American Monsters: Robert Ben Rhoades
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Sources:
https://www.gq.com/story/truck-stop-killer-gq-november-2012?printable=true https://serialkillershop.com/blogs/true-crime/regina-kay-walters-truck-stop-killer https://www.murderminute.com/story/the-truck-stop-killer https://allthatsinteresting.com/robert-ben-rhoades
https://thoughtcatalog.com/christine-stockton/2018/08/things-you-need-to-know-about-regina-kay-walters-robert-ben-rhoades-and-the-most-terrifying-photograph-of-all-time/
Zevon Odelberg is a true crime podcast host and disability advocate. Zevon has cerebral palsy and he wants Kinda Murdery to be welcoming community for people with disabilities and for people living with challenges of any kind. Life can be hard, but being together makes it better.
Speaker 1: Warning, Kind of Murdery contains adult themes, explicit language, and
Speaker 1: descriptions of violence. It is not suitable for anyone, and
Speaker 1: we recommend you stop listening now.
Speaker 2: True crime with a dash of the paranormal, the garish,
Speaker 2: the strange in the darkly comic. I'm zevn Odelberg, host
Speaker 2: of Kind of Murdery, a podcast that's about more than
Speaker 2: just murder. It's my very own pocket dimension, home to
Speaker 2: a curated collection of bizarre and compelling stories, the unsolved,
Speaker 2: the unsettling, and the unbelievable. I cover it all just
Speaker 2: so long as it's kind of Murdery. That's right, folks,
Speaker 2: Just like it says in the intro, I am zevn Odelberg,
Speaker 2: and this is kind of Murdery. Welcome. I'm glad you're here.
Speaker 2: I first encountered the story of the truck Stop Killer
Speaker 2: in an article with the same name, written by Vanessa
Speaker 2: Vasselka and published in GQ on October twenty fourth, twenty twelve.
Speaker 2: In her GQ article, Vanessa Vselka tells her story in
Speaker 2: first person. The story you're about to hear on this
Speaker 2: episode of Kind of Murdery is Vanessa's story combined with
Speaker 2: information and narratives from other sources I've consulted and told
Speaker 2: in the third person to create a version of the
Speaker 2: truck stop Killer's story that is both personal and general,
Speaker 2: factual and emotional, and of course true. We're headed for
Speaker 2: a dark, haunting ride down an abandoned highway full of
Speaker 2: hidden dangers and unforgivable violence. So buckle up and join
Speaker 2: me as we uncover what truth we can and solve
Speaker 2: what mysteries we may kind of murderies. The truck stop
Speaker 2: Killer starts now. He methodically proud the highways, targeting teenage
Speaker 2: girls who had run away, those seemingly invisible to the world.
Speaker 2: In the scorching summer of nineteen eighty five, she was
Speaker 2: one such girl. A chance encounter on nine ninety five
Speaker 2: with a stranger led to the most petrifying ordeal of
Speaker 2: her life. Years later, she revisits the haunts of her
Speaker 2: fraught youth, seeking insights into the terror she faced and
Speaker 2: the fate of the girls who were not as lucky.
Speaker 2: In the sweltering summer of nineteen eighty five, near Martinsburg, Pennsylvania,
Speaker 2: the grim discovery of a body in a truck stop
Speaker 2: dumpster sent shockwaves through the area. The girl had just
Speaker 2: secured a ride and found herself in a nearby truck.
Speaker 2: Heard driver momentarily away to settle the fuel payment. When
Speaker 2: the body was discovered, The discovery unleashed chaos. A restaurant
Speaker 2: employee burst out doors, urging onlookers to keep their distance,
Speaker 2: as a curious crowd formed under the drizzle around the dumpster.
Speaker 2: The murmurs among the gathered revealed the victim was a girl,
Speaker 2: a teenage hitchhiker. This hit close to home as she
Speaker 2: was a teenage hitchhiker herself, and with a shudder, she
Speaker 2: realized that the victim's fate could easily have been hers.
Speaker 2: Her gaze followed the truck driver as he navigated the
Speaker 2: rainslicked asphalt back to their vehicle. A sinister thought crept
Speaker 2: into her mind. Could her driver be the murderer? His
Speaker 2: demeanor upon returning did nothing to quell her fears. With
Speaker 2: a brief comment about avoiding delays, he promptly resumed their journey,
Speaker 2: conspicuously avoiding any mention of the tragedy unfolding behind them.
Speaker 2: As they departed, she glanced in the side mirror, capturing
Speaker 2: a final image of the scene. Now being cordoned off
Speaker 2: by crime tape as additional law enforcement arrived. This moment,
Speaker 2: etched in her memory, marked the beginning of a haunting
Speaker 2: journey into the heart of darkness that lay hidden along
Speaker 2: the highways. Her ride to North Ohio with this particular
Speaker 2: trucker was unexpectedly pleasant, marked by the simple comforts of
Speaker 2: diet coke, the anthems of Bruce Springsteen, and the shared
Speaker 2: silence that comes with mutual respect. The trucker, by offering
Speaker 2: lunch without expecting anything in return, earned a rare esteem
Speaker 2: in the girl's eyes, a fleeting glimpse of decency in
Speaker 2: a world that often showed her the opposite. However, the
Speaker 2: precarious nature of her travels was brought back into stark
Speaker 2: relief several days later, on a southward path along I
Speaker 2: ninety five through the Carolinas. A new ride. Another trucker,
Speaker 2: distinguished by his tall, lean frame and the unusual choice
Speaker 2: of a cotton button down instead of the typical trucker attire,
Speaker 2: presented a facade of cleanliness and order in his cab
Speaker 2: that was enough to persuade her to join him. Initially,
Speaker 2: he might have seemed safe, but as they merged onto
Speaker 2: the open road, his demeanor took a dark turn. He
Speaker 2: withdrew into silence, ignoring her attempts at conversation, and transformed
Speaker 2: before her eyes. His posture straightened, his expression morphed into
Speaker 2: a mix of arrogance and emptiness, and then, unsettlingly, he
Speaker 2: began to speak. His topic of choice was morbid, focusing
Speaker 2: on the recent discovery of a dead g girl in
Speaker 2: a dumpster, a subject that chilled her to the bone
Speaker 2: given her own close proximity to that exact scene days before.
Speaker 2: But it was the trucker's introduction of the Laughing Death Society,
Speaker 2: a group that mocked the finality of death, that truly
Speaker 2: unsettled her. We laugh at Death, he declared, a statement
Speaker 2: that encapsulated the terror of the situation and underscored the
Speaker 2: unpredictable danger of her hitchhiking existence. Minutes after the conversation
Speaker 2: had veered into the morbid territory of death and mockery,
Speaker 2: the trucker abruptly steered his truck onto the road's shoulder,
Speaker 2: adjacent to a wooded area. He pulled out a hunting
Speaker 2: knife and issued a chilling command for her to move
Speaker 2: to the back of the cab. Desperately, she employed words
Speaker 2: as her defense, repeatedly pleading with him and telling him
Speaker 2: over and over again that he didn't have to do this,
Speaker 2: that it was his choice, it was his choice, telling
Speaker 2: him he had the power to not proceed, and promising
Speaker 2: to be quiet if she was spared. Please, she said,
Speaker 2: you don't have to do this. It's your choice. It's
Speaker 2: your choice. But when his gaze met hers, a silent
Speaker 2: understanding passed between them. The time for words had ended. Instinctively,
Speaker 2: she knew the grim finality of her situation. Then, unexpectedly,
Speaker 2: he uttered a single word run. Eating this command without hesitation,
Speaker 2: she fled into the woods, concealing herself for what felt
Speaker 2: like hours until the truck's departure signaled it was safe
Speaker 2: to emerge. Despite the encroaching darkness and the lingering shock,
Speaker 2: she found herself back on the same road, thumb outstretched,
Speaker 2: continuing her journey southward, never reporting the incident. Years later,
Speaker 2: in the spring of twenty twelve, a friend's message brought
Speaker 2: the past into stark relief, linking her to a news
Speaker 2: story about Robert Ben Rhodes, a convicted serial killer and
Speaker 2: long haul trucker. Initial photographs of roads didn't trigger recognition. However,
Speaker 2: images of his younger self stirred a haunting familiarity. The
Speaker 2: resemblance lay in the glasses, the cheekbones, and the unmistakable
Speaker 2: arrogant expression. Although despite those similarities, doubts lingered. Her memories
Speaker 2: of the trucker painted him as older, and Rhodes was
Speaker 2: only thirty nine at the time, but perhaps he appeared
Speaker 2: older than that in a teenager's eyes. To many teenagers,
Speaker 2: thirty nine is ancient. The peculiar lighting of that cloudy
Speaker 2: day just before a storm, cast everything, including her memory,
Speaker 2: in shades of gray, leaving her to ponder the identity
Speaker 2: of the man who had let her run, and to wonder,
Speaker 2: as she often had over the years, why he did.
