The Beauty Queen Killer: 9 Days of Terror | Episode 3 : Live To Tell
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Hi there, 2020 podcast listeners. This is Deborah Roberts, co-anchor of 2020. It's time for our final installment of The Beauty Queen Killer, Nine Days of Terror. This is episode three, Live to Tell. After he shot Beth Dodd, 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 didn't know why.

And I just looked at him and I just to myself like, "Okay, I'm not gonna believe this because it could be a trick." That couldn't even feel like a relief to you because you couldn't believe it? No, there was no feeling of anything. Everything was numb, stifled, and petrified. And he admitted he could change his mind. The next thing I know, I'm at the airport. I don't even remember driving through Boston or anything. I don't remember the airport. We walked up to the counter.

Still not looking at anybody, just keeping my focus on him. "Give me your ID. You paid for the ticket. Here's some money. You're gonna need this. Take this $1,000 for whatever you need." And then he just said goodbye. That's it. Just bye. And he left and turned around and walked away. I was still afraid he's gonna 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? So I just sat there waiting, staring off to the darkness out the window. Not until I was in that plane did I know for sure that I was actually released from him. Never been on an airplane. And what a first introduction to airlines and airplanes. I think we stopped in Chicago, went to Texas, and then to LAX or something. It was like a weird route.

But I slept all the way home. I still didn't know anything that's going on, like the major manhunt for me.

Captain Pop is with us tonight. Captain, what can you tell us? At the moment, the only new information we have is that the body found in Victor, New York, is not the body of our missing Tia Marie Risico. 33-year-old Beth Dodge of upstate New York was shot in the back. Police in New York and surrounding states have now joined the search, but as one federal agent said today, Wilder moves very fast. If they don't get him tonight, he could be anywhere by morning.

It was like 11:00 AM. I think the plane landed. I was just glad to be home. It was warm and sunny in Southern California. It was April 13th on a Friday. I got into a cab, and the cabbie, he knew who I was. I didn't realize he did until I happened to lean forward and put my hands on the front seat. And I looked down next to him in the passenger seat. There my face was on the frigging front of the newspaper.

And that was the first inclination that people were really looking for me. My emotion was, "Oh boy, what's going to happen to me now?" But I had been in that same underwear, same bra, same clothes for the last amount of days, and that's all I was concentrating on. Everything was stinky. And I said, "Well, you know what? Let's go down to Hermosa Beach. Can you take me to the lingerie store, the Tisserie?" No one was in the store at the time I was.

The salespeople there, they were nice girls, but more infatuated knowing that they had some sort of true crime celebrity in their store. - Are you the shop owner here? - Yes. - Were you the one that put in the-- - No, one of the girls that worked for me.

What was it that led her to think it was? Well, she said that it was her. She just got in. He gave her money and put her on a plane. Really? And that she didn't want to call her mother until she had time to think about it because she felt after that happened, it would be, her life wouldn't be her own. And this is what she told the clerk? Both the clerks. And relate that story again. What did she tell it about?

She said, "Okay, I guess they don't want me to make any statements." No statements? - Thank you. - We heard that she had gone to that clothing store in Hermosa. We had 15 news stations out in front of the department waiting for her. Everybody was all excited, but we didn't know exactly where she was going. I thought she would go to her mother's house.

So after shopping there, I did realize that if I did go home, I'm just going to be bombarded by all these reporters. So I didn't go home. And I'm glad I didn't, because apparently there was paparazzi waiting for me to arrive. I avoided all of that. I went up to my boyfriend Billy's, because I'm like, that's it. I want to see Billy. I missed him so bad. And he wasn't home when I got taken up there by the cabbie. But our friends Rick and Jerry were there.

We're in the front yard washing our vehicles, and all of a sudden a taxi cab pulls up. She steps out of the cab, and Sherry and I are like, we're dumbfounded. We absolutely didn't expect to see Tina come home. Didn't expect it. You know, we were treating her with kid gloves, you know? We didn't want to shake her up at all. We just let her talk. And she was kind of just in a different space.

at Billy's house. So it was peaceful. I was able to take a shower, change my clothes. And then they said, we should take you to the police station. She kind of just resigned herself to, yeah, I guess we do have to go. You know? What she knew was inevitable. Billy had contacted me, and I can't remember whether it was the day before or that morning.

