The sheer amount of victims he had coupled with the contrast of how little we know about his crimes makes this case haunting. With all her freckles, she looked very Irish. When he grew tired of her, he choked her to death with a garrote made of baling wire (via The Daily Nonpareil). Serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades kidnapped and tortured his victims inside a chamber set up inside his big rig truck. By her own account, she had been raped at least twenty times and had already had a baby. Eventually she was left unbound. 6min. He narrowly avoided the death penalty, accepting a second life sentence. 202202. Rhoades is thought to have killed Zyskowski while the young man slept. In 2009 the feds went public with a program called the Highway Serial Killings Initiative in response to a rising number of dead bodies found along the interstates. Over lunch at a local sushi place, he taught me the difference between a mode of operation and a signature. Rhoades later was extradited to Texas for the murder of Jones and another victim. Patricia and Douglas were later confirmed as victims of serial killer, Robert Ben Rhoades. There were other points where she saw similarities and would say, "That sounds like Bob," but these were less emphatic, and it was hard to tell what she really thought. There was no safe way for me to get it. And I remember being in the woods off I-95. At the center of everything was my own breath. The prisms of Regina Walters, Shana Holts, and Lisa Pennal refracted into a set of iconsone in the backseat of a car laughing as she leans on the headrest, one with the shorn red-gold hair and an expression of resilience, one slightly crazy and ready to fighteach casting her own light, each a hologram of girlhood. He was involved in the BDSM and swinger scene in his hometown of Houston. "Of course," Lee says, "Lisa was talking all sorts of crazy stuff. Wearing down from lack of sleep and trying to get a handle on my risk level, I began to work off a 1-to-5 scale of sexually aggressive behavior: You (the driver) kept your urges to yourself. I found her in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette later that night. He was not wearing flannel. She was the only person who asked me this, and of course I did. We had $60 and a Smith Wesson five-shot with one bullet in it, which we accidentally fired off in a field in Maryland during a discussion about whether the safety was on. Her arms are in front of her chest, with both hands positioned as if they were recoiling in fear of the person behind the camera. What we do know about this dark story shines a light on the hell faced by as many as 50 women before they met their ultimate demise. Eventually, law enforcement discovered Robert Ben Rhoades was a serial killer, in addition to being a sexual sadist who enjoyed torturing women and girls. A report from 2012 stated that Debra lived in College Station, Texas. Her facial expression could be described as a combination of desperation and abject fear. Some of these were women left in Dumpsters. He was sentenced to life without parole at Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois. Ad Choices, He was methodical, he rode the highways, and he preyed on teenage girls. His first known murder victims were 28-year-old Douglas Zyskowski and his wife, 24-year-old Patricia Walsh, a couple he'd picked up as hitchhikers at the end of 1989 near El Paso, Texas. ", I was in the one place where I knew for certain women had been found, one less than a hundred yards away from where she was standing. Robert's victims were hitchhikers. Robert Andrew "Bob" Berdella was an American serial killer from Kansas City, Missouri. In Martinsburg, West Virginia, where the truck stop should be is a massive Walmart stretching flat and endless along a parking lot the size of a lake. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. The source notes that Rhoades kept a "murder kit" in the cab, containing tools that he would use on anyone unlucky enough to be caught in his lair. He grew taller in his seat, and his face muscles relaxed into something both arrogant and blank. He was convicted for three murders, and slated to be tried for two more before charges were dropped due to the wishes of victims' families. Martinsburg was nothing but a pinprick, just a dot on a minor route feeding into a midsize highway on the outskirts of Altoona, PA, not the sort of place you'd expect to find a busy truck stop. He came around behind her and grabbed her shoulders. The interior of the truck's cab contained a hidden compartment that could only be seen if you were between the seats. Rhoades received a second life sentence in the plea, in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty. The