Speaker 2: Upon receiving an email from her friend asking if Rhodes
Speaker 2: was the guy, she reached out to the FBI, though
Speaker 2: she admitted to herself that part of her felt a
Speaker 2: sense of relief when her messages went unanswered. The incident
Speaker 2: was a distant memory, twenty seven years old, and in
Speaker 2: the eyes of the law, perhaps not actionable. Yet, the
Speaker 2: photographs of Rhodes haunted her, along with a cascade of
Speaker 2: questions that refused to be silenced, the possibility that the
Speaker 2: man who had threatened her life could be responsible for
Speaker 2: the death of the hitchhiker in the dumpster, and others
Speaker 2: nodded her. Why had she been spared, who was the
Speaker 2: girl discarded so callously in the dumpster? And why had
Speaker 2: she remained silent for so long? Driven by a need
Speaker 2: for closure and understanding rather than a fascination with the macabre,
Speaker 2: she delved into the dark world of Robert Ben Rhodes.
Speaker 2: Despite her lack of interest in serial killers, she discovered
Speaker 2: that Rhodes was infamously well documented through articles, television episodes,
Speaker 2: and books with titles like Driven to Kill, Roadside Prey,
Speaker 2: and Killer on the Road. She confronted the horrifying reality
Speaker 2: of the man that she may have encountered. Rhodes, a
Speaker 2: sexual sadist, had left a trail of unimaginable cruelty, abducting women,
Speaker 2: subjecting them to prolonged torture and rape before finally ending
Speaker 2: their lives. His activities in the nineteen eighties remained obscured
Speaker 2: by shadows, yet it was known he frequented the BDSM
Speaker 2: and Swinger Sirs in Houston and was married at the
Speaker 2: time his confession upon capture, claiming a fifteen year span
Speaker 2: of criminal activity, suggested his crimes dated back to the
Speaker 2: nineteen seventies. The three years leading up to his arrest
Speaker 2: saw him in the vicinity of fifty unsolved murders, as
Speaker 2: evidenced by his trucking logs. While direct connections to Rhodes
Speaker 2: for all fifty cases remain unconfirmed and Rhodes himself only
Speaker 2: acknowledged three murders, the FBI believes that at his most
Speaker 2: active he may have been responsible for the deaths of
Speaker 2: one to three women monthly. This chilling insight into rhodes
Speaker 2: life offered a grim understanding of the depths of human depravity,
Speaker 2: raising profound questions about evil, survival and the elusive nature
Speaker 2: of justice. Robert ben Roade's reign of terror was abruptly
Speaker 2: halted by an Arizona State trooper's discovery that would chill
Speaker 2: the spine of anyone who heard it. A woman, Lisa Pennell,
Speaker 2: was found screaming chained in the back of rhodes truck cab,
Speaker 2: leading to his immediate arrest on charges of kidnapping and assault. However,
Speaker 2: it was the harrowing case of Regina Walters that would
Speaker 2: ultimately seal Rhodes's fate, condemning him to a life behind bars. Regina,
Speaker 2: a fourteen year old girl from Pasadena, Texas, became one
Speaker 2: of Rhodes's most notorious victims after she and her boyfriend
Speaker 2: Ricky Jones accepted a ride from him in February of
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety. Jones' life was swiftly extinguished, his body later
Speaker 2: found in Mississippi, while Regina endured a nightmarish existence for
Speaker 2: weeks under Rhodes's control. The details of Regina's ordeal are harrowing.
Speaker 2: Rhodes subjected her to unimaginable acts of cruelty, including shaving
Speaker 2: her head in pubic hair, piercing her body with fishing hooks,
Speaker 2: and forcing her into a black dress and heels. He
Speaker 2: documented her terror in photographs before ultimately strangling her with
Speaker 2: a garret fashioned from baling wire. Her slight, one hundred
Speaker 2: pound frame was discarded at an Illinois barn off of
Speaker 2: Interstate seventy, where it was left to decay, a silent
Speaker 2: testament to the brutality she suffered. This tragic narrative resonated
Speaker 2: deeply with the girl now woman whose story we're telling
Speaker 2: mirroring her own past experiences in a haunting echo of despair.
Speaker 2: Like Regina, she had ventured away from home with an
Speaker 2: older boyfriend, placing her trust in the transient mercy of
Speaker 2: truck drivers for survival. Regina's story illuminated an unforgiving reality.
Speaker 2: Within the vast, anonymous expanse of the road. She became invisible,
Speaker 2: her suffering unnoticed by those who encountered her, the forgotten
Speaker 2: in a world where danger lurked in the guise of
Speaker 2: salvation and the line between life and death was perilously thin.
Speaker 2: In early nineteen eighty five, she was fifteen and found
Speaker 2: herself grappling with a predicament that far outweighed the typical
Speaker 2: concerns of adolescence. It was a relentless challenge just to
Speaker 2: find a safe place to sleep. Her departure from home
Speaker 2: was not a journey embarked upon lightly, but a desperate
Speaker 2: escape from life in New York City that had become untenable.
Speaker 2: She fled the city accompanied by her twenty one year
Speaker 2: old boyfriend. Their meager possessions included sixty dollars a Smith
Speaker 2: and Wesson five shot revolver, which they inadvertently discharged during
Speaker 2: a heated debate about whether or not the safety was
Speaker 2: on in a Maryland field a guitar and a knapsack
Speaker 2: filled with memories of her youth. Her decision to leave
Speaker 2: home was not rooted in a desire for adventure, but
Speaker 2: rather a profound sense of necessity. At home, the escalating
Speaker 2: conflict and emotional turmoil between herself and her mother had
Speaker 2: become unbearable, with no apparent resolution in sight. Discussions about
Speaker 2: relocating to her father's in Virginia offered little solace. Her
Speaker 2: academic struggles and personal battles with self harm were outward
Speaker 2: manifestations of a deep seated feeling of alienation in her mind.
Speaker 2: Her physical departure merely formalized an emotional detachment that had
Speaker 2: long since taken hold. In a symbolic act of severance,
Speaker 2: she obliterated every photographic trace of herself beyond the age
Speaker 2: of twelve, racing any potential leads that might be used
Speaker 2: in a police search. This destruction was an expression of
Speaker 2: her feelings of invisibility and a profound disconnection from her past,
Speaker 2: as she ventured into an uncertain future with little more
Speaker 2: than hope for something resembling safety and peace, Her journey
Speaker 2: into the unknown began in the depths of a Maryland winter.
