00:00:01
48 Hours [Applause] [Music] presents I began writing as a process of healing the writing I found really
00:00:24
helped me deal with what had happened since as far back as I can remember I've had the same dream I'm
00:00:39
running I was constantly running away from someone we lived on 13 acres so I could never get someone to hear my
00:00:45
screams or run fast enough I would run down the hill of the front to our house across the
00:00:51
fields there were many mornings that I would wake up after a night of running all night in my dreams but then run down
00:00:57
the stairs to play with my younger sister we had a a great time growing up together we had that special bond that
00:01:03
you hear people talk about we were so [Music] close I didn't get to hear the answering
00:01:17
machine until I got home that night I remember there being an oddly High number of calls but three of the
00:01:23
messages were from my [Music] dad the room was dark and she woke up she was lying on her side and I put my head
00:01:36
to her face and just held her it was there that she told me the worst story that I had heard in my
00:01:42
[Music] life in late August 1997 I was a student at the University of Kentucky it was about the second night of classes
00:02:02
it was a Thursday night and I went to a party with my boyfriend Chris Meyer not far from campus it was a little bit
00:02:10
boring so we packed up Chris's backpack with some beers and we were going to head down to the
00:02:28
tracks we sat there and talked for a while I'm not sure how long but we got up to leave
00:02:40
um and go back to the party and we started walking along the tracks and when we got to an electrical box beside
00:02:47
the tracks a man came out from behind it he asked us for money we of course said we don't have any money we're poor
00:02:57
college kids [Music] and I don't know if it was an ice pick if it was a screwdriver but he had it on
00:03:07
Chris really the whole time he asked Chris to get down on his hands and knees uh he went through his
00:03:15
backpack and didn't find anything that he wanted uh and I didn't realize realize it but he was tying up Chris's
00:03:22
hands with the backpack behind his back and he took off my belt and tied up my hands behind my back with my belt and
00:03:32
he actually pulled Chris from the tracks on the gravel into the grassp beside the
00:03:39
[Music] tracks in my head I was panicking and I was like saying my last prayer and
00:03:48
thinking I'm going to die maybe this is what I have been running from in all those dreams as a
00:03:55
child this horrific story that happened to my sister [Music] [Music] [Music] it was very dark and you couldn't see
00:04:36
very well so it was very startling to see someone come out that was crouched behind an electrical
00:04:47
box Chris and I were looking at each other I think in disbelief that this was actually going on like we we were
00:04:54
looking at each other very confused like what in the heck is happening you know I remember saying why are you
00:05:02
doing this what do you want do you want uh credit cards ATM cards you can have our car it just parked down the street
00:05:09
you know we were just trying to figure out what he wanted and at this point um the our
00:05:22
attacker ripped a shirt and he gagged us I actually stuck my tongue out so that the gag wouldn't work it just fell off
00:05:34
we had split seconds in where our attacker would go back up to the tracks and we were down in the grass and so we
00:05:41
could talk to each other and um Chris and I started strategizing you know saying okay should I run can I can you
00:05:49
get untied um I got my hands untied I couldn't get my feet untied I ripped Chris's gag off of his mouth um and so
00:05:58
we were talking talking to each other trying to figure out how we were going to get away cuz Chris kept saying you
00:06:04
know if you can get yourself untied get away run away and cuz he couldn't get up
00:06:08
his arms were all tied up in his backpack and he couldn't get [Music] untied and I really don't know how much
00:06:17
time passed before our attacker came down carrying a rock um and he came over and literally
00:06:26
just dropped it on Chris's head I think at at that point I went into survival mode I um you know see him drop
00:06:39
this rock on Chris's head and he climbed on top of me I realized at that point that he was going to rape me I fought
00:06:46
him I tried to hit him I tried to kick him I tried to scream um that's when he took that weapon that he had and he held
00:06:53
it to my neck and he said look how easily I could kill you and that's when he stabbed me in my neck so I just
00:07:00
stopped I I was like okay well you know what's going to happen is going to [Music]
00:07:15
happen I was staring at every scar he had every tattoo he had I was thinking let me remember everything
