The Railroad Killer | Full Episode | Forensic Files

48 Hours [Applause] [Music] presents I began writing as a process of healing the writing I found really
helped me deal with what had happened since as far back as I can remember I've had the same dream I'm
running I was constantly running away from someone we lived on 13 acres so I could never get someone to hear my
screams or run fast enough I would run down the hill of the front to our house across the
fields there were many mornings that I would wake up after a night of running all night in my dreams but then run down
the stairs to play with my younger sister we had a a great time growing up together we had that special bond that
you hear people talk about we were so [Music] close I didn't get to hear the answering
machine until I got home that night I remember there being an oddly High number of calls but three of the
messages were from my [Music] dad the room was dark and she woke up she was lying on her side and I put my head
to her face and just held her it was there that she told me the worst story that I had heard in my
[Music] life in late August 1997 I was a student at the University of Kentucky it was about the second night of classes
it was a Thursday night and I went to a party with my boyfriend Chris Meyer not far from campus it was a little bit
boring so we packed up Chris's backpack with some beers and we were going to head down to the
tracks we sat there and talked for a while I'm not sure how long but we got up to leave
um and go back to the party and we started walking along the tracks and when we got to an electrical box beside
the tracks a man came out from behind it he asked us for money we of course said we don't have any money we're poor
college kids [Music] and I don't know if it was an ice pick if it was a screwdriver but he had it on
Chris really the whole time he asked Chris to get down on his hands and knees uh he went through his
backpack and didn't find anything that he wanted uh and I didn't realize realize it but he was tying up Chris's
hands with the backpack behind his back and he took off my belt and tied up my hands behind my back with my belt and
he actually pulled Chris from the tracks on the gravel into the grassp beside the
[Music] tracks in my head I was panicking and I was like saying my last prayer and
thinking I'm going to die maybe this is what I have been running from in all those dreams as a
child this horrific story that happened to my sister [Music] [Music] [Music] it was very dark and you couldn't see
very well so it was very startling to see someone come out that was crouched behind an electrical
box Chris and I were looking at each other I think in disbelief that this was actually going on like we we were
looking at each other very confused like what in the heck is happening you know I remember saying why are you
doing this what do you want do you want uh credit cards ATM cards you can have our car it just parked down the street
you know we were just trying to figure out what he wanted and at this point um the our
attacker ripped a shirt and he gagged us I actually stuck my tongue out so that the gag wouldn't work it just fell off
we had split seconds in where our attacker would go back up to the tracks and we were down in the grass and so we
could talk to each other and um Chris and I started strategizing you know saying okay should I run can I can you
get untied um I got my hands untied I couldn't get my feet untied I ripped Chris's gag off of his mouth um and so
we were talking talking to each other trying to figure out how we were going to get away cuz Chris kept saying you
know if you can get yourself untied get away run away and cuz he couldn't get up
his arms were all tied up in his backpack and he couldn't get [Music] untied and I really don't know how much
time passed before our attacker came down carrying a rock um and he came over and literally
just dropped it on Chris's head I think at at that point I went into survival mode I um you know see him drop
this rock on Chris's head and he climbed on top of me I realized at that point that he was going to rape me I fought
him I tried to hit him I tried to kick him I tried to scream um that's when he took that weapon that he had and he held
it to my neck and he said look how easily I could kill you and that's when he stabbed me in my neck so I just
stopped I I was like okay well you know what's going to happen is going to [Music]
happen I was staring at every scar he had every tattoo he had I was thinking let me remember everything
about you that I can um because we'll get you it's un point and I tried to um rip off my
fingernails and dig in the dirt so that if I was taken away someone would know that I had been
there I started saying you know what do what do you where have you been what do you need you know how can I help you um
you know I really have a family that wants to see me again I said do you have friends do you have a
family I was begging him please don't hurt me you know I will let you go I won't tell anybody what happened here
just don't hurt me and that's when he started hitting me I don't remember being hit I I was
hit with some sort of wooden board um I think I put my hand up to block it but I
was hit five or six times in the front of my face and then I turned over and I was hit five or six times in the back of
my head I'm positive that he probably not Ed me unconscious and my breathing was
shallow enough that he thought he had killed [Music] me I I don't know how long I laid there
um but at some point I got up and I realized that he was gone I knew that I was injured I knew