Speaker 2: The girl and her boyfriend stayed in an abandoned barn
Speaker 2: that stood as a silent sentinel beside the freeway. The barn,
Speaker 2: with its loft pierced by the chill winds through broken slats,
Speaker 2: nestled amidst the landscape of brown, grassy fields and frozen mud,
Speaker 2: bore an uncanny resemblance to the grim final resting place
Speaker 2: of Regina Walters. That night, amidst the biting cold that
Speaker 2: made sleep and elusive dream, she poured her thoughts into
Speaker 2: a small journal, a solitary act of defiance against the
Speaker 2: darkness that enveloped her. By the first light of dawn,
Speaker 2: they were on the move again, their figures shrouded in hoodies,
Speaker 2: navigating the icy gauntlet of the highway. Their fortunes took
Speaker 2: a temporary turn for the better when a trucker emerging
Speaker 2: with the daybreak, offered them passage. The experience of riding
Speaker 2: high in the cab of a semi warmed by the
Speaker 2: heater and overlooking the endless stream of traffic was a
Speaker 2: novel and welcome change from the frigid ordeal of hiking
Speaker 2: along the highway. The trucker, a seemingly genial host, extended
Speaker 2: his hospitality further with a meal of chicken fried steak
Speaker 2: and engaged in light conversation. He even allowed them the
Speaker 2: luxury of napping in the cab as he drove. However,
Speaker 2: this brief rest was shattered when she awoke to find
Speaker 2: the trucker's hand inappropriately placed under her shirt. In a
Speaker 2: moment of shock and violation, she chose stillness and silence,
Speaker 2: feigning sleep to avoid what could be a dangerous confrontation. Later,
Speaker 2: seizing a moment of perceived normalcy, they stepped out of
Speaker 2: a small truck stop, only to return to a stark realization.
Speaker 2: The truck, along with their belongings, was gone. The guitar
Speaker 2: that carried the melodies of home, the knapsack filled with
Speaker 2: cherished keepsakes, all vanished, leaving them with nothing but the
Speaker 2: clothes on their backs, and the smith and wesson, which
Speaker 2: would later be sold in New Orleans as a final
Speaker 2: separation from their past. This first ride set the stage
Speaker 2: for her future encounters with truckers, a mix of evading,
Speaker 2: unwelcome advances and the risk of abandonment. The experience taught
Speaker 2: her a vital survival rule, always be ready to exit
Speaker 2: when a truck slows down. Initially, having a boyfriend made
Speaker 2: sleep manageable, as one of them could keep watch while
Speaker 2: the other rested, But six weeks in they got in
Speaker 2: a fight and broke up in Arizona, leaving her to
Speaker 2: navigate the dangers of the road alone without a fake ID.
Speaker 2: Shelters were off limits, and the vulnerability of sleeping alone
Speaker 2: on the streets or the demeaning trade off of sex
Speaker 2: for a place to sleep were unappealing options. Thus she
Speaker 2: returned to hitchhiking, mastering a state of semi alertness that
Speaker 2: allowed her to rest without fully succumbing to sleep, maintaining
Speaker 2: a precarious awareness of her surroundings. Trucks became her chill
Speaker 2: and sanctuary over cars, for the semblance of safety that
Speaker 2: they offered at truck stops. Her jery into a truck
Speaker 2: was visible, noted and discussed over CB radios, providing a
Speaker 2: layer of visibility of public existence that was crucial for
Speaker 2: her survival. Yet this visibility came with its own risks,
Speaker 2: a high stakes game of brinksmanship where the consequences of
Speaker 2: a trucker's intentions became magnified. In this environment, She navigated
Speaker 2: a delicate balance, living in the narrow margin of safety
Speaker 2: that existed before a situation could escalate, a testament to
Speaker 2: her resilience and adaptability in the face of constant uncertainty.
Speaker 2: In the nineteen eighties, truck stops were mysterious domains, detached
Speaker 2: from the gaze of the external world, shrouded in dim
Speaker 2: lighting in the haze of cigarette smoke, a stark contrast
Speaker 2: to today's family oriented travel plauses. The shelves were laden
Speaker 2: with adult magazines from glossy publications like Hustler and Barely
Speaker 2: Legal to cheaper newsprint editions, all flaunting lurid The counters
Speaker 2: near the registers were cluttered with dubious items like isobutal
Speaker 2: nitrate and so called aphrodisiacs such as locker room and
Speaker 2: Spanish Fly, alongside bumper stickers proclaiming ass, gas or grass.
Speaker 2: No one rides for free. Within this harrowing pastiche of
Speaker 2: the crass, the visceral, and the downright dangerous, her concerns
Speaker 2: were pragmatic rather than ideological. The immediate need was to
Speaker 2: secure rides. The hostile atmosphere often barred her from entering
Speaker 2: the restaurant area, as the prevailing assumption cast on any
Speaker 2: unaccompanied woman was that she was a prostitute. By default,
Speaker 2: this suspicion relegated her to soliciting rides near the shower area,
Speaker 2: a strategy that was obviously fraught with its own dangers. Gradually,
Speaker 2: she adapted, learning to leverage the trucker's use of CBE
Speaker 2: radios to arrange transportation indirectly. The Zoo channel, notorious for
Speaker 2: its unfiltered and often offensive banter, was there's no place
Speaker 2: for a woman's voice, which would invariably provoke a barrage
Speaker 2: of vulgar commentary. On the CB, women were crudely referred
Speaker 2: to as beaver, a dehumanizing label even the well intentioned used.
Speaker 2: While trying to assist her. They concocted stories to garner
Speaker 2: sympathy and secure her a ride. A fabricated tale of
Speaker 2: a woman needing to reach flagstaff for a relative's funeral,
Speaker 2: invariably cast as an innocent victim of a callous boyfriend
Speaker 2: who had absconded with all of her possessions. This method
Speaker 2: of securing rides, while effective, underscored the lengths to which
Speaker 2: she had to go to navigate the perils and prejudices
Speaker 2: of the road. Through her journey, she leaped from truck
Speaker 2: to truck, literally seldom touching the ground. Yet even in
Speaker 2: constant motion, safety remained elusive. Adhering to her guiding principle
Speaker 2: that the only safe truck was won in motion meant
Speaker 2: she was perpetually alert. Every change in speed, every turn, downshift,
Speaker 2: or drift towards the shoulder snapped her awake. The toll
Speaker 2: of constant vigilance and sleep de probation led her to
Speaker 2: categorize her encounters based on a scale of sexually aggressive behavior,
Speaker 2: ranging from one to five, from benign to overtly threatening.
Speaker 2: One the driver kept any sexual thoughts to himself. Two
Speaker 2: the driver propositioned her offering to pay for sex. Three
Speaker 2: the driver asserted she owed him sex for the ride
Speaker 2: and the meal, threatening to leave her in a dangerous
Speaker 2: location if she refused. Four the driver made good on
Speaker 2: that threat, abandoning her in a perilous place. Five she
Speaker 2: found herself contemplating escape at the slightest indication of a threat,
Speaker 2: ready to jump from the truck to avoid assault. Most
Speaker 2: truckers fell within the middle of this scale, but the
Speaker 2: one who had resembled Robert Ben Rhoades, the notorious truck
Speaker 2: stop killer, was off the charts. The presence of the
Speaker 2: hunting knife and his demeanor neither nervous, angry nor excited,
Speaker 2: but calm and methodical, placed him in a category of
Speaker 2: his own, more akin to a hunter pairing for a
Speaker 2: kill than a long haul trucker. Her research into Rhodes
Speaker 2: twenty seven years later highlighted his preference for hitchhikers over prostitutes,
Speaker 2: especially targeting runaways. The first step in his pattern involved
Speaker 2: luring them into his sleeper cab modified with anchor points
Speaker 2: for restraints. Though she hadn't seen any shackles, his knife
Speaker 2: was evidence enough of his intentions. It has to be him,
Speaker 2: a friend had said, I mean, how many of these
Speaker 2: guys could there be? According to the FBI, the terrifying
Speaker 2: answer is a lot of them. The grim reality of
Speaker 2: the dangers lurking along the nation's highways was starkly highlighted
Speaker 2: in two thousand and nine when the FBI launched the
Speaker 2: Highway Serial Killings Initiative. This program was a response to
Speaker 2: an alarming trend. A growing number of bodies, predominantly women,
Speaker 2: discovered along the edges of the interstates, many discarded in dumpsters.