00:07:25
about you that I can um because we'll get you it's un point and I tried to um rip off my
00:07:35
fingernails and dig in the dirt so that if I was taken away someone would know that I had been
00:07:40
there I started saying you know what do what do you where have you been what do you need you know how can I help you um
00:07:48
you know I really have a family that wants to see me again I said do you have friends do you have a
00:07:56
family I was begging him please don't hurt me you know I will let you go I won't tell anybody what happened here
00:08:04
just don't hurt me and that's when he started hitting me I don't remember being hit I I was
00:08:13
hit with some sort of wooden board um I think I put my hand up to block it but I
00:08:17
was hit five or six times in the front of my face and then I turned over and I was hit five or six times in the back of
00:08:22
my head I'm positive that he probably not Ed me unconscious and my breathing was
00:08:31
shallow enough that he thought he had killed [Music] me I I don't know how long I laid there
00:08:43
um but at some point I got up and I realized that he was gone I knew that I was injured I knew
00:08:50
that I was hurt I don't think I knew what my injuries were um I you know I I realized that my mouth wasn't shutting
00:08:58
right and I I was covered in [Music] blood I walked about 200 yards or so maybe on the Rocks um along the
00:09:14
tracks it was probably 1 2 in the morning it was between 1: and 2 I was sitting on sitting in my chair
00:09:24
[Music] studying and out of the corner of my eye just glimp something go across the front
00:09:37
yard she was covered in blood from head to toe and I could not figure out where all the blood had come was coming from
00:09:44
her her face it it it looked like a boxer whenever they get cut during a boxing match at that point I brought her in and
00:09:52
set her down on the couch and she collapsed on the [Music] couch uh I thought she was going to die
00:10:01
there was no doubt in my mind and she started she I kept losing her a little bit here and there and I just kept
00:10:08
talking to her because I definitely didn't want her to pass out you know I was just trying to keep her keep her
00:10:13
awake until the the paramedics got there and I did keep saying to him my friend's
00:10:19
still out there I you know like be sure they know my friend's still out there my
00:10:23
friend still out [Music] there [Music] [Music] on August 29th 1997 R she call home
00:10:54
about 3:00 in the morning that there had been an attack on two students along the
00:10:57
road tracks uh my lieutenant asked me to come out and said it was a bad [Music] one another detective and I were sent
00:11:11
over to the University of Kentucky hospital to uh check in on the victim uh on the way we learned her name was Holly
00:11:23
Dunn her face was disoriented she had a broken eye socket a broken jaw lots of cuts across her face um and then of
00:11:30
course Staples of where they could just to stop the bleeding they couldn't even you know cut her hair they just stapled
00:11:37
on top of her [Music] hair and even in that state of her looking the way that she did I can just
00:11:49
remember this feeling of overwhelming gratitude and love that she was alive just feeling so thankful that she was
00:11:57
alive and that she was there just I have felt so guilty to not be there to know that your sister is
00:12:05
begging for her life she is begging someone for her life and you are you're sleeping I remember they weren't talking
00:12:18
about Chris and and eventually I asked my dad I just said Chris is dead isn't he and my dad was like yes he
00:12:27
is it was very hard to accept the fact that I lived through this and Chris didn't um
00:12:34
and you know it was just I just felt like it wasn't fair that it's not fair that that I'm still alive and that Chris
00:12:41
[Music] isn't Chris was so friendly he was very uh laidback and down to earth he loved
00:12:50
the outdoors he uh didn't have a care in the world I couldn't attend the funeral
00:12:56
um I was really upset about that only because I I really wanted to attend I had you know never really got the chance
00:13:04
to say goodbye and I wanted to you know have that chance to to have some peace despite her uh State she was ready
00:13:20
and willing to to try to communicate what had happened to her I was really trying to remember every day detail
00:13:29
about my attacker and I remember hearing his accent thinking that is a Mexican accent Holly described the suspect is a
00:13:38
male possibly Hispanic um 56 58 in height um kind of a a wavy black black hair um wearing glasses uh she said that
00:13:51
uh he wasn't muscular but he seemed somewhat wiry they um repaired my jaw uh they
00:14:00