that I was hurt I don't think I knew what my injuries were um I you know I I realized that my mouth wasn't shutting
right and I I was covered in [Music] blood I walked about 200 yards or so maybe on the Rocks um along the
tracks it was probably 1 2 in the morning it was between 1: and 2 I was sitting on sitting in my chair
[Music] studying and out of the corner of my eye just glimp something go across the front
yard she was covered in blood from head to toe and I could not figure out where all the blood had come was coming from
her her face it it it looked like a boxer whenever they get cut during a boxing match at that point I brought her in and
set her down on the couch and she collapsed on the [Music] couch uh I thought she was going to die
there was no doubt in my mind and she started she I kept losing her a little bit here and there and I just kept
talking to her because I definitely didn't want her to pass out you know I was just trying to keep her keep her
awake until the the paramedics got there and I did keep saying to him my friend's
still out there I you know like be sure they know my friend's still out there my
friend still out [Music] there [Music] [Music] on August 29th 1997 R she call home
about 3:00 in the morning that there had been an attack on two students along the
road tracks uh my lieutenant asked me to come out and said it was a bad [Music] one another detective and I were sent
over to the University of Kentucky hospital to uh check in on the victim uh on the way we learned her name was Holly
Dunn her face was disoriented she had a broken eye socket a broken jaw lots of cuts across her face um and then of
course Staples of where they could just to stop the bleeding they couldn't even you know cut her hair they just stapled
on top of her [Music] hair and even in that state of her looking the way that she did I can just
remember this feeling of overwhelming gratitude and love that she was alive just feeling so thankful that she was
alive and that she was there just I have felt so guilty to not be there to know that your sister is
begging for her life she is begging someone for her life and you are you're sleeping I remember they weren't talking
about Chris and and eventually I asked my dad I just said Chris is dead isn't he and my dad was like yes he
is it was very hard to accept the fact that I lived through this and Chris didn't um
and you know it was just I just felt like it wasn't fair that it's not fair that that I'm still alive and that Chris
[Music] isn't Chris was so friendly he was very uh laidback and down to earth he loved
the outdoors he uh didn't have a care in the world I couldn't attend the funeral
um I was really upset about that only because I I really wanted to attend I had you know never really got the chance
to say goodbye and I wanted to you know have that chance to to have some peace despite her uh State she was ready
and willing to to try to communicate what had happened to her I was really trying to remember every day detail
about my attacker and I remember hearing his accent thinking that is a Mexican accent Holly described the suspect is a
male possibly Hispanic um 56 58 in height um kind of a a wavy black black hair um wearing glasses uh she said that
uh he wasn't muscular but he seemed somewhat wiry they um repaired my jaw uh they
actually kind of just re aligned it and wired my mouth shut um and really that was the only thing that they could fix
the broken eye socket there was nothing they could do as soon as I could get the
surgery to get my jaw wired shut and my jaw fixed my parents took me home I definitely think that there's
parts of me that wanted to retreat away right right after this attack happened I
just wanted to lay in bed and not get out of bed again um but you know there's always something that's
pulled me out of that my sister was my rock throughout this entire process and she doesn't maybe didn't even realize
how much she was helping me by what she was [Music] doing we received a lot of phone calls
and a lot of tips and we followed up on a lot of people who thought they had seen this
person we were able to establish that we had DNA sample of the suspect from the rate the sketch was the the best thing
we had in the DNA evidence of course and then we also uh entered it into the uh National Database for violent offenders
in the hopes that maybe someday down the road there would be some similarities to
to other cases that I could become aware of to to try to track this fell [Music]
down [Music] in December of 1998 uh a doctor was murdered uh in the Houston area she was
uh had suffered both stab wounds and blunt trauma to the uh to the head and uh she had was also the victim of a
sexual [Music] assault and then uh pastor and his wife were killed in [Music] wymer and uh the pastor and his wife
wife were murdered in their bed with a sledgehammer that was found in a tool room there at the
house when we first started working it we approached from the standpoint of a fij investigation and that was trying to
learn as much as we could uh about the the subject at hand uh we knew that we had forensic evidence we had fingerprint
evidence that linked to a particular suspect and both houses were in the in the near vicinity of of railroad tracks
somewhere around May or June of 1999 uh I got a call from fap which was the uh the National Database that we we
put the info in got a call from them saying listen we've had a another homicide near railroad tracks in
Texas it's a loose connection at best but it was near railroad tracks and after years we hadn't had anything of
