Motels, Models & Murder: The Making of the Beauty Queen Killer | The case of Linda, Dawn & Tina | UNSEEN

Pay attention to the man in this video, as he's hiding the most disturbing secret. In the 1980s, tapes like these were used as a dating service, and yet no one knew that this man was, in reality, a serial killer. It's 1984, in Miami at the Miss Florida beauty pageant. The woman on screen is one of the finalists in the competition, but shortly after, she mysteriously disappears. When police began their investigation, they spotted a photographer who was always lurking around the girls, snapping photos of them. Not long before that event, at the Miami Grand Prix, another woman had disappeared. Detectives are baffled because the same man was seen there too, but this time, not as a photographer, but as a race car driver. When the police try to find him, he's already left town. By that point, it's too late to catch him. Young women all around the country are going missing. What follows is one of the biggest manhunts America has ever seen. But everything will change when one of his victims miraculously survives. This one 16-year-old holds the key to stop him. She will come back from the dead, get revenge, and finally bring him down. It's 1984, in Tallahassee, Florida. 19-year-old Linda, a sophomore at Florida State University, is living the college dream. She has a long-time boyfriend, a passion for her studies, and an unshakable love for the ocean waves along the Gulf Coast. Life for Linda feels like one long, beautiful summer. But on March 20th, just days before her five-year anniversary with her boyfriend, Linda goes out for a quick trip to Governor's Square Mall. Blissful. Blissfully unaware that this errand will soon take a dark turn. This department store will end up being her last known whereabout before she vanishes. Twelve hours later, when Linda reappears on March 21st, she's 40 miles away from the mall, barefoot and shaken. She runs up to the front desk of a roadside motel in Bainbridge, Georgia. Seeing her, the night manager freezes. Her voice shakes. She needs help. Moments later, a sheriff's deputy rushes into the motel. The only words Linda can get out are "chilling." A man kidnapped me and tortured me. The officer quickly calls for an ambulance, then heads directly to the room she pointed him to. The door creaks open to reveal a grim scene. Blood on the carpet, the walls, and torn pieces of duct tape on the floor. He immediately radios for backup and calls in a forensic team. Something violent and disturbing happened here. Meanwhile, Linda is rushed to Memorial Hospital in Georgia, where, despite her severe injuries, she refuses to stay silent. Word of her remarkable survival spreads quickly through the police stations across the state, eventually reaching two officers in Miami, almost 500 miles away. When Detective Hanlon and his colleague hear about the perpetrator's features, from the police reports, a chill runs down their spine. He was allegedly tall, well-dressed, with a slight accent and a neat beard and mustache. It's way too familiar. Both men immediately jump on a plane to meet Linda in person in Georgia. If their hunch is right, this could change everything. At the Georgia hospital, the officers listen intently to Linda's account. "He came up to me in the store and asked me if I was interested in being a model. And I said no. I had a boyfriend who wouldn't like that very much and wasn't really interested in modeling. And he had followed me out to my car. So that's when things kind of unfolded. And that's when I got nervous. I think he sucker-punched me in the solar plex and I woke up and was in his car." This is still in the early days of forensic evidence, and her first-hand account may be the only thing they have to spark rumors. "I was standing and he was at the television, he was on the bed. He wasn't really paying attention to me at all. And went for what was like, you know, they have the little latch and the door. And I didn't make it. And then we fought for who knows how long." I wrote a little song to remind you, Choice Hotels gets you more of the experiences you value. The Cambria Hotels got it all. A rooftop bar, have a ball. Cocktails. Hotels up here feel just right. It's Cambria amazing, all right. Bring a date, your team, or even your mom. Book direct at choicehotels.com. See you on the roof. "He hit me over the head and I just laid back and he was, you know, on top of me. And I just pretended that he'd actually knocked me out. And then I waited a second and just jabbed my fingers in his eyes. And ran to the bathroom and then pretended like I was dead. And I opened up the door, he was gone." Her quick thinking impresses the officers. If their hunch is correct, the man who kidnapped her is exceedingly violent and dangerous and has a long list of victims before her. Carefully, they take out a series of pictures and show them to Linda. Without hesitation, she identifies one man. She doesn't know his full name, but the detectives