The last unidentified victim of the Midwest’s infamous “Highway Killer” has a name.
Larry Eyler was convicted in the 1984 torture murder of 16-year-old Daniel Bridges and sentenced to death. He later confessed to the murder of another young man, 23-year-old Steven Agan in 1982, but died of complications from AIDS in 1994 before his sentence could be carried out.
After his death, his attorney released a list of 20 young men Eyler admitted to killing — although Bridges was not on the list. Eyler insisted that an accomplice killed Bridges and he only disposed of the body.
Eyler’s confession included the remains of four young men found at an abandoned farm in Newton County, Indiana, on October 18, 1983. Investigators determined the names of two of the victims, but “Adam Doe” and “Brad Doe” remained unidentified for decades before the Newton County Coroner’s Office, working with the DNA Doe Project, identified Brad as John Ingram Brandenburg, Jr., who was 19 when he disappeared, in 2021.
This week, the coroner’s office announced that Adam Doe was Keith Lavell Bibbs, who was 17 when he disappeared from Chicago in the summer of 1983, WXIN reported.
The coroner’s office said DNA had identified a potential brother for the victim, and further testing proved “conclusive.” Bibbs’ family was informed of the identification.
Eyler offered through his attorney to confess to the 20 murders in 1990 in exchange for having his sentence commuted to life in prison, the New York Daily News reported. When one of the jurisdictions involved balked, the deal fell through. But in the days before his death, he gave his attorney permission to release his list after he died.
There are other potential victims who did not appear on Eyler’s list, as well as two more unidentified victims, who have not been definitively linked to him.
Eyler was dubbed the “Highway Killer” because his victims’ bodies were often left along roads in Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. He was arrested in 1983 and charged with the murder of Ralph Calise, 28, but police were forced to release him when a judge ruled a search was illegal and violated his constitutional rights.
Months later, he was arrested for Bridges’ murder and finally went on trial in 1986.
Eyler’s string of murders lasted from October 23, 1982, until August 19, 1984. They ranged in age from 16 to 29. Many of his victims were hitchhikers or men he picked up in gay bars.
The accomplice he fingered for assisting in four of the murders was tried for those crimes and acquitted.
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[Featured image: Left, Keith Lavell Biggs/Newton County Coroner’s Office. Right, Larry Eyler in 1982/AP Photo]