substance anyway so we chased any lead detective sell called and uh we uh compared details about the the cases and
realized that we not only had a serial killer that was within 150 miile radius of Houston but we had one that was in
other states as [Music] well they were able through fingerprint analysis to have a
suspect the suspect at that point had been identified as rapael rendes Ramirez the majority of his his attacks were by
surprise uh often the people were in bed asleep uh when he was getting them so he's like the boogeyman coming into your
house he supports the fact that true evil does exist in this world to know that he was doing it again
that he was more violent that he was killing more people I started to feel like wow this is a lot bigger than me it
was almost like my worst nightmare coming true that was when it became a national
serial killer Manhunt we were driven we had to catch him before he killed somebody
[Music] else we knew then we had a serial killer on the loose we knew that he was extremely
violent uh and we had no information as to where he was our last clue was Texas so it was an allout race then to try to
figure out where he was and get hands on him so everybody went to Texas from what I've come to learn of
send is he was a an immigrant Trans in he he had done a lot of odd jobs um m work he was a prone to violence at least
20 years prior to this Killing Spree he was nicknamed by the media as the railroad killer and he he got that
moniker just by the fact that most of his uh murders happen in and around railroad tracks and that that was a a
mode of transportation that he used to to travel across the country the Dragnet for the suspected rail riding serial
killer now stretches from Ohio to the Mexican border as part of the search there there was actually a huge
operation set up to stop trains a bunch of Texas agencies participated had helicopters in the air to fly over
various train tracks uh if they saw somebody we get the train stopped and identify anybody on
it the sense of urgency was it was unbelievable because people were dying he was continuing to kill and he was
killing effortlessly no one was stopping him he killed two women in one day 90 M apart 4
days later he's in a different state people were scared we are here today to announce
that Raphael rendes Ramirez has been elevated to the FBI's 10 most wanted list reris is the 457th person to Beed
placed on I just got really scared because it it got so big and they still couldn't find him they didn't know where
he was and that that was you know a very scary time because I just I F I knew that he knew I was still alive I felt
that so I just I was afraid I I thought he would come back and get me I was so scared that I had to get out
of the country I signed up that day to go to school in England the FBI all the local agencies there is evidence
everybody was running leads so the volume was huge and you just started piecing the things together but
truthfully the the tip that made the case was a call from a family relative to America's Most Wanted tonight we've
got breaking news on a suspected serial killer this is the man police have been looking for this is a picture of him
from 1995 based on information from that phone call it led us to go to New Mexico
to uh speak with his sister she hadn't been in touch with her brother but she had been in touch with someone that was
in touch with her brother and uh that's where we started the discussions uh about rendes and and the fact that he
was tired and uh that uh that he might be willing to surrender she became the liaison between United States law
enforcement and the serial killer I believe that his uh his options were limited um this man had no friends
I mean he was a loner uh he had a high price on his head and he had an entire nation really two Nations looking for
him and uh I think the amount of pressure that was put on him uh ultimately led to him to have to make a
choice it was early in the morning and Drew was on one side of the international bridge
waiting I mean on the Texas side and not knowing I assume whether he was going to
show up or not if he was going to show up armed I mean who knew and so then you know the the doubt sets in like all
right you know is this going to happen amount of time passed and you see a pickup truck driving up driving across
the bridge and there's three people in that old pickup truck and uh the center passenger I immediately recognized as
rendis and uh that's kind of when I thought to myself man this is really going to
[Music] happen I closed my door and started crying because I was so relieved there wasn't I
don't I don't want another case to prove up I don't want another dead body it was
it was such a sense of relief at the time of his arrest uh vendis was linked to six murders in Texas two in Illinois
and one in Kentucky for 2 years we had operated under the belief that his name was Rafael rendes reres uh we learned
that he had a variety of names but ultimately it was determined his name was Angel Marino
rendes I had been waiting to see this [Music] guy so when they walked him in it was a it was a great moment but he
was so scary he was a little guy but wiry and strong ropey muscles on his arms and curious he would look he'd look at
everybody in there he looked at me and there's nothing there there was nothing there no Humanity no emotion it's like
somebody took a black Magic Marker and colored his eyes they were flat black and a expressionless
face on December 17th 1998 in Harris County Texas but I just buckled down and just decided
