The I-70 Killer Reeking Havoc

The highway may serve as a vital connection between major cities, but beneath its seemingly ordinary surface, sinister acts have unfolded. In 1985, a notorious killer named Daniel Remeta wreaked havoc along I-70, earning the highway the chilling nickname "America's Sewer Pipe."

Remeta's dark journey began when he met Lisa Dunn, an 18-year-old girl, while he was 27 years old. Another 18-year-old named Mark Walter also became entangled in their lives. Both Dunn and Walter were considered good kids with promising futures and had never been in trouble before. In 1984, the trio embarked on a trip to Florida, but this journey would soon turn into a nightmare.

Shortly after setting out, Remeta subjected Dunn to sexual assault and forced both her and Walter to play Russian roulette. When Dunn expressed her desire to return home to Michigan, she was threatened, and the lives of her family were put in jeopardy. It was during this fateful trip that Remeta claimed his first victims.

On February 8, 1985, Remeta robbed and murdered a gas station owner named Merhle Reeder. Two days later, he killed Camilla Carroll, a gas station employee in Waskom, Texas. Remeta shot Carroll in the legs and left her for dead, but her incredible will to survive enabled her to crawl a quarter mile to a road where she received help. She miraculously survived her ordeal.

The killing spree continued as Remeta targeted Linda Marvin on February 11 at Bob's Grocery. He used a .22 caliber handgun he had purchased to commit the murder. The trio then picked up a hitchhiker named James Hunter outside Wichita, Kansas. Unbeknownst to Hunter, he had entered a vehicle with dangerous individuals. When Remeta's gun jammed, he asked Hunter to fix it, which he reluctantly did. Hunter later requested to be dropped off at the intersection of I-70 and I-135, but Remeta refused.

As the trio continued their rampage along I-70, their day of reckoning drew nearer. Remeta shot a police officer who attempted to stop their car after it was reported as a suspect vehicle. Although the officer survived and alerted other law enforcement officers about their direction, Remeta remained undeterred. He sought out a new vehicle and found one at a grain elevator, where he shot and left Maurice Christi to die. Rick Schroeder and Glenn Moore were forced into the bed of Moore's truck, only to be shot and killed later.

A high-speed chase ensued as law enforcement officers tracked and pursued the trio to a farm in Rawlins County. During the confrontation, Walters was shot, Dunn sustained an arm injury from Hunter's shot, and Hunter emerged unharmed. Remeta suffered a gunshot wound to the buttocks but managed to survive. Despite their desperate situation, Dunn and Remeta professed their love for each other as they were taken into custody.

Although Hunter, Dunn, and Remeta were apprehended and incarcerated, the pain and sorrow inflicted upon their victims and their families were far from over. Remeta, harboring a desire to die rather than spend his life in a prison cell, wished to be executed in a state where he had committed murders. Dunn was convicted of two counts of murder and kidnapping related to Schroeder and Moore, while Hunter faced similar charges in Kansas. A legal battle ensued between Arkansas and Kansas over Dunn's extradition, as the Kansas governor opposed the death penalty that Arkansas sought.

Dunn and Hunter launched appeals against their convictions. Hunter argued that the judge had erred in instructing the jury

during his trial. He cited an older law that suggested individuals who believed their lives were in danger when committing a crime should not be punished to the fullest extent. However, it was required for the element of impending, imminent, or present duress or coercion to be present. Hunter claimed he had feared for his life when forced to commit felonies, but the judge disagreed and did not provide those instructions to the jury.

Hunter's appeal was successful, leading to a retrial where he was found not guilty. Tragically, shortly after being freed following the second trial, Hunter suffered a heart attack and passed away. Dunn attempted to appeal using the hostage syndrome defense but was denied at the state level. In 1991, a federal district court judge overturned her guilty verdict, ordering a new trial. Utilizing the battered woman defense, Dunn was ultimately acquitted. However, she remained imprisoned on the Arkansas murder charge and later pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution in that case. She was sentenced to twenty years, with credit for time served, and the remainder of her sentence was suspended. Dunn was released but faced legal troubles afterward, including a felony embezzlement charge that resulted in a one-year jail sentence and five years of probation. She was also required to undergo treatment for her addictions to gambling and alcohol. Dunn married and had a child but did not return to Arkansas.

Remeta was sent to Florida to face charges for the murder of Chet Reeder and did not contest his guilt. He received a death sentence in the electric chair known as "Old Sparky." Subsequently, he was transferred to Arkansas, where he was convicted and sentenced to death. Determined not to die in prison as an old man, Remeta experienced a change of heart about his death penalty while incarcerated. His lawyers swiftly worked to halt his execution, but despite his claims that all the murders were Dunn's ideas, they were dismissed as unbelievable. Remeta had his final meal at the age of 40 and was executed by electrocution on March 31, 1998, at 7:12 a.m.