A woman who hitchhiked managed to escape a notorious killer, recalling the chilling words he uttered before she fled. Robert Ben Rhoades, now 79 years old, earned the moniker “Truck Stop Killer” for his convictions in torturing and murdering multiple couples in Illinois and Texas during 1989 and 1990. Suspected of brutalizing, sexually assaulting, and killing over fifty women between 1975 and 1990, based on his truck routes and missing women matching his victim profile.
One of Rhoades’ encounters involved a hitchhiker who narrowly escaped his clutches in the summer of 1985. Vanessa Veselka, now 56, recounted witnessing the discovery of a teenage hitchhiker’s body at a dumpster during her truck stop ride. A few days later, Rhoades picked up Vanessa as she traveled on I-95 through the Carolinas. Vanessa described Rhoades as taller and leaner than typical truckers, dressed neatly in a button-down shirt with a pristine cab.
Unaware of the danger she was in, Vanessa noticed Rhoades acting strangely, evading her questions as they drove. She described his demeanor shifting to an unsettling blankness as he discussed a deceased girl and brandished a hunting knife. Vanessa, just a teenager at the time, managed to escape when Rhoades allowed her a head start, giving her a chilling command to hide in the back of the cab before uttering a final directive to “run” as she fled into the woods.
Rhoades remained undetected until hunters found skeletal remains in Millard County, Utah, in October 1990. The victim, known as “Jane Doe 1,” was later identified as 24-year-old Patricia Candace Walsh from Seattle, Washington. Walsh and her husband, Douglas Scott Zyskowski, went missing in 1989, with Zyskowski’s remains discovered in Ozona, Texas, in January 1990.
Rhoades confessed to the murders, admitting to picking up the couple while they hitchhiked, killing Zyskowski immediately, and holding Walsh captive for a week. During this time, he subjected Walsh to horrific abuse before killing her in Utah. Rhoades was later convicted of the first-degree murder of another victim, Regina Kay Walters, in 1994, leading to a life sentence without parole at Menard Correctional Centre in Illinois.
Rhoades remains incarcerated for life without parole in a maximum-security prison.