And he asked if I could go to Torrance Police Department with him as kind of moral support, right, to be interviewed by detectives. I was just sitting there waiting for him. And I remember Ricky McCarter walking in with Tina, and it was just, there are no words to describe it. I didn't say anything to her because she was obviously whisked away immediately.

at the police station with all the FBI and police people. It was like 3 o'clock our time maybe. Someone comes rushing in the room, we just got word, you know, like talking amongst ourselves, you know, the cops, how they say. And then they looked at me and told me what happened. Earlier that day, Colebrook, New Hampshire. Christopher Wilder is in Beth Dodger's Pontiac Firebird and he's heading for the Canadian border about 10 or 12 miles north of the little town of Colebrook where he goes into...

the Getty service station, and then two troopers are driving back from having lunch, I think. Wilder looks at the passing two cops, and it's that remarkable moment where they say, "Now, this is the guy that everyone's looking for." The cops wheel into the service station. One gets out first while his mate is covering him. Goes to the car. He and Wilder start fighting. Then a gun goes off.

Where was the scene like when you arrived? There was an unidentified subject in a gold-colored Camaro, stumped over the seat, and Trooper Jellison was sitting in his seat. Was something very unusual for a small town like Coburg, something like this to happen? Yes.

A nationwide manhunt is over. Christopher Wilder, who has been on the FBI's wanted list for more than a week, shot and killed himself in Colebrook, New Hampshire, just five miles from the Canadian border. Spotted by state troopers, Wilder shot himself, but the bullet passed through his body and wounded a police officer. Wilder then fired again, this time killing himself. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Do you have a point-of-sale system you can trust, or is it...

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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. I learned in the hospital, I was still in the hospital, I was sleeping and I woke up with, you know, a terror, right? And I remember they're like, "It's okay, it's okay, he's, you know, he died." And I'm like, "No, he didn't, you know, did he really? Is it true?"

Christopher Wilder's awful odyssey appears to be over and remains unexplained. So there was like this immediate relief of, "Okay, you really are safe." Wilder had a long history of sex crimes in Florida and Australia. I was super, super relieved too that he couldn't hurt anybody else. And even as young as I was, I was glad that I would not ever have to face him again, like in court. We are gratified that the killings will stop.

However, our investigations to locate the missing women will continue. The phone rang, and he said, this is the FBI. It is Mr. Kenyon there, right? And I was like, yeah, hold on. So I hand him the phone, and I remember that feeling, and I remember the shriek my mom let out when my dad, you know, he told her. With him dying, I think my parents felt as though that was...

It was the only person that was going to let them know where Beth was. But local police aren't giving up. 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. How did you learn about Tina getting home?

I think it was around the same time of learning about him, you know, being dead. It kind of solidified the feelings that there was, and I don't want to use this in her detriment, but a relationship. But I was glad that she was also a survivor. 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.

There were other jurisdictions involved where Don was from and Beth Dodge was from. And they insisted that Tina was involved with Wilder and an accomplice. So they were after her. There was mostly men all in suits with their badges on their belts. They started immediately interrogating me and without a lawyer present.

Okay, so it goes as follows. Tina Marie Rizzico, age 16, was interviewed to determine the circumstances of her abduction by and travel with Christopher Bernard Wilder. Efforts were therefore centered on obtaining knowledge and degree of participation in the kidnapping of Don and Beth Dodge. I really don't want to read that out loud. Okay. Talking with them, the FBI being interrogated, was really invasive. Being that I was still in this fog,

I wasn't in reality yet. It was hard for me to open up about everything and give every little detail. Due to Risico's actions towards Riley, he began to trust her that she would not attempt to escape because of the punishments that he was giving her. Yeah. Risico noted that as she wanted to escape from him, she purposely tried to get him to believe he could trust her, which I did.

Every little word that was what I said to the women, why did I, you know, 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? You know, 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. Okay, I'm not going to talk about that. What? Getting Don. You know that it will be part of the documents.

I know, but whatever I said about her before and when I said I was sorry, that's all you guys are gonna get. I'm not gonna reread this. Do you think that the way it is described in there is accurate? Yeah, it's pretty accurate. During our experience, it wasn't a shared experience. Like, she very much was with him, and I very much was...

