Man stabs himself before police can question him about deaths

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ A man police were trying to question about the deaths of seven women apparently stabbed himself at a northeast-side truck stop, investigators said. <br><br>The man, whose identity

Friday, March 12th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ A man police were trying to question about the deaths of seven women apparently stabbed himself at a northeast-side truck stop, investigators said.

The man, whose identity wasn't released, was hospitalized after Thursday's incident but his condition wasn't immediately known, police said.

Vice officers assisting in the investigation were asking questions around the Flying J truck stop at Interstate 35 and N.E. 122nd Street when someone told them to check out a truck that had been sitting in the parking lot for an abnormal length of time, Sgt. Charles Phillips said.

A man poked his head out of the sleeper compartment of the truck when officers knocked on the door of the cab, but he went back inside and didn't come back out.

Officers went to check on the man and found he had stabbed himself, Phillips said.

The incident is being investigated as an attempted suicide.

Phillips said the cases are totally unrelated.

But there are parallels.

Six of the seven women whose bodies have been found along highways or creeks in at least four states were known prostitutes. Investigators suspect the deaths may be connected to a single killer.

The first death in the possible series was that of Margaret Gardner, a 47-year-old Tennessee woman who was found in July on an Interstate 40 entrance ramp in West Memphis, Ark.

The tractor-trailer in which the man was found was reported stolen from Arkansas up to a year ago, Phillips said.

The other six were last seen in or were found in Oklahoma.

The most recent victim, Casey Jo Pipestem, 19, is thought to have vanished from an Oklahoma City truck stop at the same intersection where the man stabbed himself.

She was found dead in a Grapevine, Texas, creek.

A pastor who runs a truck stop chapel near that intersection found two notes that railed against pimps and prostitutes.

OSBI agents couldn't immediately be reached for comment.