somehow do. "She right away, I mean, she identified the photographs, right?" Christopher Wilder. He's the man they've been tracking for several weeks. And now, he's crossed state lines with Linda. Detective Hanlon knows it's time to bring in the FBI. When 23-year-old Elizabeth Kenyon, a Miss Florida finalist, vanished without a trace, Wilder had been dating the young woman at the time of her disappearance and was conveniently nowhere to be found when detectives wanted to question him. But Elizabeth wasn't the first. A week before her disappearance, 20-year-old Rosario Gonzalez had also been reported missing from the Miami Grand Prix, a race Christopher Wilder participated in. Back at the hospital, investigators gather more information from Linda. New reports also start coming in concerning missing young women. Different towns. Different states. But all with the same disturbing pattern. "Cheryl Bonaventura was an aspiring model. She disappeared from this shopping center in Mesa, Colorado." "His latest suspected victim, a 21-year-old Oklahoma woman whose body was found in Kansas." "They found the body the day after Suzanne disappeared." "Las Vegas becomes the seventh city in a trail of abductions. Seventeen-year-old Michelle Korfman of nearby Boulder City has been missing for three days." "When you'd get the call that they'd found somebody, good God." "I knew damn well it was Wilder. Wherever he went, someone died. He's killing someone every two or three days, but he's also deliberately stopping to do it." It's now April 4th, 1984, two weeks after Linda's abduction, and a month since Wilder has been on police's radar following the Miami Grand Prix. Across the country, a 16-year-old girl named Tina is walking through a mall in Torrance, California, determined to find a summer job. Later that same day, the man comes up to her and starts a conversation. Passersby notice that they don't seem to know each other, but the interaction seems formal and friendly. They're then spotted walking in the parking lot, and seconds later, she's in his car, and the pair disappears. Unbeknownst to her, Christopher Wilder, has just found his next victim. April 5th, the next day, Carol, Tina's mom, contacts the police and reports her daughter missing. She tells them that Tina hasn't come home from school and hasn't been in touch all night. The worried mom also lets them know that Tina has been having boyfriend troubles later, and police in California don't immediately take her disappearance seriously, assuming this might be a petty teenage fight. But Tina's situation is, in fact, extremely serious. 200 miles from her mom, in a motel room heavy with what's just taken place, the teenager stares at the ceiling. Unable to move, the man from the mall sleeps beside her, his threats echoing in her head. "I've killed before, and I won't hesitate to kill you if you don't obey me." When the sun finally comes up, Wilder then leads her back into his car, blindfolding her. Even without seeing anything, she knows his gun and knife are within arm's reach. After terrifying hours of silence and uncertainty on the road, Tina feels the car slow down and park. He's chosen a new motel to spend the night in. The day Tina disappeared, she had very long hair. But that night, at the motel, Wilder stands beside her with a pair of scissors. Without any warning, he cuts a first lock of hair off to her chin. Tina realizes something. With dread, but also an uncomfortable relief, she realizes that he's changing her appearance because he doesn't want her to be recognized. Most likely, this man wants to keep her alive. A strange routine starts for Tina. The pair drive all day long, until there's no more sunlight, only stopping occasionally for gas and food. At small drive-in restaurants, Tina looks for any opportunity: a bathroom window, a scrap of paper to leave a note. But Wilder is always watching. Her hope for escape slowly disappears to nothing. She's now been missing for six terrifying days. However, on day seven, April 10th, the pair arrive in Gary, Indiana, thousands of miles away from Tina's home in California. Wilder turns to her and forces her to do the unthinkable. If she doesn't help him find a new victim, she won't live to see another day. Tina fearfully walks through the local mall, keeping Wilder in the corner of her eye. She can't help but think about what she could possibly do to help the next girl. Tina notices Wilder is fixated on one person, seemingly around the same age as herself. He then looks at Tina, nodding to her as an order. Tina complies, and goes up to introduce herself. The girl reciprocates. Her name is Dawn. "I do know I came out of, like, applying, and I was approached by a girl. She told me, uh, you know, say hi, she's beautiful. Would she be interested in becoming a model? Let me introduce you to him, is what I said to her. Tina pretends to talk about a local beauty competition with Wilder as a photographer. Don seems excited and follows them outside. Suddenly, Wilder violently