Reddit’s Craziest Serial Killer Encounters

Hi everyone, before today's episode, we want to tell you about What the Fact. It's a new show from Conor Tomlinson, who you know from Netflix's Love on the Spectrum, and Carter Roy from Murder, True Crime Stories. Every week they take three unbelievable true facts from history and tell you the full story behind them. Conor's infectious energy will make you realize history is the most fascinating thing on Earth. Follow What the Fact, wherever you listen, or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact on. A year or two later on a cold December day, my uncle was having coffee in a cafe with my future aunt when he caught something on the TV that made his blood run cold. He saw that very man that had picked him up from school that day the year before. It was John Wayne Casey. If you're loving crimes of Reddit, please follow, rate and review us wherever you listen. It helps us build this community, and we love hearing from you. To get early access and ad-free listening, subscribe to the Crime House+ community on Apple Podcasts. You can also catch us on YouTube where we include visuals that bring every case to life. Okay. Hi. Hi. Hello. Everyone. Welcome back to Crime's of Reddit. We're here. We're your host. I'm Sabrina Deanna Roga. I'm Alexis Linkletter. We also have a special guest today who you'll meet very shortly. Snook. I watched a True Crime documentary that I wanted to talk to you about. Have you seen a toxic love story? Remind me. Netflix, and it's this whole story about like this couple, the guy in the couple is a US Marshall, and he's like, my ex-girlfriend is stalking us and says like, she's going to kill us and all this stuff, and it takes so many twists and turns. Have you seen this? It blew my mind. You know, that condo seemed to really be at the center. I've never heard a documentary say the word, anyone say the word condo as many times as they did in that. Because the ex had bought it and he ended up keeping it. I know. But even the worst part of the story, well, the fact that he's law enforcement made it terrifying. And it made it. Yeah. So, and this, I'm not going to spoil it, but it made it, no one questioned anything he said. But yeah, I saw that. I really liked it. I thought it was fun. I thought it was really well done. I highly recommend if you like watching True Crime documentaries, a toxic love story. It's on Netflix. And then when you do watch it or if you have watched it in the comments, let us know what you think. Because we have heard you all in the comments who don't like when we spoil things. So we won't spoil the resisted just then, just this one. But then in the future, we might spoil things, but we'll let you know if we're going to spoil things. Should we talk about what we have planned today? We have stories from Reddit about brushes with serial killers, which one there are a lot of serial killers, which is sad. And two, these encounters are really, really scary. I also love this topic or this theme because I think with Reddit stories, it's hard to verify some of them. But these, we have news articles. It's just there's more evidence to the encounters. Yeah. You know, you were talking about it being scary and it's like, serial killers have to be related to people. Serial killers live next to people like they are moving through the world. You could pass one on the street literally while listening to this episode. Okay. So we're super excited to welcome a very special guest to crimes of Reddit today. If you've ever been up way too late, watching creepy Reddit or 4chan story time videos, you've definitely heard of him. It's all of us here. Yes. So please join us in welcoming Snook to the studio. Hey, what's up guys? I'm super excited to get into some scary Reddit threads and Reddit stories today. And we have some wild ones for you today. So yeah, you better stick around. I will. So I have not heard the story that Alexis was about to share with us. So I'm very excited and scared and nervous and happy all the emotions. Yeah. I think you should be. No. And today we've got good ones. We've got brushes with serial killers. Those are the stories we're talking about today. And the first one is a really good one. All right. Should I get into it? Let's do it. Okay. My aunt dated a murderer. We're first going to set up some background here. This happened almost 19 years ago. So that's necessary context. Okay. So here's what the original poster said. I was nearly 13 years old and I was being raised by my grandparents. We lived in a little tourist town in Florida where Snook is. I am based in Florida. Oh boy. Oh boy. You know how Florida stories go? They had problems with their two daughters as adults, my mother being the older of the two. They wanted to do everything they could to make sure that I didn't turn out the same way. You over, if you will. So needless to say, they were very strict. My aunt was having a good period where she had her stuff together. We were all very close. And my aunt understood what it was like to be raised under a glass dome metaphorically speaking. They raised her two after all. So being as she was my only aunt, she made sure that the time we spent together was always super cool. I would stay over Saturday nights. We would go out and hang out at the pier and she would let me hang out with my middle school boyfriend who would find ways to get to wherever I was. Fun aunt. We've got the cool aunt, okay? He was relieving original poster from strict grandparents. Great. So my grandparents had no idea of any of these activities, of course. I was just spending some quality time with my aunt and giving them a break. It was nice that I had a younger female figure since my mom wasn't around. One night, when we were out having fun, my aunt met this guy and they really hit it off. He was very nice and introduced himself to me. He went by JR and at first he was a kind and charming talker. The exchange numbers after hanging out a while and then we went home and went to bed. They ended up going out a bit more and my aunt had really liked JR. He took her to his home and introduced her to his father and showed her around his land. He lived out in the woods in the middle of nowhere. I've lived in this town for 30 years and I still do to this day and I couldn't tell you where it is. I was only there once. He was teaching my aunt how to shoot a gun. I remember her shoulder rocking back with the impact of the shot and it's surprising her. He had these weird flamenco dancing clothes in his closet. Interesting detail. There's so many details about JR that like lives in the middle of it. He feels like a character. I mean, he seems like a complete like wild card. I mean, like out in the middle of the woods, shooting guns, flamenco dancing clothes, like who is this guy? I picture him with like a pit of alligators in the backyard too. The flamenco dancing clothes are the most exactly where I'm just like, what guy are we dealing with? You think Florida, you think guns, and then it's like tight little pants. Well, then also knowing the theme with serial killers and like going through my mind of like JR, are there any serial killers I know with those initials? Maybe. We'll see. Anyways, we left off at flamenco dancing clothes