actually kind of just re aligned it and wired my mouth shut um and really that was the only thing that they could fix
00:14:08
the broken eye socket there was nothing they could do as soon as I could get the
00:14:12
surgery to get my jaw wired shut and my jaw fixed my parents took me home I definitely think that there's
00:14:19
parts of me that wanted to retreat away right right after this attack happened I
00:14:24
just wanted to lay in bed and not get out of bed again um but you know there's always something that's
00:14:30
pulled me out of that my sister was my rock throughout this entire process and she doesn't maybe didn't even realize
00:14:39
how much she was helping me by what she was [Music] doing we received a lot of phone calls
00:14:47
and a lot of tips and we followed up on a lot of people who thought they had seen this
00:14:55
person we were able to establish that we had DNA sample of the suspect from the rate the sketch was the the best thing
00:15:03
we had in the DNA evidence of course and then we also uh entered it into the uh National Database for violent offenders
00:15:12
in the hopes that maybe someday down the road there would be some similarities to
00:15:16
to other cases that I could become aware of to to try to track this fell [Music]
00:15:27
down [Music] in December of 1998 uh a doctor was murdered uh in the Houston area she was
00:16:00
uh had suffered both stab wounds and blunt trauma to the uh to the head and uh she had was also the victim of a
00:16:09
sexual [Music] assault and then uh pastor and his wife were killed in [Music] wymer and uh the pastor and his wife
00:16:28
wife were murdered in their bed with a sledgehammer that was found in a tool room there at the
00:16:37
house when we first started working it we approached from the standpoint of a fij investigation and that was trying to
00:16:42
learn as much as we could uh about the the subject at hand uh we knew that we had forensic evidence we had fingerprint
00:16:50
evidence that linked to a particular suspect and both houses were in the in the near vicinity of of railroad tracks
00:17:02
somewhere around May or June of 1999 uh I got a call from fap which was the uh the National Database that we we
00:17:12
put the info in got a call from them saying listen we've had a another homicide near railroad tracks in
00:17:23
Texas it's a loose connection at best but it was near railroad tracks and after years we hadn't had anything of
00:17:30
substance anyway so we chased any lead detective sell called and uh we uh compared details about the the cases and
00:17:39
realized that we not only had a serial killer that was within 150 miile radius of Houston but we had one that was in
00:17:45
other states as [Music] well they were able through fingerprint analysis to have a
00:17:53
suspect the suspect at that point had been identified as rapael rendes Ramirez the majority of his his attacks were by
00:18:04
surprise uh often the people were in bed asleep uh when he was getting them so he's like the boogeyman coming into your
00:18:10
house he supports the fact that true evil does exist in this world to know that he was doing it again
00:18:20
that he was more violent that he was killing more people I started to feel like wow this is a lot bigger than me it
00:18:28
was almost like my worst nightmare coming true that was when it became a national
00:18:34
serial killer Manhunt we were driven we had to catch him before he killed somebody
00:18:55
[Music] else we knew then we had a serial killer on the loose we knew that he was extremely
00:19:06
violent uh and we had no information as to where he was our last clue was Texas so it was an allout race then to try to
00:19:14
figure out where he was and get hands on him so everybody went to Texas from what I've come to learn of
00:19:22
send is he was a an immigrant Trans in he he had done a lot of odd jobs um m work he was a prone to violence at least
00:19:32
20 years prior to this Killing Spree he was nicknamed by the media as the railroad killer and he he got that
00:19:43
moniker just by the fact that most of his uh murders happen in and around railroad tracks and that that was a a
00:19:50
mode of transportation that he used to to travel across the country the Dragnet for the suspected rail riding serial
00:19:57
killer now stretches from Ohio to the Mexican border as part of the search there there was actually a huge
00:20:04
operation set up to stop trains a bunch of Texas agencies participated had helicopters in the air to fly over
00:20:12
various train tracks uh if they saw somebody we get the train stopped and identify anybody on
00:20:19
it the sense of urgency was it was unbelievable because people were dying he was continuing to kill and he was
00:20:33
killing effortlessly no one was stopping him he killed two women in one day 90 M apart 4