Speaker 2: Focusing on victims last scene near truck stops and rest areas,
Speaker 2: the FBI identified over five hundreds such cases. Among the suspects,
Speaker 2: nearly all were long haul truckers, painting a harrowing picture
Speaker 2: of the risks associated with transient lifestyles Intersecting with these
Speaker 2: mobile predators, The existence of individuals like Rhodes who preyed
Speaker 2: on vulnerable women and evaded capture was a reality the
Speaker 2: girl was all too painfully aware of, even without official confirmation.
Speaker 2: The truck stop rumor mill was rife with horrifying tales
Speaker 2: of violence against women, from brutal slayings to gruesome acts
Speaker 2: of retaliation by truckers against those they accused of transgressions.
Speaker 2: The Cbee radio, a lifeline and a source of community
Speaker 2: for many on the road, also carried the desperate calls
Speaker 2: of prostitutes, known derogatorily as lot lizards, looking for clients
Speaker 2: among the truckers, an echo of their parallel, perilous existence
Speaker 2: in this world. The distinction between a hitchhiker and a
Speaker 2: prostitute was often blurred by the trucker's perceptions, casting her
Speaker 2: by association as a lot lizard as well. This label
Speaker 2: signified more than a mere occupation. It marked her as expendable,
Speaker 2: a person whose disappearance might not be noticed or investigated
Speaker 2: for months, if at all. The challenge of connecting a
Speaker 2: missing person's report in one state to human remains found
Speaker 2: in another was daunting, a fact underscored by the overwhelming
Speaker 2: response to a teletype message sent by Illinois state troopers
Speaker 2: seeking information on missing young females. The request aimed at
Speaker 2: identifying Regina Walters, yielded over nine hundred matches, a stark
Speaker 2: testament to the scale of the crisis and the anonymity
Speaker 2: that shielded roadway predators. The woman in twenty twelve, who
Speaker 2: had been the fifteen year old girl in nineteen eighty five,
Speaker 2: knew that if any connection to roads existed, it would
Speaker 2: hinge on the discovery of the teenager in the dumpster.
Speaker 2: Details from that case could pinpoint a date and location
Speaker 2: to cross reference with roads trucking logs. Offering a straightforward
Speaker 2: answer to the haunting question was Rhades. The trucker she
Speaker 2: encountered her initial step searching for dead girl, truck stop Martinsburg,
Speaker 2: yielded no leads. Unsurprising giving the events timing in the
Speaker 2: pre digital era. Exploring Martinsburg, Pennsylvania, she found it unexpectedly small,
Speaker 2: a mere dot unlikely to host a significant truck stop.
Speaker 2: This prompted her to consider other Martinsburgs across states like Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri,
Speaker 2: West Virginia, and New York. A crucial piece of her
Speaker 2: history involved a visit to her father in Virginia a
Speaker 2: week before the discovery of the body in the dumpster.
Speaker 2: Her dad was a man of modest means, making her
Speaker 2: hesitant to impose further. Upon departing, she sought a ride
Speaker 2: toward an imagined brighter future in California, a detail her
Speaker 2: father confirmed years later without hesitation, pinpointing Martinsburg, West Virginia
Speaker 2: as her departure point. Curiously, she asked her father were
Speaker 2: there any murders that summer, to which he recalled the
Speaker 2: message she left him warning of a seventeen year old
Speaker 2: female hitchhiker found dead and ensuring him that it wasn't
Speaker 2: her that she was safe. This confirmation was a relief,
Speaker 2: solidifying the existence of both the Martinsburg truck stop in
Speaker 2: her story and the unfortunate hitchhiker. The challenge now was
Speaker 2: to delve deeper, fortified by the knowledge that her memories,
Speaker 2: despite their haziness from sleep deprivation, were rooted in an
Speaker 2: awful reality. The investigation into Robert ben Roade's heinous crimes
Speaker 2: formed a daunting maze that stretched across local and federal jurisdictions,
Speaker 2: encompassing five states before converging on Houston, Texas. This focal
Speaker 2: point emerged not by chance, but due to a myriad
Speaker 2: of connections binding key elements of the case to the state.
Speaker 2: Rhodes himself hailed from Texas, as did his wife, Deborah Davis,
Speaker 2: and the unfortunate victims Regina Walters and Ricky Jones, alongside
Speaker 2: others he had ensnared within Texas's borders. Seeking deeper insights
Speaker 2: into the case, she traveled to Austin, Texas to consult
Speaker 2: with two f former FBI operatives, Mark Young and Robert
Speaker 2: f Lee, both of whom had dedicated a significant portion
Speaker 2: of their careers to unraveling the road's mystery. Young, with
Speaker 2: his dual expertise as a profile and a field agent,
Speaker 2: offered her a nuanced understanding of criminal patterns over a
Speaker 2: meal located at a local sushi restaurant. He delineated the
Speaker 2: distinction between a criminal's modus operendi or mo mutable habits
Speaker 2: shaped by circumstance and whim and their signature, the immutable
Speaker 2: mark of their inner compulsions. Rhodes methods varied, employing firearms, ligatures,
Speaker 2: and likely knives in his assaults, yet it was his
Speaker 2: signature that laid bare the unchanging core of his sadism.
Speaker 2: The ritualistic shavings of his victims heads and pubic areas,
Speaker 2: along with piercings, bruisings, and other indicators of sustained torture,
Speaker 2: tracing back to deep seated, perverse fantasies that remained consistent
Speaker 2: over time. Mark Young, standing at an imposing six foot four,
Speaker 2: embodied the legacy of a Texas law man through the generations.
Speaker 2: He unveiled the ordeals of Shanna Holtz, a grim prelude
Speaker 2: to the capture of Regina Walters. Rhodes, detained for assaulting Holtz,
Speaker 2: had ensnared her at a truck stop, subjecting her to
Speaker 2: a harrowing captivity, and escaped from his truck's confines at
Speaker 2: a Houston brewery. Although Rhodes was known for chaining his victims.
Speaker 2: Young clarified that Holtz had not been shackled when she escaped.
Speaker 2: Rhodes had told her to sit there and be a
Speaker 2: good girl. Shana Holt's resilience forged from years of survival
Speaker 2: on the streets to fight Rhodes's expectations, leading her to
Speaker 2: flee and momentarily land him in the hands of justice,
Speaker 2: although she ultimately refrained from pressing charges. Young goes on
Speaker 2: to share photographs of truck stop killer Robert Ben Rhodes
Speaker 2: with our protagonist, the woman who had been that fifteen
Speaker 2: year old runaway nineteen eighty five and was now on
Speaker 2: a mission to determine if the man she had escaped
Speaker 2: was in fact the notorious truck stop killer. The pictures
Speaker 2: stir memories and the peculiarities of recognition, underscoring the fallibility
Speaker 2: of memory itself. Amidst all this, Young anticipates her recounting
Speaker 2: a narrative that she has reluctantly become more acquainted with.
Speaker 2: She finds herself sharing her story once again, despite its
Speaker 2: emotional toll. Part of her survival strategy was to look
Speaker 2: through a trucker's cassette collections, a tactic which provided both
Speaker 2: a distraction and a means to gauge the driver's demeanor,
Speaker 2: a method that revealed a critical shift in one particular
Speaker 2: driver's attitude. This part of her story leads to a
Speaker 2: discussion with Mark Young on the significance of weapons, with
Speaker 2: Young noting a gun was about control, but a knife
Speaker 2: is personal, highlighting the intimate brutality that Rhodes preferred. The
Speaker 2: conversation then turns analytical as she probes the nature of
Speaker 2: her encounter, comparing it to Rhodes's psychological profile. Young's observation
Speaker 2: that the trucker's willingness to share his morbid fascinations without
Speaker 2: physical restraint suggests a predilection for terror as manipulation, a
Speaker 2: trait resonant with Rhodes's own modus OPERENDI. But a real
Speaker 2: serial killer wouldn't have let me go, right, she asks Young.