this is going to be it's got to be about the victims and it's got to be about getting this guy dead honestly it's got
to be about convincing a jury to give him the death penalty because he so richly deserved it and earned
[Music] it I knew that I was going to testify and I always wanted to testify I just
wanted the chance to tell what had happened to us and that was my chance and I wish I could have seen his
face when he heard that someone was living I wish I could have seen his face when he knew she was coming to testify
against him I just would love to know what he what he thought when he found that
out I don't have things that I think about all the [Music] time I Can't Forget About Chris being
hit the rock hitting him that really is probably the part that I try the hardest and and can't
[Music] forget she was definitely our star witness she was our only living witness nobody else could speak out
against him in first person this is what happened to me this is what he did to me
we didn't have anybody else I can't comment well if what we know about him is true he is a everyone's
worst nightmare trial started in May of 2000 it was held here in [Music] Houston he was so different at
trial I guess sitting in jail he got fat he got the jailhouse poar it grew his hair
greasy there was not a shred of humanity about this man he did not deserve to live
among us I wanted to put him down present his faces capital murder charges in the
stabbing death of Dr Claudia Benton she had been sexually assaulted stabbed beaten in the head he was only charged
with one because that's all you need to get the death penalty he ultimately pled not guilty by
reason of insanity the evidence was overwhelming as to his guilt so that was really his only out was the insanity
defense we knew we were battling with the jury not wanting to believe that someone could do these horrible things
to people and be sane a lot of people did not want to believe you have to be crazy to do that to somebody you have to
be [Music] crazy the jury reached a verdict after many hours of deliberation mrend you
please Li it was pretty nail-biting read a jury find the defendant unhel Mato Rosendo as guilty of capital murder is
charged in the indictment I actually got involved during the penalty phase of the trials
that's you know when they say whether he gets the death penalty or life in prison
we're going to tell you about the people the people who've been murdered most of whom murdered in their own homes
I knew that I wanted Holly to testify last so by the time she took the stand the jury had heard the gruesome details
of all the other murders that we had solved at that point it was a horror show heads beat to a pulp knives put all
the way through the body that's how much force was used just horrific violence we were the last of the cases
presented I testified as to the evidence at the scene presented the pictures and
then lastly uh Holly testified as the only surviving [Music] victim I flew into Houston with my
family the night before I was going to testify and I woke up during the middle of the night screaming and
[Music] crying I talk about the trial as the hardest day of my life what I was most worried about I
think when I testified was seeing him again I cannot imagine the amount of Courage she had to to Marshall to come
into that courtroom to walk in and face him she told me don't look at him look at me I'll be right in front of you look
at your family they'll be right behind me he'll be off to your left just do not look at
him the first question was what' you do last weekend and so I was like I graduated from
college it felt good for me to be able to say you know I graduated from college in front of the guy who basically could
have ruined my life and destroyed it and not that he cared cuz I don't think he did
for me to be able to say you didn't destroy me I'm still here I'm still strong I'm still the same person I was
it felt good it felt you know like I I finally had my chance I told all the details of what I
knew what I remembered and cried through the entire testimony I was crying the all the jury was
crying sometimes you don't always have the human picture there's no Vic them to stand in front of you to tell you what
they experienced what they went through Holly gave that to Chris and all the others that had been murdered she was
able to give a real life person to to give them a real feeling of the brutality of this
man they got to the moment in the trial when they say is the person who attacked
you in the courtroom [Music] today I hadn't looked at him yet I knew he was there I said yes
I wanted it to be the last thing that jury heard and the last thing they saw was Holly Dunn sitting on that witness
stand saying that's the man they said well could you tell us what he's wearing and I turned and
looked at him it was surreal I I said he's wearing a white button-down shirt I mean I literally I felt my hearing going
into my head he had like the smug look on his face and I I mean I I was so close to figting when I looked at him
again that I mean I don't know how I didn't it was devastating and and it was the best part of our case I mean she
basically from his perspective came back from the grave to nail him should we give him some points
because Holly didn't die the jury did find that he was a future danger to society so the judge sentenced him to
death I felt I guess relieved I mean it just felt good to know he would never be
able to hurt anyone ever [Music] again after the trial rendes was sent to death row in Huntsville Texas he was not
tried for any other crimes he had gotten the ultimate penalty when the last appeal was denied