in the closet. It was all seemingly harmless. You would think, right? I mean, everyone has their quirks. So at least original posters acknowledging it. So about 10 days, maybe two weeks later, we were again at the pier out by the payphones, talking about what to do that night, and what to get for dinner. JR and my aunt were in their late 20s, early 30s. And as much as she loved me, I imagined there were times that I got in the way. Well, anyway, we were at the pier and he's talking about how he has these pain killers. He offered me one. I declined, of course, and told him I had a high tolerance to pain anyway and didn't need that stuff. How old is OP during this? Middle school boyfriend. She said she's a middle school boyfriend. So yeah, being offered pain killers by a grown man is concerning. Seemingly kind of random grown man. I mean, like, hey, you want some pain? Like, what? Like, how does the aunt not be like, all right, what is going on here? I mean, procuring for minors is never good. So OP, we left off with saying I declined and told him I had a high tolerance to pain anyway. That stuff. He then, with a huge smile, asks me if he can see for himself, assuring me, he won't really hurt me. What? He's just trying to have fun. This bastard twists my arm behind my back until I hear a pop. I start to cry. And he laughs and says, "Aw, sweetheart, I was only playing. You said you had a high tolerance." I am. Most of us have heard that pop at least once in our lives. From a random injury. Because it's a scary thing when you know something's hurt and you're kind of, like, taking stock of what just happened, like how hurt am I? What about those grown man just grabbing your arm and twisting it behind your back? Right. The top of something. Yeah. A grown man with a 13-year-old girl. It's not good. No, we don't like him. You know, at first, Flamenco dancer, now we're wandering into some other territory here. So, OP continues. I guess I was stronger than I thought I was being. I'm sorry. No need to ruin the good time we're all having. That's what she said. I go in the private peer office, which my granddad managed crying. My aunt comes in and lets me know that she thinks it's fucked up too, and that she talked to him about it. She goes back outside and he asks her what she's up to that night. She tells him that she isn't sure if I'm staying over because of what just happened. I was whining about going home. I was pissed that she hadn't decked him right there for hurting me. while he tells her that she should meet him under. Let's call it the sunset bridge at 2 a.m. on the other side of town. - What? Under any bridge is never good. - And then at 2 a.m. - And at the middle of the night, 2 a.m. Hey, meet me at this secluded bridge. It's like underneath the bridge. Like, what the hell is going on? - What happened to going to dinner? - Going to dinner? - I know. This is like the Florida equivalent of like a Netflix and chill. You always say no to something like that. - That's a mega dance thing. - Yeah, exactly. So after he asks the aunt to this under the bridge situation, he says that the stars are beautiful and you can listen and hear the fish. He tells her he would love to see it with her and they can dance under the moon. - A corny, but sure. - We were all from a fishing family and live in a fishing town. So fish activities under the bridge at late night times weren't necessarily something that threw up a red flag. If it's dark and late, there won't be people, they're hogging all the fish. She tells him maybe and we leave. I decide to spend the night after all. Later, sneaking in only if she will pick up my boyfriend, Charlie, playing up on guilt points. So O.P. is saying, "I'll spend the night, but I want my middle school boyfriend to come over. You're gonna cover for me." So she calls him, meaning JR, when she gets home, before we meet our arrangement about Charlie middle school boyfriend and says that she can come, but she will have me with her. He groans and is like fine. All right, I guess she can come to. So they're going on like a double date with the little 13 year old niece. Yeah, great. Fine, she can come to, maybe she'll get tired and sleep in the car. So it started out as fun and to know it's a little bit of dangerous too. It's weird, yeah. It's very weird. - It's just a weird situation over, like I mean, yeah, let's just see how this plays out. I mean, I just, how does, what happens? - So about an hour after she called JR the first time, I ask her about Charlie and she agrees. She sits down with me and hugs me and touches my face lovingly, apologizing for what had happened with my arm. My aunt was an amazing woman and I love her very much. She then calls him again and tells him not to worry. She's picking up Charlie so I will have my own entertainment and they can have their time. He goes into a rage and starts sputtering and cussing about how it's too complicated now, and he just wanted an intimate meeting with her, not a damn family reunion. He went on about how he didn't want to have to quote babysit a 13 year old kid and her 14 year old boyfriends. He hangs up after calling her a crazy bitch. She bewilderingly hangs up the phone and tells me what happened. We go about our night with pizza rolls and PlayStation and things are fine. That's a better night, now we're talking, right? So he calls her a few more times and drives by the house for a couple of weeks, but my aunt was having none of it. After a while, he left our lives just as swiftly as he had come. The whole affair lasted only a month, if even that. Three weeks maybe, and all in all, it wasn't the crazy experience she's had with a man. JR was soon forgotten and we went about our business. Flash forward to two years later, I'm almost out of middle school. My aunt had moved to a city about 40 miles away. I still live with my grandparents. They were still strict, but as they had gotten older, so had I. I knew a few ways around the rules. One day my friend Frank and I missed the bus home from school and called our good high school friend Darla to pick us up and take us home after riding a bit. So now Darla's entering the frame. She had this big beautiful red truck and I would ride around in the cab of it, loving the freedom and the wind. We were smoking cigarettes and laughing while listening to the radio. The time I would have spent on the bus before my stop was just enough time to hit up the taco drive-thru. So we cruised on the road a bit before heading back to Frank and I separate houses. He lived just on the road. We had a lot of fun that day. She dropped me off first. And my grandparents came outside. They were confused at the side of an unknown vehicle and even more so when they saw that I had gotten out of it. After letting her, meaning Darla, be the one to explain because she was older, cooler and more responsible, they thanked her for being kind enough to take me home. And they said how lucky I was that she'd just happen to be there to help me get home. The things we do to our parents, huh? Well, that was the last time we ever saw my friend. She didn't show up for work for five days. - Darla, it seemed so. - This is an hour, I, I know. - Who would just matter? - I know. OP continues. I can't speak for everyone, but I assume she just had run away. Darla's parents were going through a nasty divorce. A dad had a hot new girlfriend and the mother was very better about it, rightfully so I guess. It was embarrassing for all the kids. Her truck wasn't left behind. I figured she got tired of her parents acting like infants and took off. I missed her, but she wasn't a whole other league of freedom and coolness. 