Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 18, 1990 TAG: 9003182414
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
A growing concern about public safety has prompted beefed up law enforcement at Virginia's 40-plus rest areas along interstates 64, 95, 81, 85 and 77 and a state police study of the crimes that take place.
"So many people who just drive in those places innocently aren't aware of some of the problems that have occurred around the country," said Del. Harry "Bob" Purkey of Virginia Beach. Purkey sponsored a legislative resolution calling for a study of crime at highway rest stops and increased enforcement.
"Virginia is a tourist state," Purkey said. "We cannot afford to have those tourists visiting our state feel that if they stop at these highway rest stops they're not safe. We don't want to scare people away completely. They provide a wonderful service."
In 1989, state police reported two homicides, 10 assaults, 12 grand larcenies, nine petty larcenies, 26 drug violations, two cases of vandalism, 24 incidents of prostitution, one kidnapping and rape, 43 cases of homosexual activity and five stolen cars recovered at Virginia's rest stops, according to Maj. L.A. Graham, deputy director of the state police bureau of field operations.
"We've asked our troopers to give these rest areas special attention, drive through, if they see obvious violations, make an arrest or if they see anything out of kilter, investigate," Graham said.
A car belonging to two missing young people from Amelia County was found at the Interstate 64 rest area in New Kent between Williamsburg and Richmond. The skeletal remains of Anna Maria Phelps and Daniel Lauer were found in woods near the interstate last year.
Jim Smith and Kathryn Haugan, traveling from Richmond to Norfolk last week, said they were not concerned about stopping at the New Kent rest area because it was daytime.
"I'd be more concerned about stopping at night than during the day," Smith said.
Kathryn Haugan said if she were traveling alone, she probably wouldn't stop at night. "That's being a woman and being alone," not just because of the bodies found near the rest area, she said.
Crime at rest areas isn't limited to Virginia. Problems in other states include a prostitution ring operating from a rest stop near Kannapolis, N.C. in 1984.
A gay Charleston, S.C., minister recently conducted a six-month survey and said that more than 1,000 homosexual acts a month occur at two rest areas off Interstate 26 near Ladson, S.C.
Authorities in North Carolina said women using handles such as Sweat Pea and Hot Lips called over citizens' band radios to lure truckers into the rest stop.
"I'm told they had some thriving prostitution rings and the rest stops were not just rest stops," Purkey said of North Carolina's rest areas.
In South Carolina, the Rev. George Exoo earlier this month urged the state to sell condoms at the rest areas to slow the spread of AIDS. Health officials there said it was no secret that public rest stops are regular scenes of homosexual acts and that they constitute a public health threat.
"We are very aware of what goes on at various rest stops all over the state where promiscuous gays can go for sex," said Bill Kaliher, an infectious-disease investigator with the Orangeburg County Health Department. "One man told me that he had a form of sex with 35 different men in one night."
Philip Russell, chief of the traffic control standards branch of the Federal Highway Administration, said the only crime he was aware of at the nation's rest areas was prostitution. "When these things pop up, normally the states crack down," he said.
Purkey said he had confidence that Virginia State Police would not allow crime to get out of control at the rest stops.
"We want to make sure those areas are available for the traveling public and are safe for people to use them as they are intended," said Jack Hodge, chief engineer for the Virginia Department of Transportation.
"The worst thing that any state, Virginia included, would want is for the rest areas to pick up the reputation that they are not safe."
by CNB