Covering over two-thousand miles, Interstate 70 runs from Baltimore, Maryland, to Fort Cove, Utah. The 1985 World Series between the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals was dubbed the I-70 Series because the Interstate connects the two cities. Seven years later I-70 became the moniker of a still unknown serial killer.

Over a month-long span in the spring of 1992, a man killed six store clerks in three Midwest states. The killings were random as the culprit knew none of his victims; he instead chose his prey based on location. All the stores were located near Interstate 70, allowing for a quick getaway.

Two subsequent murders committed in Texas the following year are also believed to have committed by the same killer, still unidentified thirty-two years after the first murder.

Victims Of The Interstate 70 Killer

The killing spree began on April 8, 1992, in Indianapolis, Indiana, where twenty-six-year-old Robin Fuldauer worked as a manager at a Payless Shoe Store located less than a quarter mile from Interstate 465 which intersects with Interstate 70 on the city’s east side. She was not scheduled to work that day but agreed to come in after an employee called in sick.

A purchase was made at the store at 1:12 p.m., and another customer spoke to Robin at approximately 1:30 p.m. After several subsequent calls from the Payless Shoe Store owner to his store went unanswered, he phoned the nearby Super Save Gas Station and asked an employee to check on her. The clerk, a friend of Robin’s, called the police after finding the store cash register open but no sign of her.

At 2:20 p.m., responding officers found Robin on the floor of the store’s backroom. She had been shot twice in the back of her head. There were so signs of a struggle.

The killer had exited through the backroom door, which was found open. Approximately $90 was determined to have been taken from the cash register.

Robin Fuldauer

Indianapolis, Indiana

Earlier that afternoon, several people had seen the man believed to be the killer loitering around the Payless store. He was wearing a green jacket and carrying a bag. After approximately half-an-hour, he tried to hitch a ride.

A check of the store’s inventory found several merchandise items missing. Multiple people admitted to stealing shoes from the store between 1:30-2:00 p.m. after finding the store empty.

The Payless Shoe Store

Where Robin Worked

Three days later, thirty-two-year-old Trish Magers and twenty-three-year-old Patricia Smith were each shot in the back storeroom of the  La’ Bride d’Elegance Bridal Shop owned by Trish and her husband Mark in Wichita, Kansas, six-hundred-seventy-five miles west of Indianapolis. The store was scheduled to close at 6:00 p.m., but the women had agreed to stay later after a man called, saying he would be by shortly to pick up a cummerbund.

The killer is believed to have arrived at the store shortly after 6:00 p.m. when the women let him in, likely assuming he was the man who had called earlier. As with Robin Fuldauer, they were led to the store’s backroom where they were each shot once in the back of the head.

Trish Magers And Patricia Smith

Wichita, Kansas

When the actual customer arrived, he was greeted by the killer pointing gun at him and ordering him into the back room. Inexplicably, out of a mixture of fear, shock, and defiance, the man refused to do so. After a bit of arguing, the gunman, also inexplicably, ordered the customer to leave. He readily complied.

The cummerbund customer helped police create a composite of the killer. He was familiar with guns and believed the weapon brandished to be an Uzi-style pistol.

Composite Of The Killer

The La’ Bride d’Elegance Bridal Shop is only a couple of miles from Interstate 35 which connects to Interstate 70.

La’ Bride d’Elegance Bridal Shop

On April 27, sixteen days later, the gunman struck six-hundred miles away, back in Indiana, seventy-five miles southwest of his initial killing in Indianapolis. This time, the victim was a male.

In Terra Haute, forty-year-old Mick McCown was shot while working at Sylvia’s Ceramics Store. His mother owned the store and was often the only person working, but she was not there on this day. Like the women, Mick was shot in the back of his head; unlike the women, he had not been taken to the store’s backroom.

Mick was found by a customer at 4:15. He is believed to have been kneeling to stock shelves when he was shot. Some investigators believe the killer may not have seen his face and that, because of Mick’s small build and earrings, he was mistaken for a woman. Because the bullet was determined to have been fired only four inches from his head, however, others believe it unlikely the killer could have been that close to him without his noticing. In addition, bells on the doors to the entrance of the store alerted workers when customers arrived. Thus, some investigators believe the killer, posing as a customer, asked Mick to retrieve an item from the shelf and then shot him.

