Stories That Should Convince You To Never (Ever) Hitchhike
There Are People Like This Out There
Ben Rhoades is a trucker who allegedly admitted that he had been "torturing women for 15 years as he crisscrossed America by highway." The sadistic trucker kept a briefcase full of alligator clips, leashes, handcuffs, whips and dildos. He was caught when an Arizona state trooper decided to chat with Rhoades, who had parked his big rig dangerously close to the shoulder of Interstate 40.
Inside Rhoades's cab, the trooper found a woman shackled to the door covered in welts, cuts, and with a horse bridle secured to her mouth and neck. After Rhoades was arrested, he was tied to a series of hitchhiker murders in multiple states and received multiple life sentences in Illinois and Texas.
Unsolved Australian Outback Murders
From the late '80s to the early 2000s, the bodies of as many as 12 hitchhikers, including 18-year-old Catherine Graham and 32-year-old Tony Jones, turned up on a desolate stretch of highway outside the cattle town of Hughenden. This stretch of highway has been dubbed the "Highway of Death" as a result. The murders remain unsolved.
Thus far, it's impossible to know if all of the murders are the work of a single killer, or if this part of the Australian outback is an area where bodies of victims can be easily and secretly discarded.
Hitchhiker Kept As Sex Slave For Seven Years
On May 19, 1977, 20-year-old Colleen Stan decided to hitchhike 400 miles from Eugene, OR, to surprise her friend in Westwood, CA, for her birthday. She was less than 100 miles away from her destination when she had the misfortune of running into Cameron Hooker, a 23-year-old lumber mill worker. Hooker was traveling with his wife and baby when he picked up Stan and forced her to be a sex slave in their home for seven years.
During that time, Stan slept in a box under the couple’s waterbed and was repeatedly raped and tortured. Stan wasn't freed until 1984 when Hooker's wife helped her escape and get to a bus stop. At his trial, Hooker was sentenced to 104 years in prison.
The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders
Throughout the early '70s, the Sonoma Valley of California was thought to be an ideal spot for hitchhiking. In reality, it was the site of a brutal series of slayings that lasted from 1972 to 1979. Over the course of seven years, eight young women ranging from the ages of 13 to 20 were found raped and murdered in the rural outskirts of Santa Rosa, CA.
No one was ever convicted of the crimes, but one of the main suspects in the case is the elusive Zodiac Killer.
The Icelandic Hitchhiker Murder
If you're traveling through Iceland, it's not out of the ordinary to hitchhike across the small, glacial country. But on August 16, 1982, sisters Yvette and Marie Bauhaud were trekking across the beautiful country and accepted a ride that would change their world forever. The driver, Grétar Sigurður Árnason, dropped the two sisters off at a cabin before accusing them of hiding cannabis, bashing Marie in the head with a rock, and shooting Yvette with a shotgun.
Marie survived by hiding in a sleeping bag and running after a police car that happened to drive by. Árnason was convicted of murder.
Hitchhiker In Africa Climbs Into The Wrong Car
In July 2016, a hitchhiker near Brakpan, South Africa, accepted a ride from two unknown men and ended up on the worst ride of his life. After two more men, seemingly hitchhikers, got in the car, they grimly told him he had gotten into the wrong car. One of the men then punched the hitchhiker in the face before tying him up and shooting him five times in the leg.
Since this happened while the car was in motion, the driver ended up accidentally running into the wall of a house in KwaThema. The suspects fled the scene and left the hitchhiker in the car. Despite injuries sustained, he survived.
Polish Hitchhiker Stabbed on His Way to Buy a Car
A Polish man traveling through Ireland to buy a car flagged down a car for a ride that seemed to belong to a family. Once in the car, he didn't mind sitting between two children (one was a 6 month old, the other was 8 years old). After about 15 minutes, he realized all was not as it seemed when they locked him in and met up with a second car on a side road.
Even though the hitchhiker gave his attackers all his money, they stabbed him five or six times in the legs in front of the children. Paramedics arrived on the scene just in time to save the man's life.
1982 Hitchhiker Murder
On September 7, 1982, two men from upstate New York picked up an 18-year-old hitchhiker named Randall Shoptwese who was making his way to Alaska. The men had been drinking all day and made the decision to rob the hitchhiker before pulling over to pick him up.
When they picked up Shoptwese, he resisted their robbery attempt, however, they managed to handcuff him and slit his throat. The knife penetrated him so deeply that when Shoptwese's body was found his head was almost completely severed. Both men were sentenced and remain in prison.
