I-70 Killer

What the record shows

The I-70 Killer is the name given to an unidentified man who shot six people working in small retail stores in Indiana, Kansas and Missouri between April 8 and May 7, 1992. The name refers to Interstate 70, which runs near most of the stores. No one has been charged. Police linked the six killings through ballistics on a .22-caliber weapon. Investigators in Texas later examined three 1993 and 1994 shootings as possible related attacks, a link that ballistics testing did not confirm.

The first killing came on April 8, 1992, in Indianapolis, where Robin Fuldauer, 26, the manager of a Payless ShoeSource on Pendleton Pike, was working alone. According to KMOV, police believe the killer entered around 1:15 p.m., took her to a back storage room and shot her; less than $100 was taken. On April 11, Patricia Magers, 32, owner of the La Bride d'Elegance bridal shop in Wichita, Kansas, and her employee Patricia Smith, 23, were shot in the back of the store around closing time. On April 27, Michael McCown, 40, was shot while stocking shelves at Sylvia's Ceramics, his mother's shop in Terre Haute, Indiana; he was the only male victim. On May 3, Nancy Kitzmiller, 24, was killed at Boot Village in St. Charles, Missouri, and on May 7, Sarah Blessing, 37, was shot at a gift shop in Raytown, Missouri.

According to KMOV and WTWO, the pattern was consistent: small specialty shops holding little cash, a victim alone at a slow time of day, a walk to a back room and a shot to the head, with little or nothing taken. Ballistics tied the Indianapolis and Wichita shootings to one gun within days. Investigators identified the weapon as a .22-caliber pistol, most probably an Erma Werke ET22, with an Intratec Scorpion not ruled out, and found traces of jeweler's rouge on the casings. In Wichita, a customer who returned to the bridal shop after closing met a man carrying a small rifle, refused to go to the back and left; retired Wichita Lieutenant Michael Hennessy told FOX59 the encounter gave police their first eyewitness, and it produced the original sketch of a thin white man, 5 feet 7 to 5 feet 9, with sandy blond or reddish hair.

In 1993 and 1994, three women were shot in the head in small shops in Texas: Mary Ann Glasscock, 51, at a Fort Worth antiques store on September 25, 1993; Amy Vess, 22, at an Arlington dance apparel store on November 1, 1993; and Vicki Webb, who survived a shooting at a Houston gift shop on January 15, 1994. According to KMOV, Texas authorities at first called a connection a definite possibility, but ballistics testing found the Texas gun did not match the I-70 weapon, and police came to doubt the link.

Suspect reviews over the following decades produced no charges. KMOV reported that investigators cleared several men, including a Tennessee man sought in 1992 for unrelated killings who resembled the sketch; police ruled him out in 2012. In January 2022, KMOV reported that investigators were also examining the November 30, 2001, shooting of liquor store clerk Billy Brossman in Terre Haute, seven blocks from the McCown scene; Terre Haute police confirmed similarities but did not publicly connect the cases.

In October 2021, authorities released a new sketch, credited to the St. Charles Police Department, describing a white man who was 22 to 40 in 1992, 5 feet 7 to 5 feet 9 and 140 to 160 pounds, with sandy blond hair with a red tint; Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana took tips. KTVI reported that in 2021 the five departments met with the FBI to review the evidence with newer forensic technology. On January 20, 2022, St. Charles police released an age-enhanced sketch estimating the killer would now be 52 to 70 and announced a review of the files with every agency involved plus the FBI and ATF. As of August 2025, KTVI reported that St. Charles police lead the case and a $25,000 reward remains on offer.