[who knows what evil?]

One article says many were hitchhikers, your source says killed by acquaintances. Those two facts don’t seem compatible to me, so I don’t know who is telling the truth.

Outdoor Magazine probably has a vested interest in quashing rumors of a mad serial killer on the loose...don't want to scare off the tourists...or their money.

[WVNan]

If the area is that remote it is possible that many of those women were killed by bears or wolves and dragged off into the woods. It would be difficult to assume that all of them were victims of one serial killer.