On July 30, 2007, 38-year-old Monica Lee Massaro was found dead in her Bloomsbury, New Jersey, apartment by New Jersey State Troopers who were conducting a well-being check. An investigation revealed that the female victim had been stabbed to death. For weeks, the case remained a mystery as detectives from a multi-agency task force interviewed numerous friends and acquaintances of Massaro, who was described as very outgoing with many friends, including some she had met online.
Investigators canvassed her neighborhood multiple times, trying to determine if she knew her killer or if the act was random.
A significant break in the case came on August 20th when authorities received information from the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program. The information pointed to Adam Leroy Lane, a 43-year-old truck driver from Jonesville, North Carolina. On the very same day that Massaro's body was discovered, Lane had been arrested in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, during a home invasion where he was armed with a deadly weapon. Similarities between the Chelmsford incident and the Bloomsbury homicide prompted detectives to travel to Massachusetts to further their investigation.
The investigation in Massachusetts solidified the connection between Lane and Massaro's murder. Authorities were able to confirm that Lane had been in the vicinity of Massaro's residence around the time of her death. Evidence against Lane included the discovery of some of Massaro's belongings in his possession, as well as receipts from a Bloomsbury truck stop dated around the time she was killed. In the cab of his truck, investigators found a copy of the movie 'Hunting Humans,' which is about a serial killer who randomly selects and stalks his victims.
On August 28, 2007, Adam Leroy Lane was charged with the murder of Monica Massaro. The charges included one count of first-degree murder, one count of second-degree burglary, and one count of third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. While incarcerated in Massachusetts for the crimes committed there, he was eventually sentenced to 50 years in prison for the murder of Monica Massaro. Lane was also linked to other violent crimes in Pennsylvania, earning him the moniker 'The Highway Killer.'