Police found $15 in one of Mick’s pants pocket, but his wallet was missing; it is not known how much money it contained. I could not find anything indicating if his wallet was ever found.

Several newspaper accounts state Mick had his hair in a ponytail at the time of his murder, giving further credence to the likelihood that he was mistaken for a woman. However, his sister Teresa says that while he had previously had a ponytail, his hair was short at the time. She believes his killer did see him and was surprised to find a man working in a ceramics store. The killer may have become rattled, which may be why Mick was not taken to the backroom of the business as the women were.

Mick McCown

Terre Haute, Indiana

Sylvia’s Ceramics Store was located in a shopping mall near Interstate 70.

In contrast to the earlier killings, money was not taken from the store’s register.

Sylvia’s Ceramics Store

The killer then returned west to strike in a third state.

Like Robin Fuldauer, twenty-four-year-old Nancy Kitzmiller was a manager at her place of employment, the Western Boot Shop, a business in the Bogey Hills Plaza of St. Charles, Missouri, a northwest suburb of St. Louis. She had agreed to fill in for a co-worker.

On May 3, six days after Mick McCown’s murder in Terre Haute, one-hundred-eighty miles northeast of St. Charles, Nancy opened the store at noon and waited on several customers. At approximately 2:30 p.m. a customer observed her speaking to a man who resembled the composite sketch of the killer. He left the store shortly thereafter. This man and the man believed to be the killer were the only two customers in the store at the time.

Several minutes later, another customer arrived at the store, only to find no clerk. Upon searching the store, she found Nancy dead in the backroom.  Like all the other victims, she had been shot in the back of her head.

Nancy Kitzmiller

St. Charles, Missouri

The Western Boot Shop was only a few yards south of Interstate 70.

A small amount of cash had been taken from the register.

Western Boot Shop, AKA Boot Village

The killer’s next killing jaunt was his shortest. On May 7, four days after striking in St. Charles, he shot thirty-seven-year-old Sarah Blessing as she worked at the Store of Many Colors, a gift shop at the Woodson Ridge Shopping Center in the Kansas City suburb of Raytown, only two-hundred-twenty miles west of St. Charles.

At 6:30 p.m., an auctioneer saw a man he did not recognize walk in and out of a store in what he described as a trance-like state. The man was oddly dressed for the warm day, wearing a gray tweed sport coat, dress slacks, and dress shoes. He was also behaving oddly as he was heard mumbling to himself.

Several minutes later, Tim Hickman, owner of a video store next to The Store of Many Colors, saw the man walk past his store and enter Sarah’s. Shortly thereafter, he heard a loud pop and went to investigate. As he exited his store, he saw the man walking briskly around the corner and disappear.

In the backroom of the Store of Many Colors, Tim found one color, red, splattered on the floor where Sarah lay, having been shot once in the back of her head.

Sarah Blessing

Raytown, Missouri

The Store of Many Colors was near an access road to Interstate 70. A grocery clerk collecting shopping carts from the store’s parking lot saw the killer climbing a hill leading to the Interstate. He was later observed by another motorist walking along a nearby street at 6:45 p.m.

No additional murders of specialty shop employees near Interstate 70 occurred after the murder of Sarah Blessing.

Inside Of The Store Of Many Colors

Tim Hickman and the auctioneer helped police create a composite sketch of Sarah Blessing’s killer.

It bore a strong resemblance to the composite of the Wichita killer.

Composites Show A Resemblance 

Small amounts of money were taken from most of the stores, but robbery seemed a secondary motive; most people know that specialty stores do not typically have much cash on hand. None of the stores had video cameras or alarm systems.

All of the victims were killed in a methodical manner, shot once or twice in the back of the head. All were working alone, except for the Wichita women; police believe the killer assumed there was only one woman working in the store.

The five murdered women were petite with long dark hair; the male victim, Mick McCown, was also small with dark hair and may have been mistaken for a woman. None were sexually assaulted.

All of the businesses were located in strip mall specialty stores close to Interstate 70. Investigators’ suspicions that the killings were the work of the same person were soon confirmed.

