By Michael Levenson, Boston Globe
August 30, 2007

State and federal authorities hunted from North Carolina to Northern Massachusetts yesterday for clues to violent crimes possibly committed by a trucker who has been charged with killing a New Jersey woman and attempting to rape and kill a 15-year-old Chelmsford girl.

Police charged the trucker, Adam L. Lane, 43, of Jonesville, N.C., Tuesday with fatally stabbing Monica Massaro, 38, July 29 in her Bloomsbury, N.J., home after they noticed similarities to the July 30 attack in Chelmsford, which led to Lane’s arrest. Now investigators are tracking Lane’s whereabouts in July to see whether he is linked to unsolved crimes.

“He committed these two horrible crimes within 24 hours,” Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. said yesterday. “Chances are we find additional incidents, but that will be based on the evidence as we follow up.”

Police say Lane chose the two victims at random. Married and employed as a trucker for a tree farm in Virginia, Lane had a clean record except for several speeding tickets, said Major Danny Widener of the Yadkin County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina.

“We’re a small rural county of about 38,000, so it’s spreading across the county that he’s been charged, and it’s shocked people in this area,” Widener said.

Police say that Lane entered Massaro’s home through an unlocked door and stabbed her in the head, neck, and torso.

Then, they say, Lane drove his rig to Chelmsford, parked in a truck stop on Interstate 495, and walked to a nearby neighborhood at 4 a.m. Masked, dressed in black, and armed with a large knife, Lane tried doors of several houses until he found one unlocked. Once inside, Lane stole two purses and left, then returned, entered a bedroom, and held a knife to the throat of a 15-year-old girl, according to a New Jersey State Police affidavit. The girl screamed and her parents came running. The mother fought with Lane, who slashed her hands, police said. The father put Lane in a headlock, and the girl called 911. When police arrived, they arrested Lane.

In the cab of his truck, police found a copy of the horror movie “Hunting Humans,” a belt with a throwing star, choke wire, and two large knives, as well as a necklace that had belonged to Massaro.

Police in New Jersey linked the Chelmsford attack with Massaro’s killing on Aug. 20, after Massachusetts authorities entered the crime into a national database and New Jersey authorities noticed similarities between the attacks.

Now, investigators are studying Lane’s trucking schedule and receipts, and interviewing his relatives to determine whether his path matches the locations of unsolved crimes. Investigators have not uncovered any links yet, but police have been calling New Jersey authorities to check out links to cold cases, said Daniel K. Hurley, deputy chief of operations at the Hunterdon County prosecutor’s office in New Jersey.

“Anything that might have occurred near a truck stop or an interstate highway, it’s going to be getting a much, much closer look,” Hurley said.

Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.