16 is a whole different life than 14, especially when you were in different schools. I wished her well, maybe even a little envious that she'd gotten out of this town and I was still here. I hadn't heard anything for two weeks about her when at about nine p.m. at night, my grandparents got a phone call to turn on the news. - Oh no. Darla's body was found out in the woods. She had been strangled to death and just left out there. I don't even know for how long. - So sad. - Horrible. - I was devastated. I was so joyful that I had that last experience with her, but so sad and in horrified. She was so young, barely older than myself. She was about to be 17 in just a short time. It was a very sad time for our town. The good and bad news is that they caught the guy that I'd done it. He confessed after some very incriminating evidence and during his questioning, he also confessed to killing his girlfriend, who had been missing for about eight years. Can we all guess who it is? And also his father, who I did. - Daging his death to make it look like a suicide by hanging. - Oh my God. - When they showed his mug shot on the screen and said his name, I swear I almost passed out. J.R. - J.R. - Their clearest day on the screen, staring back at me, was a picture of J.R. Oh my God. - I had no idea they even knew each other. I can't even imagine what would have happened if we had gone with him under the bridge that night. - Right. - 'Cause he wanted only, at first, he only wanted the aunt to be there and then he wanted O.P. and the aunt to be there. But the second Charlie was gonna be there, he was like, never mind. - Never mind. And this was only two years later. So it's not like it was a decade later when this person maybe hadn't started entertaining. - Right. - These violent tendencies, right? - Jews. O.P. continues to say, investigation discovery channel did a piece on it a couple of years back. I was shocked to see it on TV. The memories came rushing back and I decided to write them all down. I literally have a newfound appreciation of life now that I'm old enough to understand just how close I could have come to being killed. My aunt lived on to make awesome new memories with me. I have a beautiful life with my husband and free boys that most likely would not have happened if things had gone differently that night. I know. And there are red flags when you look back at the beginning of the story where you're not really sure where this is going, especially with this idea of offering a 13 year old pain killers and then hurting her, physically harming her and kind of getting off on it. - Yeah. And the pain killers of it, it's like, okay. Maybe he did want her to sleep in the car so he could be alone with the aunt. Maybe he wanted her incapacitated for other reasons just to make someone more submissive. - Yeah, because they were in the middle of nowhere doing all this so that pain killer could have been who knows what. And she could have taken that, passed down and then he does, God knows what with his, her aunt and possibly the O.P.'s body and, you know, then invited them down underneath the bridge and who knows what would have happened underneath there. I think we know, but. - It's really disturbing, who's scary? When think about this, you know, J.R., the original poster described being out on his really remote land and not being able to remember where it is, but like, they're shooting guns. And now, you know, there's this new piece of information that he's suspected of staging his father's death, probably out there on that land. - Yeah, there could have been an accident shooting guns just like his father committed suicide. Like, I mean. - Have either of you ever crossed paths with not necessarily a serial killer unless you have, and then I want to hear that story too, but with someone who you just get really bad vibes from, or like, they're empty in their eyes, like they give off killer vibes? - Yeah, but not, like, intimately. - Sure. - You know, it's just when someone gives you a bad feeling, like, I think you automatically are sort of repelled and don't try to, like, engage. - Yeah, I've definitely had that spooky feeling from the interaction. - Yeah, there's definitely been a few times where, you know, I don't know, going to a grocery store, or someone asked for, like, something, and you're like, normally, like, I would help someone, but like, you just get a bad vibe. Like, some people just give you, like, a feeling of dread almost. Do you know what I mean? Like, it's just like, there's something wrong, and I think it's just important to always listen to that feeling, because I've read so many stories like this, and people just say, something fell off. And if you feel that off feeling, there's no reason to keep going. I mean, like, you don't owe people anything really, especially with people like this. - How do we feel about that first story? I'm pretty uneasy. Have you ever, like, encountered someone, and then found out they went on to do something horrible like that? - Yeah, I am this guy that my friend tried to set me up with in seventh grade, got arrested in the mall for, like, yielding a knife and trying to, like, threaten someone with a knife. And then I recently looked him up, and he's for sure in prison. - But that's not great. Well, did you go out with him? - No. - Okay, well, trust your gut. - Yeah, yeah, exactly. - Okay, well, I think we're off to an interesting start. I mean, as horrible as that story is. - I know, I'm curious, because you have been telling these kinds of stories for a couple of years now. Like, is there one story in this similar vein that really sticks out with you that you've covered in the past? - Yeah, I'll have to, I mean, I have to think on this, but I mean, I just read so many stories, and it's just like there's one common denominator of them all, and it's like someone, they just felt something wrong. And it's just like, I mean, everyone knows that feeling of something feeling off or wrong in every single time if they ignore that feeling something horrible happens. And so, like, I mean, nothing comes to mind immediately, but like, that is always the thing that sticks with me. I mean, like, every single person says, I felt something wrong, I ignored it, and then they always regret it. And so, like, everyone knows that feeling where you're like, this is not a smart move or I should not do this, I shouldn't talk to this person, and you really shouldn't, because I don't know, like, your subconscious really picks up on things that you might not. - Yeah. - And I don't know, it's just very important to be aware, and just, you know, trust your gut. - Yeah, it is tough though, 'cause I have an overactive imagination, and I've also seen all the final destination movies. So, I feel like there are certain scenarios where I start to question, I'm like, is this my gut instinct or is this my intrusive