Speaker 2: His reply is speculative. I don't know. Maybe he didn't
Speaker 2: think you'd run. Even at the time, She'd wondered if
Speaker 2: her decision to run away was merely a component of
Speaker 2: his twisted game. Rhodes harbored a profound fascination with games,
Speaker 2: drawing considerable influence from the book game's people play, which
Speaker 2: positive that each social interaction was a strategic game. This book,
Speaker 2: particularly the game's Courtroom, Beat Me Daddy, and Frigid Woman,
Speaker 2: described scenarios that Rhodes found captivating, even reflective of his
Speaker 2: own manipulative endeavors. He frequently referenced this book, treating it
Speaker 2: as a guide for his actions. His correspondence with his
Speaker 2: wife underscored his mindset, especially his advice that one could
Speaker 2: play pass or run, a mantra that echodominously in her ears,
Speaker 2: resonating with her own harrowing experience. The more she uncovered
Speaker 2: about roads, the clearer the disturbing parallels between their lives became.
Speaker 2: While she navigated the perils of hitchhiking, he roamed the
Speaker 2: highways with sinister intent. As she honed her survival skills,
Speaker 2: Rhodes refined his predatory techniques, sharpened his teeth and claws.
Speaker 2: Among the documents that Young had spread out for her
Speaker 2: to review was a photograph of Regina Walters, captured moments
Speaker 2: before her life took a tragic turn. The image showed
Speaker 2: Regina radiating youth and joy, a stark contrast to her
Speaker 2: tragic fate. The photograph provided by Regina's mother had been
Speaker 2: pivotal in confirming her identity with Young, noting the distinctive
Speaker 2: small gap in her teeth and matching freckles. Young Men
Speaker 2: presented another photograph, this one of a young girl, possibly
Speaker 2: Native American, an unidentified victim, who sat in Rhodes's truck,
Speaker 2: appearing disoriented or tired. Her untouched, glossy black hair suggested
Speaker 2: the photo was taken when she had been one of
Speaker 2: Rhode's recent captives. If he'd had her for long, her
Speaker 2: head would have been shaved. These haunting images served as
Speaker 2: grim reminders of the unknown numbers of Rhodes's victims, their
Speaker 2: stories untold, and faces unrecognized. On the phone. Retired FBI
Speaker 2: agent Robert F. Lee was civil and to the point,
Speaker 2: but not overtly warm. She arrived at his door in
Speaker 2: the sweltering heat, was greeted and then ushered into a
Speaker 2: spacious living room. Lee, imposing and capable, could easily be
Speaker 2: mistaken for someone still active in the field. A whimsical
Speaker 2: pink plastic castle stood in his living room. Granddaughter, he explained,
Speaker 2: on the couch lay a large pillow adorned with the
Speaker 2: FBI seal that's from my old swat jacket, Lee shared
Speaker 2: with a grin, noting the emblem's retirement due to its
Speaker 2: resemblance to a target. She sensed that Lee liked it
Speaker 2: when people were concise, and aimed to cut straight to
Speaker 2: her pressing questions, But before she could, Lee interrupted her
Speaker 2: with a profound statement. I just want you to know,
Speaker 2: he said, earnestly, making eye contact, that what Rhodes did
Speaker 2: to those women, he did to those women, you didn't
Speaker 2: do it. This unexpected reassurance from Lee shifted the atmosphere,
Speaker 2: addressing an unspoken guilt she'd harbored about not contacting the
Speaker 2: police sooner. His acknowledgment of her feelings without prior confession
Speaker 2: was startling and provided a moment of raw honesty. She
Speaker 2: confessed to Lee a truth she had kept from others,
Speaker 2: that her silence had been born from the fear that
Speaker 2: no one would believe her. I just didn't think anyone
Speaker 2: would believe me, she said, well, Lee reflected, acknowledging the
Speaker 2: validity of her concerns. You're probably right, look at Lisa Pennell.
Speaker 2: Pennell was identified as the woman found chained in Rhodes
Speaker 2: truck upon his arrest in Arizona. The fantastical nature of
Speaker 2: these stories led detectives to doubt her reliability for trial.
Speaker 2: Her statement, recorded on the night she was freed from
Speaker 2: Rhodes Truck remains a tool that Lee uses to educate
Speaker 2: police detectives on interrogation techniques. He presents the tape, querying
Speaker 2: detectives on their perceptions. The common response labels her as
Speaker 2: a prostitute, embroiled in a quote Transaction gone Bad, showing
Speaker 2: detective's predisposition to trust Rhodes over Pennell. Lee points out
Speaker 2: that quote, of course, Lisa was talking all sorts of
Speaker 2: crazy stuff, microchips in her brain, holds in the ozone layer,
Speaker 2: she was wearing those lion slippers, but she was telling
Speaker 2: the truth. Vanessa Elka, the woman interviewing Lee who had
Speaker 2: once been the fifteen year old runaway in nineteen eighty five,
Speaker 2: envisioned Lisa Penel as a figure akin to a truck
Speaker 2: stop Collie, Collie being the Hindu goddess of destruction, wandering
Speaker 2: the outskirts in her denim skirt and fuzzy lion slippers,
Speaker 2: crowned with an ozone layer for a halo, an image
Speaker 2: both vivid and haunting, yet easily dismissed by those who
Speaker 2: failed to see beyond the surface. Rhodes had a pattern
Speaker 2: of targeting women perceived as lacking credibility, a tactic ensuring
Speaker 2: that their stories would be met with skepticism or outright disbelief.
Speaker 2: This sense of incredibility was not only imposed by external judgment,
Speaker 2: but sometimes internalized by the victims themselves, as painfully evidenced
Speaker 2: by Shane Holtz, the young woman who managed to escape
Speaker 2: from roads at the brewery. Holt's resignation to the futility
Speaker 2: of seeking justice was encapsulated in her police statements concluding lines,
Speaker 2: she said, I don't see any good in filing charges.
Speaker 2: It's just going to be my word against his. If
Speaker 2: there was any evidence, I would file, I would file
Speaker 2: charges and sue him. Understanding the weight of Holt's final
Speaker 2: remarks took her a moment. What evidence could Shana possibly
Speaker 2: be considered to lack? Discovered running naked and screaming through
Speaker 2: the streets of Houston, her body was a testament to
Speaker 2: her ordeal, marked with DNA evidence, her head and pubic
Speaker 2: hair forced removed, Rhodes's chain still draped around her neck.
Speaker 2: The question of lacking evidence seemed almost absurd, Yet her statement,
Speaker 2: it would just be my word against his, resonated deeply,
Speaker 2: hinting at an unspoken continuation of that gut wrenching thought,
Speaker 2: who is going to believe me? This echoed a sentiment
Speaker 2: all too familiar, one that could easily have been her
Speaker 2: in her own youth, a soft, despairing whisper seeking belief
Speaker 2: in a world so quick to doubt. The deeper her
Speaker 2: investigation into rhodes life and crimes went, the more apparent,
Speaker 2: the unsettling parallels between their two lives became Hers and Rhodes.
