FBI database links long-haul truckers, serial killings

LA Times ^ | April 5, 2009 | Scott Glover

[zaphod3000]

The FBI suspects that serial killers working as long-haul truckers are responsible for the slayings of hundreds of prostitutes, hitchhikers and stranded motorists whose bodies have been dumped near highways over the last three decades.

Federal authorities first made the connection about five years ago while helping police link a trucker to a string of unsolved killings along Interstate 40 in Oklahoma and several other states. After that, the FBI launched the Highway Serial Killings Initiative to track suspicious slayings and suspect truckers.

A computer database maintained by the FBI has grown to include information on more than 500 female crime victims, most of whom were killed and their bodies discarded at truck stops, motels and other locations along popular trucking routes crisscrossing the U.S.

[zaphod3000]

Red dots on the map above supplied by the FBI mark the locations of hundreds of bodies and human remains discovered along highways over the past three decades

[zaphod3000]

Sorry if this has been posted before . . . searched and didn’t see it.

[dr_who]

Ich.

[conservative cat]

I wonder how much brainpower that theory took.

They were looking at truckers as possible suspects in the Green River killings a long time ago. Turns out he only PAINTED the trucks.

[umgud]

From the looks of the map, the east has most of the dots.

[Riverine]

Haven’t countless movies and weekly crime shows been made on this subject?

[Clintons Are White Trash]

Scary stuff!

[autumnraine]

Alot of produce moved from Florida up the coast to airports.

[Parley Baer]

Saw a story on the FBI Files on this very subject. Trucker was picking up woman and killing them. Had a torture chamber in his sleeper. Took awhile to track him down. Very chilling story. This looks to be more common than I had thought.

[Candor7]

We hav an I 91 truck stop about 12 miles away.Its the first major Southbound Truck Stop out of Canada.

The girls have CB units and they hook up and ride with truckers by having their friends drop em off.

Dangerous business.

[Cicero]

Certainly very interesting. But as usual, I can’t see that the FBI deserves much credit.

Over 500 victims, but only a few people have been caught.

Of those, one was caught when his girlfriend confessed. Another was caught when the parents of a 15-year old found him in their house about to stab their daughter. It’s not clear in the third case mentioned whether credit goes to the FBI or a police detective.

I’m not saying that this database isn’t a useful tool, but it doesn’t look as if the success rate is very high so far.

[antiunion person]

It's freaking bad enough that truckers get blamed for most things but now....... California won't let truckers idle their trucks for over 5 minutes, no matter how hot or cold it is due to carbon dioxide pollution. We can't drive over 55 mph in California but cars can do 70 and let me see, oh yeah, that causes rear end collisions that truckers are blamed for. When truckers are involved in wrecks, over 80% of the time, it's caused by cars. (But you never hear that). People blame truckers for causing traffic jams because we don't have the get up and go a car has.
NOW, for God's sake, they claim to associate murders with truckers. People just don't realize that everything, I mean EVERTHING, everyone has, i.e.; cars, food, clothing, just the necessities of life, has been in or on a truck. Stop blaming truckers for everything bad in the world and just thank one someday. I thank soldiers, Marines, sailors, and airman all the time, but it would be nice to have someone thank a trucker for doing what we do under adverse conditions and separated from our families in the process.

[SpaceBar]

In the southwestern states there tends to be a strong North/South trend.

[conservativeharleyguy]

"...Haven’t countless movies and weekly crime shows been made on this subject?..."

"Suspect Zero", is an excellent example. Aaron Eckhart and Ben Kingsley put on great performances in this psychic thriller (although, maybe I'm partial 'cause it was filmed in NM).

[rabidralph]

[Clint Williams]

We need more safety for our daughters. Register every long-haul trucker -- name, face, address, fingerprints and DNA. Update these every year.

Of, and mandate RFID chip implants too.

