A woman who escaped a notorious killer recently shared the chilling last words he uttered to her before she managed to flee.
Robert Ben Rhoades, now 79 years old, earned the nickname “Truck Stop Killer” following his convictions for the torture and murder of at least two couples in Illinois and Texas between 1989 and 1990. Additionally, he is suspected of being involved in the torture, rape, and killing of over fifty women from 1975 to 1990, as evidenced by his truck routes and the disappearances of women fitting his victim profile during those years.
Among those who encountered Rhoades, a hitchhiker narrowly escaped after a terrifying encounter with him in the summer of 1985. Author Vanessa Veselka, now 56, recounted her harrowing experience to GQ. She had been hitchhiking with someone else when she witnessed the discovery of a teenage hitchhiker’s body in a dumpster.
Several days later, Rhoades picked up Vanessa as she traveled south on I-95 through the Carolinas. Vanessa recalled, “I don’t recall much about him other than his tall, lean stature compared to most truckers and his unconventional attire of a neatly rolled-up button-down shirt over his biceps, with an impeccably clean cab.”
Unbeknownst to Vanessa, she was in the presence of a dangerous serial killer. Despite initial appearances, she noticed Rhoades’ demeanor change as he started to avoid her questions during their journey on the major highway.
“He grew taller in his seat, his face displaying a mix of arrogance and emptiness,” Vanessa described.
The situation turned sinister when Rhoades began mentioning a deceased girl, then stopped the vehicle shortly after and revealed a hunting knife.
As a teenager at the time, Vanessa managed to escape after Rhoades allowed her to flee with a warning. “He instructed me to enter the back of the cab,” she recounted.
“I informed him I wouldn’t involve the authorities if nothing happened to me, leaving the choice to him. Yet, when he gazed at me, I froze.” The last words he uttered to her were “run” as she dashed into the woods and waited for his truck to depart.
Rhoades remained undetected until hunters discovered skeletal remains in Millard County, Utah, in October 1990. The victim, known as “Jane Doe 1” for thirteen years, was eventually identified as 24-year-old Patricia Candace Walsh in May 2003 by forensic scientists from the University of Arizona. Walsh and her husband, Douglas Scott Zyskowski, both from Seattle, went missing after leaving the city in 1989.
Zyskowski’s remains were found in January 1990 near Interstate 10 in Ozona, Texas, and identified in 1992. Rhoades confessed to their murders, revealing that he picked them up while they were hitchhiking, immediately killing Zyskowski and disposing of his body.
He kept Walsh captive for over a week, subjecting her to torture and rape before murdering her and dumping her body in Millard County, Utah.
Numerous other victims are believed to have fallen prey to Rhoades. In 1994, he was convicted of the first-degree murder of 14-year-old Regina Kay Walters, whom he tortured and strangled to death. He is serving a life sentence without parole at Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois.
Rhoades remains incarcerated for life without parole at a maximum-security prison.