The Shootings Are Linked

Ballistics tests showed all six victims had been killed by the same weapon, a semi-automatic .22 caliber gun. The ejection marks suggested the weapon had a high capacity ammunition clip, most likely a semi-automatic .22 caliber pistol, possibly an Intratec Scorpion or Erma Werke Model ET 22.

Other .22 caliber weapons, however, cannot be ruled out.

Possibly The Types Of Weapons Used

The ammunition used was CCI brand .22-caliber long rifle with copper-clad lead bullets.

Although both the ammunition and caliber are among the most popular used in the United States, they were unique in that the cartridge cases showed traces of corundum and jeweler’s rouge.

The Ammunition

Corundum is an abrasive and one of the most durable gemstones. It is commonly applied on sandpaper and large tools used in machining metals, plastic, and wood.

Rouge is a lubricant, commonly used to put the final polish on metallic jewelry and lenses; it is also often used as a cosmetic.

The use of these materials suggested the killer may have been a machinist familiar with grinding and polishing metals as both are also used in the maintenance of weapons. The rouge may have been used to polish the feed ramp for the pistol or used in fire lapping, a process in which bullets are coated in a lubricated abrasive and fired through the barrel to clean or change the rifling of the weapon.

                                       Corundum             Jeweler’s Rouge

The subsequent shootings of three women in Texas at specialty stores near Interstate 35 are also believed to have been committed by the same man. Two of the women died.

Fifty-one-year-old Mary Ann Glasscock was killed on September 25, 1993, at the Emporium Antiques Store she owned in Fort Worth. The store was in a strip mall six blocks from Interstate 35.

Mary Ann had phoned repairman Robert Johnson saying she was running late. When he arrived at the store at 11:30 a.m., he found another customer waiting outside who had knocked on the door but received no answer.

Johnson entered the unlocked store and found Mary Ann lying on the floor, partially nude with her pants pulled down to her ankles. A .22 caliber shell casing lay nearby.

The cash register was empty; the killer had taken Mary Ann’s car keys, but her car was still in the parking lot, undisturbed.

Mary Ann Glassock

Fort Worth, Texas

Six weeks later, on November 1, twenty-two-year-old Amy Vess was shot at the Dancer’s Closet apparel store in Arlington, fifteen miles east of Fort Worth and just off Interstate 35.  Like Robin Fuldauer and Nancy Kitzmiller, Amy had been filling in for another coworker.

Sometime between 6:15-6:22 p.m., the killer entered the store and ordered Amy to the backroom where he shot her twice, once in the neck and once in the back of the head. He absconded after taking $200 from the cash register.

Amy managed to call 911 and was able tell paramedics she had been shot by an unknown man. She died the next day.

A man believes he saw the killer in the parking lot shortly before the murder and thought he was wearing a wig and a white head band.

Amy Vess

Arlington, Texas

Ten weeks later, on January 15, 1994, the Texas killer struck once more, at Houston’s Alternatives Gift Shop, near Rice University less than a mile south of Interstate 69 which intersects with Interstate 35. A man entered the store shortly after it opened at approximately 10:00 a.m. but soon left. He returned an hour later and struck up a conversation with the store clerk, thirty-five-year-old Vicki Webb, saying his niece was on his way to meet him at the store.

After a few minutes of small talk, the man said he would purchase a small copper picture frame from behind the counter. As Vicki turned to get it, he shot her in the back of the neck. The man then jumped over the counter and took roughly $100 from the register. As he had done with Mary Ann Glasscock, he pulled Vicki’s pants to her ankles.

Realizing Vicki was still alive, he pointed the gun at her head and again pulled the trigger, but the gun jammed. The sound of a car outside spooked the gunman, causing him to flee. Several minutes later, two customers arrived at the store and found Vicki lying on the floor, bleeding but still alive.

In surgery, the bullet was found to have struck Vicki between her second and third vertebrate, paralyzing her from the waist down. She was found, however, to have an anatomical abnormality as her spine was excessively large. The gunshot likely would have killed or permanently paralyzed most people with normal-sized spines; Vicki not only survived but was walking after three weeks. The bullet is still inside her neck, where she says it will remain because it does not cause her pain and surgery to remove it is risky.

