LAS VEGAS -- Nevada police agencies are receiving help from the FBI in searching for what could be a serial killer operating on our interstate highways.
One year ago, a Reno man vanished from Interstate 80 near Winnemucca, Nevada. An I-Team investigation found that police there had reason to believe that a serial killer, or more than one, could be responsible.
As the I-Team has reported previously, Patrick Carnes was driving from the Midwest back to Reno along 1-80. He was driving through some of the loneliest real estate in the country.
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A Nevada Highway Patrol trooper pulled him over near Wells, Nevada and came to believe he was traveling in tandem with a long-haul trucker. Carnes' vehicle was discovered hours later at a freeway off ramp east of Winnemucca. Carnes, and his dog Lucky, simply vanished.
The stories generated hundreds of tips, but none have panned out.
Five years earlier, at the very same off ramp, police found a vehicle driven by a Reno woman who has also never been found. Investigators think its possible that a serial killer, maybe even a husband and wife trucker couple, might be responsible for these, and possibly other disappearances.
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"My gut tells me there's two people involved -- just for the logistics, just for the ability, whether something happened west of wells, where he stopped. 'Hey old man, come on and get up in the cab because you're tired,'" said Humboldt County Undersheriff Curtiss Kull.
The Carnes family refuses to admit they may never see their father again, and the sheriff's department is hopeful the case can be resolved. The FBI has provided intelligence information regarding suspected serial killers working as truck drivers. Several dozen are thought to be out there on the nation's highways.
The best hope in solving these two disappearances is to take a look at the information available online, including previous reports and links to other online information posted by police. Pat Carnes' case was also profiled by America's Most Wanted.
Patrick Carnes