pushes Don into his car, and they quickly speed away. As they drive, Wilder completely drops his charismatic sweet talker persona and immediately threatens Don, warning her, just like Tina, that he's killed before, and if she doesn't behave, he'll kill her too. As night falls, Wilder stops the car at a motel in Ohio. When the group enters the room, he immediately breaks the bathroom lock to prevent the girls from escaping. He then tells Tina to go take a bath, leaving Don alone in the bedroom with him. During that time, I wasn't a human to him. I wasn't a person to him. At all. From under the bathroom door, Tina can see lights flickering erratically. She immediately knows what the man is doing to Don, the same torment he's inflicted on her over the last seven days. The next morning, the three get back in the car and drive eastward. At some point, Wilder gets out, and Tina finds herself alone with Don. There is a part of me that had awareness that she wasn't voluntarily and maybe initially with him. It's now April 12th. The group is at a motel in Victor, New York. And all of a sudden, on the TV, my mother shows up. I'm like, oh my God, there's my mom. And if this guy does have her, so help me God, he better not cross my path. Tina is shocked to see her own mom on TV. The teenager watches as her mother threatens the man who's sitting next to her. Her words have a powerful effect. Tina not only knows people are looking for her, but her mom's strength and courage change everything. She isn't alone after all. However, her mom's TV appearance has a completely opposite effect on Wilder. He frantically gathers his stuff, hurrying Tina and Don. He knows the cops and families of his victims are closing in on him, and he won't go down without a fight. Back at the station, law enforcement are scrambling to piece together the mounting evidence before time runs out. Tracking Christopher Wilder has felt like ghost hunting. He's never in one place long enough to pin him down, crossing state lines faster than they can follow, leading to administrative slowdowns and miscommunications. At this point, it has been well over a month of failed efforts. But now, the FBI makes a bold move. They decide to broadcast a video of Wilder himself. Now the public can learn his voice, his mannerisms, and understand the danger lurking behind the charm. Wilder's tape shocks the public. It's a chilling portrait of a man hiding in plain sight. I'd like to social date more so. I have a, what I call a need to meet. I am single, have not been married before. And in the same token, I would like to see a family one day, and I would like a family. Turns out, the photographer, is also a suspect in multiple violent crimes committed all the way in Australia. His glamorous race car driver experience and job as a fashion photographer have been the perfect cover to lure teens into his clutches. With Tina's mom and the public on their side, the cops close in on Wilder. Meanwhile, Wilder speeds down the road with Tina and Don trapped in the backseat. After less than an hour, he stops the car near Finger Lakes, a secluded area in upstate New York. Wilder turns to Don and says, and orders her out of the car. Wilder forces Don deep into the woods, when suddenly, the man jumps on her. Putting his hands around her throat, Don's vision begins to blur, but she fights with everything she has. The two fall to the ground. Don can't give up, but then, she sees Wilder's hand, a flash of metal. He has a knife, on the ground and bleeding out. Don can only watch as he quietly gets up and walks away. Barely holding on to life, Don knows he can come back at any moment and finish the job. She needs to move if she wants to live. Once he's out of sight, she pulls herself upright and attempts to run for her life. And so I remember getting over, like, to a tree, and I believe this was my God moment of, like, the lights and the sunlight and just this feeling of some strength and power. I didn't know what my injuries were. I did know that I could see it and thought it was bad. I had them around my chest. I am, you know, fuzzy, dizzy, and I make my way to the road. I saw a truck, a delivery truck, and then it drove me to the hospital. Now at the hospital, the staff treat her injuries. Somehow, Wilder miraculously missed her heart. Police gather as much information from Don as they can about her kidnapper. Despite her severe injuries and blood loss, she tells them her captor's name, where she had been taken from, and the other kidnapped girl's name, Tina. Back in the car, when Wilder returns without Don, Tina can only assume Don has been killed. However, hours later, the pair hear on the car's radio that a teenager has been found alive. I would like to report that this morning, about 9.30 or 10 o'clock, a 16-year-old female was located in a field in rural Yates County. The incident this morning, we feel, may have a bearing upon Wilder's whereabouts in this area. We don't know which way he went at this point, and we really need some assistance