I was still in shock, so I walked back out to the same road and started hitching south. She came over and gave me an open smile. I remember thinking it could be me, since I was also a teenage hitchhiker. Robert's first confirmed victims were in 1990. ", Pennal was the woman chained into Rhoades's truck when they arrested him in Arizona. He kidnapped women, tortured and raped them for weeks before killing them. Rhoades is currently serving life sentences in Illinois for three murders. Rhoades in Bond County IL Barn. His truck is said to have contained a homemade torture chamber. He'd told Shana Holts to "sit there and be a good girl." Law enforcement eventually learned that in addition to BDSM, Rhoades was a swinger who regularly had sexual liaisons with other married people in his hometown of Houston, Texas. She later stated she did not report the incident because no one would have believed her, since there was no evidence. She looks happy. From award-winning writing and photography to binge-ready videos to electric live events, GQ meets millions of modern men where they live, creating the moments that create conversations. In it, she's sitting in the backseat of a car. This tells me that he liked manipulating through terror. The driver reached the cab, swung up behind the wheel, and said we should get going. This Picture was the key evidence photo. The officer saw that the truck's driver, 44-year-old Robert Ben Rhoades, was also in the vehicle, and he was able to handcuff the middle-aged man and place him in the back of his patrol car. That's exactly like him!" I said it was his choice. The more I learned about Rhoades, the more I saw parallels between us. Out of desperation I made one last attempt and swung by a smaller truck stop in Hancock, Maryland. Griselda Blanco. I remember a fuel island in the blue morning light and a driver with a white shirt that stood out like a flag, and taking the turn back east, then south, and a gray day just before a storm so pressurized my ears hurt. You told me I owed you sex for the ride and chicken-fried steak and threatened to drop me off somewhere dangerous. The arrest set off a chain of events that led to Robert being convicted for three murders and suspected of many more. Rhoades was handcuffed and placed in the back of the patrol car while Miller questioned the woman in the truck. The woods were blue in the gray light, which was either dusk or a coming storm. Regina Walters had been seen in Chicago standing freely outside his truck in a public place. Criminals. From reading about Rhoades, I knew that he preferred hitchhikers to prostitutes and specifically targeted runaways. It doesn't matter what he says. The barn had a loft with wind coming through broken slats and was surrounded by the same kind of brown grassy field and frozen mud. Anyone want to party?". Girls who'd run away. The birds went silent, and I didn't know what it meant. A few days later, Robert kidnapped another couple. If there are more murder confessions to make, there may be time yet for other families to find some semblance of closure and justice. Unbeknownst to Regina Walters or Ricky Jones, the man behind the wheel was Robert Ben Rhoades, also known as the Truck Stop Killer. You were not under his control. When a state trooper founda nude woman chained up and terrified in the cab of Robert Ben Rhoades's vehicle, he inadvertently stumbled upon a sadistic serial killer who had been using his job as a long-haul truck driver to find vulnerable victims for years. 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. Criminal. She had existed enough for me to call my dad all those years ago and warn him about what he would read. She later stated that she wasnt comfortable with some of the things he made her do. Records on her would provide a date and a place that could then be checked against Rhoades's trucking logs. Eventually, law enforcement discovered Robert Ben Rhoades was a serial killer, in addition to being a sexual sadist who enjoyed torturing women and girls. They were stringing crime tape around the Dumpster just as another state trooper rolled into the lot. A signature, however, does not change. There was talk of me going to live with my dad in Virginia, where I had traditionally spent my summers. To at least one of my questionswas Rhoades my guy?I'd have a clear answer, a simple yes or no. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Murder Victim. I began talking, saying the same things over and over. After that, she spoke of feeling inadequate and questioning if something was wrong with her. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. Before serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades killed his victims, he like to snap a photo of them. Last Photo Taken of Regina before she was killed by Robert Ben Robert Ben Rhoades is considered to be one of the most notorious serial killers in the country. He got over 900 matches. I wrote him back and told him that journalistic standards wouldn't allow me to pay for interviews. Robert was pulled over on the I-90 with his hazard lights flashing when a state trooper drove by and decided to check if the driver needed help. His trucking logs place him in the area of fifty unsolved murders in the three years prior to his arrest alone. He's there with his neatly pressed shirt and colossal arrogance. Rhoades must have just picked her up, because he hasn't cut her hair yet. On the table in front of Young was a snapshot of Regina Walters that I hadn't seen, taken not very long before she was abducted. The body was found in 1990, but not identified until 1992. The phrase "play, pass, run" is used twice in the letter. The only thing they neglected to take down is a website with the words Martinsburg TravelCenter of America flashing like a beacon online. Candace Walsh and her husband Douglas Zyskowski were hitchhiking when Rhoades' picked them up in a truck stop. Debra also talked about Robert having sex with her against her will one time, which finally pushed her to end things with him. Rhoades looked like the guy who picked me up. Debra stated that he seemed like a nice guy, and they eventually started dating. I remember coming down through the Blue Ridge Mountains in a truck with its brakes on fire and dropping over Chester Gap in the middle of the night when it was still hot and the air was loud with the chirping of bugs. This former trucker is believed to have killed over 20 people spanning from 1975 to 1990. So, if youre curious about where Debra might be today, heres what we know. Rhoades swiftly killed Jones so he could abduct Walters and keep her to abuse at his will. Through these stories, I jumped from truck to truck. "We don't have any records," she told me. "Did you ever hear of anything like that at all, in other times, any other bodies of women found along this stretch of I-70? "Don't you think that fact starts to rule him out? How could she lack evidence? He stopped responding to my questions. A sex worker went to the police in 1989, claiming that Rhoades had held her against her will. Also like me, Regina became dependent upon the grace of truck drivers. There was a gap before that line, and most truckers wouldn't take it that far. ", 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. Rhoades liked to think of himself as an "expert," and now Rhoades suggested he be paid as one. Eventually, law enforcement discovered Robert Ben Rhoades was a serial killer, in addition to being a sexual sadist who enjoyed torturing women and girls. But, months later, she learned that Robert wasnt a pilot. She'd escaped when Rhoades pulled into a Houston brewery. I'd never heard the word "drifter" used in earnest. An unidentified girl, shown here in a photograph taken by Rhoades. The serial killer's name was Robert Ben Rhoades. "He liked people to think he was in uniform," she said. 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. VI, 11, subd. Rhoades received a second life sentence in the plea, in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty. Robert Ben Rhoades was a truck driver with a torture chamber attached to his semi. It's just going to be my word against his. She also had children from another marriage. I crouched on netted twigs and breathed into my shirt to muffle the sound. Investigation Discoverys Evil Lives Here: Deadly Fetish has serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades ex-wife, Debra Davis, talk about when she met Robert and how their relationship ended eventually. That it turned him on, just like Rhoades.". 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. The morning I left, I asked him to take me to the closest truck stop so I could get a ride going toward California. He was involved in the BDSM and swinger scene in his hometown of Houston. I would file charges and sue him.". Robert remained a free man and continued to attack and kill more victims. I ran my story past her. need your help for this. Could Debra help solve an active investigation? You called and left a message a day or so after I dropped you off, saying I was going to read about a dead 17-year-old hitchhiker they found in a truck stop and that it wasn't you.". Rhoades didn't live a double life as much as a shadowed one. Jailed for kidnapping and assault, Rhoades had his house and truck combed over by investigators, who made some gruesome discoveries. He raped, tortured, and killed at least six men. Another prostitute had been grabbed there as well, in 2006, but was found farther down the road with her throat slit. He was given two life sentences inTexas without the possibility of parole. Getting sleep was pretty easy with a boyfriend, because one of us could always stay awake. In one photo, the teen is standing in a barn, clad in a black dress and wearing high-heeled shoes. Once out on the road, though, he changed. "That's from my old SWAT jacket." Eventually, they reconciled and got married as well. Walters, however, did not have such a quick and painless death. He narrowly avoided the death penalty, accepting a second life sentence. The couple were traveling from Georgia to Seattle when they allegedly crossed paths with Rhoades, a long-haul trucker suspected of a decade of rape . 