A teenage hitchhiker was able to escape with her life after a chilling encounter with a man who would later be identified as the notorious serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades.
Author Vanessa Veselka has recalled a very close brush she had with death when she was hitchhiking across the US as a teenager.
While Netflix has reinvigorated the fascination around serial killers with its many TV mini-series and documentaries, very few people can say they've come face-to-face with one and lived to talk about it.
Veselka has spoken about the bizarre encounter she had with Robert Ben Rhoades in the summer of 1985, and how by some miracle, she escaped with her life.
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Writing for GQ, the now 56-year-old said she had been at a truck stop riding with another individual when the body of a young teenage hitchhiker was pulled from a truck stop dumpster she was at.
Thankfully, that ride went perfectly fine and the driver and her drove to Ohio while drinking Diet Coke and listening to music. However, a few days later, Veselka would find herself in the car with Rhoades.
Who was Robert Ben Rhoades
Rhoades was a truck driver at the time and had turned his vehicle into a torture chamber, reportedly killing as many as 50 women between 1975 and 1990.
He became known as the ‘Truck Stop Killer’ and his victims would often be hitchhikers, sex workers or young women who were alone at truck stops.
Vanessa Veslka's encounter with Rhoades
Speaking of the incident in her 2012 GQ article, she said: “Several days later, though, heading south on I-95 through the Carolinas, I got picked up by another trucker who was not fine.
“I don't remember much about him except that he was taller and leaner than most truckers and didn't wear jeans or T-shirts. He wore a cotton button-down with the sleeves rolled neatly up over his biceps and had the cleanest cab I ever saw.”
She noted that his demeanour changed when they got out on the road, and he eventually stopped answering her questions.
She added that his bearing shifted, he grew taller in his seat, and his face muscles relaxed into 'something both arrogant and blank'.
Veselka explained that he eventually brought up the topic of the dead girl, and a few minutes later pulled the truck over to the side of a wood and pulled out a hunting knife.
Escaping from the serial killer
Recalling this harrowing moment, Veselka said: "[He] told me to get into the back of the cab. I began talking, saying the same things over and over. I said I knew he didn't want to do it. I said it was his choice. I said he could do it in a few minutes.
"I said I wouldn't go to the cops if nothing happened to me, but it was his choice—until he looked at me and I went still."
By lucky good fortune, Veselka said the killer simply said one word to her: "Run."
Despite thinking she was about to be killed only seconds prior, Veselka quickly sprinted into the woods and hid, waiting for his truck to pull away.
She added that she eventually walked back out into the road and started hitching south, still in shock from the experience.
Recognizing Rhoades years later
She noted that she never told anyone about the encounter for years, and would only come to learn the true depravity of Rhoades in 2012 when a friend sent her a link to a new story about his killing spree.
She said she initially didn’t recognize him, but found pictures of him as a younger man and made the terrifying connection.
In April 1990, Rhoades was finally apprehended by police in Arizona and was charged with aggravated assault, sexual assault, and unlawful imprisonment.
He would be found guilty of a 14-year-old victim, Regina Kay Walters and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Topics: News, US News, Crime, True crime
Gerrard Kaonga