Update: Highway Killers

November 11, 2009

In the bizarre realm of serial killers possibly working as long-haul truckers being looked at by the FBI in literally hundreds of cases, there does not appear to be an end in sight to the horrors being committed along our nation's highways.  Despite the FBI's creation of a database called the Highway Serial Killings Initiative (HSKI) containing information about more than 500 cold cases, some of which date back at least 30 years, the federal law enforcement agency is aware that hurdles still exist in bringing cases together on a local sharing-of-information level.  One of the problems that make solving these cases so difficult is the fact that the serial killer truckers are preying on stranded motorists, hitchhikers and prostitutes, who they whisk across state lines either before or after committing their dirty deeds and dump their vulnerable victims' bodies like rubbish along the highways, according to criminologist Steven Spingola.

"They have that easy access, and they probably would appear to be a friendly face," Spingola said recently.  "They (the victims) get in the vehicle and they can be transported across state lines where, traditionally, departments do not talk to each other."

Spingola, however, says that the HSKI database is beginning to change the way in which law enforcement agencies communicate with one another.  In a nutshell, local cops are now using HSKI as a resource that will, hopefully, connect their cases to other similar cases in other states.

"When you look at what the FBI has done, they've tried to form a line of communication between local, state, and national law enforcement which allows crimes to be compared," Spingola said.  "Hopefully, when one crime is solved in Raleigh, North Carolina, there may be a link to Beloit, Wisconsin."

One of many cold cases that law enforcement agencies hope HSKI will help solve is that of the murder of Crystal Linn Soulier, who left her home in Shell Lake, Wisconsin on October 1, 1996 and disappeared—seemingly without a trace.  Crystal had left home before, but on this occasion it was different in that no one had heard from her after she left, except on one occasion.  In fact, when Crystal's body was found five months later, dumped in a ravine behind an adult bookstore just off Interstate 90 near Beloit, it was a mystery for the Rock County Sheriff's Office that would lay dormant for the next few years all because detectives working the case did not have much to go on besides a dead body.  There was no purse, and no identification on the corpse.

The one occasion in which Crystal had been heard from after she left home was a telephone call she made informing relatives that she was in Madison after having gotten that far by bus and was on her way to visit family members in Beloit.  She had asked if anyone could come to Madison to pick her up, but unfortunately no one had been able to and police now suspect that she had hitched a ride, possibly with a trucker.  Her last words to her relatives were, "I'll see you soon."

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"Night Stalker" Murderer Richard Ramirez Linked to the Death of 9-Year-Old Mei Leung

October 28, 2009

It almost goes without saying that anyone who follows true crime cases has heard of Richard Ramirez, also known as the "Night Stalker," one of California's most notorious serial killers.  Ramirez is currently on death row at San Quentin State Prison for a number of murders he committed more than two decades ago, but detectives in various jurisdictions have not given up in their efforts to connect him to additional killings.

Ramirez, readers will recall, caused widespread panic in Southern California that began around 1985 when he went on a rampage of sexual assault and murder.  His modus operandi consisted primarily of entering homes through unlocked windows and doors during early morning hours, strangling some of his victims and slashing the throats of others.  Most of his victims, however, died of gunshot wounds.  He was also known to spray paint pentagrams on the walls in some of his victims' homes.  Because the pentagram is often associated with Satanism, Ramirez was viewed by many as being a Satanist.  Some even went so far as to think of him as a vampire because he always committed his foul deeds during the night like the legendary monsters of yore.

One of the cold cases currently being looked at is that of 9-year-old Mei Leung, who was found dead on April 10, 1984 in the basement of a residential hotel located in the 700 block of O'Farrell Street in San Francisco's Tenderloin district.  According to the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD), Mei lived at the hotel with her family.  Prior to her death, she had been seen in the company of her 8-year-old brother as they walked home from a friend's house.  At the time of Mei's slaying, Ramirez was known to have been staying at two hotels in the same general area, according to SFPD Deputy Chief David Shinn.  Shinn said that investigators were attempting to find any information about Ramirez' whereabouts at the time of the young girl's slaying.

Mei's unsolved murder case was reopened about five years ago, in part because of the recollection of an officer who was familiar with it when she worked as a patrol officer.  Now, Police Inspector Holly Pera has been advocating that the case be looked at closely—again.

"That's part of the reason why the case was relooked at," Pera said recently.  "It's the type of case…that you can't forget."

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Another Serial Killer Operating in Canada?

September 04, 2009

Right on the heels of the Robert Pickton case, likely the worst serial killer in Canadian history, it appears that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have another such anomaly of nature on their hands, this time possibly a trucker who is traveling Alberta's highways and truck stops, plucking prostitutes off the province's streets as he goes about his daily routine of driving a big rig for a living.  The theory of truck driving serial killers is a problem that the FBI in the U.S. has been closely examining for quite some time now, with that federal law enforcement agency having recently launched its Highway Serial Killings Initiative that has so far resulted in the arrests of 10 people in connection with 30 killings and the creation of a 500 victim database whose bodies have turned up on or near major U.S. trucking routes that literally stretch across the country.  Their database also has produced a list of an additional 200 suspects that the FBI is investigating, leaving many people in Canada wondering if the RCMP will follow the FBI's lead and create their own similar initiative.  Naturally, the FBI's initiative has attracted the attention of Canadian activists, particularly in Western Canada, many of whom are still hounding the Vancouver Police Department over their less than satisfactory handling of the Pickton case.  Many of the victims that have been found along Canada's highways seem to fit the same type of profile as those in the U.S. who have disappeared or whose bodies have been found.

It is no secret that prostitutes frequently choose truck stops to ply their trade, selling sex to truck drivers who are often away from home and on the road for days to weeks at a time.  Sometimes they will even trade sex for a ride to another location.

"It happens all the time," said one Canadian woman, who declined to be identified for safety reasons.  "Last summer I met a girl who'd hitched a ride to Edmonton from Texas.  She worked here until it was too cold, then she said, 'screw it,' and found a trucker willing to take her back south again.  Anything could have happened."

According to RCMP spokesman Corporal Wayne Oakes, the police in Alberta have become particularly concerned about the deaths and disappearances in the high-risk lifestyles of people engaging in the world's oldest profession, and as such have been carefully studying the FBI's Highway Serial Killings Initiative.  Project KARE, an investigational unit created in 2003 to examine with the highest priority the deaths and disappearances of high-risk missing persons, many of whom have been found in and around the City of Edmonton and the surrounding rural areas, routinely shares information and techniques with law enforcement agencies across North America, Oakes said.

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