Interstate Highway 35 covers some 740 miles from Salina, Kansas, in the north, to Laredo, Texas, on the Mexican border. More than half the highway's length -- in excess of 420 miles -- runs north-to-south across the Lone Star State, past Gainesville, Denton, splitting to accommodate the twin giants of Dallas-Ft. Worth, reuniting above Hillsboro for the long run south, through Waco, Temple, Austin, San Antonio. Between 1976 and 1981 the Texas stretch of I-35 was the hunting ground for a killer (or killers) who preyed on hitchhikers, and motorists in trouble, claiming at least 22 victims in five years time. Some officers believe the stalker is at large today. The first "official" victim was 21-year-old Lesa Haley, found two miles north of Waxahachie, Texas, on August 23, 1976. Bound for Oklahoma City, traveling by thumb, she was last seen climbing into a van at Waco. Haley was stabbed in the neck with an awl before she was dumped on the shoulder of I-35. On the night of November 5, 1978, 19-year-old Frank Key and 18-year-old Rita Salazar ran out of gas on a date in Austin. Next morning, Key was found north of Georgetown, shot nine times with a .22-caliber pistol, including four post-mortem shots in the back of the head. Salazar's body, shot six times with the same gun, was found on a frontage road near Waco. Sharon Schilling, age 27, was found on a street in San Marcos, Texas, on Labor Day 1979, a few blocks from I-35. Shot once in the abdomen with a .410-gauge shotgun, she died on September 13, without regaining; consciousness. Less than a month later, on October 8, Sandra Dubbs was kidnapped after her car broke down on the drive from St. Louis to San Antonio. Her body, stabbed 35 times, was discovered in Travis County, Texas. On Halloween, the strangled body of a "Jane Doe" victim, nude except for a pair of orange socks, was found in a highway culvert near Georgetown. On June 23, 1980, victim Rodney Massey, shot four times, was found in a field near Temple, Texas, 70 miles north of the state capital at Austin. On July 9 of that year, a Hispanic "Jane Doe" was discovered near Pflugerville, stabbed 27 times with a screwdriver; her pants had been pulled down, although there was no evidence of sexual assault. In May 1981, yet another "Jane Doe" was found near New Braunfels, shot six times in the head with a .25-caliber pistol. Authorities convened in Austin to discuss the murders on October 30, 1981, but their review of the case produced no solid suspects. Two years later, serial slayers Henry Lucas and Ottis Toole confessed to most of the I-35 murders -- and Lucas was sentenced to die on conviction in the "orange socks" case -- but subsequent renunciation of the Lucas confessions, in 1985, has returned several cases to the "unsolved" column. Texas authorities remain divided on the question of Lucas's guilt, or the involvement of multiple killers in the 1-35 murder series.