Adam Leroy Lane, better known as "the highway killer," is a serial criminal from the United States who killed two women and two others survived in four attacks that occurred in areas near highways, as this murderer took advantage of his job as a truck driver to travel and find places to attack. Born on August 7, 1964, in Jonesville, North Carolina, Lane committed the murders between July 13 and 30, 2007, while traveling through the northeastern part of the country. The multiple murderer dropped out of high school and later got a job as a truck driver and sometimes as an employee at a poultry plant. Lane, who lived a nomadic life with his wife and three daughters, had a DVD of the horror film "Hunting Humans" (2002) in his truck, which was about a serial killer who stalks his victims before killing them with a knife. Likewise, he had two large hunting knives, a strangulation wire, and a leather mask with the eyes and mouth cut out in his vehicle. The first victim was Darlene Ewalt, 42, whom he attacked at her home in West Hanover Township, Dauphin County, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Lane approached her in her residence and stabbed her around 2:00 a.m. on July 13, 2007, while she was in the yard talking on the phone while her family was inside. The criminal cut her throat and stabbed her to death with a long knife. Lane's second victim was Patricia Brooks, whom he stabbed on July 17, 2007, in Conewago Township, rural York County, Pennsylvania. Brooks was sleeping, and the criminal took the opportunity to attack her, but despite the wounds he inflicted, she managed to survive. The third victim, and second woman killed, was Monica Massaro, 38, whom he killed in the bedroom of her duplex in Bloomsbury, New Jersey. Lane slit her throat and stabbed her in the head, neck, and chest on July 29, 2007, and the next day he attacked again but failed to achieve his goal. The multiple murderer stopped on Interstate 495 in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, and dressed in all black, with a mask and gloves, to break into a house and attack Shea McDonough, a 15-year-old girl, with a 38-centimeter hunting knife. The girl's parents, Jeannie and Kevin McDonough, woke up at 4:00 a.m. upon hearing the screams and struggle between the teenager and the criminal. The mother, weighing 61 kg, and the father, weighing 72 kg, tackled Lane, weighing 110 kg, and subdued him before taking his knife, although the girl's mother also suffered some cuts in the struggle. The Chelmsford Police had been alerted by neighbors after hearing the screams and arrived at the residence, where they arrested the criminal, who was being held by the girl's father with a headlock. Investigators estimate that Lane may have been responsible for other murders in other parts of the country, considering his job as a truck driver, although there was no evidence to hold him responsible for them. The subject was linked to the murder of Ewalt and the attempted murder of Brooks by DNA found on his knife, in addition, the police found gloves with his DNA and the blood of one of his victims. The criminal was sentenced to 25 to 30 years in Massachusetts for the attack on Shea McDonough, while New Jersey applied a 50-year sentence for the murder of Massaro. In Pennsylvania, Lane pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty and received 10 to 20 years of punishment for the attempted murder of Brooks. Likewise, he was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Ewalt and is currently serving his sentences at the Fayette State Correctional Institution.