And I know things now that I know that, you know, she was there involuntarily. She was a victim. But during that experience, it was not at all clear to me. I'm agitated. This is opening up so much for me. It's just like I was really sick and tired of being asked so many questions over and over again and wondering what the hell's going on, realizing, am I in trouble? You know, it sure felt like it, you know?

And that's when my father came in the view. How did you find out? I-- over the news media. Have you had a chance to talk with her at all? No, no. It's the first thing you're going to do when you see that daughter of yours. What do you think? I'm going to grab her and hug her and kiss her. Well, I got to get going. Thank you guys, OK? OK. All right. 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?

It's difficult to come to grips with the fact that Tina played an active role in luring Dawn to the car. She sees Beth Dodge being executed. She's dropped off by Wilder at Logan Airport, and she sits there and doesn't call the police, flies back to California, heads off to do some shopping. It's very strange behavior. April 14, 1984. It's Tina's second day home.

Let me ask a question first. Are we not live? Is anybody live? Nobody? Great. Captain Pop was my captain at the time, and he was really in charge of the investigation. Well, why don't we start then? He was very adamant that she was a victim, not a suspect.

and contacted the news. 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. I was a child, 16 years old. Captain Pop and Barry Walsh, they were the most caring for me. And all the way through it, I remember I was most securely safe with those two.

Please explain for us one of the most bewildering aspects of this story. Here is a girl kidnapped, who according to Don, Lord Don, was present during the shooting of another woman, goes shopping before finally coming to police. How do you explain that? 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. Why didn't she call the police? Education at all why he killed others and not her. That's what everyone is wondering. No. Let me put it this way. She was very quick to realize that if she did not comply with his wishes, she would, number one, be tortured,

Number two, probably be killed. Why do you think she did not tell the stewardesses on the plane or somebody or police immediately before or after the flight? Someone asked me yesterday what's the normal response. My answer to that is I know of no normal response. There's all these expectations on what Tina should have done. Without understanding who Tina was as a person, she had a really dysfunctional childhood.

When you have dysfunctional childhoods, you become old and wise beyond your years as a survival mechanism.

Hi all, Kate Gibson here of The Bookcase with Kate and Charlie Gibson. This week we talked to Whoopi Goldberg about lots of things. But one of the things we talked to her about is how as a science fiction and graphic novel fan, she never saw herself on those screens or on those pages growing up. I mean, I didn't realize that part of me until I watched Star Trek. And I saw it because I love sci-fi.

And for some reason, it never occurred to me that I was missing until I was present. You're not going to want to miss this episode of The Bookcase from ABC News. Mike Tirico here with some of the 2024 Team USA athletes. What's your message for the team of tomorrow? To young athletes, never forget why you started doing it in the first place. You have to pursue something that you're passionate about. Win, lose, or draw, I'm always going to be the one having a smile on my face.

Finding joy in why you do it keeps you doing it. Be authentic, be you, and have fun. Joy is powering Team USA during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Comcast is proud to be bringing that inspiration home for the team of tomorrow. Why do you think you survived this experience? 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 my mother overdosing on heroin twice. The first time, I remember, I think I was four or three. She-- I remember trying to wake her up, and she was foaming at the mouth and shaking and everything because she was ODing. Somehow, I knew how to call on the phone to my aunt, my mom's sister.

Yeah, so surviving with my mom was tough. 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.

With me I have Roland Summit. He's a community psychiatrist at Harbor UCLA Medical Center in Torrance. Thank you. Dr. Summit, what can you say about Wilder, what you've learned from talking to her? I think we can say more about Wilder from what we can see about Wilder than anything he told her. I'm assuming that Wilder's

excitement, his rage against women was stimulated by a woman pleading for her life, a young woman totally unhinged. Along came Tina, who had dealt with victimization from her early childhood, learning to cope and how to survive it.

I could imagine that she was different from all the others from the beginning by not acting as if she hoped to live, not asking, but finding ways to be totally compliant on the surface, but to be calculating underneath. Why did I survive and they didn't? I don't know. It's everyone's question. I never screamed. I never...