Keith Jesperson's Highway Stranglings
In the '90s, trucker Keith Hunter Jesperson was the wrong guy to hitch a ride with. He was a serial killer who at one time claimed to have murdered 160 victims, although he later recanted his confession and admitted that he had only killed eight women. His method was to pick victims up at a gas station or on the side of the road, strangle them, and dump their bodies in another state.
One woman who he let use his credit card to make a long-distance call woke him up in the middle of the night, making him angry enough to kill her. In order to destroy all evidence of his crime, he then strapped her to the bottom of his truck and dragged her along the highway until she was unrecognizable.
The Swedish Backpackers Who Never Made It Home
While hitchhiking across New Zealand in 1989, Urban Höglin and Heidi Paakkonen disappeared outside of Thames, a city on the Southwestern end of the country's North Island. Despite a massive search for the couple, nothing was discovered until Höglin's body was found in 1991. Paakkonen's body was never found.
Native New Zealander David Tamihere was convicted of their murders and sentenced to twenty years in prison. Controversy continues to surround the legitimacy of the conviction. Tamihere continues to deny that he played any part in the murders.
Death Row Inmate Admits to Murdering Arizona Hitchhikers
In the early '70s, Douglas Gretzler and friend Willie Steelman went on a killing spree that left 17 people dead in less than two months. The duo's crimes escalated from stealing a hitchhikers clothes and money after tying him to a tree to killing a hitchhiker in Arizona and dumping his body in the Superstition Mountains while on their way to murder two friends so they wouldn't suspect the duo of murdering two of their mutual friends.
Gretzler was executed in 1998 for his crimes.
"Alphabet Murders" Killer Targets Prostitutes and Hitchhikers
Joseph Naso, a 79-year-old photographer, was dubbed "The Alphabet Killer" for his alleged penchant for killing sex workers with names featuring the same first and last letter. He allegedly killed one woman after picking her up as she hitchhiked home.
He was arrested in 2010 after detectives discovered a "diary of sexual assaults," a list of locations where he disposed of bodies and photos of scantily clad women that appeared unconscious or deceased.
The Murder Of Jacci Ansell-Lamb
Jacci Ansell-Lamb was last seen in May 1970 when she was trying to hitch a ride from London to her home in Manchester. Six days later, her semi-nude body was discovered by a farmer outside of Knutsford, England. Investigators discovered that Ansell-Lamb had been sexually assaulted before she was strangled with electrical wire and dumped on the side of the road.
Although no official suspect has ever been named, police believe that prolific English serial killer Peter Tobin is to blame.
Driver Steals German Hitchhiker's Stuff
Be careful when you're trekking across New Zealand, especially if you're carrying any special belongings. One German man who was traveling the country on foot had all of his stuff stolen from him by a middle-aged man in a white Honda near Timaru in February 2016.
The hitchhiker said, "Until now, it seemed to be a really safe country. Maybe I put too much trust in people."
Never Ever, EVER, Pick Up A Hitchhiker
From Redditor /u/thebestjeans:
So this was told to me by an old family friend, Nicki, numerous times as a kid growing up, as one of those "life advice stories" to keep in mind through the years. And to her credit, I have never forgotten it. Whenever anything associated with hitchhiking comes up it always springs to mind and probably always will. Makes me a bit ill whenever I think about it actually.
So Nicki, who grew up at the same time as my dad so this was about early '80s I believe, was a young woman in her mid 20s. She's one of those real kindhearted souls, always willing to help another out in a time of need, you know? And I can't imagine her being anything other than that when she was younger so I totally see her doing this too.
So, driving into the city (about a two hour or so drive out from town) she saw a man walking down the side of the road. As she neared he turned and, in typical hitchhiker manner, stuck out the ol' arm and thumb. Nicki, bless her heart, pulled over and asked him if he needed any help.
She told me that he was really polite, if not a bit shy, when he asked for a lift into the city. Nicki gave a smile and popped open the passenger door for the guy, who tossed his bag into the back seat and buckled up for the ride ahead.
They talked pleasantly for most of the trip. About friends, the news, etc. you know, happy small talk. She felt that they were getting on really well and even bought him dinner at the pit stop a little over halfway there. She says he seemed really flustered and awkward when she paid, but one of the things they had talked about was money and how he was pretty dang strapped for cash. Which was why he was hitchhiking in the first place. But he eventually relented and they went on their way.
