On Nov. 16, 1993, the body of a still-unidentified woman was found in Elko County, Nev., off the northbound side of Interstate 80, near the Utah border.
Estimated to have been dead for about six days, the woman was found completely nude, lying on her back, her arms spread out to her side in the shape of a cross, legs slightly parted. Investigators believe her killer may have purposefully posed the body. Detectives found drag marks on the ground from the victim's heels.
Police said the victim appeared to be 24 to 28 years old, 5 feet 8 inches tall and 140 pounds. She had a circular scar on her right calf. Investigators say they were able to capture one of the victim's fingerprints.
The site where the body was found lies on the edge of a vast and desolate desert bisected by one of the nation's busiest highways. When a reporter from APBnews.com visited the site -- an impromptu roadside turnoff used by motorists -- it was littered with truck and
magazines, drug paraphernalia, alcohol bottles, the remains of a fire and a severed deer leg. Two tractor-trailer rigs were parked nearby.
Detectives Dale Lotspeich and Mike Kolsch of the Elko County Sheriff's Office said the victim was shot twice in the chest with a small-caliber weapon. One of the bullets pierced her heart. She was also "beaten from head to toe," according to investigators. Detectives said they recovered bullets used in the killing but declined to release the caliber.
An autopsy found evidence of alcohol and marijuana in the woman's system. Kolsch and Lotspeich said the condition of the victim's vaginal area suggested the offender or offenders may have engaged in post-mortem sex with her corpse.
Police believe the victim was killed at another location and later dumped at the I-80 turnoff. Tire tracks found at the site point to a mid-size to large vehicle, possibly a pickup or van.
Elko County detectives believe the offender is someone who has killed before.
"This person is smart enough to know to get rid of evidence," an Elko detective said. "He was possibly arrested before and physical evidence was used against him."
On Nov. 9, 1993, a male 911 caller told the Nevada Highway Patrol that he saw two men rolling something wrapped in a blue tarp up a hill in the vicinity of the site. Kolsch said the dispatcher didn't report or attempt to trace the call, which emanated from a cellular phone.
Elko detectives said the victim's body was exhumed in 1998 because dental charting -- key to tracing the identities of murder victims -- hadn't been done.
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