Sean Patrick Goble

Sean Patrick Goble (born November 1, 1966), known as the Interstate Killer, is an American serial killer and former truck driver who kidnapped and murdered at least four women in the southern United States between 1994 and 1995. Since his arrest and conviction, authorities in ten other states have investigated him for numerous unsolved killings of women. While he was cleared in some of those cases, as of today, his true victim count remains unclear.

Early life Goble was born on November 1, 1966, in Asheboro, North Carolina, the son of Kenneth and Emma Goble. His family moved to Illinois. The first major event to happen in his life occurred at age 6, when his father raped a 10-year-old girl during a home invasion in Rockford. Young Sean was sitting in his dad's vehicle outside of the crime scene during the attack. In April of that year, Goble reported to Greensboro police that he had been abducted by a couple driving a Ford Fiesta and held for nearly two days. However, police were not able to corroborate his story, and Goble later admitted he made it up to hide an affair. He and his wife later separated.

Murders Lisa Susan O'Rourke Lisa Susan O'Rourke, 29, was a native of St. Louis, Missouri. In January 1994, Goble picked up O'Rourke along Interstate 10 in either Louisiana or Mississippi. He and O'Rourke had sex before he strangled her to death, dumping her body under a bridge along Interstate 65 in Alabama. Her body was found on January 23. Her death, initially ruled as hypothermia, was eventually ruled as murder. Her identity was not revealed until April of that year, via fingerprinting. The body was found the following morning by a newspaper carrier walking along I-81. An investigation was set up by police, who received numerous tips, the most promising being from a trucker who said he saw a semi parked along the same access road hours before Hagy's body was found. She was last seen alive by friends and family on January 31, 1995, while visiting her sister in Bowie, Maryland. She later left the home with her 2 year old niece; her niece was located the following morning in Washington, DC. In Fredericksburg, Virginia, Goble picked up Mansur while driving his truck. According to Goble, the two had sex before he decided to strangle her to death. He later dumped her body along Interstate 40, where it was found on February 19. When it was found, her identity could not be conclusively proven, so for the next few months, she was only known as "Jane Doe".

Alice Rebecca Hanes Alice Rebecca Hanes, 36, was a native of Columbus, Ohio. She had been convicted of prostitution in the past. Her last location before her death was in Salina, Kansas, when she called from a truck stop along Interstate 70. From there, she hitchhiked to Tennessee, where Goble kidnapped her from a gas station and smothered her to death. He dumped her body along Interstate 81 in Virginia. For a brief period of time, Goble was investigated as a suspect for the serial killer known as Dr. No. He was later cleared of suspicion in those cases because, in some of the earlier killings, Goble was still in high school and later the army. He was also briefly a suspect for the I-70 killer, but he was cleared of suspicion in that case due to him not matching the physical description of the killer.

Some murders that Goble was suspected of include multiple Jane Does found along highways between 1987 and 1995; the murder of Marcia Matthews in 1985; the murder of Shirly Dean Taylor in 1986; the murder of April Barnett in 1986; the murder of Anna Patterson in 1987; the murder of Kathryn Hill, aka Wendy Turner, in 1990; the murder of Cheryl Mason in 1991; the murder of Nona Cobb in 1992; and the murder of Margaret Goins in 1995.

Arrest, convictions and status During the investigation, a plastic bag left behind at Hagy's murder contained the fingerprint of her killer. When submitted into a database, investigators got a hit when it matched to a print taken from Goble in September 1994 after an arrest for multiple misdemeanors. From there he was arrested in Winston-Salem, North Carolina outside the Rocky Road Express, the trucking company he was then working for. A search warrant was issued on his truck. In it police found a pocketbook that belonged to Hanes. During an interrogation, Goble confessed to both murders, and admitted that he had killed a woman in North Carolina. Authorities figured out it was the Jane Doe and he was charged in her death. When the woman was identified as Mansur, he was charged in her murder. Due to these convictions, Goble would be required to serve at least 103 years to be considered for parole.

In April 1996, Goble was indicted with O'Rourke's murder by a Baldwin County jury. Goble later took back his confessions, but nevertheless stayed behind bars.

In 2003, the Discovery Channel TV show The New Detectives examined Goble in the episode titled "Blind Trust".