in locating the vehicle. What active role did the woman play as far as you know? As far as I know, the woman participated in the abduction, and that is our information. Tina has no idea that public opinion has turned completely against her. In the first days of her kidnapping, she was seen for what she was, a victim. But now, after Don's survival and retelling, the media has twisted the narrative and labeled her an accomplice. According to the FBI today, Christopher Wilder wanted for a series of murders and sexual assaults, appears to be on a cross-country crime spree, now with the help of a young woman. Police suspect that the accomplice may be Tina Marie Recico. However, that testimony has also been a game-changer for the FBI, as they now know which direction Wilder is heading, and what car he's driving. Finally, they're one step ahead of him. Wilder is panicking, speeding into the parking lot of the Eastview Mall, still in New York. Usually, this is his favorite hunting ground, but now, he's in a rush. From a distance, he spots 33-year-old mother, Beth Dodge, in her car, a golden Pontiac Firebird. At gunpoint, Wilder forces Beth into his car, while forcing Tina to follow them in the Firebird. After a short ride, they stop in a secluded area. The minute she got out of the car with him, he told her to walk ahead, and he just shot her straight in the back. I mean, point blank. Wilder's mother, Beth Dodge, was shot in the back. Her body was discovered beside a highway by two truck drivers. FBI agents spent much of the night working from this command center, trying to figure just how to stop one of the country's 10 most wanted criminals. He killed her for a car, only. This was, like, out of character for him. So, you know, definitely intensified to me of, when am I next? At this point, Tina has been captive for nine days. Sadly, it hasn't been the first time she's dealt with violent men. Her childhood was difficult, as her mother struggled with addiction. Before the young girl went to live with her grandmother, Tina learned about survival a long time ago. When I was a little girl, I just observed and learned that I was being shown at such a young age, be it drugs, sex, or being abused. I was exposed to so much at a young age, so many sick men. I had a few family members that had sexually abused me continually till about I was seven years old, from about three to seven. I have lived so much already by the time I was 16. It just came natural for me to absorb this brutality of being controlled. However, she could have never predicted Wilder's next move. After enduring his violence, torture, and kidnappings, he now announces to her that he'll drop her off at the Boston airport. Tina can't believe it. After witnessing so many things, why would he simply let her go? After he'd shot Beth Dodge, we were just driving towards Canada border, and Wilder became different. He put his arm on the middle console, said, you're going, I'm going to take you to Boston airport, and I'll let you go. I'm just to myself like, okay, I'm not going to believe this because it could be a trick. In spite of roadblocks on every major highway, Wilder tactfully avoids them, and the pair arrive at the airport, where he buys a one-way ticket to LA. Shockingly, no one recognizes them. Tina keeps her head down. Wilder is clearly panicked and reckless. The killer might change his mind. Tina could be one wrong move away from staying his captive forever, or his next murder victim. Fear is in the air. Give me your ID. You paid for the ticket. Here's some money. You're going to need this. Take this $1,000. But then, just like that, he turns away and simply leaves. He walks, leaving her to get on the flight alone. I was still afraid he's going to come back and get me, always looking over my shoulder, like, where is he at? Being that I was still in the mindset of being controlled, I was lost. What do I need to do? Not until I was in that plane did I know for sure that I was actually released from him. It's now April 13th. Soon after landing in LA, Tina, in shock, rushes to the police station, finally free. It's now up to her to expose Wilder, to force him to face justice for what he's done. Wilder's spree of violence needs to stop. He can't hurt any more victims. My father was never in my life, and now all of a sudden he's there with the top criminal lawyer at the time in the state of California. Criminal lawyer, am I being charged for something? There were other jurisdictions involved where Don was from and Beth Dodge was from, and they insisted that Tina was involved with Wilder. And in the conflicts. So they were after her. Miami detectives hope to find out information from 16-year-old Tina Marie Recico. Recico spent more than a week traveling with Wilder. I don't know that she's going to be able to tell us anything, but I wouldn't rest comfortably until I had the chance to speak with her. With the Firebird on everyone's radar and Tina cooperating in custody, cops are on high alert all over the country. We