00:20:42
days later he's in a different state people were scared we are here today to announce
00:20:48
that Raphael rendes Ramirez has been elevated to the FBI's 10 most wanted list reris is the 457th person to Beed
00:20:58
placed on I just got really scared because it it got so big and they still couldn't find him they didn't know where
00:21:04
he was and that that was you know a very scary time because I just I F I knew that he knew I was still alive I felt
00:21:10
that so I just I was afraid I I thought he would come back and get me I was so scared that I had to get out
00:21:18
of the country I signed up that day to go to school in England the FBI all the local agencies there is evidence
00:21:31
everybody was running leads so the volume was huge and you just started piecing the things together but
00:21:37
truthfully the the tip that made the case was a call from a family relative to America's Most Wanted tonight we've
00:21:44
got breaking news on a suspected serial killer this is the man police have been looking for this is a picture of him
00:21:51
from 1995 based on information from that phone call it led us to go to New Mexico
00:21:57
to uh speak with his sister she hadn't been in touch with her brother but she had been in touch with someone that was
00:22:03
in touch with her brother and uh that's where we started the discussions uh about rendes and and the fact that he
00:22:11
was tired and uh that uh that he might be willing to surrender she became the liaison between United States law
00:22:20
enforcement and the serial killer I believe that his uh his options were limited um this man had no friends
00:22:32
I mean he was a loner uh he had a high price on his head and he had an entire nation really two Nations looking for
00:22:40
him and uh I think the amount of pressure that was put on him uh ultimately led to him to have to make a
00:22:56
choice it was early in the morning and Drew was on one side of the international bridge
00:23:06
waiting I mean on the Texas side and not knowing I assume whether he was going to
00:23:11
show up or not if he was going to show up armed I mean who knew and so then you know the the doubt sets in like all
00:23:19
right you know is this going to happen amount of time passed and you see a pickup truck driving up driving across
00:23:28
the bridge and there's three people in that old pickup truck and uh the center passenger I immediately recognized as
00:23:34
rendis and uh that's kind of when I thought to myself man this is really going to
00:23:40
[Music] happen I closed my door and started crying because I was so relieved there wasn't I
00:24:03
don't I don't want another case to prove up I don't want another dead body it was
00:24:08
it was such a sense of relief at the time of his arrest uh vendis was linked to six murders in Texas two in Illinois
00:24:17
and one in Kentucky for 2 years we had operated under the belief that his name was Rafael rendes reres uh we learned
00:24:24
that he had a variety of names but ultimately it was determined his name was Angel Marino
00:24:31
rendes I had been waiting to see this [Music] guy so when they walked him in it was a it was a great moment but he
00:24:49
was so scary he was a little guy but wiry and strong ropey muscles on his arms and curious he would look he'd look at
00:25:01
everybody in there he looked at me and there's nothing there there was nothing there no Humanity no emotion it's like
00:25:11
somebody took a black Magic Marker and colored his eyes they were flat black and a expressionless
00:25:23
face on December 17th 1998 in Harris County Texas but I just buckled down and just decided
00:25:30
this is going to be it's got to be about the victims and it's got to be about getting this guy dead honestly it's got
00:25:37
to be about convincing a jury to give him the death penalty because he so richly deserved it and earned
00:25:43
[Music] it I knew that I was going to testify and I always wanted to testify I just
00:25:56
wanted the chance to tell what had happened to us and that was my chance and I wish I could have seen his
00:26:05
face when he heard that someone was living I wish I could have seen his face when he knew she was coming to testify
00:26:12
against him I just would love to know what he what he thought when he found that
00:26:26
out I don't have things that I think about all the [Music] time I Can't Forget About Chris being
00:26:49
hit the rock hitting him that really is probably the part that I try the hardest and and can't
00:27:04
[Music] forget she was definitely our star witness she was our only living witness nobody else could speak out
00:27:13
against him in first person this is what happened to me this is what he did to me
00:27:18
we didn't have anybody else I can't comment well if what we know about him is true he is a everyone's
00:27:35
