FBI Starts New Search for "Speed Freak Killers" Victims

With a name like the "Speed Freak Killers" there's no telling what these heinous criminals were up to.

Yesterday (Jan 7), The FBI began the excavation of an abandoned well in Central California in an attempt to search for victims of two murders that went on a killing spree in the1980s and '90s. Drug addicts Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog are suspected of killing up to 19 people during their drug fueled murder rampage.

"We all remain hopeful that our efforts at this site will ultimately return the remains of victims to their loved ones but know that such is not a certainty," said the FBI.

The AP Reports:
The FBI is leading the new excavation effort after assisting the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department with a previous dig.

Two other bodies were found buried elsewhere around the same time. Four of the bodies have been identified as long-missing women suspected of being killed by Shermantine and Herzog. The fifth remains unidentified.

Shermantine and his boyhood friend Herzog were arrested in 1999 and convicted of several murders each. Shermantine was sentenced to death after a jury convicted him of four murder charges.

Herzog's three murder convictions and 78 years-to-life prison sentence were overturned by an appeals court that ruled his confession was illegally coerced. He later pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was paroled in 2010.