believe that he is in a rather distinctive car. It's a gold, metallic gold, 1982 Pontiac Firebird. That's when, in the quiet town of Colbrook, New Hampshire, a report comes through about a flashy car spotted by two state troopers. The car is confirmed to be the golden Pontiac Firebird. The two state patrol officers approach with extreme caution. If they're right, the driver is a serial killer, armed and dangerous. As the officers close in, they see the man inside reach for something. Gunfire erupts. One trooper is hit. Then, amidst the chaos, Wilder makes his final move, choosing to escape justice on his own terms. When the smoke clears, he's found dead behind the wheel. A nationwide manhunt is over. It had been 47 days since the first reported disappearance, but now his time on the run has finally ended. Throughout his spree, 12 young women were abducted, eight were murdered, countless families shattered. I remember they're like, it's okay, it's okay, he's, you know, he died. And I'm like, did he really? Is it true? Do you remember what went through your mind when you heard he was dead? Relief. What went through my mind was relief. Yeah, relief. Can't live by life, what ifs, but what if he was still alive today? I wouldn't be sitting in this chair today. Only hours after Wilder died, a suspected accomplice turned up, a teenaged woman walking into police headquarters in Torrance, California. She had been seen with Wilder recently in New York. When Linda and Don are praised, Tina's actions are still questioned. The community and media find it hard to believe that she is a victim when her ordeal was so different from all the other women. All of this, I was a child, I was a minor, and for the media to exploit me, my name, they handled it all wrong from the get-go. While Linda and Don are celebrated, Tina's story is met with doubt. The public doesn't rally behind her like the others. Instead, they question her, choosing suspicion over compassion, despite surviving. The same serial killer. That's when the Torrance police captain, Jim Popp, steps up and gathers the press to set the record straight. Here is a girl, kidnapped, who according to Don, Lord Don, was present during the shooting of another woman before finally coming to police. How do you explain that? Uh, it's easy to sit back and second guess when you haven't gone through the ordeal. Secondly, the terms that you've used are very, very critical, and the term luring, in our investigation was not used. It is the opinion of Torrance investigators that Tia Marie Risico has been a victim throughout the nine days of terror that ended with her safe return to Torrance. With Jim Popp rightfully clearing her name, Tina can move forward, even if it will take time to heal from the public's initial judgment. I wrote a little song to remind you, Choice Hotels gets you more of the experiences you value. I have two regrets, getting in the car and taking Don. It was a choice. It wasn't mine, but it was a choice, and I have to live with that. Every little word that was what I said to the women, why didn't I go away? Why didn't I run away in the car? Why didn't I drive away? Why didn't I do this? I'm like, why would you? What would you do? This is what I did, and here I am today to tell you about it. I did something right, I think, so you tell me how you do. I hope after this comes out that somebody can find strength from what I've given in my side of the story, my truth. I hope they can gather something from it and walk away with inspiration. Don't take shit from nobody. Only you can dictate who you are. This really is a story about survival. I think she was a victim and did what she felt like she needed to do to, you know, stay alive. Like, it's a survival mechanism like we all have. Today, she has found love, and with it, the freedom to be herself. Meanwhile, Lyndon knows how lucky she was. She was the first to break free from Wilder's terrifying grip, and because of her courage, the police finally grasped how dangerous he truly was. Her 12-hour ordeal changed her life forever, but it did not define her. I learned more and more about all the girls who didn't get a chance and decided that I was in many ways living on their behalf, that I needed to make sure that I did something worthwhile. Now a mother, Don knows that time truly does help you heal. Her strength and determination saw her through a horrific ordeal, and continued to shape the woman she's become. I have two beautiful children that, you know, I live for. We have lots of laughs and fun, and, you know, some days are hard and some days are amazing, and it is just this journey. And I don't think that time heals all wounds, but time certainly helps you be able to, like, sit here today. All of the women's survival started the chain reaction that finally brought an end to the beauty queen killer's reign of terror. In the end, it wasn't luck that stopped her. It was the women who refused to let him win. They refused to be broken, and through that, justice prevailed.