I retaliated, I succumbed and, you know, was vulnerable to him. I don't like playing games, but it was a game. I'm gonna survive in playing this game. She, the captive, captivated the captor, and captivating Wilder into seeing her differently, seeing her as somebody who had a life

that ought to be saved. He began to develop a respect for the young woman which was not consistent with his need. Jim Popp and I, we wanted to keep this girl who had suddenly appeared out of unimaginable chaos free from further damaging encounters with a critical world.

April 19, 1984. A psychiatrist who interviewed Tina Marie Rizzico last week warned Wednesday that should the 16-year-old Torrance girl choose or be pushed into the bright light or public scrutiny, it may destroy her.

"Tina Marie Rizzo may have suffered Stockholm syndrome, which makes hostages identify with their captors." No, I did not care for him in any way, shape, or form. People magazine. Two weeks after I came back, did they created this article? People wanted to know me just to hear what I had to say, ask me all kind of crazy questions, like, "How come you're not dead?" Okay, "What led Tina Marie on a trek?" What kind of statement is that? Trek, brainwash, accomplice.

Yeah, see, I didn't-- I didn't want to see those. What are you thinking? I'm getting upset because it's just constant. 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. That's why I didn't live at home. I moved in with Billy. My home, grandma's home, was just always swarmed with media. It's her mother.

I was looking for Tina Moniz-Grasner. -She's not here. -But you're her mother, aren't you? I was wondering if you might be able to talk at all. I know it's a very difficult time for you, a happy time now, but everybody's sort of been bawling in their face and are anxious to hear how she was so fortunate as to come through this or do anything.

- Can you just tell me how she's doing? I mean, basically-- - She's beautiful. She's great. She's fantastic. She's doing just fine. She's in heaven right now, having a good time. She's partying. - Well, good for her. - Yeah, she's partying. - Okay. Thank you very much. - All right. Bye-bye. - Bye-bye.

When I got back home, I was worried about my mom beating my ass for being gone all this time. But that didn't happen. She gave me hugs and kisses. But right back to our disagreements, my mom and I didn't get along all through my teen years. Were you able to talk with your mom and with your grandma about what you went through? No, never talked about it with them at all. None of my family members. Just didn't. It wasn't there. And that's how I liked it.

After coming home, I became very closed off. It's a protective shield so people couldn't get close to me because everybody wanted a piece of me. All the media wanted a piece of me. I wasn't into exposing myself. She was understandably distant from everybody. I think anyone that went through something like that would be closed off. People would be afraid around me, how to act, how to talk, constant tippy-toeing around me. She just was very...

defensive about, you know, who she was and what she was going to reveal to people. I could just tell she's been through too much and she's not going to talk about anything right now. I unfortunately was one of the people who judged her when she got back. I just remember just kind of looking at her and, you know, having some empathy for what she went through, but also having so many questions. I said, "You seem like you're okay."

She got, like, obviously upset. She was screaming. She goes, "I was tied down. I was electrocuted. I was raped." She said that. And I wish I can go back to that day and just hug her and say, you know, "Thank God you're back, you know, and you got friends in us, and if you need anything, let us know." That's what should have happened. Tina was a victim

of destructive publicity at that time. Her name was rife and she was under a burning magnifying glass. The collective memory of society toward that story is still a very ambivalent one. I did a lot of suppressing with, you know, cocaine and drugs. So I guess I wasn't loving myself.

I threw all kinds of elaborate parties. And that's how I got through it. Support system of my friends, closest friends, and drugs. A young woman allegedly left for dead by Christopher Wilder is out of the hospital tonight. 16-year-old Donette Sue Wilt, recovering from three stab wounds, was released this morning and flew home to Indiana with her parents. When I first got home for those first couple of weeks, everybody wanted to make sure that somebody was overseeing me.

But I don't think anybody, and why would they be, were equipped to help me through, you know, there just wasn't the awareness. And I was a 16-year-old girl that suffered a ton of trauma. It's like, okay, you're back home. Life resumes itself. I was back in school within weeks of what happened to me. That car came back, and that was my car, and I drove it.

I very much did not want to be defined by that incident. I didn't want people to feel sorry for me. And then it catches up with you. I didn't go away to school because I couldn't even sleep by myself. I think I realized that I had PTSD like when I was 40. I started having panic attacks. There are triggers that just come up, right, that will, you know, cause a memory. I think it's just all stored in there.

