I-65 killer: Could he be the I-70 serial killer?

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV) - News 4 has learned that the person identified earlier this week as the I-65 serial killer is now being looked at as a possible suspect in the I-70 murders, with a local task force scrambling to compare notes with police authorities in Indiana.

Indiana State Police announced this week that numerous pieces of DNA evidence tied Harry Edward Greenwell to three motel highway killings in Indiana and Kentucky between 1987 and 1990. The I-70 killings happened just two years later in 1992.

Greenwell died of cancer in 2013 at the age of 68. The I-65 killer was also known as the Days Inn Killer. His first victim was at the Super 8 motel in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, before he killed again at the Days Inn in Merrillville, Indiana, and then finally at the Remington, Indiana Days Inn. Police say Greenwell attacked a fourth victim later at the Days Inn in Columbia, Indiana, but she survived and gave police a composite sketch, which matched Greenwell.

“We are talking with the Indiana task force,” said Detective Raymond Floyd, who is heading up the St. Louis task force investigating the I-70 murders. “Right now, it is preliminary. But there are definitely some similarities, and we are going to pursue them.”

While the I-65 killer targeted hotels along the interstate, the I-70 killer chose small strip malls along the highway. All of the I-65 targets were female, as were all of the I-70 targets except one, and that male victim had a ponytail. The I-65 killer was also a robber, and he sexually assaulted his victims. The I-70 killer showed little interest in money and appeared to only kill for the thrill of killing. Also, if Greenwell was also the I-70 killer, he would have been around 47 at the time. The I-70 task force has long believed their killer was much younger.

Indiana investigators say Greenwell, who worked for the Canadian Pacific Railroad, traveled frequently in the Midwest.

“The time frame involved is just too hard to ignore,” Floyd said. “And the composites that we have to the I-70 killer are similar to Greenwell.”

Greenwell had an extensive criminal history, spanning 35 years from 1963 to 1998, which included escaping from jail twice. Indiana investigators acknowledge the possibility that Greenwell may have claimed more lives.

“We keep coming back to this guy’s M.O,” Floyd said. “We’re talking about somebody just traveling the highways killing people.”

Greenwell’s obituary described him as a family man, a do-gooder and a generous soul.

Meanwhile, the I-70 task force continues to work on their case non-stop, where the killer murdered six victims in five cities. DNA samples have already been tested in Terre Haute, and additional samples are awaiting results from Indianapolis, Raytown, Wichita, and St. Charles, where Nancy Kitzmiller was murdered at the Boot Village store in the Bogey Hills Plaza.

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