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. Robert Ben Rhoades Popularity . My mother was happy to pay for school. Robert Ben Rhoades, un serial killer amricain, vient de trouver un accord avec le bureau du procureur. At night I listened to the voices of prostitutes on the CB, barely intelligible between streams of name-calling: "Hello, honey. Her eyes are partly closed, as if she's stoned or sleepy. On my way out, I destroyed every single picture of me over the age of 12 so that there would be nothing to give to the police. I asked around until I found someone who had been there in 1985. 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 1989near El Paso, Texas. Even in jail, his shirt and pants were always ironed and pressed.". After Robert Ben Rhoades graduated from high school he decided to follow in his fathers footsteps and joined the Marine Corps. Being 16 and in college is an easier thing to talk about. After Debra Davis interviewed about life with her ex-husband, serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades, Kentucky state troopers reached out, telling her that they suspected Rhoades in a 1985 cold case. Drew Peterson, former police sergeant, was sentenced to 38 years for the murder of his 3rd wife, Kathleen Savio. Rhoades in Bond County IL Barn. Douglas remains were identified in 1992. He was not wearing flannel. I asked. While we were asleep, he pulled into a small truck stop, and I woke to his hand down my shirt. Ad Choices, He was methodical, he rode the highways, and he preyed on teenage girls. The couple had just recently wed and were hitchhiking to Georgia from Texas. People Also Viewed . Robert Ben Rhoades, dubbed the Truck Stop Killer is one of America's most prolific serial killers. ", "Oh no, not at all!" However, she fell asleep shortly after climbing into the vehicle, and when she awoke, she found Rhoades had placed restraints around her wrists and ankles. He shows it and asks what they think is going on. The dungeon-like compartment was described in "Roadside Prey" by Alva Busch, a book written about Rhoades. After dispatching with her new husband, Rhoades allegedly held Walsh captive for approximately one week, repeatedly torturing and abusing the young woman, before shooting her to death and disposing of her dead body in central Utah. Or rather, I remember what he was not wearing. Condamn la prison vie pour une srie de meurtres, il en a confess un nouveau . Women couldn't really get on the "zoo channel," as they called it then, because the sound of their voice would trigger twenty minutes of crass chatter. November 22, 2021. Why did he let me go? to keep expanding and making Murderpedia a better site, but we really He then killed her and dumped her body in Millard County, Utah. Watching the driver of my truck walk back across the wet asphalt, a second thought arose: It could be him. It was off the side of the freeway and probably very much like the one Regina Walters was found in. He was married. Read More: Where is Robert Ben Rhoades Now? She walked back out onto the road and hitchhiked south. I flew to Austin to meet with two retired FBI men, special agents Mark Young and Robert F. Lee, who'd both worked on the case. In Roberts truck, the authorities found his murder kit which contained cords, chains, whips, leashes, and fishhooks. Five years ago, the truck stop was demolished along with its restaurant. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. She was a drifter." Robert was immediately arrested and charged with unlawful confinement, and sexual and aggravated assault. These are narratives we know. Robert Benjamin Rhoades 19451122 - 32 1975199050 While I was hitchhiking, he was driving. He then tried to join the police force but was ultimately denied due to his robbery conviction. Maybe they would remember something the others hadn't. This obviously doesn't recommend the waitress's judgment, but at least some of the credit has to go to Rhoades. Rhoades is thought to have killed Zyskowski while the young man slept. One night on I-95, she hitched a ride from a stranger and endured the most terrifying moments of her life. Most say she's a prostitute and that it's a "transaction gone bad." Last Name Rhoades #7. Robert's victims were hitchhikers. She also claimed that Rhoades was bringing men into their home to act as her sex slaves. Today, Robert, the Truckstop Killer, is 74 and is paying for his crimes, serving two life sentences in the Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois. Truck stops in the 1980s were closed worlds where what went on passed unnoticed on the outside. 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