thought creating a scenario that's not real? - Yeah, I completely understand. I mean, yeah, I-- - I don't know what the answer is, but-- - I don't know, I mean, it's better to be safe than sorry, I guess. - That's true, that's true. I have the intrusive thoughts too though, yeah. Yeah, I think we all do. - We all do, we all have those, yeah. - So, there are a couple of comments. One poster asks this, "I do have a few questions about the circumstances of her murder, but do you understand if you don't want to answer them?" And this person found articles pertaining to the case. So, they said, "The few articles I could find didn't say much about her murder, mostly just about his ex girlfriend. How were JR and your 16 year old friend acquainted? Did they know each other?" One article said that a call was made about a body under a truck, and when police arrived, it was under a different truck. So, original poster says, "I knew he strangled her, but wasn't sure of the connection until I saw the investigation discovery show." She was having truck problems, and he had stopped to help her, and told her they needed to go to his place for a part for the truck. Oh, it's so sad. And this is the same truck that original poster described being dropped off. - That's terrifying, that's horrible. - In to her grandparents' house. It's really sad. Another comment says this, "As I read this, I got an eerie feeling you were talking about my town, even though I hadn't heard the story before." Googleed his name, and it turns out it was. Seems like such a safe little town, so quaint. Glad you and your aunt stayed safe, and I'm so sorry about your friend. - Wait, so do we know the whole name of this? - Yeah, so it appears that this was in St. Augustine, Florida, which is very haunted. It's like one of the most haunted towns in America. - Yeah, it's one of the oldest towns in America. It's pretty cool. I don't know anything about it. You're gonna have to school me one of these days, but we do have the name of this man. His name's John Faba Jr., and he was 30 as a timeless article was published, and the reporting states that he's currently serving a 40-year sentence for the 2000 murder of a high school student, and that would be Angela Dirling, who went by Darla, said she went by Darla. Now he pleaded guilty to second degree murder in 2003 of to this teen's death. And I think this is just what we were talking about too, about people giving you a bad vibe. We know Ted Bundy used to do stuff like this. Help me with my car, help me put this package in my car, my arms broke in. I think anything like this, when a teen is having car trouble on the side of the road, like it's a perfect opportunity for some sicko to-- - It's so sad. - Swoop in and offer assistance, but really get them in a vulnerable position. - Yeah, I mean, you have to be too, I mean, sucks that you can't trust people, because you're like, oh great, you're gonna help me with my car. And then, you know, oh, come to my house, and then she, or he strangled her, it's horrible. - So horrible. - It's horrible. And the suspect was also charged in a sling of his former girlfriend, Alicia Eakins. And she'd been missing for eight years before her remains were discovered in Ocala National Forest. Oh, this is so heartbreaking. - I mean, that could have easily been the OP in her aunt. I mean, it was in the middle of the forest. - Right. - I mean, just throw it in the swamp. It's like, who's gonna find you? And there is additional information about the suspect's father who died a year before Darla's murder in 1999. Deputies found him hanging in the woods, and at the time, the death was ruled a suicide. The younger Faba told deputies that he arrived home and that he noticed a gate leading to the back of the property open and then found his father hanging from a tree. But now they doubt that. - Damn. - Terrifying. And those are three wildly different victimologies. It's like his girlfriend of a long time, his father and a stranger. That makes it a lot more confusing as far as whether there could be more victims. - Yeah, it just seems like he was like opportunistic. It's like, if he saw a chance for something to happen, he would kill that, 'cause you're right. Like most serial killers have a pattern. It's like either, you know, prostitutes or women or children or whatever, which is horrible. But this guy just, I mean, it's like girlfriend, dad. It's like all over the place. - Stranger, yeah. But there is also, I mean, I think Ed Kemper is an example of this where he held a lot of anger towards his family, his mom, his mom, which then did speak to who his victims were later, but maybe he just had a lot of anger to his dad. And that was like the first, but it evolved into his other victims. - And they do have an interesting quote here that says, the police said the man was in our opinion a serial killer who was just getting started in his career, said prosecutor, John Tanner. He will never see the light of day outside of prison again. And that brings up a good point because, yes, he killed people. Like at the same time, it's almost like, it's great. He got caught because, like they caught him so soon because he could have gone on and killed, who knows how many people? - So many, yeah. - It's horrible that, you know, she was strung on the people died, but at the same time, it's what led to him being caught, which is, you know, could have saved, who knows how many lives. I mean, this guy seems like he was just gonna kill anybody who he had the chance to. - Yeah, I agree. Well, it's like he was getting his bearings and figuring out what he liked, you know, like, 'cause it's all different. And that's probably why law enforcement suspects that it's like he was a budding serial killer because they do that. And that's why I usually was serial killers. They're earlier crimes aren't necessarily aligned with their later MO, 'cause it's like, they don't know what they like yet. - Interesting. - Yeah, they're like experimenting early on. Ooh, scary. - That was scary. - Thank you so much for joining us, Snook. Can you tell everyone where to find you? - Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me on. And I am available on Spotify and YouTube and now Toobie. And you can find me there, Snook. And thank you guys so much for having me on. It was a great time. - Thanks for joining us. If we're ever in Florida, we'll reach out. - Awesome. Sounds great. (upbeat music) Did you know a volcano once blocked out the sun and accidentally gave us Frankenstein? Or that the most feared pirate in the Atlantic, the man who terrorized an entire ocean may never have actually killed anyone? Hi, I'm Connor Tomlinson. You might know me from love on the spectrum. History is my thing and has been my whole life. And I'm Carter Roy and this is what the fact. Every week we take three of the wildest true things ever recorded and tell you the whole story. Behind them, the facts that sound made up, the stories that got buried, the moments that changed everything. Carter brings the history, Connor brings the facts, the tangents and the occasional British accent. Pip, pip. The wildest stuff is real and the real stuff is wilder than you think. New episodes every Wednesday follow what the fact