David Hambling

David Hambling, a.k.a. Bughead and The Highway Killer, is a delusional serial killer and a mass murderer who appeared in Blue Highways in Profiler.

Background
David Hambling's childhood was rife with tragedy from a very early age. When the US 11, America's truck highway, was fully connected and went from New England to southwest in the 70s, he and his parents drove down that road, likely with "Sunshine of Your Love", a song by British band Cream, playing on their radio. The day of the year was March 3rd. The tragedy struck when a truck rammed into them on that highway head-on, slowly killing both of his parents who were both in the front seat. As he watch, Hambling, who was 4 at a the time, was rendered helpless from excruciating pain from his leg being crushed by the impact of the collision, leaving him disabled in said leg with a bad limp. He was sent to live in a foster home, where he was described as a quiet loner, without much friends. But he loved making model cars, enjoyed his craft which he had beautiful skill in. Still haunted by the crash and his dead parents, he would soon after destroy his artistic models once he finished them. Despite his overwhelming fears of the road, he got a job as a cargo truck driver for hire. He was fired months before the events of the episode, which ended up being the stressor for him. Stealing a Royal Red rig truck, he went off the grid, and seeing his parents in couples driving down the road, he became a serial killer and likely serial mass murderer who wanted to target said couples and make them crash in hopes of saving them from near death, either to find closure or to keep them captive "as his parents to make a family again". He would frame the accidents on the next drivers coming up on the road, where upon seeing them, he'd swerve forward then back so both vehicles would crash. He never saved the couples even though he wanted to, so instead he would keep their bodies as dead souvenirs. Being a safety nut, he guarded the front seats of his truck with metal caging, bought a gurney, and made a container to hold the corpses of the couples he killed. He also wore a racing leather suit and thick boots as well as a motorcycle helmet to prevent being a victim of a crash again or being identified, and he gave parts of the victims' cars he stole to a homeless man with a frog at a chop shop named Emmett, who made the parts into a lot there he lived in and decorated and nicknamed him "Bughead" because Emmett thought he had a bug's head due to his helmet. By the beginning of the episode, he did this with four couples as well as other drivers and passengers in the vehicles they collided with.

Blue Highway
Hambling is scene driving in his truck in Champaign, Illinois, when he comes across the Caldwells, another couple who become his next targets. He does his usual moving road block trick, then when a college students passenger van comes around, he swerves to make both cars crash, killing the Caldwells when they hit the cliffside and all six carpooling cheerleaders in the van when they drive off the slope and they instantly die from their van's explosion. Hambling then causes another crash in Birchfield, Indiana, taking the couple's bodies as well as their car's radio. After they find Emmett, and then his foster mother once they identify Hambling, they plan for a sting to draw him out and arrest him. Knowing his next attack will take place in Missouri, Samantha Waters and John Grant pose as a couple, driving through the two spots they expect Hambling to target. The plan works, as Hambling pulls up next to them and doesn't let them pass in front of them, edging them nearer to the outside of the road to stop their attempts. With a police road block ahead, Hambling is surprise enough to hit the breaks from being corned. Everyone responds by aiming their guns at him and demanding he assume the position. To get him to better go along with it, Waters says to him they "wanna help" him "find his parents". To that he responds by taking off his helmet, as a signal he'll accept his arrest, to which the police respond by cuffing him face down on a vehicle hood. They go into his truck and they find the gurney as well as the dead couples, confirming their profile.

Profile
The killer is extremely methodical, especially compulsive shown in his tricking out his truck for safety and his attacks being on days with the number 3 in them. He's paranoid about going back out onto the road for safety reasons, yet he does it as part of his compulsion. He specifically targets couples, and he'll do whatever damage he wants to get to them, meaning he has a purpose for targeting them, even taking their bodies away. When it's revealed he has a limp, they realize it's crucial to the accident as well as other factors like the couples, the truck, the road, and the dates. It also adds to his safety precautions, need of a gurney, and compulsive recreation of the accident. When his identity was found and he was captured, it was confirmed he wanted to recreate the accident to save even one couple to reenact how he would save his parents, though that cycle of fallacy lead him to kill each couple only to try and find another one when he repeated his cycle.

Modus Operandi
Hambling targeted young, Caucasian driving couples who reminded him of his parents and were on the new roads that used to be the interconnected US 11, a road notoriously used for trucks in its day. He used his stolen Royal Redd rig truck reinforced with caging in the front seats to prevent him from crashing, his cargo hold for where he holds the bodies of the couples he kills. He keeps a gurney at the door to the container, and he wears a leather racing outfit with boots as well as a motorcycle helmet to disguise himself and add more cushion to prevent him from crashing. He would always play "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream during the murders to evoke the time his family's accident happened, likely also the song playing in the car when the collision took place. He created fatal accidents by pulling up next to or in front of the couples' car, preventing them from trying to get ahead of him when he blocked their way. When another car came, he would swerve to disorient the drivers in both cars to have them crash head on or swerve and crash in whatever direction they veered off toward, killing or injuring all drivers and passengers inside. He even had no hesitation to massacre six passengers inside one van. When the crash happened, he'd pull his truck over and get out to check on the couple. Because they always died from the crash, he'd take their corpses using the gurney he had in his truck, keeping them in the freezer compartment he set up in a false sense of "keeping close to" his family. He would rip out an old part of their cars as souvenirs, then personally deliver them spruced up to a homeless man in Detroit named Emmett, whom he somehow had a bond with, so Emmett could take care of them in his collection at a chop shop junkyard. He always target the states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, not far from where his parents died, his murders always occurring on a day of the month with the number 3 in it, 3rd, 13th, 23th, etc.

Known Victims

 * Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana:
 * Probably other car crash victims


 * Illinois and Indiana:
 * Two unidentified couples
 * Numerous unidentified other drivers and passengers (killed and/or injured)


 * Missouri:
 * Glenn Foster and his unidentified girlfriend
 * Likely other unidentified victims (killed and/or injured)


 * Champaign, IL:
 * Stephen and Jacqueline Caldwell
 * Six unidentified carpooling cheerleaders in the van


 * Birchfield, IN:
 * Unidentified couple
 * Likely other unidentified victims in the accident


 * Missouri:
 * Samantha Waters and John Grant (attempted, but was arrested instead)

Trivia

 * Hambling's crimes appear to be based on the Colonial Parkway killer, responsible for the killings of thre couples and the disappearance of one of them. Glenn Foster's crash appears to be inapirewd by the fatah crash that killed actor james Dean, who's mentioned in the episode.