JANESVILLE - The FBI suspects serial killers working as long-haul truckers are to blame for hundreds of unsolved murders across the county. Stranded motorists, hitchhikers and prostitutes -- vulnerable, and often willing victims killed and dumped along highways. It's a Hollywood-style horror story that still haunts one Wisconsin family.
For Freedom Philippi of Janesville, it's the not knowing that hurts most.
"I could be on an everyday basis talking to the person that did it, and that's hard," said a tearful Philippi.
Her sister, Crystal Linn Soulier, left home in Shell Lake, Wisconsin on October 1, 1996 and disappeared.
"We were kind of like twins only born at different times."
Crystal had taken off before, but this time was different.
"Nobody had heard from her," recalled Philippi. "People were calling the house. People were asking me at work. I just knew."
Five months later, detectives with the Rock County Sheriff's Office had their own mystery.
A young woman's body dumped in a ravine behind an adult bookstore off Interstate-90 outside Beloit -- a popular overnight rest stop for truckers.
Detectives didn't have much to go on at all. No purse, no ID. In fact, it took them another four years before they identified the woman they found as Crystal Soulier.
By chance, in August, 2000, Freedom Philippi saw a poster the sheriff's office made. It had pictures of jewelry detectives found at the crime scene.
"I kind of tried to talk myself out of it," said Philippi. "I wanted to say it wasn't."
But Philippi knew she had finally found her sister. The cold case made headlines across the state.
"Because so many years went by, when we finally knew who it was, then people's memories have gotten bad," said Rock County Sheriff's Office Detective Daria O'Connor
O'Connor and her fellow investigators did find out Crystal was heading to Beloit to visit her grandmother.
"Crystal called, said that she was in Madison and needed a ride, and wanted them to come pick her up," explained O'Connor. "They weren't able to pick her up. Her last words to them, according to them, were, 'I'll see you soon.'"
Thirteen years later, that's all anyone knows for sure.
"No matter what we do, we don't seem to be getting anywhere towards the answers," said a frustrated Philippi.
However, detectives think whoever murdered Crystal Soulier, killed before. In 1994, someone dumped the body of Terryl Stanford, a prostitute from Chicago, behind the same adult bookstore.
The Rock County Sheriff's Office recently sent both cases to the FBI to see whether the two murders may be connected to serial killers, who the Bureau believes work as long-haul truckers preying on stranded motorists, hitchhikers and prostitutes.
"They have that easy access, and they probably would appear to be a friendly face," explained criminologist Steven Spingola. "They get in the vehicle and they can be transported across state lines where, traditionally, departments don't talk to each other."
However, Spingola believes the FBI's Highway Serial Killings Initiative (HSKI) has changed that. HSKI is a big database with more than 500 cold cases, 11 from Wisconsin, dating back 30 years. The victims were all found near a highway. Local cops can use HSKI as a resource to connect their cases to others around the country.
"When you take a look at what the FBI has done, they've tried to form a line of communication between local, state, and national law enforcement which allows crimes to be compared," said Spingola. Hopefully, when one crime is solved in Raleigh, North Carolina, there may be a link to Beloit, Wisconsin."
For these detectives working the Soulier case, no big break from HSKI, yet.
"I think it's just a matter of time," said Det. O'Connor. "I think it's talking to the right person, getting the right information."
The last piece of the puzzle, so Freedom Philippi can finally stop searching.
"You want answers," sobbed Philippi. "But we always believe what comes around, goes around. Whoever did it will get theirs."
As part of HSKI, the FBI analysts have also built timelines for more than 200 potential suspects sent in by local cops. So far, the program has helped close 30 murder cases, and led to 10 arrests -- including two truckers.
