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'Their Lives Mattered:' Investigators Vow To Find The ‘Evil’ I-70 Killer, 30 Years Later
Within a span of 29 days, the serial killer fatally shot store clerks Robin Fuldauer, Patricia Mager, Patricia Smith, Michael McCown, Nancy Kitzmiller and Sarah Blessing.
Police in Missouri remain hopeful as they vow to solve the I-70 serial killings, which plagued the Midwest 30 years ago.
“We’re not going to stop on the case,” St. Charles Police Department Capt. Ray Floyd, told Oxygen.com via phone on Monday.“We are very optimistic that there is potential that suspect DNA could be located. [...] We will not stop until we can at the very least exhaust every lead possible and keep trying to reinvent the wheel if we fall short here."
In April of 1992, in a span of just 29 days, a murderer killed six people working as clerks in small shops for seemingly no reason at all. The elusive serial killer, donned the I-70 killer, first killed Robin Fauldauer, 26, at an Indianapolis Payless on April 8. From there, he killed bridal shop workers Patricia Smith, 23 and Patricia Magers, 32, on April 11 in Wichita, Kansas, Floyd told Oxygen.com.
"Today's the 30th anniversary of that killing," he said.
From there, the murderer killed Michael McCown, 40, on April 27 in his mother's ceramics store in Terre Haute, Indiana. Nancy Kitzmiller, 24, was fatally shot at a footwear shop in St. Charles, Missouri on May 3. Sarah Blessing, 37, was shot to death four days later at a gift shop in Raytown, Missouri. All the victims worked in businesses located just a few miles away from Interstate 70. All six had been shot to death and with an unusual weapon. The killer used a .22 caliber Erma Werke Model ET 22, a recreation of a German naval gun, KWCH reported last year.
Investigators believe the suspect may have been someone whose job required them to travel and they believe he could have possibly gone on to kill victims in other states, including Texas.
Floyd told Oxygen.com that in November all the jurisdictions in which victims were killed had a two-day meeting that also included representatives from the FBI and the ATF. He said that to his knowledge, all the departments have submitted items from crime scenes for DNA testing. They are currently waiting on the results of the testing and are optimistic.
“I truly believe the I-70 killings will be solved,” Sgt. Troy Davis of the Terre Haute Police Department said in November, WTWO reported.
Floyd told Oxygen.com that the St. Charles Police Department recently reassigned the case to Det. Kelly Rhodes, a newer investigator whose main job is to solve the case.
"To this day, we can't figure out why someone would go on this shooting rampage and just kill people for no apparent reason," Rhodes told People. "I can only describe it as evil."
She said that people sometimes ask her "Why now?"
"And, I always tell them, 'Whether someone was killed three minutes ago or three decades ago, it doesn't matter. Every single one of these people — their lives mattered,'" she told People.
The St. Charles Police Department is offering a $25,000 reward in connection with the case. Anyone with information is urged to contact them at 1-800-800-3510.