Speaker 2: Despite the chasm between their intentions, one a survivor and
Speaker 2: the other a predator, they shared the grueling rhythm of
Speaker 2: life on the road. Both faced the relentless monotony and
Speaker 2: sleepless nights that come with constant movement, their world oscillating
Speaker 2: between tedium and terror. As she honed her instincts for
Speaker 2: survival amidst the ceaseless uncertainty of hitchhiking Rhodes in a
Speaker 2: dark mirroring was likely refining his methods of predation. Each
Speaker 2: had developed their own coping mechanisms, their rituals for navigating
Speaker 2: the endless highways and their own cynical conclusions about human
Speaker 2: nature and its responses to extremity. This reflection did not
Speaker 2: equate their actions, but illuminated the disturbing thought that life
Speaker 2: on the road could shape individuals in profoundly different, yet
Speaker 2: parallel ways. Her decision to reach out to Rhodes was
Speaker 2: fraught with reluctance, primarily due to her fear that he
Speaker 2: might actually write back. Yet motivated by the necessity of
Speaker 2: understanding and the strategic advice of Mark Young, who noted
Speaker 2: Rhodes pensiant for being regarded as an authority, she crafted
Speaker 2: a letter. Her letter, steeped in deliberately chosen permissive language,
Speaker 2: sought to coax Roads into a semblance of a collaboration
Speaker 2: by inviting him to educate her on her survival tactics
Speaker 2: during her time on the road. The act of writing
Speaker 2: to someone known for his sadistic crimes was an ordeal
Speaker 2: in itself, especially given her acute awareness of his capacity
Speaker 2: for cruelty. Rohad's existence wasn't so much a life of duality,
Speaker 2: but one cloaked in darkness. An image circulating online showcased
Speaker 2: him in leather and chains, a visual testament to his
Speaker 2: dark inclinations. This photograph, however, captured a moment from a
Speaker 2: Halloween party in Houston, where he adopted the role of
Speaker 2: a slave led by his wife in the guise of
Speaker 2: a dominatrix. This stark representation contrasted sharply with the grim
Speaker 2: reality of his actions and was a chilling reminder of
Speaker 2: the facade he presented to the world. Deborah Davis first
Speaker 2: met Robert Benjamin Rhodes at chip Kickers, a lively Houston
Speaker 2: bar in the nineteen eighties. Rhodes dressed like an airline
Speaker 2: pilot and managed to captivate Davis with his fabricated identity.
Speaker 2: The truth about his impersonation unfolded months later when they
Speaker 2: were dating, yet Davis chose to stay with him, a
Speaker 2: decision that highlights Road's manipulative charm and charisma and demonstrates
Speaker 2: his persuasive abilities. Rhodes, even while being extradited to Illinois
Speaker 2: under heavy restraints and clad in a conspicuous orange prison jumpsuit,
Speaker 2: managed to charm a waitress into giving him her phone number.
Speaker 2: While you or I may question that waitress's judgment, the
Speaker 2: stories of women carrying on love affairs with convicted murderers
Speaker 2: are Legion, and the fact that she gave her number
Speaker 2: to a manacled man in prison jumpsuit Orange underscores Rhodes's
Speaker 2: skillful manipulation and the extent of his charismatic influence. Deborah Davis,
Speaker 2: who would eventually marry Robert Benjamin Rhoads and become Deborah Rhodes,
Speaker 2: resides in College Station, Texas, leading a life that has
Speaker 2: moved beyond the shadows of her past with Rhodes. Her
Speaker 2: children from a prior union before she met Rhodes have
Speaker 2: all grown up, and now she lends her voice to
Speaker 2: combating domestic violence, sharing her insights in various forums, including
Speaker 2: conferences and educational sessions. Despite Davis's efforts to distance herself
Speaker 2: from the traumatic years spent with Rhodes, his presence intermittently
Speaker 2: resurfaces through letters. The letters, varying in tone from threatening
Speaker 2: to seemingly concealty, remain a constant reminder that Rhodes himself
Speaker 2: could teach a masterclass in manipulation. During the summer of
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty five, the summer when teenaged Vanessa became a runaway,
Speaker 2: Rhodes was employed by a trucking company located in Georgia
Speaker 2: with premises directly off the I ninety five. She recounted
Speaker 2: her experiences to Davis, and upon mentioning the abrupt change
Speaker 2: in the trucker's demeanor, Davis's response was immediate and affirming.
Speaker 2: That's him. That's exactly like him, she exclaimed, indicating that
Speaker 2: she recognized the pattern in rhodes behavior. Davis also mentioned
Speaker 2: that Rhodes initially might have left his firearm at home,
Speaker 2: opting instead for a knife. While Davis acknowledged other aspects
Speaker 2: of the story with that sounds like Bob, her confirmations
Speaker 2: varied in conviction, leaving some room for doubt regarding her
Speaker 2: total agreement. Young Lee and Davis were all unfamiliar with
Speaker 2: the Laughing Death Society. Considering its significance to her story,
Speaker 2: she questioned whether this absence of knowledge might diminish the
Speaker 2: likelihood of Rhodes's involvement. Don't you think that facts start
Speaker 2: to rule him out? She asked. However, Davis dismissed her doubts,
Speaker 2: reinforcing Rhodes's interest in clandestine organizations. Oh no, not at all,
Speaker 2: she responded. Bob was fascinated by secret societies. Davis brought
Speaker 2: up the distressing story of Colleen stan who was abducted
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy seven and subjected to years of torture
Speaker 2: by her captors, who fabricated the existence of a menacing
Speaker 2: group known as the Company to deter her attempts to escape.
Speaker 2: Bob was obsessed with how they used an imaginary secret
Speaker 2: society to keep her from running away, Davis remarked, while
Speaker 2: discussing Rhodes's fascination with the psychological control that the kidnappers
Speaker 2: exerted over Colleen. His instruction to Shana Holtz to quote
Speaker 2: sit there and be a good girl unquote, and the
Speaker 2: fact that Regina Walters was seen apparently unconfined in standing
Speaker 2: outside his truck exemplified his preference for psychological over physical bondage.
Speaker 2: Rhodes's interest in such control mechanisms aligned with his sadistic nature,
Speaker 2: illustrating a brutal, almost scientific approach to ensnaring and manipulating
Speaker 2: his victims. Davis's inquiry about rhodes attire during her encounters
Speaker 2: brought a unique focus to the narrative, a detail often
Speaker 2: overlooked yet vivid in memory. Do you remember what he
Speaker 2: was wearing? Davis asked quietly, The absence of the casual
Speaker 2: wear that most truckers preferred with roads not donned in jean's,
Speaker 2: a T shirt or a flannel pointed to a specific
Speaker 2: image he aimed to project. His preference for matching dickies,
Speaker 2: typically in dark blue, as Davis revealed, was deliberate. He
Speaker 2: liked people to think he was in uniform, she explained,
Speaker 2: reminiscent of the time that she met him impersonating an
Speaker 2: airline pilot. Further discussion about the state of rhodes Cab
Speaker 2: led her to tell Davis that it was meticulously clean,
Speaker 2: a characteristic that Davis affirmed matched Rhodes's broader behavior pattern.
Speaker 2: This pensant for cleanliness and order was not limited to
Speaker 2: his vehicle, but extended to his personal living spaces and
Speaker 2: even his appearance while incarcerated, indicating a deep seated need
Speaker 2: for control and presentation. When she mentioned the spotless truck Cab,
Speaker 2: Davis replied that sure sounds like Bob. When I first
Speaker 2: saw his apartment, I thought I walked into the showroom
Speaker 2: of a furniture store. Even in jail, his shirt and
Speaker 2: pants were always ironed and pressed. In Martinsburg, West Virginia,
Speaker 2: she'd expected to find the location of the truck stop
Speaker 2: where so many years ago that body had been discovered
Speaker 2: in the dumpster, But the truck stop had been replaced
Speaker 2: by a vast Walmart with a huge parking lot, Like
Speaker 2: so much of what she remembered from her years on
Speaker 2: the endless highway that which once was had been erased.
