Two more shootings connected to Ohio highway investigation

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Two more shootings have occurred along an interstate highway since a woman was killed on the freeway last month, bringing the number of cases under investigation to 14, authorities said Friday.

A car and a house were hit in the latest shootings, Franklin County sheriff's Chief Deputy Steve Martin said.

On Sunday morning, a woman heard a thud as she drove on Interstate 270 and noticed a bullet hole when she got home, Martin said. She notified police on Tuesday.

In the other shooting, Emma Sader found a bullet hole in the front of her house about a quarter-mile from the highway and a bullet on her living room floor, the deputy said. Sader made the discovery Monday after a weekend away, she said.

"Investigators now know the person or persons has consciously decided to continue with the same activity which unfortunately resulted in the death of Mrs. Knisley," Martin said.

Police believe the shootings are the first since Gail Knisley, 62, was killed Nov. 25 as she was being driven to a doctor's appointment. She was the only person hit in the shootings.

At Sader's home, the bullet splintered solid oak paneling about a foot above a birdcage and about four feet from the couch where her son Donald Fitch sleeps.

While authorities haven't commented on the type of weapon used, Fitch said a police officer from suburban Obetz told him the shot likely was fired by a high-powered rifle.

The shootings began in May but have happened mainly in the past two months, raising fears that a sniper may be stalking the area. The incidents took place near an interchange of two highways that see 77,000 vehicles a day on average.

The bullet from the house came from the same gun as four other shootings that have been definitely linked by ballistics tests, including one at a school, Martin said. Although the tests could not link the rest of the shootings, investigators say it's likely they all are connected.

The house shooting expands the investigation area east by two miles, with the police now examining a seven-mile section of the freeway.

Authorities say they have received more than 885 tips from the public on the shootings.

N.G. Berrill, a psychologist who profiles killers at his New York forensic consulting firm, said he was not surprised the shootings continued after Knisley's death.

"It may be sort of an inadvertent thing that someone died. It's probably the terror that he's enjoying, but the death is not a deterrent."

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