memory was twenty-seven years old, and nothing in it was actionable. It brought her back to that terrifying night in 1985. I began talking, saying the same things over and over. After receiving my friend's e-mail, I left messages with the FBI but was relieved when they were not returned. Piercings around the breasts, bruising, and other signs of torture were also frequently found. Robert Ben Rhoades known as The Truck Stop Killer, is an American serial killer and rapist. After all, it's just going to be his word against mine. According to the FBI, quite a few. Megan Fox. Robert Ben Rhoades, now 74, is currently serving his two life sentences without the possibility of parole at the Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois. 1 of 3 DNA26C-C-24JAN00-EZ-HO --- Convicted murderer Robert Boyd Rhoades was linked to the 1984 slaying of eighteen year-old Julie Connell through DNA records. Stowing his paperwork, he released the brake. Jones was promptly killed, and his remains were discovered later in Mississippi. SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Robert Boyd Rhoades was sentenced Friday to die by lethal injection for the rape, torture and murder of an 8-year-old Yuba City boy kidnapped three years ago while walking. "How many of those guys could there be?". Rhoades had been arrested in early 1990 for a similar kidnapping in Houston, in which he kept an 18-year-old girl in the cab of his truck for two weeks, shaving her pubic hair . "Bob was obsessed with how they used an imaginary secret society to keep her from running away," Davis said. Robert Benjamin Rhoades ( 22 de novembro de 1945) um assassino em srie americano e estuprador. He turned her slowly toward the girl and pointed. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Police looked at the photos, noting that the growth of Regina Walters' hair and the changing color of her bruises meant that she had been in Robert Ben Rhoades' clutches for several weeks (per All That's Interesting). 14-year-old Regina Kay Walters and her boyfriend Ricky Lee Jones had run away from their homes and like Roberts first victims, they were hitchhiking when he picked them up. Fondoleding a fourteen year old girl. He wore a cotton button-down with the sleeves rolled neatly up over his biceps and had the cleanest cab I ever saw. The 27-year-old woman, who had been restrained by both her hands and ankles, was freed by the officer, and once at the police station, she told the officers the horrifying story of how she'd ended up shackled inside the truck and covered in red welts and lacerations. creator of The Wicked Truth - a true crime blog https://ko-fi.com/fatim. While in prison, Robert pled guilty to the murders of Patricia and Douglas. I asked around until I found someone who had been there in 1985. Davis mentioned the case of Colleen Stan, a 21-year-old hitchhiker who had been kidnapped in 1977 by a couple who tortured her and kept her as a sex slave for seven years while she slept in a box under their bed. The general rule was that you were a prostitute until proven otherwise. I watched the truck idle on the side of the road until it finally pulled off. Robert found pleasure in taunting Reginas father about his daughters disappearance and the fact he had cut off her hair. She walked back out onto the road and hitchhiked south. At the time, he was struggling himself, living with several other guys in a house where you flushed the toilet with a bucket of water and working what little construction there was in the county. I was still in shock, so I walked back out to the same road and started hitching south. She had existed enough for me to call my dad all those years ago and warn him about what he would read. The true number of victims of Robert Ben Rhoades may never be fully known, for a variety of reasons. One library archivist explained that I was looking for the kind of news nobody wanted to read. We drove up to Ohio drinking Diet Coke and listening to Bruce Springsteen. Robert Ben Rhoades (born November 22, 1945), also known as The Truck Stop Killer, is a serial killer and rapist and a native of Council Bluffs. Robert Ben Rhoades, truck driver, is a serial killer, and rapist. Young was right. Robert took Regina to an abandoned farmhouse. His bearing shifted. It was a ghost story. If we went missing, months could pass before a report was filed, and by then there was little to connect the missing person in one state with the decomposed remains in another. At night I listened to the voices of prostitutes on the CB, barely intelligible between streams of name-calling: "Hello, honey. Rhoades must have just picked her up, because he hasn't cut her hair yet. "She's one of the invisible people. I remember sitting in the drizzle