The Route 40 Killer — and the Rookie Female Cop Who Caught Him

By bravely going into danger undercover, she was instrumental in bringing Steven Brian Pennell down.

Steven Pennell (Image: Only in Your State)

It was one of most shocking serial murder cases the US had ever seen — and it was the first to have taken place in Delaware. As women disappeared off the streets in 1987 and 1988, police and the FBI joined forces to catch the man who had been dubbed the Route 40 (or I-40) Killer.

But it was only when they took an incredible risk — and a young female police officer stepped up to go far beyond the line of duty — that the perpetrator was finally brought to justice.

First victim — and a sadistic murder

Shirley Ellis was 23 when she left Wilmington Hospital on November 29th 1987. She had been studying to be a nurse and was visiting a friend sick with AIDS to take him a home-cooked meal for Thanksgiving.

Although Shirley had had a turbulent few years in which she had resorted to sex work to make ends meet, her family said she had recently decided to turn her life around and retrain to give her more purpose.

She planned to hitchhike home along Route 40 that night, but she never made it home. Shirley was later found by the roadside…