With her legs tightly bound, student Holly Dunn lay helpless by the side of a railway track, staring at the sinister figure of her attacker smashing a giant rock onto her boyfriend head.
As she looked at Chris Maier’s motionless body, she had no idea if he was still alive.
Channel 5Holly Dunn was raped and maimed by Angel Maturino Resendiz[/caption]
Maier FamilyHer boyfriend, Chris Maier, was one of his at least 15 murdered victims[/caption]
AP:Associated PressResendiz became known as the Railroad Killer[/caption]
All she knew, for certain, was that she was next, as her attacker turned his attention to her.
“That’s when I thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to die’,” admits Holly, who will never forget the events that unfolded that night in August, 1997.
Holly, then 20, and Chris, 21, were both students at the University of Kentucky in America.
Just hours earlier, the unsuspecting couple had been at a party in Lexington, Kentucky.
During the evening, the pair had decided to get some alone time.
Wandering off, they found a quiet spot by a railway track, just a few streets away.
It was dark but the couple felt safe in the residential area.
They cracked open cans of beer and began chatting, but their peace was shattered when a stranger emerged from behind an electrical signal box near the tracks.
“He just said, ‘Do you have any money?’” Holly says. “He had an accent that made me think he was from Mexico or a Spanish-speaking country. It didn’t feel like it was anything dangerous.”
Little did they know, the man standing before them was one of America’s most wanted men.
Lexington, KY Police DeptResendiz took Dunn’s belt and used it to tie her hands behind her back[/caption]
Lexington, KY Police DeptOne of Holly’s sandals lays in the ditch near where the attack happened[/caption]
Angel Maturino Resendiz had already tortured and killed six people, all near railway tracks. He was dubbed “The Railroad Killer.”
He took pleasure in killing, using weapons as varied as an iron and a gun. Now, he had Chris and Holly in his sights.
Initially, Resendiz approached Chris. “Chris got down on his knees, and it looked like he was going through Chris’ backpack,” Holly says.
In reality, he was restraining Chris. Resendiz then bound Holly.
I stopped fighting. I wasn’t feeling any pain. I just thought, ‘I need to say my last prayer.’
Holly Dunn
Speaking in tonight’s new Channel 5 documentary, The Railroad Killer: I Escaped a Murderer, Holly recalls: “That’s when I saw he had a weapon, which was some kind of ice pick.
“He took my belt off, pulled my hands behind my back, and tied them with my own belt.
“I thought, ‘This man is going to hurt us.’”
Resendiz briefly walked away, and Holly managed to free her hands but couldn’t untie her legs or help Chris.
“I had this feeling in my chest, like a running squirrel, a feeling of anxiousness and panic,” she recalls. “But Chris had this peaceful calmness about him. He kept saying, ‘It’s okay. Everything’s okay.’”
Moments later, their attacker returned, carrying something heavy.
“It looked like a rock, something so big he struggled to carry it,” Holly says. “He just came over and dropped it on Chris’s head.”
Holly watched in horror as her boyfriend’s body lay still beside her.
She knew she was next.
Broken eye sockets and jaw wired shut
FacebookHolly thought she was dead as she managed to escape[/caption]
As Resendiz climbed on top of her, she went into survival mode.
“I started punching, biting, screaming, trying to hurt him, trying to kick him. That’s when he stabbed me in the neck with the ice pick. ‘Look how easily I could kill you,’ he said. So I stopped fighting. I wasn’t feeling any pain. I just thought, ‘I need to say my last prayer.’”
While he raped and horrifically beat her, Holly made a crucial decision: she would not let this man destroy her spirit.
She dug her fingernails into the ground, hoping to leave behind her DNA, and committed every detail of her attacker’s face to memory. “I knew every scar, every tattoo,” she says. “And I told myself, ‘If I make it through this, I will get you’.”
After the attack, Resendiz attempted to beat her to death with a piece of plywood. “I don’t remember being hit but from my injuries, I know he struck me five or six times in the face.”
I definitely had survivor’s guilt because [my boyfriend] Chris didn’t make it.
Holly Dunn
Thinking she was dead, Resendiz walked away into the night. Somehow, Holly found the strength to get up and stagger into a nearby house where the homeowner immediately dialled for help.
Holly’s injuries were extensive. She spent five days in the hospital, having lost four pints of blood.
Her jaw was fractured and wired shut, her eye socket broken, and her face covered in cuts.
Though her physical wounds eventually healed, the emotional scars ran deep.
“I didn’t get to go to Chris’s funeral because I was still in the hospital,” she says. “I definitely had survivor’s guilt because Chris didn’t make it.”
