What compels a killer to drive 700 miles between murders in just two days? For detectives on the I-70 case, the distance itself remains one of the most baffling clues—proof that this killer was traveling with a purpose no one has yet uncovered.
The Drive
The drive. That was the first clue that had detectives along Interstate 70 shaking their heads. After murdering Robin Fuldauer in Indianapolis on April 11, the killer drove 10 hours and 700 miles to murder Patricia Smith and Patricia Magers in Wichita on April 11.
Who makes that drive?
Wichita detective Tim Relph shook his head when I asked him that.
"That is a long drive, brother," he laughed. "I just do not see somebody just wandering between here and Indy without a reason. You made that drive. I have made that drive. You have got to want to get here for something. Indy to Wichita is a long haul in two and a half days. I do not think he got in the car in Indy and decided ‘I am going to go to Wichita and kill two people.’ There are plenty of places between here and there he could have stopped that would have been much easier and simpler for him. And you know he had to stop along the way multiple times. We know he was not afraid of crowds. He did not have to come this far for this. You do not make that drive accidentally, especially branching off from Kansas City. Whatever happened in Indianapolis, this guy had to get on the road quickly to pull this off. He obviously traveled with a purpose. We just do not know what it was.”
Like the other crime scenes before and after Wichita, nothing made sense. No motive. No robbery. No sexual assault. Just murder.
"Once we eliminated friends and family, we knew early on it was something very, very different," Relph said. "But who could have predicted this?”
And for Relph, it is still location, location, location.
"There seems to be some motivation for him to travel that may possibly be linked beyond the murders. I think there is something driving him to those specific locations. I think there is likely a critical event in 1992 driving him to kill, but I do not think even he knew when he was going to kill next. I think it is going to be events in his life that drove him to this point.”
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I genuinely enjoyed it.