The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is reportedly looking for 500 truckers possibly involved in hundreds of murders over the last 35 years.
Former FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi disclosed this in his second book "Long Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers." According to him, the federal law enforcement agency's Highway Serial Killings (HSK) initiative has gathered a list of 850 murders that may be linked to long-haul truckers in its database.
Figliuzzi approached the topic from different angles while writing his book. He spent many hours riding with a long-haul driver and he also interviewed social workers and academics who helped at-risk people avoid human traffickers and pimps, who once frequented rest stop parking lots but now use the internet for their dealings. Figliuzzi also talked to the crime analysts trying to catch the suspects, who are allegedly exclusively men, who commit what the FBI classifies as highway homicides.
According to the FBI, highway homicides involve "female victims last seen at or near rest stops, truck stops or in very close proximity to a highway; who were either assaulted or killed; and who were dumped near a highway." While several truckers have been convicted of serial murders throughout the years, in America at least one quarter of the cases in the database are still unsolved. This means there are several active serial killers working as semitruck drivers, explained Figliuzzi.
His book also discussed in forensic detail how hundreds of truckers scour rest stops, motels and roadside restaurants for their victims. Because of the transitory nature of their job, they can kill and remain almost untraceable.
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The FBI's HSK estimates that at least 400 to 500 truckers could be connected to many murders from the past 35 years. While at least 850 women have disappeared or been found dead along the main interstate routes, only a small fraction of killers have been apprehended.
Serial killer truckers obsessed with CONTROL
While companies do conduct a cursory background check, Figliuzzi added that some trucking companies will prominently advertise that they are "second-chance companies" for people with felony records. He added that trucking itself could be "made less alienating or less attractive to people with violent ideas" by enforcing better screening procedures, something he believes must be better legislated.
The Daily Mail also shared one example of serial killers working as truckers, just like what Figliuzzi touches on in his book, who were brought to justice. Bruce Mendenhall, 56, was arrested in 2007 and later convicted for the murders of Samantha Winters and Sara Nicole Hulbert, both 25 years old. Both victims were found covered in plastic and duct tape, and shot in the head.
Further investigation revealed that Mendenhall was also involved in the murder of Carma Purpura, a single mother of two, based on DNA samples recovered from his truck. Sex worker Robin Bishop and hitchhiker Belinda Cartwright were also on the list of his alleged victims. (Related: Right Now with Ann Vandersteel: Deanna Williams recounts her story of abuse and manipulation – Brighteon.TV.)
For FBI crime analyst Catherine DeVane, who also heads the HSK initiative, there are two main reasons why serial killer truckers do what they do. Some want to "control life and death" because they need to "feel the power of controlling the outcome." Killers in the first category will usually rape and sexually torture their victims because they enjoy inflicting fear and pain.
Others, meanwhile, kill out of compulsion. According to DeVane, these kinds of serial murderers do not want to have sex with their victims but "want to murder someone." She warned that the two categories can overlap, like in the case of Mendenhall.
Social work professor Celia Williamson of the University of Toledo in Ohio spent 30 years studying adult prostitution and the sex trafficking of minors in the United States. She highlighted the fact that all the power is on the truckers' side.
Despite this alarming fact, prostitutes are desperate to earn money because they are beaten up if they don't meet their targets. Enter the truckers, who have money and have control of the meeting place – the cab of their truck. Once the encounters are over, they can just drive away.
Additionally, prostitutes who report sex abuse are often dismissed, especially after police officers find out what they do for a living.
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