Alleged Killer Says He Feared He Would Kill His Ex-Wife

EUREKA, Calif. —  Long-haul trucker Wayne Adam Ford, who has confessed to killing four women, told authorities he turned himself in to prevent himself from killing his ex-wife and leaving his cherished son an orphan.

“He said he was ashamed of what he was doing and his anger was mostly directed against his wife and he was getting more angry at her every day” for keeping him from seeing their son, Humboldt County Coroner Frank Jager Jr. told the Associated Press.

“And if he didn’t do something, he would end up doing the same thing to her and that worried him, because if something happened to her, his son would be an orphan,” Jager said Saturday.

Ford, 36, a long-haul trucker from Arcata, was being held on $1 million bail in the slaying of an unidentified woman whose headless torso was found floating Oct. 26, 1997, in Ryan Slough outside Eureka. He has also confessed to killing three other women he picked up and had sex with during his trucking trips. Their nude bodies were all dumped in waterways.

People who knew Ford have said he regularly complained that since his separation and divorce from his wife in Las Vegas over the past two years, he has been frustrated in his efforts to see their son, who turns three next month. Their divorce decree gave him limited visitation.