The Route 40 Killer

In the late 1980s, young women were being stalked along Route 40 in Delaware by a man who turned the corridor into his hunting grounds. The murders began on Nov. 29, 1987, with the discovery of a partially naked woman at a construction site. Seven months later, another woman’s body with similar signs of torture, mutilation and fatal blows to the head turned up at another construction site. Sensing the killer would strike again – and he did at least three more times – Delaware State and New Castle County police, along with the FBI and state prosecutors, teamed up for what would become Delaware’s largest manhunt for the Route 40 killer.

Fig.1 Steven Brian Pennell, known as The Route 40 Killer, was Delaware’s only known serial killer in modern history.

Steven Brian Pennell (November 22, 1957 – March 14, 1992), known as The Route 40 Killer, was Delaware’s only known serial killer in modern history, convicted of the murders of two New Castle County, Delaware women and suspected of killing three others. He abducted most of his victims from U.S. Route 40, near Bear.

On a gloomy, rainy Sunday night, Nov. 29, 1987 Shirley Anna Ellis, a 23-year-old nurse left Wilmington Hospital around 6 PM, where she was assisting an AIDS patient, catching a lift on her way home on Route 40. Her body was later found by the roadside by two boys. She was partially nude, her legs spread out, hands and feet tied with adhesive tape. There were no signs of sexual assault, but she had been seriously abused, with her killer tying a string around her neck and hitting her head with a hammer before she died.

Fig.2 This female victim was sadistically tortured and killed by Pennell.

Fig.3 The first victim was 23-year-old Shirley Anna Ellis, a nurse.

The second victim was 31-year-old Catherine A. DiMauro. On June 28, 1988, about seven months after the first murder, around 11:30 PM, she was seen walking down Route 40. At 6:25 AM, construction workers found her naked body at a construction site. No signs of sexual assault were found. Like Ellis, she was killed by hammer blows and strangulation, but unlike the first murder, DiMauro’s body was covered in blue fibers.

Special police forces, along with the FBI’s profiling unit, concluded that a serial killer was operating in close proximity to Route 40. Police and federal agents disguised as sex workers in attempt to gather information, with a task force of over 60 people being formed solely to capture the killer, but to no avail.

Fig.4 Body number two in this serial murder case.

Fig.5 The killer pinched her nose closed with a pair of pliers.

Fig.6 Paddling marks on the buttocks.

Fig.7 The victim suffered breast assault with vice-grips.

Fig.8 The second victim was 31-year-old Catherine A. DiMauro.

On August 22, 1988, 27-year-old sex worker Margaret Lynn Finner disappeared. A number of witnesses had seen her enter a blue Ford driven by a white male near Route 13. About three months later, her body was found by a hunter near the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal. Her body was so badly decomposed that the exact cause of death could not be determined, although signs of torture were visible on her remains. Finner was identified using dental records.

Fig.9 The body of 27-year-old sex worker Margaret Lynn Finner was found by a hunter near the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal.

On September 14, 1988, Renée Taschner, an undercover police officer posing as a sex worker, roamed Route 40 in an attempt to capture the killer. After passing several vehicles, she spotted a blue Ford seven times in 20 minutes. She went to a more isolated area, and the vehicle stopped next to her. The driver was white, with Taschner noticing that the floor had a blue carpet. The man appeared nervous, hardly looking her in the eyes, but still attempted to convince her to enter the car. She refused, claiming that she was tired, but managed to tear some fiber from the blue carpet and write down the license plate number. Upon examination of several license plates, it emerged that the vehicle belonged to Stephen Brian Pennell, a 31-year-old electrician, married and father of two, with no criminal record.

Two days later, 22-year-old Michele Gordon, a local sex worker known for frequenting Route 40, disappeared. Witnesses saw her enter a blue Ford, identified as a panel car. On September 20, her body was found on the rocks in the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal. In the autopsy, it was discovered that she had been drugged with cocaine, which had caused her heart to stop before the torture had begun.

Fig.10 The body of 22-year-old Michele Gordon, a local sex worker known for frequenting Route 40, was found on the rocks in the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal.

Fig.11 Signs of torture and paddling marks on the buttocks.

Fig.12 22-year-old Michele Gordon was the fourth victim.

On September 23, 26-year-old Kathleen Anne Meyer, of Brookmont Farms, disappeared. A police officer saw her get into a blue Ford on Route 40, at 9:30 PM. He was able to write down the license plate number, which turned out to belong to Pennell’s car. Her body was never found.

Fig.13 The fifth victim was 26-year-old Kathleen Anne Meyer. Her body was never found.

Delaware public prosecutor Charles Oberly approved a police search warrant of the panel van, while at the same time searching for other offences for which they could arrest Pennell. While searching the vehicle, prints matching the blood and hair of the victims, as well as the same adhesive tape used in the DiMauro killing, were found. A “torture kit” was also found, which included pliers, whips, handcuffs, needles, knives and restraints. Pennell was arrested on November 29, 1988, a year after he murdered the first victim, and was charged with killing three – Ellis, DiMauro and Gordon. He decided to invoke his right to remain silent.

Fig.14 Steven Brian Pennell led to court.

Fig.15 A number of witnesses had seen one of the victims enter a blue Ford driven by a white male near Route 13.

Fig.16 Stephen Brian Pennell owned a blue van.

On October 31, 1991, the court sentenced Pennell to death. Under the Delaware State Constitution, every death penalty judgment requires a further hearing from the Supreme Court, and on February 11, 1992, Pennell appeared before them, demanding that he be sentenced to death. He was the only defendant in Delaware’s legal history to represent himself before the Supreme Court, and the only man convicted to willingly seek the death penalty.

However, he pleaded not guilty to the murders, and spoke of the murderer in the third person, saying that the killer was enjoying the process of the murder, but not the murder itself. The Delaware State Attorney General objected to the death penalty, but the judges sentenced Pennell to death anyway. His execution was scheduled for March 14, 1992.

Fig.17 Prints matching the blood and hair of the victims, as well as the same adhesive tape used in the DiMauro killing, were found in the van.

Fig.18 Blood smear on the inside of the van.

Prior to the execution, numerous reporters tried to ask Pennell for exclusive interviews, hoping to reveal the location of Meyer’s body. He turned down every request. When it came close to his execution date, he agreed to be interviewed by one newspaper, with his lawyer present. During this interview, Pennell revealed no new information, nor where he had hidden Meyer’s body.

On March 14, 1992, at 9:49 a.m, Pennell was executed by lethal injection, becoming the first person executed in Delaware in 46 years, and the 165th person to be executed in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. His last meal consisted of crab cakes, steaks, corn on the cob, french fries, bread and butter and a cola.