In 2004, the FBI noticed a pattern — the bodies of murdered women were being dumped along Interstate 40 in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi. The victims were mostly prostitutes and transients who hung out at truck stops. They were picked up, sexually assaulted, sometimes bound or mutilated, murdered and dumped on the side of the road. To help better connect suspects to victims, the FBI began a database of such victims and officially launched the Highway Serial Killings