Survivor Vicki Webb

Houston, Texas

When Vicki saw the composites of the I-70 killer, she believed he was the man who had shot her. Additional composites were made based on her description.

Additional Composites

Ballistics determined the same .22-caliber firearm was used in the three Texas shootings. It was similar to, but different from, the gun used in the I-70 murders.

Despite the different weapons, most investigators believe the Texas murders are the work of the I-70 killer because the two series of shootings are similar: all the victims were petite brunettes shot in the head while working at small specialty stores close to an Interstate.  The weapons, while not the same, were similar .22-caliber firearms.

Although Interstate 70 does not run through Texas, Interstate 35 connects I-70 to Wichita, Kansas, and is an easy drive south to Texas. Authorities believe the killer changed his geographic venue and specific weapon due to the media attention the 1-70 shootings received. The pulling of two of the Texas women’s pants below their waists may have been done to give the illusion of the murder and attempted murder being sex crimes.

Are The Texas Shootings Connected To

The Interestate-70 Murders?

I could not find a picture of Donald Waterhouse.

Waterhouse Cleared

Thrift-store owner Herb Baumeister of Westfield, Indiana, thirty miles north of Indianapolis, is a possible suspect in the Interstate 70 killings. Though married and the father of three, he had, according to his wife, become impotent and gay.

Investigators found the remains of eleven men on Baumeisiter’s property in 1996. He fled to Ontario, Canada, where he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head on July 3. He left a suicide note but did not confess to any murders.

At the time of his suicide, Baumeister was under investigation for murdering over a dozen men in the early 1990s, most of whom were last seen at gay bars. He was also posthumously suspected of killing nine other men in the early 1990s, whose bodies were found in rural areas along the corridor of Interstate 70 between Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio, during the early-to-mid 1980s. All of these men were strangled to death and found nude or semi-nude in a river.

The finding of the victims along Interstate 70 made Baumeister a suspect in the shootings, but no physical evidence links him to the murders. In addition, all of his known victims were men and his manner of killing them had been strangulation. Baumesiter had also transported the remains of some of his victims to different states for disposal.

Although some believed Baumeister resembled the composite sketch of the I-70 shooter, most investigators do not believe he was the culprit. The remains of eight of the eleven men found on his property in 1996 have been identified.

Herb Baumeister

Another suspect in the Interstate 70 murders is Donald Blom. He was convicted of strangling nineteen-year-old Katie Poirer in Moose Lake, Minnesota, in 1999, and subsequently burning her body. Blom was also a registered sex offender, convicted of five counts of kidnapping and sexual assault. Some authorities believe he may be a serial killer, with murders possibly dating back to the 1970s.

Blom died at the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Oak Park Heights in Stillwater, in January 2023 at age seventy-three while serving a life sentence.

Donald Blum

Left: 2017 Right: 1985

Suspected serial killer Neal Falls is another suspect. In 2015, he attempted to abduct sex worker Heather Saul from her West Virginia home, but she broke free and shot him to death.

In the trunk of Falls’ vehicle, police found handcuffs, knives, bulletproof vests, shovels, machetes, and hammers. Many were connected to the murders of nine women across eight states: Oregon, California, Nevada, Texas, Kentucky, Illinois, and Ohio.

Falls, known to have hated women, was in his twenties and living in Kansas in the 1990s. He bore a resemblance to the composites and physical descriptions of the I-70 killer.

Tests on some of Falls’ belongings in 2018, however, did not connect him to the shootings.

Neal Falls

In November 2021 Terre Haute, Indiana, police announced the I-70 killer is a possible suspect in the 2001 murder of liquor store clerk Billy Brossman.

On the evening of November 30, Brossman was working alone at the 7th and 70 Liquor Store in Terre Haute. Security camera footage showed a white man enter the store, take some beer, pull a gun on Brossman, and rob the cash register. The footage then showed the gunman leading Brossman to the back of the store and shoot him once in the back of the head. The killer then fled the store without the beer and most of the money.