in a truck while the crime-scene tape was strung around a Dumpster. So I went back to hitchhiking in circles and discovered a state of half-consciousness wherein I could be asleep and not asleep at the same time. Instead, police suspect he held the teenager captive for at least two weeks, subjecting her to sickening acts of torture and rape, before he strangled her to death with a garrote and dumped her corpse in an abandoned barn in Illinois. I said I knew he didn't want to do it. The victim, Lisa Pennal, told Miller that Rhoades had picked her up at a coffee shop in Buckeye, Arizona. The photo was taken by serial rapist, torturer and murderer, Robert Ben Rhoades, who dressed the young teen in a black dress and heels, forcibly cutting her hair for the occasion. The rig was equipped with handcuffs on the ceiling, which enabled Rhoades to chain his female victims so that he could torture them before killing them. There was always a sick mom or dead grandparent involved, and I was almost always abandoned by my jerk of a boyfriend, who'd made off with all my money and my car. Follow us on Twitter: @AShudders. It had the same neutral arrogance. Now, years later, she returns to the scenes of her fugitive youth looking for clues to that terrorand the girls who lost their lives to it, All the Under-$20 Style, Tech, and Home Goods We're Feeling This March, 35 Alarmingly Good Watch Deals to Upgrade Your Wrist, Fellas, You're About to Blow Your Rent Money at the SSENSE Sale, Jeff Staple Breaks Down Pigeon Dunk, Building a Brand & Top 5 Sneakers | My Life In Sneakers, Symbas Slow But Steady Path to Rap Stardom, The Best Sandals for Men Make Every Season Even Hotter. He must have seemed okay or I wouldn't have gotten in the truck with him. I spent a week on the road in Appalachia, visiting truck stops, interviewing the older truckers and waitresses. I hadn't been able to get a copy of Shana Holts's police report because I was told there was no official suspect. I needed visibility to stay alive. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. While passing through various states, he thought he could pick up a hitchhiker here or a sex worker there and no one would notice if they disappeared. I said it was his choice. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories. A remembrance before rape, torture and murder. Robert Ben Rhoades, un serial killer amricain, vient de trouver un accord avec le bureau du procureur. Please enable javascript before you are allowed to see this page. Robert remained a free man and continued to attack and kill more victims. His eyes were greeted with a shocking scene. She had been missing from the Houston area since early 1990 after running off with her boyfriend. Of the 200 people on a suspect list, almost all of them were long-haul truckers. She's tried to put the years with Rhoades behind her but still gets letters from him sporadically. Out of desperation I made one last attempt and swung by a smaller truck stop in Hancock, Maryland. As many he would have picked up were transients themselves, they would most likely not be reported missing for some time after he abducted them. His ex-wives described him as verbally, physically, sexually, and emotionally abusive; one stated he would become sexually aroused when she was suffering from the pain of lupus, an autoimmune disease. She came over and gave me an open smile. One snowy night several months later, I was hitchhiking through Amherst, Massachusetts, and a carful of students from Hampshire College picked me up and let me stay with them. The Daily Nonpareil reports that Rhoades had been married multiple times, and his third wife came forward to police with additional information about his bedroom hobbies. Sexual sadists in particular work off erotic maps established early on. Robert Benjamin Rhoades (born November 22, 1945), also known as The Truck Stop Killer, is an American serial killer and rapist. In 1994, Rhoades was convicted of the first degree murder of Regina Kay Walters and was slated to be tried for two more before charges were dropped due to the wishes of victims' families. I never went to the police and didn't tell anyone for years. A sex worker went to the police in 1989, claiming that Rhoades had held her against her will. The photos stayed in my head, though, and with them came questions: What if the man who pulled the knife on me really did murder the hitchhiker? Debra said she looked about 18 or 19 and desperate. Several months before Walters and Jones climbed aboard Rhoades' big rig,Patricia Walsh and Douglas Zyskowski had the misfortune of crossing paths with the killer. '' Davis said very Irish could only be seen if you were between the.. 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