the burned body of an unidentified woman was found under an interstate overpass near Corsicana.

Authorities said a motorist spotted the body under a bridge when she reached a dead-end turnaround after she exited the 221 mile marker late Monday night on Interstate 45.

The body was suspected to have been at the scene about a day. Authorities said that drops of blood found on the scene indicated that the woman’s body was dumped under the bridge and set on fire after she was already killed at another location.

Police said they believe the woman, who they suspect is either a Caucasian or Hispanic female ranging in age from 20 to 30-years-old, was shot to death.

“Well, I’m sure the victim’s family would like to know what has happened,” said Leslie Cotten, Navarro County Sheriff. “Right now, without an identity, we are just…trying to find out who is missing and anything else we can.”

Cotton said anyone with any possible information pertaining to the identity of the woman should call the department.

Cotton said there are no missing person reports in Navarro County.

Authorities said the body was sent to the medical examiners in Dallas County for an autopsy.

The woman’s body is the second body to be dumped off of I-45 over the last two years.

Corsicana is about 60 miles south of Dallas.
–KVUE.com

January 18, 2008:

VIRGINIA — MECKLENBURG COUNTY, VA.: The burned body of an Asian female was found along Interstate 85 near the NC border Wednesday, the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office told NC WANTED Friday.

The body was found by the South Hill Fire Department around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday on the northbound side of Interstate 85 near the 19-mile marker.

Authorities were responding to a brush fire at the scene when they discovered the body.

The victim was described as an Asian female of an unknown age, about 5 foot 6 inches tall and 110 pounds. She had hazel eyes and black hair.
—
Sheriff Danny R. Fox told NC WANTED on Friday that his investigators were desperate for any information leading to the identity of this woman and the mysterious circumstances of her death.
–NCWanted.com

April 23, 2008:

A driver of a tractor-trailer rig discovered the body of a woman at about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday alongside an unpaved Interstate 10 service road in the Theodore area of south Mobile County, the Sheriff’s Office said.

The truck driver, Ronald Miller of Pensacola, said the body appeared to be nude from the waist up and was partially submerged in a water-filled ditch.

“I first thought it was a mannequin, and the next thing I thought was to dial 911,” the 50-year-old man said at the scene.

Kate Johnson, a Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman, identified the woman as Sharon Nicole Lee, 23, of Georgiana, Ala. Johnson said the death was being investigated as a homicide, but she would not say how the woman was killed.

Johnson said that investigators had not determined how long the woman had been dead.
–al.com

January 28, 2008:

SWIFTWATER, Pa. — Parts of a woman’s body were found in eight trash bags scattered over a wide area in northeastern Pennsylvania, authorities said Tuesday.

The first bag was found Tuesday morning near the Mount Pocono exit of Interstate 380 by a state road worker salting the highway. More remains were found later Tuesday along Interstate 80. Authorities said at an afternoon news conference that they were not sure if all of the body was recovered.

A head was recovered along I-380, Monroe County District Attorney Dave Christine said.
–FOX News

As I noted before, the suspects in the interstate highway murders are “predominantly” truck drivers. According to the LA Times, the FBI database contains information on 500 victims, the majority of which were murdered, their bodies found at “truck stops, motels, and other locations”. It also contains information on truckers who were previously charged with murder or rapes “committed near highways” as well as “suspects” in “such” crimes.

The FBI has labeled their investigation as “HIGHWAY SERIAL KILLINGS, New Initiative on an Emerging Trend”. While one investigator called it a “mobile crime scene”.

By LBG

Source – Federal Aid Highway Act
Image - Lot Lizards

Tags: 500, FBI, highways, interstate, murders, prostitutes, SERIAL KILLERS, travel centers, truck drivers, truck stops, victims