Train tracks triggered panic attacks
APHolly had panic attacks when she was near railway tracks in the years after[/caption]
For the next two years, Holly lived with constant fear and anxiety.
The sound of a train or the sight of railroad tracks could trigger a panic attack.
She desperately hoped the police would catch the man who had murdered her boyfriend and tried to murder her.
They had DNA from her attack, but without a national DNA database at the time, the investigation stalled.
Who are the UK’s worst serial killers?
THE UK’s most prolific serial killer was actually a doctor.
Here’s a rundown of the worst offenders in the UK.
British GP Harold Shipman is one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history. He was found guilty of murdering 15 patients in 2000, but the Shipman Inquiry examined his crimes and identified 218 victims, 80 per cent of whom were elderly women.
After his death Jonathan Balls was accused of poisoning at least 22 people between 1824 and 1845.
Mary Ann Cotton is suspected of murdering up to 21 people, including husbands, lovers and children. She is Britain’s most prolific female serial killer. Her crimes were committed between 1852 and 1872, and she was hanged in March 1873.
Amelia Sach and Annie Walters became known as the Finchley Baby Farmers after killing at least 20 babies between 1900 and 1902. The pair became the first women to be hanged at Holloway Prison on February 3, 1903.
William Burke and William Hare killed 16 people and sold their bodies.
Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe was found guilty in 1981 of murdering 13 women and attempting to kill seven others between 1975 and 1980.
Dennis Nilsen was caged for life in 1983 after murdering up to 15 men when he picked them up from the streets. He was found guilty of six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to life in jail.
Fred West was found guilty of killing 12 but it’s believed he was responsible for many more deaths.
It wasn’t until December 1998, when a well-known doctor named Dr. Claudia Benton was murdered in Houston, Texas, with similar brutality, that the police finally got their break. DNA from that crime scene linked Dr Benton’s murder to Resendiz.
Police now had a prime suspect and investigators working on Holly’s case believed Resendiz was also her and Chris’ attacker.
Now on a manhunt to find Resendiz, police released footage of him appearing in a previous court case on other charges.
The footage aired on a national television programme called ‘America’s Most Wanted’.
Facing her attacker
AP:Associated PressDr Claudia Benton was another of his many victims[/caption]
C5Holly was forced to face her attacker again years later when she was a key witness[/caption]
APHe was sentenced to death[/caption]
Although his appearance had changed, Holly knew instantly from his voice that it was the man who had left her for dead.
In July 1999, Resendiz surrendered to US authorities. He had been hiding out in his home country of Mexico, only crossing the borders near railway tracks to commit his heinous crimes.
Holly, who was in England at the time, later became a key witness in the murder trial of Dr. Benton. Although Resendiz was being tried for more than one murder Dr Benton’s trial was key because it was in Texas – where the penalty for murder was the death sentence.
Holly was asked to testify.
I looked over at him, and he had no emotion on his face. I started breaking out in a cold sweat and nearly fainted, but I knew I had to do this, not just for me but for all the families who had lost someone to this man.
Holly Dunn
She said: “I felt like I was speaking for myself, for Chris, and for all the other victims. There were nine at that time, but we later found out there were many more.”
During the trial, she faced her attacker once more.
She says: “I looked over at him, and he had no emotion on his face.
“I started breaking out in a cold sweat and nearly fainted, but I knew I had to do this, not just for me but for all the families who had lost someone to this man.”
Sentenced to death
In 2000, Angel Maturino Resendiz was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection in June 2006.
Shortly before his execution, he confessed to additional murders, bringing the total to at least 15 across six states.
Reflecting on the sentence, Holly, now 47, a wife and mum-of-two, says, “I think 100 per cent it was a just sentence for him. I had to forgive him, and I did that for myself, not for him. I didn’t want to carry around that anger and hatred. I let those feelings die with him.”
Today, Holly is a motivational speaker and a passionate advocate for survivors of violent crimes. She co-founded Holly’s House, an advocacy center for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence in her hometown of Evansville, Indiana.
Through her work, she transforms her trauma into a powerful force for good, helping others find strength and healing.
“I love the people I meet when I go out and speak,” she says. “It is so empowering to be able to talk about what happened and to use my story to help others. I live with this every day, but I focus on the good that has come from it. I’m so grateful for this second chance at life, and I live each day to its fullest.”
Holly still keeps a photo of Chris where she can see it every day. “He’s a little reminder to enjoy every day because he was truly the most precious person. We all want to live our lives like he would.
“I escaped a murderer,” she says. “But I’ve found a way to make that part of my story, and I’m determined to use it to make a difference.”
The Railroad Killer: I Escaped a Murderer airs on Channel 5 tonight at 10pm.
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