Billy Brossman

Terre Haute, Indiana

The murder of Billy Brossman occurred only seven blocks from where Mick McCown was murdered over nine years earlier, and the M.O. (method of operation) was similar to that of the I-70 murders.

The man seen on the video committing the murder has not been identified, but investigators say they have a suspect who has told them he worked for a large department store and traveled the country doing remodeling jobs for them. Police say he has also acknowledged being in Terre Haute at time of the murder.

As of now, however, investigators feel they do not have enough evidence to connect him to Billy Brossman’s murder or the I-70 killings.

Unidentified 2001 Killer

After DNA testing in 2022 linked Harry Greenwell to three murders committed along Interstate 65 in Indiana and Kentucky between 1987-89, authorities named him a suspect in the I-70 murders. Greenwell had an extensive criminal history spanning from 1963-98 which included two jail escapes.

Greenwell had died of cancer in 2013 at age sixty-eight. He was posthumously dubbed the “I-65 Killer” and the “Days Inn Killer” after DNA linked him to the March 1989 rape and murders of two women at Days Inn Motels in Merrillville and Remington, Indiana, committed only four hours apart. The DNA also matched him to a 1987 sexual assault and murder of a Super Eight motel clerk in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

The DNA also linked Greenwell to the sexual assaults and stabbing of two other female motel clerks who survived.  One occurred at a Columbus, Indiana, Days Inn in January 1990, and the other in Rochester, Minnesota, the following year.

Following the DNA matches and Greenwell’s resemblance to a composite of the I-70 killer, authorities named him a suspect in the I-70 murders. The two killers’ victims were female, with the exception of one of the I-70 killer’s victims who was believed to have been mistaken for a woman. Both killers took money from some of the crime scenes. The I-65 killer had shot two of his victims with the same .22-calbier handgun, the same type of weapon used by the I-70 killer.

The differences in the killings, however, are also notable. The I-65 killer targeted hotels while the I-70 killer targeted strip malls. The I-65 killer raped his victims; the I-70 killer did not. In addition, Greenwell was forty-seven-years-old in 1992, much older than the I-70 killer is believed to have been.

Nothing links Greenwell to the I-70 murders.

Harry Greenwell

Thirty-two years after the Interstate 70 killing spree began, the killer has not been identified. He is Caucasian and was believed to be in his late twenties or early-to-mid-thirties in 1992. He was approximately five-feet-seven to five-feet-nine inches tall with a thin build, had thinning sandy blond or reddish hair combed forward, a stubble beard, thin lips, a high forehead and what witnesses called “lazy” eyelids. He was clean-cut and described as meek and frail looking.

Profilers believe the killer was timid as a child and was likely bullied in his youth. Shooting victims in the back of the head indicates he does not like confrontation and has a passive personality. Because his victims were petite brunettes, he may have been rejected by a woman or several women with similar features. Because none of the victims were sexually assaulted, profilers theorize he has had few, if any, sexual encounters with women and may be impotent. The venues of the murders were businesses whose names and merchandise suggested they were likely to be occupied by women.

The I-70 killer may have a military background and could be a Desert Storm veteran suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD.) The three states in which he committed his murders, Indiana, Missouri, and Kansas, have large military areas and army bases. He is probably a firearms collector and has extensive knowledge of guns.

The killer is believed to be opportunistic but organized. He has self-control as he killed in spurts before going dormant. He is probably intelligent and was underemployed in his profession. His traveling long distances to commit murder suggests he could have been a traveling salesman, truck driver, or construction subcontractor.

Profilers also believe the I-70 killer has lived in, or spent significant time in Indianapolis, Indiana, or a surrounding community.

Possible explanations for the I-70 killer’s not being heard from since 1992, or 1994 if he is also the I-35 killer, are that he may have been frightened by the survival of a victim or by technological advances. He may also be incarcerated for another crime, or he may have committed suicide.

Who Is The Interstate 70 Killer?

DNA samples collected from the crime scenes have been recently retested. Among the items being analyzed are Mick McCown’s pants to see if any fingerprints cay be extracted from when the killer if believed to have taken his wallet, and a wedding veil from the Wichita bridal shop believed used by the killer to hold his gun.

The results are still pending.

DNA Tests are Being Done