0.5 / sarc

[JasonC]

Um, over the last 30 years, 590,000 people have been murdered in the US. That's a long time, you see. At this moment, there are 1.86 million truck drivers (heavy tractor trailers only, not local light delivery trucks), or roughly 1.2% of all jobs, 0.6% of the total population (including kids etc). That means purely statistically, if there is no difference between a trucker and anybody else, you'd expect around 5000 to 6000 murders to have been committed by truckers over the last 30 years. The true figure is probably less than that, because (employed) truckers are probably more law abiding that your average yute in the cities. But there is no reason to suppose serial anything about it, nor for that matter to assume trucker anything about it, since oh about 80 times as many people drive.

In short, this is a crazy fantasy of nutjobs with too much time on their hands...

[bpjam]

long haul trucker - serial killer.

Having seen that in more than, hmmmm....at least three different hollywood movies. How ever did the FBI figure that out???

[Ouderkirk]

It would seem to me that a theory such as this is not exactly a stretch.

Let me see if I have this straight: Tens of thousands of men on the road alone with thousands of hours each of time un-accounted for. Would not be too much of a reach to suggest that there may be a few serial killers among this lot. But more to the point, these are more likely crimes of opportunity that happen in a similar fashion from a broader group of individuals.

Applying simple probability to such a large and transient group of individuals, will yield at least a few that are a part of a pattern, and more that match a pattern that are random and unrelated.

Also, if one were to commit a murder of a prostitute, why wouldn’t one dispose of the body where it would point to a group that is transient? Easy deflection of suspicion.

[Syncro]

California won't let truckers idle their trucks for over 5 minutes, no matter how hot or cold it is due to carbon dioxide pollution. We can't drive over 55 mph in California but cars can do 70...

It's all politics.

The 55 mph for trucks is absurd.

And isn't really enforced often enough to get truckers to obey it.

Which is a good thing IMO.

Of course the reason they have draconian laws in almost every situation you can imagine is so if they want to, they can arrest every one.

I've traveled across the country 8 times or so this decade, and most states have reasonable speed limits for trucks and there is no problem.

I always hated getting back to California when I was driving trucks, you had to crawl at 55 and could only use the two right lanes.

[zaphod3000]

[Birch T. Barlow]

Stop blaming truckers for everything bad in the world and just thank one someday.

Yes, truckers are unfairly maligned. I remember a story about how much it costs the state to clean up bottles of "truckers lemonade" tossed on the side of the highways. You have to admit that the trucking profession could be seen as attractive to the isolated anti-social type. However, trucking certainly doesn't have a corner on those people.

[lilylangtree]

Yeow! Looks like the theory works. All the red dots on major interstates would make the existence of trucker serial killer(s) a distinct possibility.

[truth_seeker]

“Federal authorities first made the connection about five years ago...”

Federal work pace. No wonder 9-11-2001 happened. No real sense of urgency?

[Richard Kimball]

I've known a lot of truckers, good bad and ugly.

Every profession has people that get into it because it creates a way for them to engage in some criminal activity.

[fso301]

Well, one thing women are always taught in self defense class is to not allow an attacker to get them into his vehicle.

In the case of truck stop prostitutes, the truckers leave their door open and the women climb in.

With engine idling, once the door is closed, nobody outside will hear a thing.

[rabidralph]

I saw bits and pieces of that movie and I just laughed at the dated style of storytelling. Love Dennis Weaver, though.

[GOP Poet]

Whoa. Fascinating but also very sad and scary stuff.

[pepperdog]

“EVERTHING, everyone has, i.e.; cars, food, clothing, just the necessities of life, has been in or on a truck”

Right! I often think of this when I go by our local truck stop at night and see the trucks lined up for the night. It is terrible the way truckers are treated. Not nearly enough places for them to park and rest. Crappy food. Rude and ignorant drivers. And to think the people in the huge cities want to limit trucks in their purified areas. I well remember our 2007 ice storm when trucks couldn’t get here, the shelves were empty in two days! If the truckers ever decide not to roll this country will be stopped dead in just a few days.

[mad_as_he$$]

A giant DUH moment for the FBI. The same organization that was dumbfounded that someone would fly airplanes into buildings. What a bunch of putzes. WHAT BETTER COVER FOR AN SK?

