Southern Serial Killer On Loose?

Law enforcement officials from five southern states will meet Friday to discuss the possibility that a serial killer may be targeting truck-stop prostitutes in the region.

The seven victims included six prostitutes. One victim has not been identified. Four were from the Oklahoma City area. The prostitutes were found nude or only partially clothed.

At least four victims were last seen at a truck stop, and at least three were strangled. The bodies were found near highways and creeks in Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas.

Tennessee investigators will also participate in the meeting at Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation headquarters in Oklahoma City. They are trying to determine whether the 2001 deaths of two female prostitutes may be connected to the other killings.

The killer may be a long-haul truck driver, Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation officials told The Commercial Appeal newspaper of Memphis.

More than 40 representatives of 17 law enforcement agencies will be involved in the private meeting. It will be a chance for investigators to share notes and ideas and to help determine whether the killings are linked.

The transient nature of the victims makes it particularly difficult to solve the crimes.

"These victims didn't stay in one place long," said OSBI spokeswoman Jessica Brown. "People don't necessarily recognize them.

"A lot of these victims did not have tight relationships with their families. A lot of times, families help us solve crimes."

Brown said detectives haven't excluded the possibility that a trucker may be involved in the crimes.

"We're kind of running out of leads now," said investigator Todd Hignight of the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Department in Central Oklahoma.

Hignight has been looking into the death of Patsy Laverne Leonard, a prostitute found nude and strangled Jan. 1 in northeast Pottawatomie County, Okla.

The six other victims are Casey Jo Pipestem, Sandra Beard, Jennifer Hyman, Margaret Gardner, Sandra Richardson and an unidentified woman found in the Texas Panhandle.

Five other Lawton, Okla.-area killings were initially grouped in with the other seven, but those cases have now been determined to be different enough to be treated as a separate group, Brown said.

Another woman was found dead in south Oklahoma City on Wednesday, and police were looking into whether her death might be related. She has not been identified.

Prostitution often goes hand-in-hand with truck stops.

Employees at Oklahoma City-based Love's Travel Stops and Country Stores, which has 150 truck stops and stores throughout the nation, are on the lookout for prostitution, but it is difficult to eradicate the crime, said Jenny Love Meyer, spokeswoman for the company.

"Unfortunately, whenever you're going to have trucks parked, you're going to have it," she said.

Oklahoma City police Master Sgt. Charles Phillips said prostitutes can be vulnerable.

"These women are working in an environment where they are putting themselves somewhat in harm's way," he said. "The issue, sadly, is that as long as there is a demand ... I don't think there's anything we can do."

Arkansas State Police Special Agent Dale Arnold is investigating the death of Margaret Gardner. He has worked several cases of prostitute deaths before, and he keeps running into the same problem.

"If an individual does not want to change his lifestyle, what are you and I going to do?" he asked. "There's no way to combat that unless they're put away forever."

The Alliance Against Prostitution in Oklahoma County is trying to raise money to build a safe house where prostitutes can come for counseling, drug rehabilitation, job training and life skills classes.

No such program exists in Oklahoma, said Sue Ducharme, a founding member of the alliance.

"We don't expect to save every woman, but we need a safe haven — a place for them to go if they choose to change," Ducharme said.

The Oklahoma Trucking Association tries to police the ranks of truckers, even sending trucking companies copies of traffic tickets received by truckers, but executive director Dan Case said he doesn't have enough information about these cases to do anything at this time.

Sgt. Todd Dearing of the Grapevine, Texas, Police Department also lacks information about Pipestem. He hasn't secured any warrants and doesn't have any suspects.

"This is the tip of the iceberg," he said. "It's really right at the beginning of the investigation."