9/5/2013 – OKC, OK — The girlfriend of an admitted serial killer whose victims allegedly included prostitutes in Oklahoma is set to be released today from prison after serving less than half of her sentence for manslaughter.
Rachel Cumberland, 44, was convicted of manslaughter in the 2005 death of a 20-year-old woman in Neshoba County, Mississippi.
Cumberland and her then boyfriend John Robert Williams were convicted of murdering the woman after meeting her in a casino.
Williams received a sentence of life in prison. Cumberland was given 20-years in prison – however, today’s release means she will have only served 8-years or 40% of her original sentence.
John Robert Williams Serial Killer Mugshot
Cumberland has confessed to killing more than 30 individuals. Authorities think Cumberland may actually be responsible for approximately 14 murders.
Authorities believe Williams and Cumberland were behind the murders of several street prostitutes, starting in 2002, along two major interstates – dubbed the Truck Stop Serial Killings, Williams has been often called the ‘Big Rig Killer.’
It was determined that one or more serial killers were operating during this time along Interstate 40 after a criminal pattern emerged; the bodies of murdered women were being dumped along the Interstate 40 corridor in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi.
Williams, who was a semi-truck driver allegedly targeted women involved in prostitution and that Cumberland was often used to gain the women’s trust.
Casey Jo Pipestem
Locally, Williams and Cumberland are suspects in the murders of UCO student Jennifer Hyman, of Oklahoma City, Samantha Patrick of Yukon, and Casey Jo Pipestem.
Williams and Cumberland were charged in the murder of Hyman, but those charges were later dismissed due to a lack of evidence.
In July JohnTV reported that Cumberland was recently criminally charged in Texas with the abduction, rape and murder of Pipestem from an Oklahoma City truck stop in 2004.
No word why Cumberland has not been charged in Pipestem’s murder.
Williams will not actually face a trial in Texas unless/until he is set for release from Mississippi.
Cumberland, who has for the last 8-years been known as Inmate #R9323 will be released from the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility as a part of their ‘Earned Release Supervision’ program.
Because of the serial killings from 2002 to 2004, the FBI announced the creation of the Highway Serial Killings Initiative.
Each dot represents where a body has been dumped along a highway in the last 30-years.