A suspected serial killer and rapist who may be responsible for the murder of at least four women has been arrested in connection to a 1997 murder of a woman at an abandoned truck stop.
Samuel William Legg III, 52, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the death of 39-year-old Julie A. Konkol.
He is currently in custody in Ohio with bail set at $3 million.
Konkol was found strangled behind a Senter’s truck stop on Oct. 23, 1997 near Illinois’ border with Wisconsin.
DNA from Konkol’s case had been found in connection to several other cases, officials said. In 2006, DNA from her case was matched with a 1996 homicide in Wood County, Ohio. The same suspect’s DNA was matched in 2012 to a 1992 homicide in Mahoning County, Ohio.
In 2018, the suspect’s DNA was tested looking for a familial or direct connection, which led investigators to Legg. He was found to be a match to Konkol’s case.
Legg was a truck driver in the Midwest, living in Ohio during the time of the murders.
He was arrested in January 2019 in a separate Ohio sexual assault case from 1997. He was extradited to Ohio to face the charges. Legg was later charged with the 1992 murder of Sharon Kedzierski in Mahoning County, Ohio.
Lake County sheriff’s investigators interviewed Legg while he was in custody in Ohio, questioning him in connection to the homicides. As a result he was charged with Konkol’s murder.
Legg will eventually be extradited to Illinois to face the charges.
Legg’s arrest was a result of ongoing investigation from the sheriff’s office, the FBI and several Ohio law enforcement agencies.