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INFAMOUS KILLER CAPTURED UNDER MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES
Associated Press
by Leona Shulman
MISSOURI--For the first time since the case opened three decades ago, federal agents have arrested a suspect in the Route 64 Slasher case.
So-called for abandoning the bodies of his victims by the state highway of the same name, the 64 Slasher was first identified in the 1983 after a string of coeds were found dead by roadside clean-up crews. He was responsible for one of the largest non-metahuman manhunts in Missouri's history and remained one of America's most elusive serial killers for years.
Most active in his early years, the Slasher was notorious for his resistance to profiling. Initially, all the victims were young, college-aged women attacked on the way home for holiday break. This pattern informed police investigation until '85 when two elderly victims were discovered. The pair was strangled rather than slashed, male rather than female, and found at the northernmost/southernmost points of the state, dropped in Route 64's drainage ditch right before crossing the border.
"For many years, the 64 Slasher was one of the FBI's greatest shames," said FBI Director Jeff Espinoza on a press conference Sunday. "Just when we'd be looking for a knife, he'd use a gun. When we'd launch awareness campaigns against children accepting rides with strangers, he'd murder some poor housewife. All that remained constant was that same stretch of empty road, mocking us."
By the mid-90's, Missouri State Highway Patrol had caught a number of copycat killers seeking to use the Slasher's reputation as cover. "There were a few years there when we had mobsters driving in as far as New York just to dump a body," said Drowe County District Attorney Budd LaGrass. "It was a prosecutorial nightmare. If we had caught him, trying to figure out which murders were his would have taken decades." Locals began referring to Route 64 as "blood alley."
By the turn of the century, the FBI had all but closed the case. Six years had gone by without a recognizable pattern in victims. It appeared that the 64 Slasher would go down in history as the one that got away.
Until Saturday night. Drowe County Sheriff's Deputies responded to multiple reports of a stalled vehicle in the early hours of the morning. They found the White Ford Ranger...and quite a bit more.
Deputy Kent Draper, one of the first officers at the scene, said, "When we approached the vehicle, both doors were open and the engine was running. After establishing that no one was inside, we heard a sound coming from over a hill southeast of the road. We moved to investigate."
What the officers found was Tillman Green, a resident of Pikeville, MO and employee of the Missouri Department of Corrections, trapped in an inexplicable, transparent ball. "It appeared to be made of a sort of crackling, yellow light" explained Draper. "It was like a bubble of static. The suspect was facing away from us, towards the treeline, screaming and stabbing at the ball with a hunting knife. It had no effect. It appeared to be some sort of forcefield trapping him."
Police claim that the "crackling, yellow light" disappeared as officers crested the hill. Green, suddenly free, saw the police and alledgedly launched into a "screaming, enraged charge." Drowe County Deputies quickly subdued the man with tasers and pepper spray. The woods were searched for the source of the yellow light, but nothing was found.
After his arrest, the Ford Ranger registered to Green was searched. A variety of weapons and a photo album were found inside a toolbox. Prosecutors promise that the photo album contains pictures from the locations of nearly every Route 64 Slasher killing, each taken before police arrived.
After filing papers to fast-track the Green's trial on Monday, Federal Prosecutor Becky Irvine addressed the press on the Drowe County Courthouse steps. "Tillman Green, a once-trusted employee and son of the state of Missouri, was taking pictures of the road crews in his charge as they discovered his bloody handiwork. For years, he abused his position as a transportation officer for probationary work crews in order lure unsuspecting motorists and hitchhikers to their deaths, all for the sake of recording people's reactions to his grotesque displays."
When asked how the prosecution would be proceeding with this evidence, Irvine replied, "Out of respect for the victims' families, the United States of America will be seeking a speedy trial that concludes in the maximum penalty allowed under law."
Though declining an interview, Green's attorney has said that the defense will be seeking a mis-trial on the basis of unsanctioned transhuman vigilantism and supernatural evidence tampering. No more details were provided.
At the formal declaration of the charges on Tuesday, Green seemed visibly agitated, far from the coldly calculating monster suspected of haunting the highways for decades. He was twice warned to retake his seat during the proceedings and eventually had to be physically escorted from the courtroom. Before bailiffs could drag Green back to holding, he was heard screaming, "He tricked me with his long-sleeves! He was actually a robot from space! Never pick up a man without thumbs! He had metal arms and claws! You can't stab a golden robot wanderer out of the West! He will come for you! Come for you all!"
Though many details of the case warrant further investigation, judicial experts agree that the damning nature of the physical evidence and testimony of officers at the scene ensure a conviction. When questioned about the more alarming details of the arrest, Director Espinoza had this to say: "I'm certainly no expert in the types of things that were mentioned in that initial police report, but I can ensure everyone that Mr. Green's rights were in no way violated by the U.S. government. If he is looking for some explanation as to his capture, I suggest he blame karma."
