After Dark: The Route 40 Killer

True Crime Campfire

Society & Culture, History, True Crime

4.7 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2026

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Every night in the city, there are people out looking for something. Usually it’s just fun and excitement, but there are also those who go out looking to fulfill darker desires, who view the night city as a hunting ground where they will get what they want, no matter what. And sometimes, what they want is a nightmare of pain and suffering that shocks the conscience. Note: This episode is about a serial killer, and the descriptions of his crimes are more graphic than most. Listener discretion is advised. Join us for Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camp 2026 in September! Visit badmagicproductions.com for tickets and more info. Registration is now open for CrimeWave 2.0! Visit crimewaveatsea.com/CAMPFIRE to get your discount code for $100 off your cabin and a private meet-and-greet with us! The cruise is Feb. 8-12, 2027. Sources: Delaware Online: https://www.delawareonline.com/in-depth/news/2020/12/14/delaware-murder-serial-killer-shirley-tinker-ellis-catherine-dimauro-steven-brian-pennell/5804258002/ https://www.delawareonline.com/in-depth/news/2020/12/15/after-2-murders-detective-knew-we-have-serial-killer-steven-pennell-route-40-killer/5857068002/ https://www.delawareonline.com/in-depth/news/2020/12/16/delaware-rookie-cop-working-undercover-comes-face-face-evil-steven-pennell-route-40-killer/5937449002/ https://www.delawareonline.com/in-depth/news/2020/12/17/suspect-discovers-listening-device-his-van-steven-pennell-route-40-killer/3667098001/ https://www.delawareonline.com/in-depth/news/2020/12/18/serial-killer-takes-his-secrets-grave-steven-pennell-route-40-killer/5793180002/ Delaware Today: https://delawaretoday.com/life-style/route-40-delaware-serial-killer/ NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/15/us/delaware-carries-out-first-execution-since-46.html Court papers: https://law.justia.com/cases/delaware/supreme-court/1992/604-a-2d-1368-5.html Follow us, campers! Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfire https://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/ Facebook: True Crime Campfire Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truecrimecampfire/?hl=en Twitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfire Email: truecrimecampfirepod@gmail.com MERCH! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, campers, grab your marshmallows and gather around the true crime campfire. We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie and I'm Whitney. And we're here to tell you a true story that is way stranger than fiction. We're roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime campfire. Every night in the city, there are people out looking for something. Usually it's just fun and excitement, but there are also those who go out looking to fulfill darker desires, who view the night city as a hunting ground, where they will get what they want, no matter what. And sometimes, what they want is a nightmare of pain and suffering that shocks
0:39.1	the conscience. This is After Dark, the Route 40 killer.
0:52.6	So, campers, for this one, we're in the town of Newark, Delaware, November 29, 1987.
0:59.6	It was a wet and windy night, and a young couple decided to round off the Thanksgiving weekend in style
1:05.1	by driving to the industrial park on Old Baltimore Pike, a place where they could make out,
1:10.2	where there wasn't much
1:10.9	chance of being interrupted. Under the yellow sodium glare of the industrial park's lights,
1:16.7	they first thought it was a mannequin they saw lying by the side of the road. As they drove closer,
1:22.2	it was clear that wasn't the case. They discovered the body of a young woman, partially naked, her legs spread
1:29.6	wide open and very clearly dead. Detective Joseph Swisky of the Delaware State Police responded to the
1:36.7	scene with his partner at about 9.30 p.m. They found the victim lying on her back about three
1:42.1	feet from the curb. Her pants had been pulled down
1:45.4	to her knees and her shirt opened, exposing her breasts. Her legs had been pushed wide open.
1:52.3	There was a piece of duct tape stuck in her hair, and it looked like it was a scrap of a larger
1:56.6	piece that had been used to cover her mouth and then ripped off. There were cuts on her stomach,
2:02.6	and both breasts and nipples had been mutilated by what later examination would show to be a pair
2:08.5	of heavy pliers. Abrasions on her wrists and ankles indicated she'd been bound, and marks on her
2:15.4	hands suggested she'd fought her attacker.
2:18.8	There were ligature marks around her neck and three severe head injuries.
2:23.7	The medical examiner would determine that her cause of death was a combination of strangulation
2:28.4	and blunt force trauma to the head, most likely from a hammer.
2:33.4	Despite the obviously sexualized nature of the scene,
	...

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