As soon as they got into the city he thanked her profusely for the ride and the food and asked to be dropped off once they hit downtown. Before getting out he asked for Nicki's phone number so he could contact her someday and catch up. Thrilled at the prospect of knowing how her new friend was faring, Nicki wrote it down for him and drove off with the warm feeling of a good deed done.
Now I'm sorry if you were expecting something creepy to have happened by now, but I think this is what freaked me out so much as a kid; how nice everything seemed to have worked out. Nicki gets this crease in her forehead and a funny look in her eye when she tells me the next part. How a week later she got a phone call from her "driving buddy." He didn't let her get a word in edgewise after 'hello' and told her - 'that she should thank god that she was raised so nice, because when he first got in her car he was planning on raping and murdering her once they got to that pit stop. That he was going to steal that car and dump her body in a ditch further down the road and go on his merry way. But after she talked with him so kindly, and treated him to dinner with a smile on her face - he couldn't bring himself to do it. He didn't think that he could live with himself after doing that to such a nice lady. And to please, please, Nicki please: Never. Ever. Pick up another hitch hiker.'
Then he hung up the phone.
Nicki never got a call from him again, when she tried re-dialing the number she got a payphone.
And so, Mr. Hitchhiker, I know I'm never going to meet you. Because I'm going to listen to the advice you gave your driving buddy and never. Ever. Pick up a hitchhiker.
When A Driver Asks If You Want To Take A Shower Together, RUN
From Redditor /u/Jeola:
This story took place two years ago. I was on my second week backpacking through Austria and I reached a point where I was too exhausted to walk any longer. It was an unusually hot day; I had blisters all over my feet and I was ready to call it quits.
I was in the middle of nowhere and decided to thumb a lift to the nearest train station. But I was out of luck. I stood there for what felt like hours and no car would pick me up. I don't blame them. I spent two weeks sleeping in the woods, my clothes were dirty and I probably looked like a maniac.
When finally a truck pulled up I didn't hesitate to hop inside because I was so thankful to be able to sit down and rest my feet for a while. I asked the driver if he could drop me at the nearest station so that I could catch a train to Vienna, but he told me that he was heading back there anyway and that he could take me there as long as I didn't mind him making a stopover to load the truck. I didn't and so we drove along.
We made some smalltalk and he seemed to be very polite. It was a pretty enjoyable ride until we reached the first stop. He loaded his truck while I walked around a bit and bought some water at a gas station nearby. He had offered me drinks a few times a long the ride but I always declined because I don't feel comfortable with that. I got back into the truck and we continued the drive to Vienna. Almost immediately after we took of again he told me that it wouldn't be a problem for him if I wanted to take off some clothes since it was such a hot day. I told him that I was fine but he brought it up a couple more times. He also asked me if I wanted to take a nap in the back and that he had several hitchhikers sleeping there in the past. I declined again and started to feel a little uneasy around him and planned to leave the truck at the next gas stop.
All of the sudden he nearly yelled at me to put my head down and hide because he was driving past his stepfather's car and he didn't want him to see me in the truck. That struck me as odd, but I did anyway because his yelling took me by surprise. That confirmed my resolution to get out of there as soon as possible and I asked him to drop me off at the next stop and made up an excuse that it was my goal to enter Vienna by feet and that I well rested enough to make it, thanks to his lift. He agreed and I got my stuff ready. He suddenly turned to me and said that I looked familiar and that he was sure he saw me somewhere before. I shrugged it off but he insisted he remembered my face. He asked me if I ever went to a swinger club, because he was sure he saw me there some time. That caught me off guard and I told him that this was impossible because I'd never been to one.
"Well, do you want to? I'm going to one in Vienna. Let's go there together, I'm sure you'll like it."
At this point I really wanted to get off the truck asap and told him that I had no intention of coming with him and asked him to drop me off now. He didn't answer but reached into his pants and started m*sturbating while he drove along. I froze up, clutching my backpack on my lap and didn't know what to do. I kept thinking that I'd jump off as soon as he stopped somewhere and tried to ignore what he was doing there since he didn't respond to my plea to let me out. A gas station was coming up and he stopped what he was doing and asked if we should take a shower together. I figured that there'd be people around and that it would make it easier to get rid of him, so I told him sure, why not.
He pulled up and as soon as he stopped I yanked open the door and run across the parking area of the gas station hoping that he wouldn't come after me. He didn't, so I just kept running until the station was out of sight and I reached a busy street. Only after my heart stopped racing and I caught my breath I realized that I left my shoes at the truck. I walked the last few kilometers barefoot and kept a look out for the truck until I reached Vienna.
