Posted on 04/06/2009 5:37:34 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Washington, DC (AHN) - An FBI program that investigates unsolved killings along highways has linked long-haul truck drivers with hundreds of murders across the country, the Los Angeles Times reported over the weekend.
The Highway Serial Killings Initiative (HSKI) has solved more than two dozen killings since it started five years ago, authorities said, according got the Times.
At the center of HSKI's operation is a database holding information on more than 500 female murder victims, whose bodies were discarded at or near truck stops, motels and other places along well-traveled truck routes nationwide.
The database also has information on truckers, who have been charged with violent crimes against women or are suspects in those crimes.
The FBI did not say whether truck driving was an occupation that serial killers typically go into, but it did say the free and mobile lifestyle many truckers lead could be ideal for someone apt to kill, according to the Times.
Michael Harrigan, the agent in charge of the HSKI, told the newspaper that women shouldn't panic every time they fill up for gas at a truck, since most of the victims in the database lead risky lifestyles.
"Many of these victims made poor choices, but that doesn't mean they deserved to die," Harrigan told the Times.
Just this weekend, another young man has gone missing under mysterious circumstances.
He fits the victim profile and circumstances exactly for the “river killer”, even the area he disappeared in.
and his last words captured on the cell phone! so sad... sad.....
It’s chilling. My heart aches for his poor family.
I used to live next to the Mississippi river gorge on the Minneapolis side. It’s a beautiful, wild area right smack dab in the middle of the city. No way I would walk around there at night. Lots of miscreants make their home there and the cliffs are sheer drop-offs straight down to the river. Several people lose their dogs every year when they run off the edge. I kept my pups on a leash.
I’m praying for a good outcome for these folks, but my gut tells me differently.
I think of the Interstate Highway system as a big spaghetti-like city, with the population constantly shifting about. Truck stops and major rest areas are nodes in the big circulation, these places being where the ‘societal’ interaction takes place. But the inhabitants are completely mobile, 24/7, and someone you see in Chicago today may be in Salt Lake tomorrow, and Denver Wednesday. Henry Lee Lucas lived on the highway like that, and he wasn’t a trucker. Raised all kinds of hell, and the law didn’t see a pattern until after he was caught.
wasn’t this a Kurt Russell movie?
Like the railroad killer in Texas had anything to do with railroading.
I’m not blaming any truckers other than those committing these particular crimes.
It’s opportunity presenting itself. No deserted stretches of highway, no truck, no easy prey, no conduit for the sick b@stards.
Of course, they can just come into our homes off the beaten path if they really NEED to off someone on any given day. :)
Seems they are missing an obvious link here. If they would merely outlaw trucks, we would all be safer. The blame actually rests with those evil trucks. :s/
There’s a killer on the road.
His brain is squirmin’ like a toad.
Take a long holiday,
Let your children play.
If ya give this man a ride,
Sweet memory will die.
Killer on the road.
I know you weren’t blaming the truckers, but as noted, the grasp of the obvious seems to escape them. ;)
where did you think I got all those diferent flavours of bacon anyway...
Jim Morrison fan eh?
May look at bacon differently now... LOL
Yah, and every senator and columnist is a potential child rapist. Neuter em all!
You forgot liar, thief, con artist.....
Didn't he make some awesome meat pies? Man, with some chili, onions and cheese... Hello, I love you!
When the still sea conspires an armor, true sailing is dead!
... and tool.
It's your fault.
what kinda popcorn was that?
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