LAS VEGAS (KLAS) Long-haul truckers call Interstate 80 ‘The Big Lonely,’ a name fitting for the desolate stretch of road through northern Nevada—especially at night.

In April 2011, Patrick Carnes, an 86-year-old former truck driver accompanied by his dog Lucky, was driving from Ohio to his home in Reno. Officers made a traffic stop on Carnes just outside of the small city of Wells, during which the driver mentioned he had been driving in tandem with a trucker.

“I’m only following him because he is going to Elko,” Carnes said to the trooper.

Author Frank Figliuzzi spent 25 years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He wasn’t aware of the organization’s trucker task force, created in 2009 to investigate suspected serial killers working as long haul truckers, until after he left his government position.

Figliuzzi sought to unravel the mystery behind Carnes’s statement to the trooper that night.

“How did he know where the trucker was headed?” Figliuzzi posited. “Clearly, there was a prior engagement between the two.”

Figliuzzi took a deep dive into the world of long-haul truck-driving serial killers. He logged thousands of miles in long-haul ridealongs and asked truck drivers about the realities of life on the road. Figliuzzi said he quickly realized why the killer truckers are able to fall through the cracks, explaining that they can exploit jurisdictional gaps.

“They’ll grab a victim in one jurisdiction,” Figliuzzi said. “They’ll rape and kill her in a second jurisdiction, and they’ll dump the remains in a third.”

The confusion creates a challenge for law enforcement, compounded by the fact that many times, the victims’ families don’t know they’re missing, Figliuzzi said. That confusion was mirrored in the case of Carnes’ disappearance.

The next morning, Carnes’ vehicle was found in a field near an exit ramp 20 miles east of Winnemucca. Carnes and Lucky had vanished with no signs of violence or robbery, and his vehicle was still operable.

Carnes’ family knew immediately that something was amiss. They began their own search, posting flyers at truck stops and fast food restaurants along the “Big Lonely,” with no luck. Ken Carnes, Patrick’s son, called the search for his father like being “stuck in neutral.”

“Not going forward, not going backwards,” Carnes said, describing the investigation.

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department devoted hundreds of hours to its search for Carnes. Scouring the desert with men, dogs, and helicopters, the investigation was a huge task for a department limited to 15 officers for 10,000 square miles of search area.

“My gut tells me there’s two people involved,” said Curtiss Kull, Humboldt County Assistant Sheriff. “Just for the logistics.”

Investigators connected the case to at least three other cases of missing persons in the vicinity. Five years earlier, another abandoned vehicle had been discovered at the exact spot where Carnes’ vehicle had been abandoned. Its driver, Judith Casida, 62, had never been found.

Figliuzzi said law enforcement officers don’t often believe in coincidence, raising the question

Could a serial killer be preying on motorists along the “Big Lonely?”

The FBI trucker task force, created to put together the pieces, produced a detailed map listing locations of missing persons and murder victims. Figliuzzi cites a central reason for the research he put into his book “Long Haul” to help local law enforcement also put the pieces together.

The tome, which contains details about the most grisly and graphic murders, has garnered a lot of attention. Still, connecting with the primary targets of such criminals, “lot lizards” or sex workers found at many of the nation’s truck stops, is a difficult task. He hopes the writing helps enlist long-haul truckers to warn them.

According to Figliuzzi, the decades-old issue is still very much relevant. He says 850 women have been killed along US highways, adding that the staggering fact is how little is known about them.

“200 of those murders are considered unsolved and still open,” Figliuzzi said. “There are 450 suspects amongst the long haul trucker community.”