worst nightmare trial started in May of 2000 it was held here in [Music] Houston he was so different at
00:27:47
trial I guess sitting in jail he got fat he got the jailhouse poar it grew his hair
00:27:56
greasy there was not a shred of humanity about this man he did not deserve to live
00:28:02
among us I wanted to put him down present his faces capital murder charges in the
00:28:07
stabbing death of Dr Claudia Benton she had been sexually assaulted stabbed beaten in the head he was only charged
00:28:15
with one because that's all you need to get the death penalty he ultimately pled not guilty by
00:28:22
reason of insanity the evidence was overwhelming as to his guilt so that was really his only out was the insanity
00:28:30
defense we knew we were battling with the jury not wanting to believe that someone could do these horrible things
00:28:36
to people and be sane a lot of people did not want to believe you have to be crazy to do that to somebody you have to
00:28:42
be [Music] crazy the jury reached a verdict after many hours of deliberation mrend you
00:28:51
please Li it was pretty nail-biting read a jury find the defendant unhel Mato Rosendo as guilty of capital murder is
00:28:59
charged in the indictment I actually got involved during the penalty phase of the trials
00:29:06
that's you know when they say whether he gets the death penalty or life in prison
00:29:11
we're going to tell you about the people the people who've been murdered most of whom murdered in their own homes
00:29:19
I knew that I wanted Holly to testify last so by the time she took the stand the jury had heard the gruesome details
00:29:28
of all the other murders that we had solved at that point it was a horror show heads beat to a pulp knives put all
00:29:36
the way through the body that's how much force was used just horrific violence we were the last of the cases
00:29:45
presented I testified as to the evidence at the scene presented the pictures and
00:29:49
then lastly uh Holly testified as the only surviving [Music] victim I flew into Houston with my
00:29:58
family the night before I was going to testify and I woke up during the middle of the night screaming and
00:30:05
[Music] crying I talk about the trial as the hardest day of my life what I was most worried about I
00:30:16
think when I testified was seeing him again I cannot imagine the amount of Courage she had to to Marshall to come
00:30:22
into that courtroom to walk in and face him she told me don't look at him look at me I'll be right in front of you look
00:30:31
at your family they'll be right behind me he'll be off to your left just do not look at
00:30:39
him the first question was what' you do last weekend and so I was like I graduated from
00:30:45
college it felt good for me to be able to say you know I graduated from college in front of the guy who basically could
00:30:52
have ruined my life and destroyed it and not that he cared cuz I don't think he did
00:30:58
for me to be able to say you didn't destroy me I'm still here I'm still strong I'm still the same person I was
00:31:05
it felt good it felt you know like I I finally had my chance I told all the details of what I
00:31:14
knew what I remembered and cried through the entire testimony I was crying the all the jury was
00:31:23
crying sometimes you don't always have the human picture there's no Vic them to stand in front of you to tell you what
00:31:28
they experienced what they went through Holly gave that to Chris and all the others that had been murdered she was
00:31:34
able to give a real life person to to give them a real feeling of the brutality of this
00:31:43
man they got to the moment in the trial when they say is the person who attacked
00:31:49
you in the courtroom [Music] today I hadn't looked at him yet I knew he was there I said yes
00:31:58
I wanted it to be the last thing that jury heard and the last thing they saw was Holly Dunn sitting on that witness
00:32:05
stand saying that's the man they said well could you tell us what he's wearing and I turned and
00:32:14
looked at him it was surreal I I said he's wearing a white button-down shirt I mean I literally I felt my hearing going
00:32:23
into my head he had like the smug look on his face and I I mean I I was so close to figting when I looked at him
00:32:31
again that I mean I don't know how I didn't it was devastating and and it was the best part of our case I mean she
00:32:42
basically from his perspective came back from the grave to nail him should we give him some points
00:32:53
because Holly didn't die the jury did find that he was a future danger to society so the judge sentenced him to
00:33:02
death I felt I guess relieved I mean it just felt good to know he would never be
00:33:08
able to hurt anyone ever [Music] again after the trial rendes was sent to death row in Huntsville Texas he was not
