A traveler who narrowly evaded a notorious criminal shared the chilling last words he uttered to her before she managed to escape.
Robert Ben Rhoades, now 79 years old, earned the moniker the Truck Stop Killer following his conviction for brutalizing and murdering at least two pairs of individuals in Illinois and Texas in 1989 and 1990. Authorities suspect he may have inflicted harm on over fifty women between 1975 and 1990 based on his travel routes and the disappearance of women fitting his victim profile during that period.
Among those who crossed paths with Rhoades, a hitchhiker successfully fled after encountering him in the summer of 1985. Author Vanessa Veselka, now 56, recounted her experience to GQ, recalling witnessing the discovery of a young hitchhiker’s body at a dumpster where she was present.
Several days later, Vanessa was picked up by Rhoades while traveling south on I-95 through the Carolinas. She described him as taller and leaner than most truckers, dressed in a button-down shirt with neatly rolled-up sleeves, and with an exceptionally clean cab.
Unaware of the danger she was in, Vanessa noticed Rhoades growing distant and evasive during their journey along the major highway.
As the atmosphere turned ominous, Rhoades broached the topic of a deceased girl and later brandished a hunting knife after pulling over. Despite being just a teenager at the time, Vanessa managed to escape when the killer allowed her a head start, eventually instructing her to move to the back of the cab before she decided to run.
Rhoades remained unidentified even after hunters discovered skeletal remains in Millard County, Utah, in October 1990. It wasn’t until May 2003 that forensic scientists from the University of Arizona positively identified the victim as 24-year-old Patricia Candace Walsh, who had gone missing along with her husband, Douglas Scott Zyskowski, from Seattle, Washington, in 1989.
Rhoades confessed to the crimes after his arrest, admitting to picking up the hitchhiking couple and subsequently killing Zyskowski before torturing, raping, and ultimately murdering Walsh.
With many other potential victims believed to be linked to him, Rhoades was convicted in 1994 for the murder of Regina Kay Walters, a 14-year-old girl whom he tortured and strangled to death. He was sentenced to life without parole at the Menard Correctional Centre in Chester, Illinois, where he continues to serve his life sentence in a maximum-security facility.