I'd never heard the word "drifter" used in earnest. I woke when it slowed for traffic. 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. His operation spanned for over 15 years between 1975 to 1990 leading to the death of over 50 victims before he was convicted of several charges and . Or rather, I remember what he was not wearing. Like Regina, I also had a little journal and probably wrote something in it that night, because it was far too cold to sleep. She looks happy. Robert is believed to have tortured, raped, and murdered over fifty women between 1975 and 1990 during truck stops, but because most of his victims were sex workers and hitchhikers it is difficult to confirm exactly who and how many people he has killed. "The defendant essentially agreed to stack the life sentences in Illinois, which means he'll never get out," Smith said. Robert Ben Rhoades, 59, was linked by DNA in 2003 to the murder of 24-year-old Patricia Candice Walsh. Robert Ben Rhoades. Regina Walters and Ricky Jones were from Texas. Follows the disturbing story of truck driver Robert Ben Rhoades, whose obsession with violent sex prompted him to pick up prostitutes, runaways, and lonely women and torture them to death, a practice that went undetected for fifteen years. I quickly realized I would have been nothing but a burden. 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. He then tried to join the police force but was ultimately denied due to his robbery conviction. I never went to the police and didn't tell anyone for years. 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.". She also claimed that Rhoades was bringing men into their home to act as her sex slaves. These were my private feelings. Rhoades was a long-haul trucker, in jail since 1990, who had recently been convicted of a couple of new "cold cases." Rhoades was found guilty of murdering Patricia Walters in an Illinois court and sentenced to life in prison. He also wanted $500. She attested that she was pressured to perform acts to satisfy his masochistic fantasies. "That's him! It's more like a set of still photos. Knowing the capacity of his sadism made this unbearable. That was way back in the early '70s, though.". Megan Fox. she said. Five years ago, the truck stop was demolished along with its restaurant. Had she ever heard about it? . 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. It was off the side of the freeway and probably very much like the one Regina Walters was found in. But I hadn't seen any shackles. "There was that hitchhiker. They get more nuanced and elaborate, but the basic topography remains the same. When they found her, there was shouting. I lived in that gap. To a teenager, though, someone pushing 40 is pretty old, and hair often looks darker in photos. She was a prostitute. Today Rhoades is a prisoner of the Illinois Department of Corrections. Read More: Where is Robert Ben Rhoades Now? You were not under his control. In his early life, Rhoades got into trouble from a young age, he was arrested for . My mother was happy to pay for school. By then, though, I had been kicked out of two schools for absences and was cutting myself regularly. Movie Actress. I began by Googling things like "dead girl truck stop Martinsburg." "No," she said, "I never heard of anything like that anywhere.". 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. 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. As with Patricia Walsh, the trucker didn't murder Walters right away. In the second installment of Death on the Open Road: Highway Homicides, we cover the case of evil serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades aka The Truck Stop Killer. He came around behind her and grabbed her shoulders. It would appear that crime was in Roberts blood. Without fake ID, I couldn't stay in a shelter. ", "That sure sounds like Bob. 97.107.136.113 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. November 22, 2021. Being 16 and in college is an easier thing to talk about. The more I learned about Rhoades, the more I saw parallels between us. Investigation Discovery's ' 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. People Also Viewed . She's tried to put the years with Rhoades behind her but still gets letters from him sporadically. Whether or not he'll make any confessions to police about other murders remains to be seen. Rhoades was a long-haul trucker, in jail since 1990, who had recently been convicted of a couple of new "cold cases." I didn't recognize him. Debra told me that "Bob" always wore matching Dickies, usually dark blue. 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. 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. One story Debra Davis told still haunts me. According to The Daily Nonpareil, Rhoades' truck logs placed him in the area where at least 50 unsolved murders were believed to have taken place. Robert Ben Rhoades, born November 22, 1945, in Council Bluffs, Iowa turned out to be one of the most sadistic sexual predators that the US had ever encountered. "Were there any murders that summer?" Rhoades avtjnar ett livstidsstraff p Menard Correctional Center i Chester i Illinois . That ride turned out to be fine. Looks too much like a target.". Regina Kay Walters 14 years old died by the hands of Robert Ben Rhoades. 