Imagine coming face-to-face with a serial killer and living to tell the tale. That's exactly what happened for one hitchhiker when she crossed paths with serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades.
At the time, Rhoades was a truck driver. Between 1975 and 1990, he killed multiple women in his truck. As such, he became known as the Truck Stop Killer. Among other people, he regularly targeted hitchhikers, especially women traveling alone. That's how he crossed paths with hitchhiker Vanessa Veselka in 1985.
She was just a teen then, traveling the US. In a GQ story, the hitchhiker turned author detailed her survival. She had been hitching rides with truckers. Veselka writes of Rhoades, "Several days later, though, heading south on I-95 through the Carolinas, I got picked up by another trucker who was not fine. 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. He wore a cotton button-down with the sleeves rolled neatly up over his biceps and had the cleanest cab I ever saw."
Serial Killer Survival
The ride became awkward when Rhoades turned silent. But it took a deadly turn when Rhoades pulled over and brandished a knife.
"[He] told me to get into the back of the cab. I began talking, saying the same things over and over. I said I knew he didn't want to do it. I said it was his choice. I said he could do it in a few minutes," she explained. "I said I wouldn't go to the cops if nothing happened to me, but it was his choice—until he looked at me and I went still."
For whatever reason, the serial killer let her go. He simply told her to "run." The hitchhiker bolted from the truck and ran straight into the woods. Rhoades wouldn't be caught for another five years in 1990.
She wrote, " I ran into the woods and hid. I stayed there until I saw the truck pull onto the interstate. It was getting dark. I was still in shock, so I walked back out to the same road and started hitching south. I never went to the police and didn't tell anyone for years."