Speaker 2: The demolition of the truck stop and its adjoining restaurant
Speaker 2: had occurred five years earlier, yet intriguingly, a website for
Speaker 2: the Martinsburg Travel Center of America persisted its presence online,
Speaker 2: flickering like a distant, unreachable beacon of bad times. Past
Speaker 2: efforts to secure a Shana Holtz police report or were
Speaker 2: thwarted by the claim that no official suspect had been named,
Speaker 2: rendering the document inaccessible. Similarly, Lisa Pennell's comprehensive statement had
Speaker 2: been discarded to free up filespace, a justification that seemed
Speaker 2: to trivialize the significance of her testimony. The obliteration of
Speaker 2: the Martinsburg truck stop, now the site of a Walmart supercenter,
Speaker 2: symbolized a broader trend of vanishing evidence and memories related
Speaker 2: to those who had once crossed path with the truck
Speaker 2: stop's shadowy figures. Upon discovering that the Martinburg Police's jurisdiction
Speaker 2: over the former truck stop was actually under the Berkeley
Speaker 2: County Sheriff's domain, her next step was clear. Contacting the
Speaker 2: Sheriff's office led her to an automated greeting, but eventually
Speaker 2: she got in touch with a live representative and initiated
Speaker 2: a conversation that she hoped would uncover a potential homicide
Speaker 2: record from the summer of nineteen eighty five at the
Speaker 2: Martinsburg truck stop. When she asked about records, the deputy's
Speaker 2: reply was brief, we don't have any records. At first,
Speaker 2: she thought they meant digital records. Come down. In person,
Speaker 2: she offered, we don't have any records, the deputy repeated,
Speaker 2: leaving her with yet another dead end. As it turned out,
Speaker 2: in the nineteen nineties, a critical incident at the Berkeley
Speaker 2: County Sheriff's Department resulted in the loss of significant historical data.
Speaker 2: Their computer system crashed and burned. Compounding this digital disaster,
Speaker 2: the department had previously disposed of paper records to free
Speaker 2: up filespace, effectively erasing any archival material from the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 2: She made a request to converse with any senior officer
Speaker 2: who might have served during that time. The response was disheartening.
Speaker 2: There was only one officer who fit the criteria, and
Speaker 2: he was currently unreachable. Having, wait for it, gone fishing,
Speaker 2: she dedicated a week to traversing the roads of Appalachia,
Speaker 2: stopping at various truck stops, seeking insights from the older
Speaker 2: generation of truckers and waitresses. Initially, inquiries were specific to
Speaker 2: the girl found in the dumpster, yet this line of
Speaker 2: questioning led nowhere, as no one seemed aware of such
Speaker 2: an incident. Her questions then broadened to any knowledge of
Speaker 2: women founded truck stops, but the response was consistently dismissive,
Speaker 2: testing such events never occurred. This widespread denial stood in
Speaker 2: stark contrast to the alarming statistics compiled by the FBI
Speaker 2: over three decades, indicating, as I had mentioned in episode one,
Speaker 2: at least nine hundred such cases. The silence extended to
Speaker 2: local newspapers, reflecting a societal disinterest in the fate of
Speaker 2: serial killer victims. And and this is my note, the
Speaker 2: fact that people often used denial as a form of
Speaker 2: self protection, and likely nobody wanted to believe that something
Speaker 2: like that could happen in their community. Her encounter with
Speaker 2: a library archivist shed some light on the phenomenon. The
Speaker 2: lack of attention to such stories stemmed in part from
Speaker 2: a reluctance to engage with narratives involving victims seen as outsiders.
Speaker 2: The girl wasn't one of our own. She was a drifter,
Speaker 2: the archivist remarked. The labeled drifter hit her like a
Speaker 2: punch in the gut. She had been a drifter too,
Speaker 2: and she knew then what she had always known, what
Speaker 2: she had been fighting so hard to disprove. It was
Speaker 2: a painful truth. The stories of drifters, the stories of
Speaker 2: those who live in the margins, often vanish, leaving barely
Speaker 2: a trace in the collective memory or in official records.
Speaker 2: The pursuit of understanding and acknowledgment for these lost lives
Speaker 2: seemed to dissipate, much like a path fading into the wilderness,
Speaker 2: challenging the very possibility, or perhaps proving the near impossibility,
Speaker 2: of bringing their stories to light. Unwilling to give up,
Speaker 2: she made a final desperate effort, visiting a smaller truck
Speaker 2: stop in Hancock, Maryland, where she had a conversation with
Speaker 2: a longtime employee. She told the story of the dead
Speaker 2: girl and the dumpster and the truck stop employee who
Speaker 2: idly touched the gold cross around her neck listened intently.
Speaker 2: When asked if she'd ever heard of such an incident,
Speaker 2: she initially responded with a shake of her head, signaling
Speaker 2: no recollection. A moment of reflection brought a change in
Speaker 2: her demeanor, her eyes taking on a thoughtful haze. Wait
Speaker 2: a minute, she said, there was that one girl. She
Speaker 2: was a prostitute. They found her near a dumpster behind
Speaker 2: the restaurant at the Gateway Travel Plaza in Breezewood. She
Speaker 2: had a stalking down her throat. I think the woman shivered.
Speaker 2: That was way back in the early seventies, though she recalled.
Speaker 2: The revelation from the woman at the Hancock truck Stop
Speaker 2: inadvertently led to a significant discovery, albeit not the one
Speaker 2: she had initially sought. The incident the woman recalled did happen,
Speaker 2: but she'd gotten the timeframe wrong. It was actually from
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty seven, involving a nineteen year old girl named
Speaker 2: Lamonica Cole, not the early seventies. She discovered this detail
Speaker 2: later in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, which chronicled Lomonica's tragic
Speaker 2: end in Breezewood, a victim of strangulation. Additionally, the article
Speaker 2: mentioned another similar grim fate of a woman in two
Speaker 2: thousand and six, also associated with Breezewood, her life cut
Speaker 2: short with her throat's slit found far away from where
Speaker 2: she had last been seen. While these cases were tangential
Speaker 2: to the primary search, they introduced a broader pattern of
Speaker 2: violence that aligned closely with the timeline that she was
Speaker 2: interested in. The article from the Gazette mentioned a series
Speaker 2: of murders targeting prostitutes at truck stops starting in June
Speaker 2: of nineteen eighty five, precisely aligning with the critical period
Speaker 2: that she was investigating. The next morning led her to
Speaker 2: the Gateway Travel Plaza in Breezewood, Pennsylvania, a site with
Speaker 2: a dark history of known murders. She hoped that Gateways
Speaker 2: notoriously blood soaked past would make the locals more open
Speaker 2: to sharing their memories. Upon arrival and a brief walk
Speaker 2: past the truck's only signage in the section for professional drivers,
Speaker 2: her quest to find someone with memories from nineteen eighty
Speaker 2: five succeeded when she met a woman in her mid
Speaker 2: fifties who greeted her with an open smile. The questions
Speaker 2: she posed were direct. Did you ever hear about a
Speaker 2: hitchhiker and a dumpster? No, said the woman. She tried
Speaker 2: widening the scope of her question. Did you ever hear
Speaker 2: of anything like that at all? In other times? Any
Speaker 2: other bodies of women found along this stretch of the
Speaker 2: I seventy No, said the woman. I never heard of
Speaker 2: anything like that anywhere. While listening to people's responses at
Speaker 2: the Gateway travel plaza, a vivid memory resurfaced. Being in
Speaker 2: the woods off of I ninety five, the panic, the
Speaker 2: visceral survival instinct that drove her to run nearly one
Speaker 2: hundred yards before concealing herself, uncertain of pursuit. The physical
Speaker 2: act of muffling her breath with her shirt a raw
Speaker 2: testament to the fear and urgency of the moment. This
Speaker 2: memory prompted a profound realization about the nature of her quest.