[brytlea]

You know, there was a time when most truckers were pros and I thought a lot of them. But these days, so many drivers drive like they don’t have a clue there is anyone else on the road. I’m sorry, but if what I see on the road these days is the norm for how truckers drive I suspect they are responsible for a large number of accidents. Please note I did not say all of them, but there are quite a few who are either too tired to be driving or are simply too aggressive or inexperienced or whatever.

[Trod Upon]

Gee, I thought it was bad they were tossing out “trucker bombs.”

[ArmstedFragg]

It might be a little more revealing if only truckers were allowed to use the interstates. As it stands, it mostly proves that bodies get dumped along the roads that are most used by motorists of all sorts.

[Morgana]

Now that is interesting. There are no dots that I can see in West Virginia. Millions of trucks travel the West Virginia Turnpike.....millions of places there to put a body.

[aculeus]

Terrible story.

Excellent post.

[Cicero]

Yes. The article is a paean to the FBI. But if you read it closely, they have hardly caught any perps, and those seem to have been caught more or less by accident rather than by using the database.

Moreover, bodies found by the Interstate weren’t necessarily dropped there by truckers, as you say. Wouldn’t mobsters also find it convenient if they wanted to dump bodies in other jurisdictions, for instance? Or car drivers? or hitchhikers?

[ansel12]

The article is a pretty good read and it is a very interesting story.

[xero]

millions of places there to put a body You answered your own question.

[Ghengis]

"Suspect Zero", is an excellent example. Aaron Eckhart and Ben Kingsley put on great performances in this psychic thriller (although, maybe I'm partial 'cause it was filmed in NM).

I'm going to have to rent Suspect Zero soon. A cousin of mine has a small role in that film.

Breakdown was also a good drive-in style flick on this subject. Kurt Russell was good. J.T. Walsh and M.C. Gainey were two of the most evil SOB's that you will ever see in that film.

[papasmurf]

Keep your Daughters out of Truck Stops.

.05 /sarc

[papasmurf]

Let me see if I have this straight: Tens of thousands of men on the road alone with thousands of hours each of time un-accounted for.

Therein lies the rub. It's the main reason that their so called theory is a failed attempt to explain why they are not able to protect people, and to put truckers under even more scrutiny.

Truckers are among the most accounted for people in the Country.

First, you have log books, which are verified by Bills of lading, Fuel receipts, food receipts & company phone logs to/from dispatchers, brokers, shippers & receivers.

Then you have weigh stations (and nearly every one has cameras that record when they are closed), then you have regular traffic cameras along every Interstate and many Highways.

Now add in cell phone records, credit card receipts, and Truck Stop surveillance.

Let's not forget the infamous Qualcomm & Highway Master Satellites that about 70% of trucks are equipped with, and GPS if the driver has a laptop.

Unaccounted for? Hardly.

What a shame that our Nations preeminent crime investigation agency would have to stoop to such tactics.

BTW, a LEO doesn't even need a warrant to access any of this info.

[papasmurf]

“Yeow! Looks like the theory works. All the red dots on major interstates would make the existence of trucker serial killer(s) a distinct possibility.”

It could be used to make State Troopers, traveling salespersons, families on vacation, etc., look guilty, as well.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Have Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton or Barney Frank been driving past any of those red dots?

[cherry]

yeah, but truckers are the safest drivers on the road!

[Paige]

Isn’t this a form of “Profiling”.

Remember, an extremely high percentage of truck drivers are white.

[Joe Boucher]

South East Florida here.
Just north of Fort Pierce, Florida there is a rest area on I-95 that has been shut down upon occasion.
Seems a group of prostitutes have put an R.V. they have used to make money.

[Smokin' Joe]

long haul trucker - serial killer.

I wonder how someone is supposed to enter that in their DOT logbook?

[Smokin' Joe]

WHAT BETTER COVER FOR AN SK?

Travelling salesman?

Presidential candidate?

Community organizer?

[WVKayaker]

...millions of places there to put a body.

sssssssshhhhhhh! We like our secrets!