on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or subscribe on YouTube at what the fact pod you might not believe this, but did you know that one of the most nutrient dense foods humans have ever eaten is also something most of us have completely stopped eating, organ meat. And I know that sounds kind of wild, but color me intrigued. Enter Primal Queen. They took an ancient source of nutrition and made it actually realistic for modern women. Primal Queen packs nutrient dense grass-fed beef organs into just two easy capsules a day and a formula made specifically for women. The word superfood gets used a lot, but Primal Queen actually earns it. These organs are basically nutritional powerhouses and what really surprised me is just how concentrated they are. And the quality really matters here. I'm talking grass-fed, pasture-raised, no hormones, no antibiotics, gluten-free, non-GMO, third-party tested, but don't just take my word for it. Primal Queen has over 25,000 reviews and a 4.6 star rating. For a limited time only, our listeners are getting a full, free month of Primal Queen plus four free gifts at PrimalQueen.com/CrimesOf. That's PrimalQueen.com/CrimesOf to get a free month and four free gifts today. After you purchase, they'll ask where you heard about them. Please support our show and let them know that we sent you. - I hope you guys loved having Snackon as much as we did. It was so fun to meet him. And I feel like we like know his true alter ego. - That's true. - Yeah, it's very fun. But we do have more stories to share with you and I have one next. - I'm ready. - Are you ready? - Yeah. - Okay, it is called That Time I Crossed Paths with a convicted serial killer. And this was posted on Let's Not Meet six years ago by SnooDunkies 5457. Sometimes I like reading people's user names, you know? Okay, they wrote this happened a long time ago. I'm guessing back in 2006 and it couldn't have been older than four years old at the time. Yet I vividly read it. I remember the fear I felt during this encounter. And this is kind of what we were talking about with snook, about just that dread. It was an early summer morning and the sun was up, but a few people were out. In fact, the streets were practically dead that morning. And my mom decided to take my sister who was only one years old and seated in a stroller. And I, to go throw away some garbage at the garbage station. I might add that the garbage station is kind of secluded away from nearby houses, boarding one of those deep, dark forests of Eastern Sweden. Since I was only four years old when this happened, the memories from the incident have faded a lot, but my mom remembers all of it. She says that upon entering the garbage station, she immediately got it eerie feeling of being watched. And I remember that feeling too. Like I felt creeped out even though I didn't know why I was scared. I guess maybe I could sense my mom's fear, walking along that secluded garbage station. My mom suddenly stopped and she told me in the moment, hold onto the stroller as hard as you can and don't let go no matter what. So she's very unsettled. That is the most vivid memory I have of this and I don't think I'll ever forget those words. Or I'll never forget at least how they made me feel. It was as if my blood turned to ice. I just froze. My mom sounded stern, but even a toddler can sense when someone scared shitless and I could tell my mom was definitely afraid of something. The rest is just a blur. I don't remember much apart from the aforementioned. So I'm going to tell the rest of the story from my mother's perspective. So this next section is the recollection of Opie's mom. Opie's mom said not far from where we were standing, a truck was parked with a man seated in the front, which there's nothing unusual. A lot of truck drivers stopped to rest by the side of the road. But this man was staring. He would not stop staring. He stared right at me, examining my body with the determined gaze of a predator, gluing the three of us in his sight. And he truly seemed pleased by the fear that he could sense in our faces and then his eyes. They were something else. Almost as if they didn't belong to a human, but rather a predator on the savanna. I felt like prey stuck in the claws of a lion. I just couldn't move. That is when he smiled at me. And I remember that dead smile, those cold, calculating eyes, the way he licked his lips as if to say, I could kill you if I wanted to. So that was the mom's memory. Opie says, I believe this was a point in time into the strange encounter when my mom had told me to hold onto the stroller and to not let go. And now my mom is a small woman, 160 centimeters weighing about 45 kilograms. So about five feet, a hundred pounds. And she could have easily been overpowered by the overweight man in the truck. My mom later admitted that she was afraid that he was going to jump out of the truck, knock her out, possibly assault her, or even kidnap me in my one-year-old sister. So we bolted out of there. We didn't throw away much garbage that morning. We just turned around and walked home as fast as my mom could with a stroller and a four-year-old toddler by her side. We have never talked about what happened that day until very recently. And this incident has always lingered somewhere in the back of my mind as that weird thing that happened when I was a child. But as previously mentioned, this happened around 2006. So two years later, fast forward to 2008, the face of a ten-year-old little girl called Angla was printed across the front page of every newspaper in sight. She had been abducted, sexually assaulted, and murdered. And the perpetrator was an overweight truck driver named Anders Eckland. Now known as one of Sweden's most infamous killers. Anders Eckland was charged with a murder of Angla alongside the rape and murder of a woman named Pranilla. He's also suspected of abducting another little girl who is still missing, making him a pedophile, a serial rapist, and a serial killer. My mom says that when she saw Eckland's picture in the paper, especially when she saw those cold, familiar eyes, she knew he was the creepy man from the garbage station that early morning, those years prior. Thinking about how my mom or my sister or me or all of us could have been as victims since chills up my spine. Anders, even though you're behind bars, let's never meet again. - That's really scary. - Horrifying, especially 'cause it's like the whole woman and child of it, and then that's exactly what OP's mom described and had this feeling of, hold on to the stroller, like she almost clocked all of it immediately. - Yeah. - I'd do a little research into who Anders Eckland is. He's a Swedish murderer and rapist convicted of killing a 31-year-old woman, Pranilla Helgren in 2000, and a 10-year-old girl, Angla Hergland in 2008. He's also, as OP mentioned, suspected in other murder cases, currently under investigation, including the unsolved 1994 murder of Mollen Olsen in Gothenburg, which is just so sad that there's these unsolved cases. But I was so fascinated, 'cause I had never heard of him. Or maybe I had heard of him mentioned, but I didn't do research into him. I thought it was so fascinating the way he was caught. So just before 10-year-old Angla went missing, or it