A man charged in connection with a Frederick County, Maryland, murder and who recently died in prison may have been a serial killer, according to Maryland State Police.
Garry Artman, 64, was facing charges in the murder of Dusty Shuck, a 24-year-old woman whose body was found near a rest stop in 2006.
Artman, who had been serving a life sentence for a separate murder in Michigan, was awaiting extradition to Maryland to stand trial in the Shuck case when he died from an illness last month.
Before he died, however, police said Artman confessed to the murder of Shuck and provided information indicating that he had other victims as well.
“During interviews that police had with him, it became clear that he was responsible for numerous heinous crimes, probably throughout the whole country,” Maryland State Police spokeswoman Elena Russo said.
Investigators from Maryland, Michigan and the FBI are now searching for connections to other possible victims and crimes around the country.
“To think that this man could be possibly responsible for many other lives lost … they want to get to the bottom of this,” Russo said. “The perpetrator is deceased, but this investigation is still very much alive.”
Police said that Artman’s employment as a truck driver gave him the ability to move constantly from state to state.
“He traveled throughout the country, so he had that transient lifestyle,” Russo said. “His employment as a truck driver could have put him anywhere.”
Russo said that investigators are looking for “any kind of lead.”
“Maybe someone had a conversation with him at some point, or there is a family member of a victim who thinks that Garry Artman was a perpetrator in whatever crime was committed,” Russo said. “Even if the information is old, it could be helpful.”
Anyone with information about Artman is encouraged to contact Maryland State Police homicide investigators at 410-996-7881. All callers can remain anonymous.
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