00:33:17
tried for any other crimes he had gotten the ultimate penalty when the last appeal was denied
00:33:23
he was put to Death in June 2006 [Music] I chose not to attend the execution cendes represented all those
00:33:41
angry feelings that I had and I decided to stay with my family I had already seen one person die in front of me and I
00:33:48
did not need to see [Music] another I read an account of the execution and it said that right
00:34:01
before they injected him his feet were shaking under the sheet and I hoped that he
00:34:09
experienced some of the fear just that Holly did I that gave me a small sense of satisfaction that that he was
00:34:22
[Music] scared I definitely feel like I have another opportunity at life I want to live it to the
00:34:45
fullest I can't explain how this changes you I am a stronger person because of it
00:34:54
I'm my whole life focused changed because because of it I'm I'm a different person today because this
00:35:04
happened I knew that I had to heal physically first and then I had to deal with Christ dying I had to deal with
00:35:13
myself almost dying and then I had to deal with being raped your brain works in amazing ways
00:35:22
and it kind of sort of let me deal with each thing as I could [Music] in 1997 I met Jacob Pendleton at uh the
00:35:34
Outdoor Store that I was working at he was the first guy that I dated after the attack he just like reintroduced me to
00:35:43
the [Music] world I don't think Jacob even knows like how much he helped me there'd be
00:35:52
days that I would literally cry to him and he would just listen to me and you know really wouldn't judge me at all
00:36:00
which was [Music] great to see Holly happy married it's it is wonderful she has led our family and
00:36:17
how we have recovered from this it could have gone a completely different way where our family was devastated by this
00:36:23
and instead you know we are just so happy for how she has led her life please welcome hly D
00:36:31
[Applause] pen it was August 28th 1997 it's the second day of classes at the University
00:36:40
of Kentucky I started speaking about 2 years after the attack he said look how easily I could kill you and then he
00:36:48
raped me to me it felt like part of my healing process to talk about it and to cry about it and to be emotional because
00:36:55
for so long I had to kind of detach emotion from it the way that I went on with my life was I had to forgive him
00:37:03
and look for the good that could come from this when I was speaking I didn't have to worry about that I could work
00:37:09
through my emotions and and that really helped me in my healing [Music] process being a Survivor is one thing
00:37:19
but helping other survivors and knowing how to do that in a professional manner was another
00:37:25
thing Holly's house is a child and adult Advocacy Center in Evansville Indiana that provides a safe reporting location
00:37:34
for victims of intimate crimes we opened on September 2nd of 2008 and we have served over 300 victims since that time
00:37:43
how are things they've been pretty steady Holly is a hero because she did not let what happened to her destroy her
00:37:51
she decided to make it her reason to live or her a reason to help people how are you fine it's important to me for
00:38:01
victims to be supported for them to know that they're not going through what has
00:38:05
happened to them alone I get support through victims that come through Holly's house I feel like through
00:38:11
helping others they're helping me we sort of do it [Music] together this case for me has become one
00:38:24
that I have looked back on many times I keep a little bit of a reminder on my desk a rock from our crime scene and a
00:38:31
railroads bike that I got from down in Texas not so much as a reminder of the largest case at work but more a reminder
00:38:40
that if you stick with a case and fall up on everything that you can be successful so be determined don't give
00:38:48
up I've stayed in touch with Holly since it began she's really just an amazing person individually she is is the model
00:38:57
of Survivor I remember Chris in a lot of ways I like to keep things around me that remind me of him I'm lucky enough
00:39:11
to have my amazing husband and have Chris be a part of our Lives what was that I think to get over my survivors
00:39:27
guilt that I had I had to know that I live my life not just for me and not just for
00:39:35
Chris I'm living my life for all of benda's victims for all of [Music] them and that I have
00:39:45
to or I want to be the best person I can be and live the best life I can because
00:39:53
they didn't get that chance and I did so I want to live for them I want them to be remembered I want them to and I I
00:40:02
would want them to be proud of you know [Music] me [Music]