disappeared, a local man was testing the camera on his new phone. And so he's snapping pictures, and he takes a picture of 10-year-old Angla riding her bike along a road. About a minute later, he takes another photo, accidentally capturing a red car traveling along this aim road, which happened to be Anders Ecklen's car. So he basically caught the moment that he kidnapped Angla. - He probably would have gotten away with it. It's those random moments that are so, yeah. They feel faded, because it's like how do you luck out? And then it's not just that he captured it. Then he heard about the case, and then he put the pieces together that it was Angla, and then he gave them to the police. - Yeah. - Like these cases, and there's a million scenarios like that with unsolved cases that are just like one moment away from solving them. - But it's also really sad with this case, because when he was taken into custody, there was DNA evidence that also tied him to it. But he confessed, and then he also confessed to the other case that we just mentioned of 31-year-old Pernilla Helgren, which apparently police had been given his name as a suspect when she had first disappeared, but they never really followed up that lead, which makes me sad. On October 6th, 2008, Eklund was sentenced to life imprisonment for the two murders, one rape in 2006, and on child pornography charges as well. There are also lots of comments on this post, 'cause obviously these types of posts stir up a lot of commentary. Once that I just Googled the man, and it's good to know he's behind bars for life, but the poor victims that lost their lives, thankfully you didn't fall prey to him. Thanks for sharing this story, stay safe. And then someone else said, "How did your mother feel seeing him in the news, knowing what he did and how close he was to all of you?" OP wrote, "My mom felt really creeped out by that before she read about him in the news." She thought, maybe she was overreacting, but she also says that if he were to have done anything, she's almost certain that at least one person would have heard us screaming and called the police. But to be in a situation where you have to think of that, I just think it's amazing that there is almost like a tangible element to these people, where it's like she was so sure. 'Cause you don't remember most strangers, like especially women, like men stare at women all the time, and you couldn't paint me to remember a single face of any of them throughout my life. And it's like a one I walked past on the street who gave me the terrifying feeling. Right, so it's like there is something there, where it's like there was something real there that she sensed. Agreed. And then someone else did comment saying, if you feel up to it, maybe you should contact your police to let them know about the encounter, because it does seem like they're trying to connect Eclan to other cases. Maybe it could help them see around where he was during that time period to potentially connect him to other cases. And OP was like, well, that seems like a good idea. Unfortunately, I don't remember the exact time that this happened. It could have been 2006, but it also could have been 2005 or 2007. So I get that, but it is hard to pinpoint the specific date. Because again, technology in 2005 and 2006 was not what it is now. Like, you could almost remember, figure out anything now with the way our phones are, like what days you were somewhere doing something? Then no. Yeah. I guess it doesn't hurt to be like, hey, I had this experience. I can't remember specifically the date. I don't know. Wow, what a story. Yeah. What a horrifying encounter. Do you have another one? I do. Okay. So this one's interesting. It's a little different than how we normally tell stories. It's an AMA. Ask me anything. Oh, I like these. Yeah. Under the palm beach posts. I don't know if it's got its own. Oh, another Florida. Yeah, another Florida case. And that's something that you see a lot. I don't know what it is about Florida. No one seems to know the weather. Right. I don't know. And there are two OP's here. It seems kind of. So the first, the top of the post is, hi, everyone. I'm Christine Conniers. And then she links proof, which is a photo of her. And she says she's here with Palm Beach Post Reporter, Holly Bults. And also, they offer proof to that. And then OP says this. In 1983, when I was 11 years old, my sister and I were abducted outside of a library in Boynton Beach, Florida, and assaulted by Christopher Wilder, whose crimes escalated into a nationwide killing free in 19. 1984. He would later kidnap 12 women across the country, killing nine of them, in a nearly two month rampage that landed him at the top of the FBI's most wanted list. Wait, I need to look up who this is. So, Holly has reported extensively about this case. She helped me tell my story for the first time in May. Then, amid her reporting, found that a Palm Beach County judge had essentially set Wilder free to not only attack me and my sister, but also go on his killing rampage the following year. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I mean, and there's so many stories like that, unfortunately, where it's like the killer should have still been behind bars and yet somehow some leniency extended to them that never should have been resulted in more lives being lost. It's also so sad, like I'm so grateful that this woman survives, but the trauma of that experience. Yeah. It's like fall during, you know. Yeah. So, Opie says, we'll be hosting an AMA here to answer your questions about my story, how it was reported and more. Now, before we get started, let's do a little background on the case itself. So, Christopher Wilder died after a month-long crime spree involving at least 11 young women who had disappeared or been killed. Police knew Hampshire attempted to apprehend Wilder, who at the time, like Opie said, was on the FBI's 10 most wanted list, but Wilder apparently shot himself to death in a scuffle with state troopers to avoid capture. So, Australian-born Wilder was a wealthy race car driver who lived in an estate in Boynton Beach, Florida. Authorities believe that Wilder began us kidnapping rape and murder spree on February 26th when Rosario Gonzalez, a part-time model, disappeared. A week later on March 5th, Elizabeth Kenyon of Coral Gables also disappeared. When a private detective began looking into Kenyon's disappearance and interviewed Wilder, he suspected the man's involvement. However, before police could look any further into the matter, Wilder disappeared. And that is when he commenced his spree of terror. So, I had never heard of him, but then he's known as the Beauty Queen Killer and the Snapshot Killer, and I feel like I've heard of the Beauty Queen Killer before, but not of his name. And, um, interesting that he was a wealthy race car driver too. It's like, it always baffles me when the guys who like have it all, even right now, a trial just wrapped up with Tomas Kazewski, Katowsky, or whatever. He was a plastic surgeon who murdered a lawyer who was opposing him in some civil suit. Geez. And he was this rich doctor guy, and he, it was this horrible, premeditated crime that was caught on camera, basically, and he represented himself at trial, which is the