Serial killer Dellmus Colvin now dates La Salle case to 2005

When did Dellmus Colvin commit a presumed murder in La Salle? The author who coaxed a lengthy statement out of the convicted serial killer said Thursday it likely was 2005.

Phil Chalmers said he placed a followup call to Colvin, who is serving life in an Ohio prison, after releasing his podcast “The Interstate Strangler” and after the podcast set off a search for human remains near an abandoned truck wash in La Salle. The search will resume Sept. 9.

In the podcast, Colvin delivered a remarkably detailed statement about how he killed a woman he’d met at Flying J Travel Plaza and then buried her a short distance away off La Salle Road. Though Colvin recalled small details such as the weather and the layout of the former truck wash, he did not supply the year in which he killed her.

Eager to supply that missing detail, Chalmers said he called the prison, got Colvin on the phone and asked for the year of the La Salle killing. Answer: 2005.

If correct – Chalmers could not immediately corroborate the timeline – it would have been one of the last murders, if not the last, in Colvin’s killing career, believed to have begun in 1983.

“He was there 15 years ago and he remembers it like he lives there,” Chalmers said. “He really has a photogenic memory.”

Chalmers said there is good reason to believe investigators won’t come up empty-handed when they resume their search of the former truck wash. Chalmers readily acknowledged some serial killers revel in their notoriety and inflate the number of their victims; but many of Colvin’s statements have been corroborated and Chalmers has generally found his factual statements trustworthy.

“Colvin and I have known each other a long time and I wouldn’t be going through this if I didn’t know him,” said Chalmers, who said he’s halted dialogue with other killers who’ve either lied to him or exaggerated their criminal behavior. “He’s never bragged about anything he didn’t do. A lot of times we’ve talked about other cases and he’s said, ‘No, that wasn’t me.’”

In the podcast, Colvin said he was responsible for up to 52 murders; but that was an estimate based on the pace of killings he’d committed over parts of three decades. Chalmers said he puts the number of Colvin’s confirmed murders at at least 40, which lends credence to Colvin’s statements to date.

Chalmers said he’s pleased the podcast set off an active search and expressed hope that police are able to recover and identify the human remains that Colvin described in such detail.

This won’t be the first case Chalmers has effectively solved, however. He has researched serial killers for more than 35 years and past interviews have either solved old cases or at least reignited investigations. Chalmers said he’s “dealing with 20 guys right now” and knows of several active, ongoing investigations.

No, Colvin didn’t kill Tammy Zywicki

Was presumed La Salle killer Dellmus Colvin also responsible for the 1992 death of a college student traveling to Iowa?

Author Phil Chalmers said he was asked about a possible connection between killer Dellmus Colvin and Tammy Zywicki and he believes there is none.

“Someone else brought it up to me,” he said, “but I don’t think so.”

Zywicki’s body was discovered on Sept. 1, 1992, along Interstate 44 in rural Lawrence County, Missouri, days after her vehicle was spotted on Interstate 80 in La Salle County. Her assailant tried to strangle her with her necklace but instead stabbed her, causing her to bleed to death.

While Colvin was an interstate truck driver responsible for murders in many states, Chalmers said he conducted a cursory review of the Zywicki case and simply didn’t see enough similarities to believe Colvin had a hand in Zywicki’s disappearance and death.

The facts and circumstances of Zywicki’s killing don’t jibe with Colvin’s modus operandi and Zywicki didn’t fit the profile of a Colvin victim. Colvin, he said, preyed on prostitutes and drug addicts.