202202. He was not wearing flannel. Regina Kay Walters is remembered among his victims for the terrifying photograph he took of her moments before he murdered her. But then, Rhoades looks like a lot of guys. That it turned him on, just like Rhoades.". Bruce Willis. He stopped responding to my questions. She walked back out onto the road and hitchhiked south. The arrest set off a chain of events that led to Robert being convicted for three murders and suspected of many more. Rhoades in Bond County IL Barn. The true number of victims of Robert Ben Rhoades may never be fully known, for a variety of reasons. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Prosecutors believe Rhoades may have put many other women through the cycle of "kidnap, torture, and kill," but Smith said they do not know how many, since he traveled so much. She was the only person who asked me this, and of course I did. "He liked people to think he was in uniform," she said. The birds went silent, and I didn't know what it meant. ", "Oh no, not at all!" Years later, Veselka read a news story about a serial killer who had been a long haul trucker named Robert Ben Rhoades. There's a picture of him in leather and chains that floats around the Internet. Without any hesitation he said Martinsburg, West Virginia. I remember thinking it could be me, since I was also a teenage hitchhiker. He sent me a text just as I was leaving Texas saying that "Debbie" was ready to talk. "He's 67. He was wrong. When investigators searched Roberts house they found several nude photos of Regina and Patricia. Rhoades whipped her repeatedly, causing red welts to appear all over her chest and back, and he had a briefcase in his truck, filled with toys and tools her used to sadistically torture and abuse the hitchhiker. Among the photographs recovered from Rhoades' home while he was jailed was several of Walters. 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. Inside Robert Ben Rhoades' Traveling Torture Chamber, Illinois Department of Corrections/Wikimedia Commons. 16. We were back on the road before dawn, walking down a highway covered in black ice, shivering in our hoodies. Most truckers occupied the middle of the scale, but the trucker who resembled Rhoades didn't have a place on it. Fondoleding a fourteen year old girl. Robert Ben Rhoades, 66, is already serving a life sentence without parole for the 1990 murder of 14-year-old runaway Regina Walters in Illinois. "She was on the end of the roll with Regina," he said. Robert Ben Rhoades is a 71 year old white male, 6' 1" 175 pounds, and currently resides in the Menard Correctional Facility in Chester Illinois. * Only days before Regina Walters was taken, Rhoades had been detained by the police in Houston for the possible sexual assault and kidnapping of Holts. It is glossy black and long. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Appeal-Democrat. I had a guitar and a knapsack full of souvenirs of my girlhood: notes from friends, earrings, and song lyrics. to keep expanding and making Murderpedia a better site, but we really It said he would see me if I promised never to say that I had seen him or what had passed between us. Prosecutors believe Rhoades may have put many other women through the cycle of "kidnap, torture, and kill," but Smith said they do not know how many women he may have hurt, since he traveled so much. Robert Ben Rhoades who is famously known as The 'Truck Stop Killer' is an American notorious serial killer and rapist who found taste in killing, raping and torturing young female teens. He said a gun was about control but a knife is personal. Rhoades intentionally chose women who lacked credibility. In her weeks with Rhoades, many drivers saw her, but somehow no alarm was raised. 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. You told me I owed you sex for the ride and chicken-fried steak and threatened to drop me off somewhere dangerous. Like me, she left home with her older boyfriend. Rhoades. ", Pennal was the woman chained into Rhoades's truck when they arrested him in Arizona. After his eventual arrest for murder, this ex-spouse told the FBI that Rhoades would often organize orgies. 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. I crouched on netted twigs and breathed into my shirt to muffle the sound. 