most arrogant and sane thing. And it's a death penalty case in Florida. He's probably going to get the death penalty. It's like, you have it all. You went to medical school. You became a famous race car driver. But that's also for this case, I feel like that's an adrenaline. Like, that does speak to someone who maybe is trying to feel something. Yeah. I don't know. It's a great point. So, yeah, also known as the Beauty Queen Killer and the Snapshot Killer. Geez. Now, do we want to hear some of these Q and A's? Yes, please. Okay. So, here's the first. I'm sorry about what happened to you. It's great to see this AMA, because it means you survived. What impression did he make when he approached you? I assume you would be charming and nice in order to cover his intentions. Did your inner alarms go off or was it completely convincing up to the point that it was too late to shrug off? OP says, when he approached us, the impression was he was a man with a gun. Yeah, fair and do it. Fair enough. But once we were in his car, he tried to portray the charming kind photographer who just needed models. She was how old? She was 11. So, yeah. I know. It's like, really you need models, but obviously he forced them into the car with the gun first, right? So, the next question is, how did he abduct both of you at the same time? What was going on in your head in the initial moments? OP says, yes, he did abduct us both at the same time with gun and threats. I knew this was that situation that everyone feared as a child. Yeah. Do you think about the experience often or has enough time passed where it isn't in your daily thoughts? Yes, there are triggers throughout everyday life. I had a recent experience in an environment where I didn't expect to see an open carry handgun and was paralyzed. Before I went on this healing journey, I had unexplained anxiety that I've learned through this, that facing it has taken that away. I don't think about the kidnapping often. Next question, like most people I've seen representation of serial killer kidnappings such as Silence of the Lamps, but I've had zero experience with it. What do popular representations of this get right and wrong? That's a good question. OP, thanks for that nice comment. I hope this helps with a few of the questions. It seems like the actual crime is highlighted more than the victim suffering. Society seems to always pay attention to the train rack, but it takes the sensationalism to provide a platform to facilitate a conversation about sexual violence. Interesting. Do you have any views on the sensationalism of serial killers given what you have experienced? I'm talking about cultural elements in this country that sensationalize these people from constant media coverage to the odd admirers who send them letters and photos in prison. OP, before now, I haven't had any interest in knowing about Christopher Wilder. I agree that society sensationalizes this and that's why I want to use this platform to switch the narrative while humanizing victims. That's the mission of my nonprofit, YTT Women. Okay, so here's maybe the last question. Okay. How hard was it to move on with normal life after the kidnapping and the sexual assaults? Did you get counseling? Did you move away? Was it discussed at all? OP says this. Immediately after the attack, the police were around a lot for a few months, but once they left, it was not a subject we discussed in our home. Unfortunately, I was put into a mental hospital, but there was no structure to the therapy and the sexual assault wasn't part of the treatment plan. I didn't move away until I was an adult, but interesting story, the investigators knew we were in danger because the attacker knew where we were, so we had to leave town for a few weeks. Now, this was the 80s when this occurred, and I'm not surprised to hear that there wasn't like a more deliberate therapy plan for these victims. I mean, I don't know that they had really as much information as they do now about the lingering effects of being a victim of crime like this. Hopefully, things are better. I'm lucky enough to not know, but it was the 80s, and right, there were way fewer resources for victims. Okay, one more question. So I'm sorry if you have to recall bad memories, but what do you think contributed to your survival? Did you follow who has every order and plead to live? Thank you for doing this. OP says this. Being compliant. I also feel like I lived because unbeknownst to me. He knew me. So Wilder had been calling Chris before the attack, progressing to conversation that made her uncomfortable and even called her after the attack. She stopped talking to him after he brought up sex. Wait, she knew him, and he was calling her like home phone. There's not a ton of context provided here. Then in 2017, Chris's mother told her she had known Wilder before the attack. So this question was answered also by OP, but specifically the reporter Holly answered that question. So clearly he was an acquaintance. It seems of Chris's mother and had gotten Chris on the phone and was trying to groom her to some degree. Damn. Just terrifying. Okay, I'm looking. I just looked this up. Chris's mother had a beauty salon near his construction business, and she admitted seeing him at city council meetings, which means that the abduction was not random. That's so sad. Yeah. I'm so glad that they survived. I know. To go through that in general and to go through it with your sister. It's horrible. At least she has someone who understands and that they did survive. Yeah. Okay, this last one that I have is about a serial killer. We pretty much all know if you have consumed any inch of true crime, you'll know this name. It is called encounter with an infamous serial killer. It was also posted on Let's Not Meet 13 years ago. In the late 70s, my uncle was studying medicine at the University of Chicago. After a morning class, he decided that he would hitchhike back home to Lincoln Park on the north side instead of paying for a taxi. A man drove up and a plymouth satellite and offered my uncle a ride. The man looked normal. He seemed friendly, light-hearted even. So my uncle got in the car and they started driving towards Lake Shore Drive. However, once they got there, the man drove south instead of north on Lake Shore towards Lincoln Park. My uncle told the man he was going the wrong way and to turn around and go north instead. The man looked at my uncle, put his hand on my uncle's knee and said, no, son, you are coming with me and smiled darkly at him. My uncle froze in a panic and when they hit traffic near South Shore, he quickly unlocked the passenger door and ran away without looking back. The man had been arrested for the suspected rape and killing of over 20 young men and boys. It was John Wayne Gacy. And apparently, John Wayne Gacy had removed the door handle off the passenger side door to prevent the men he picked up from escaping, which is exactly how OP's uncle escaped. So if you don't know who John Wayne Gacy is, he is one of the most notorious and horrific serial killers in American history. John Wayne Gacy is responsible for the murders of at least 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978. In similar to OP's story, Gacy often targeted vulnerable young men. He would sometimes lure them into his home in Chicago with the promise of work, money or alcohol. He would then restrain them, sexually assault them, torture and kill them. He also concealed 29 bodies on his property. 