Speaker 2: It was not merely an investigative journey akin to the
Speaker 2: plot of a detective story. Rather, it had morphed into
Speaker 2: something far more ethereal and haunting. It had become a
Speaker 2: ghost story. The stories of Regina Walters, Shana Holtz, and
Speaker 2: Lisa Pennell emerged not merely as testimonies or cases to
Speaker 2: be solved, but as spectral presences, each embodying a facet
Speaker 2: of girlhood tragically halted, each embodying a facet of herself.
Speaker 2: Regina captured in a moment of laughter and lightness, Shana
Speaker 2: defined by her resilience and changed appearance, Lisa marked by
Speaker 2: a ready defiance. All coalesced into a haunting narrative. Their experiences,
Speaker 2: though distinct, interwove to form a tragic, blood curdling tapestry
Speaker 2: of memory and loss, casting their collective shadows across her investigation,
Speaker 2: transforming it into a journey through the echoes of lives interrupted,
Speaker 2: a journey through her own trauma. The New Jersey Supreme Court,
Speaker 2: in a landmark statement dating back to twenty twelve, offered
Speaker 2: a profound insight into the nature of human memory, highlighting
Speaker 2: its complexities in the inherent unreliability that accompanies it. This
Speaker 2: judicial observation raised significant doubts about the reliability of eyewitness testimony,
Speaker 2: a cornerstone of legal evidence for centuries. The court metaphorically
Speaker 2: differentiated memory from the precise capture of a video recording, instead,
Speaker 2: suggesting that it resembles a collection of still photographs. The
Speaker 2: analogy acknowledges the fragmentary and selective aspects of how memories
Speaker 2: are formed, stored, and recalled, underscoring the fact that human
Speaker 2: recollection is subject to distortions, omissions, and influences that can
Speaker 2: dramatically alter the perceived reality of an event. When she
Speaker 2: read this, she found herself agreeing with the court, and
Speaker 2: her own memories came flooding back like fragments of a dream,
Speaker 2: vivid and disjointed, each one etched with its own unique hue.
Speaker 2: In her mind's eyes, she sees a descent through the
Speaker 2: rugged terrain of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The trucks breaks ablaze,
Speaker 2: the night alive with the symphony of insect chirps. As
Speaker 2: she plunges over Chester Gap, there's the lingering image of
Speaker 2: sitting amidst a gentle drizzle by a truck, the air
Speaker 2: heavy with the tension of a crime scene unfolding nearby.
Speaker 2: Ohio's highways blur past, accompanied by the anthems of Bruce Springsteen,
Speaker 2: the rush of diet cokes fueling a fleeting sense of
Speaker 2: freedom soon eclipsed by the inevitability of the journey's end.
Speaker 2: And then there's the haunting memory of the woods beside
Speaker 2: I ninety five, a fleeting moment of uncertainty and fear
Speaker 2: as she sprints and hides, her breath ragged against the
Speaker 2: silence of the forest. In that surreal moment, as the
Speaker 2: world hanks suspended between dusk and impending storm, she finds
Speaker 2: solace in the rhythmic cadence of her own heartbeat, unaware
Speaker 2: of what lies ahead, yet undeterred by the unknown. One
Speaker 2: snowy night, several months after the incident on the I
Speaker 2: ninety five, when she'd sprinted for her life into the woods,
Speaker 2: she finds herself hitchhiking through Amherst, Massachusetts, when a car
Speaker 2: full of students from Hampshire College pick her up and
Speaker 2: offer her a place to stay. The next morning. May
Speaker 2: encourage her to apply to the college, and to her surprise,
Speaker 2: she's accepted. College acceptance provides a thin strip of pride
Speaker 2: on which to stand while she reconnects with her family.
Speaker 2: Her mother is willing to pay for her schooling, and
Speaker 2: being sixteen and in college feels like an easier situation
Speaker 2: to discuss than the fact that she ran away or
Speaker 2: what happened while she was hitchhiking along the endless Highway.
Speaker 2: College appears to be a solution that brings redemption, but
Speaker 2: it's a solution that doesn't last long. The dissonance between
Speaker 2: her emotional world and the one around her is still
Speaker 2: too great, leading her to leave once again, albeit in
Speaker 2: a more sanctioned manner. She hitchhikes through Europe and eventually
Speaker 2: settles in Vienna for a few years before moving again
Speaker 2: and living among artists in the Lower East Side squats
Speaker 2: of New York City. We return now from the bohemian
Speaker 2: adventures of her early twenties to the adult woman investigating
Speaker 2: roads twenty seven years later. In twenty twelve, when she
Speaker 2: returned home from West Virginia, a letter from Rhodes awaited her.
Speaker 2: It contained a demand that she meet him under the
Speaker 2: condition that she never disclosed their encounter or what transpired
Speaker 2: between them. It was precisely the kind of response a
Speaker 2: sexual predator or a child molester would make. Moreover, he
Speaker 2: requested five hundred dollars in response him the journalistic ethics
Speaker 2: prevented her from paying for interviews. She anticipated that this
Speaker 2: would be the end of their communication, but she received
Speaker 2: another letter. It seemed that Young was correct. Rhodes considered
Speaker 2: himself an expert and proposed that he be compensated as such. However,
Speaker 2: she couldn't help but wonder an expert in what killing.
Speaker 2: At the bottom of the yellow legal paper in bold capitals,
Speaker 2: he emphatically declared it wasn't me. As she pondered the letter,
Speaker 2: she acknowledged that while he might be technically correct, she'd
Speaker 2: never be sure. It certainly wasn't because he was innocent.
Speaker 2: For a brief moment, she entertained the idea of traveling
Speaker 2: to Illinois. She envisioned navigating the paperwork, submitting to fingerprinting,
Speaker 2: and being escorted through a series of air locked doors
Speaker 2: into a room with him. She imagined him sitting there
Speaker 2: with his impeccably pressed shirt and overwhelming arrogance. They would
Speaker 2: conduct the interview, but she wouldn't bother taking notes. Ultimately,
Speaker 2: his words wouldn't matter. It would inevitably boil down to
Speaker 2: his word against her, and who would believe him. During
Speaker 2: the same time that she was receiving letters from Rhodes,
Speaker 2: the senior officer from the Berkeley County Sheriff's Department returned
Speaker 2: from his fishing trip. He adamantly denied any accounts of
Speaker 2: girls ever being found in a dumpster at the Martinsburg,
Speaker 2: West Virginia, truck stop, leaving her with no reason to
Speaker 2: question his assertion. One story shared by Deborah Davis continued
Speaker 2: to haunt her thoughts. Deborah recalled a journey she had
Speaker 2: embarked on with her husband, Bob, the man who would
Speaker 2: later become infamous as the notorious truck stop killer Robert
Speaker 2: Benjamin Rhodes. It was their final voyage together. In his truck,
Speaker 2: traveling westward on iten, they made a stop at a
Speaker 2: bustling truck stop in Arizona. Near the entrance of the
Speaker 2: restaurant stood a young woman with a baby, desperately seeking
Speaker 2: a ride. Deborah, feeling a pang of empathy, contemplated offering assistance,
Speaker 2: perhaps money, or support. Memories of her own sister, who
Speaker 2: had faced life on the streets flooded her mind, amplifying
Speaker 2: her empathy. Yet, when Bob Rhodes, deborah husband, noticed his
Speaker 2: wife's concern, he approached her from behind, gripping her shoulders
Speaker 2: and slowly guiding her gaze toward the girl. In a
Speaker 2: low voice, he whispered in her ear. Do you see that, Debbie,
Speaker 2: She's one of the invisible people. Oh man, that guy
Speaker 2: is a monster. Poof. I'm glad we made it through
Speaker 2: that story together. Until next time, I'm Zevan Odeleberg and
Speaker 2: this has been kind of murdery.
Speaker 1: Should you like the show, please subscribe, review and tell
Speaker 1: your friends. You can find us on social media at
Speaker 1: kinda Murdery or email at kindomurdery at gmail dot com.
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