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. Her murder happened twenty-seven years ago and was essentially pre-Internet. He kidnapped women, tortured and raped them for weeks before killing them. He was involved in the BDSM and swinger scene in his hometown of Houston. In 1994, Robert Ben Rhoades was convicted of the first degree murder of Regina Walters. ", Inside the briefcase, officers found dildos, alligator clips, handcuffs, leashes, and whips. Her thick red-blond hair had been cropped close to her head with a knife or scissors and was now growing back. It doesn't matter what he says. I said I knew he didn't want to do it. Like a lemur in a canopy of trees, I barely saw the ground. On April 1, 1990, Roberts murder spree finally came to an end. Serial Killer and Rapist Robert Ben Rhoades Case Review Profiling Evil The Interview Room Profiling Evil 129K subscribers 28K views Streamed 2 years ago Robert Benjamin Rhoades, also known as. She hid there until she was sure she heard his truck leave. I crouched on netted twigs and breathed into my shirt to muffle the sound. Murder Victim. Though her remains were discovered within months of her death, it wasn't until 2003 that she was able to be positively identified (via The Daily Nonpareil). People don't leave home because things are going well; they leave because they feel they have to, and right or wrong, that's how I felt. Robert remained a free man and continued to attack and kill more victims. It's supposed that Rhoades quickly killed Jones and disposed of his body (via The Telegraph). Between 1984 and 1987, he murdered at least six men in Kansas City, Missouri. Debra stated that he seemed like a nice guy, and they eventually started dating. As a 15-year-old, the author left home and became a hitchhiker, hopping from semi to semi on the interstate. Six weeks later, though, we parted ways. robert ben rhoades, serial killer, torture, trucker Caught by Accident Robert Ben Rhoades. Neither of us said anything about the dead girl. 'Truck Stop Killer' Robert Ben Rhoades is thought to have tortured, raped and killed more than 50 women during a reign of terror lasting from 1975 to 1990. Robert kept her for over a week, torturing and raping her repeatedly. Before serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades killed his victims, he like to snap a photo of them. Investigation Discovery referred to Rhoades' truck as a "rolling torture chamber," based on what was kept inside this enclosure. They are more like habits, he said, and can adapt to circumstances or mood. Robert Ben Rhoades, who already is serving a life sentence for killing a 14-year-old girl in Illinois, pleaded guilty to two counts of capital murder when he appeared before a West Texas judge . The girl, he said, "wasn't one of our own. I asked about the knife. Robert Ben Rhoades, dubbed the Truck Stop Killer is one of America's most prolific serial killers. On April 1, 1990, a state trooper made a shocking discovery when he stopped to investigate a semi-truck that was parked off Interstate 10 in the city of Casa Grande, Arizona. According to law enforcement officials, almost immediately after he picked up the hitchhiking runaways, Rhoades killed Jones and dumped his corpse in Mississippi. It was a raw moment. He was not wearing jeans. Candace however was not so lucky. 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. The more I learned about Rhoades, the more I saw parallels between us. By her own account, she had been raped at least twenty times and had already had a baby. A man from the restaurant ran out and started yelling for everyone to stay away as a small crowd gathered around the Dumpster in the rain. "We don't have any records," she told me. She passed through that world as if she were invisible. In that one, driven by penis envy, a woman's inner child taunts a man into seducing her so that she can be freed from guilt for her own "sadistic fantasies." Eventually she was left unbound. I pulled up a map of Martinsburg, Pennsylvania, and that's where things started to get hazy. This was 14-year-old Regina Kay Walters just before she was sexually assaulted and murdered. It was in this compartment that Robert Ben Rhoadesconstructed a tiny room of horrors to hold his undetermined number of victims. I said it was his choice. While he was in the Marine Corps, he committed a robbery and was dishonorably discharged in 1968. I looked at the picture on Young's computer. 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. He was given two life sentences inTexas without the possibility of parole. She had existed enough for me to call my dad all those years ago and warn him about what he would read. I left home in early January, hitchhiking south from New York City with my 21-year-old boyfriend. When rescued, she was wearing fuzzy lion slippers, talking secret prisons and being on a mission to see the presidentjust the kind of testimony that makes most detectives stop taking notes, since they're looking at someone who can't stand trial. We drove up to Ohio drinking Diet Coke and listening to Bruce Springsteen. He grinned. This gave me a screen behind which to observe drivers when they thought I was distracted. She never reported the incident, as she had promised Robert. At the bottom of the yellow legal paper, scrawled in all caps, he wrote, "IT WASN'T ME!!!" I lived among artists in the Lower East Side squats. On the couch beside me was a large pillow with the FBI seal. 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. 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