FBI Links Long-Haul Trucking With Serial Killings

April 5, 2009 12:36 p.m. EST

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.