26 were found buried in the crawl space beneath his house. Three others were buried elsewhere on the property and then at least four victims were dumped in the desplanes river. He was finally caught after 15-year-old Robert Peast disappeared in December of 1978. But yeah, this uncle, OP's uncle, fully was able to escape. I know somebody, personally, who escaped John Wayne Gacy, who was in his house. What? Yeah. Who? And that makes me think his name's Jack Merrill. And he's, like, come to grips with it. He, to sort of process it, he did, like, a, he's an actor and he did, like, a play about it, like a one-man play. Whoa. He was inside Gacy's house. And at one point, he was restrained. And he, like, through talking to him, he got out of it. And what's so scary about Gacy is that, like-- So scary. Yeah, just think about how many more victims there probably are, just weren't on his property. Because, like, this OP, we have no reason not to believe that this happened to his uncle. I believe the person I know who said this happened to him. Think about how many people escaped and think about how many people just, he put somewhere else. Like the sheer number of victims tied to Gacy is so disturbing. It's, it's so seconding. Yeah. Well, then also a lot of the comments were, someone was asking, do you think maybe this experience with your uncle was the reason John Wayne Gacy removed the door handle? Like, he was like, I'm not letting that happen again, where my intended victim escapes. That's possible. And I just wonder, it's like, if a victim already is trying to escape in the car, just let them go, because, like, you're not-- how are you going to get them in your house then? Or maybe, like, don't be a serial killer? Don't be a serial killer. But, like, the whole door handle thing, it's, like, I know, doesn't make sense to me. It's like, all right, you still got to get them in your house. I mean, this was also the 70s when, like, one, there were so many serial killers and hitchhiking was so common. People are a lot more stranger-danger now. Well, and the people who escaped Gacy would have been afraid to go to the police and infer that, like, they had this relationship with this man. Right. Because the police were less likely to help them in those situations. Right. Right. Because there were still so much taboo around. Yeah. Yeah. And also, Gacy was very unassuming. He was-- they call him the killer clown. He was a clown at kids' birthday parties. Yeah. At one point had been married, you know? It's, like, that's how they hide. It was also really interesting on the comments for this post specifically, because-- and I feel like we had to do another episode with this theme, because there were so many people either weighing in with their own, you know? Oh, I know someone else who encountered John Wayne Gacy, or people who encountered other serial killers, and we're sharing their stories. One of the commenters said, "My dad met Gacy, too. He did some drafting of blueprints for him and actually went to his house to drop them off and get paid. He was older than Gacy's preferred victims, though, and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. He may not have even gone inside." And then someone else commented, "Dude, one of my college professors also says he got in a car with John Wayne Gacy back in the day. I was about to post about it last week, never got around to it, and I saw your post. So scary." And then naturally I started shredding it for other brushes with John Wayne Gacy, and there were many. One person wrote in the WTF, "Subreddit, John Wayne Gacy did construction for my grandparent, and we found his business card while going through my grandparent stuff today. And there's a picture which we'll put in the video." And it's called PDM Contractors, and it literally says John Gacy. I love how his logo is like a little friendly man with a house. It kind of looks like a clown. And then someone else wrote, "My dad met an escape from John Wayne Gacy, and this was posted on the serial killer subreddit. They wrote, "In the late 1970s, my dad was a teenager living in the Chicago land area. There was one day where he decided to hitchhike to work because he didn't have a ride, and he was picked up by none other than Mr. Gacy. My dad wrote in his car for a while, and John Wayne Gacy started telling my dad that he owned a construction business and could give my dad a job much better than the one he already had. All kinds of junk." Then he started making creepy sexual advances towards my dad, making him feel extremely creepy, and just giving him an overall bad vibe. Similar to the first post, Add a stop light, my dad jumped out of the car and ran because he felt so off. Once later, when Gacy was caught, my dad saw him in the news and apparently repeated to my mother who he was dating at the time, "Oh my god, that's the guy who picked me up." To this day, he doesn't like talking about this story. I have to get the information from my mom. So yeah, basically, I wouldn't exist today if it wasn't for my dad's killer, no pun intended, instinct to run. It's just so insane how emboldened Gacy was. To have this many, almost, victims is insane. In the victim that got him caught, it's just so bold. It's like the victims' mom was picking him up from a pharmacy where he worked and the mom was waiting for him to come back, and he's like, "Hold on, I got to go talk to a guy." He leaned into Gacy's car and the mom was just waiting and Gacy just thought he was going to get away with it. Well, because for how long he was getting away with it and he had so many victims that he was probably getting sloppy. He was like, "I can make mistakes now." It's insane. And get away with it. Yeah. So scary. Also scary, I feel like we've had a couple posts on our crimes of Reddit, subreddit, where people are like brushes with a killer. And so I'm sure there are more stories from you out there listening, who potentially had brushes with serial killers or killers in general. We want to hear those stories. So please share them with us on our subreddit, which is our slash crimes of pod. And let us know what you think of all the encounters we shared today. What would you have done? I don't know, I just am so grateful I've never been put in this situation and the people who survive are so incredible and the ones who didn't, like these people are so evil, they're walking the answers. Yeah. Thanks for joining us for crimes of Reddit, a crime house original. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you've heard today, reach out on all social media at Crime House. Don't forget to rate review and follow crimes of Reddit wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. And we'll be back next Tuesday to pull at more Reddit threads and we'll see you then. See you next week. Looking for your next podcast? Check out what the fact. It's a new show from Connor Tomlinson, who you know from Netflix's Love on the Spectrum alongside Carter Roy. Follow what the fact wherever you listen or subscribe on YouTube at what the fact caught.