COLUMBUS Highway shootings are never easy cases

Investigators lack well-defined crime scenes and motives.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- The Rev. Craig Forwalter remembers it starting as a quiet morning drive along a tree-lined highway. A bullet shattered the windshield, striking his wife's head.
"It sounded like a baseball bat hitting the windshield," said Forwalter, who was driving back in 1996. His wife, Cheryl, survived.
"All of a sudden my head was in my lap and I didn't know why. It felt like someone hit me in the head with a brick," Mrs. Forwalter said.
Her husband says police later stared blankly at the car, unsure of how to track down who had been firing randomly at cars.
The attack on the Missouri highway is reflective of a string of 18 shootings on a stretch of Columbus highway, including one that killed a 62-year-old woman in November. At least 10 times since 1991, shooters have fired randomly at cars on busy U.S. highways. At least three people have died in the shootings at moving cars. Unlike the sniper shootings around Washington, D.C., and in West Virginia -- in which nearly all victims were standing or walking -- moving cars were targeted in each of the 10 cases.
While authorities arrested the people believed responsible in six of the cases, investigators and crime experts say catching someone doing highway shootings often can be a matter of luck.
Investigators lack well-defined crime scenes that yield physical evidence, said James Alan Fox, a criminal justice professor at Northeastern University in Boston. And since the victims aren't acquainted with their attacker, it's much harder to determine a motive.
Thrilling targets
Fast-moving cars offer thrilling targets for criminals who don't necessarily want to see their victims' faces or blood, he said.
"There's a certain dehumanizing aspect about a car," Fox said. "It's much easier to shoot at metal even if there's something inside."
Fox said, "Most of the usual strategies for investigating crimes have no value. It's basically open the phone lines to anyone who might have a tip and hope you can sort out the good leads from the worthless ones."
Investigators in Columbus have been inundated with leads, about 2,350 tips from the public as of Friday.
"We're realizing how many shootings there are because we've asked everybody to call us," Franklin County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Steve Martin said at a recent daily news briefing. "Traditionally, they just don't call in and now we're finding out how many gunshots are out there all the time."
Ohio investigators have positively linked seven shootings, saying the bullets all came from the same gun. The seven shootings include three since the death of a 62-year-old woman riding in a friend's car on Interstate 270 shortly before Thanksgiving, but investigators believe all 18 shootings reported since last May are connected.
Most of the shootings occurred within the past two months. A school, cars, trucks and vans also have been hit at various times of the day and night.
Schools closed
Most recently, schools in the area were closed after bullet marks were found on two school buses. While the bullets have not been recovered, authorities on Friday added the bus shootings to its list because they happened near where a house was shot on Monday. The bullet found in the house's bathtub was a ballistic match.
Forwalter said police were obviously frustrated when his wife was shot on a rural Missouri highway years ago as they were driving to a church activity.
"I could see the helplessness on the policemen because this was something they couldn't prevent. It's kind of, they're milling around and watching but they don't really have anywhere to go," said Forwalter, a minister for the United Church of Christ who now lives in northern Indiana's Wanatah.
His wife required stitches, but avoided serious injury because the bullet did not fracture her skull.
The suspects were soon captured. Three men and a 16-year-old boy were charged with unlawful use of a weapon after police said they climbed an abandoned 80-foot water tower to randomly shoot at cars. The teenager also was charged with second-degree assault and armed criminal action.