he was put to Death in June 2006 [Music] I chose not to attend the execution cendes represented all those
angry feelings that I had and I decided to stay with my family I had already seen one person die in front of me and I
did not need to see [Music] another I read an account of the execution and it said that right
before they injected him his feet were shaking under the sheet and I hoped that he
experienced some of the fear just that Holly did I that gave me a small sense of satisfaction that that he was
[Music] scared I definitely feel like I have another opportunity at life I want to live it to the
fullest I can't explain how this changes you I am a stronger person because of it
I'm my whole life focused changed because because of it I'm I'm a different person today because this
happened I knew that I had to heal physically first and then I had to deal with Christ dying I had to deal with
myself almost dying and then I had to deal with being raped your brain works in amazing ways
and it kind of sort of let me deal with each thing as I could [Music] in 1997 I met Jacob Pendleton at uh the
Outdoor Store that I was working at he was the first guy that I dated after the attack he just like reintroduced me to
the [Music] world I don't think Jacob even knows like how much he helped me there'd be
days that I would literally cry to him and he would just listen to me and you know really wouldn't judge me at all
which was [Music] great to see Holly happy married it's it is wonderful she has led our family and
how we have recovered from this it could have gone a completely different way where our family was devastated by this
and instead you know we are just so happy for how she has led her life please welcome hly D
[Applause] pen it was August 28th 1997 it's the second day of classes at the University
of Kentucky I started speaking about 2 years after the attack he said look how easily I could kill you and then he
raped me to me it felt like part of my healing process to talk about it and to cry about it and to be emotional because
for so long I had to kind of detach emotion from it the way that I went on with my life was I had to forgive him
and look for the good that could come from this when I was speaking I didn't have to worry about that I could work
through my emotions and and that really helped me in my healing [Music] process being a Survivor is one thing
but helping other survivors and knowing how to do that in a professional manner was another
thing Holly's house is a child and adult Advocacy Center in Evansville Indiana that provides a safe reporting location
for victims of intimate crimes we opened on September 2nd of 2008 and we have served over 300 victims since that time
how are things they've been pretty steady Holly is a hero because she did not let what happened to her destroy her
she decided to make it her reason to live or her a reason to help people how are you fine it's important to me for
victims to be supported for them to know that they're not going through what has
happened to them alone I get support through victims that come through Holly's house I feel like through
helping others they're helping me we sort of do it [Music] together this case for me has become one
that I have looked back on many times I keep a little bit of a reminder on my desk a rock from our crime scene and a
railroads bike that I got from down in Texas not so much as a reminder of the largest case at work but more a reminder
that if you stick with a case and fall up on everything that you can be successful so be determined don't give
up I've stayed in touch with Holly since it began she's really just an amazing person individually she is is the model
of Survivor I remember Chris in a lot of ways I like to keep things around me that remind me of him I'm lucky enough
to have my amazing husband and have Chris be a part of our Lives what was that I think to get over my survivors
guilt that I had I had to know that I live my life not just for me and not just for
Chris I'm living my life for all of benda's victims for all of [Music] them and that I have
to or I want to be the best person I can be and live the best life I can because
they didn't get that chance and I did so I want to live for them I want them to be remembered I want them to and I I
would want them to be proud of you know [Music] me [Music]

"48 Hours" Live to Tell: The lone survivor of a serial killer on a multi-state killing spree tells her story, in her words. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

True crime. Real justice. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

Brief Summary

Holly Dunn recounts her survival of a brutal attack and her journey to healing and advocacy after losing her boyfriend to a serial killer.

Key points

A Night of Horror. A college student recounts a terrifying encounter with a man on the train tracks.
Survivor's Guilt. Holly struggles with the aftermath of her attack and the loss of her friend Chris.
The Boogeyman Unveiled. The chilling description of a serial killer who strikes fear across states.
Holly's Courage in Court. Holly faced her attacker in court, delivering a powerful testimony that moved the jury.
Holly's Advocacy for Victims. Holly established a center to support victims of intimate crimes, helping over 300 since its opening.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I was like saying my last prayer.

In a moment of panic during the attack.

3:45WatchMay 7, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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