The end to Wilder's murder spree came too late for the family and friends of Beth Dodge, described as a wonderful mother, a Sunday school teacher, and a hard worker. I'm not typically an angry person, but when I hear the name Tina Marie, I get angry, I guess. All I've got is what has been reported. And I understand, you know, Tina was in a traumatic experience, and she lived through it.

But she's been quiet for a long time. She's never really said her piece of it. Now the friends and family of Beth Dodge have the difficult task of telling her four-year-old daughter why mommy is never coming back. I honestly don't know if it was a show or an article throughout the years that shed a little bit of light, but I'm under the impression that Tina's job for him was to

approach the other women for the time that he had her. I guess really I would just ask for the truth, and I could deal with it any way that it was. Beth Dodge's daughter, Stephanie, you know, so many unanswered questions. Do you recall her mom saying anything or being frightened? Any little thing that you remember about Beth? I was in the car the whole time.

I mean, I didn't expect him to kill her. I thought he would just take her car. You know? I didn't-- That was a shock for me. It was just fast. Boom, boom, boom, boom. He approached her with the gun, pushed her in the car, took it over, and I had to immediately follow. Yeah, it was very horrific. I hope I give her closure. I'm sorry your mom's not here. You have to live your life without your mother.

And I guess because I'm so monotone about this is because I had to be so suppressed at the time with him that still today I'm still in that frame of mind when I have to talk about it. Because I'm still trapped, compartmentalized in that moment of his Jedi mind fuck on me. How did this experience shape who you are?

It made me very independent. I was an only child for the most part, and my mom was gone. My dad turned to alcohol after that. So he was a great dad in that he always took care of me, you know, cooked dinner and all that. But at night when he would come home from work, he'd stay there, and he would just drink until he went to bed. And, um...

So I had to grow up. It was just me. You know, it's not just his immediate victims that he affected. We wanted to find our daughter. I don't think I'm ever going to find any way to replace her. I just wanted to know why we and why he chose her. It's so many more people for such a long period of time.

Delta Flight 1187, a non-stop flight from Boston carrying the body of reputed mass murderer Chris Wilder, landed about 7 o'clock tonight at West Palm Beach International. Minutes later, a casket wrapped in a cardboard shipping box was carted out onto a Delta Air Congo loading dock and placed into a waiting hearse.

Christopher Wilder's death on Friday came just hours after his brother made a private appeal for his surrender. I've got to say that my first personal reaction was that I was happy that he was stopped. You know, this guy, that there was not going to be the next night, there wasn't going to be that night, anyone hurt by Chris Wilder. And that's the first thing. You know, I mean, later on, I went ahead and go in and have a cry. What can you do? It happened to be my brother.

With permission from the Wilder family, authorities kept the body at the medical examiner's for several hours. Here, a plaster cast of Wilder's jaw was made and a series of photos were taken of the body. Well, there are several investigations still going on. The plaster cast, the photographs may assist the locals in either pinning Wilder to it or...

excluding him from being a suspect. For a lot of detectives, Wilder is the white whale case of their careers. The one they couldn't stop. There are the women that we know that he killed and then there are others who keep appearing

17-year-old Mary Opitz vanished in January of 1981. 18-year-old Mary Hare disappeared from the same mall in February of that year. Another disappearance happened in March of this year. 19-year-old Melody Gay. Wilder is probably responsible for upwards of 14 murders across two countries over a period of 20 years. MUSIC

In Australia, he might be responsible for the Wanda Beach murders, one of the most notorious crimes in Australia history. Police search Wanda Beach after two teenage girls are found murdered. 15-year-old friends Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharick had taken their brothers and sisters for a day out. The pair was last spotted with an unknown teenage boy. A good-looking young bloke, late teens, early 20s. Sandy blonde hair.

At the time, Christopher Wilder was almost 20. They were seen to disappear with that youth into the sand dunes. They'd been sexually assaulted, then stabbed to death. It was an utterly horrific crime. And that Wanda Beach murder prompted, at that point, the biggest manhunt in Australian history.

They have semen samples and blood samples that they believe belong to the killer. By the continued response of the people, we will be able to put our finger on the man who has committed this crime. Sadly, when they went looking for it, when DNA came in, it had been misfiled and no-one's ever been able to find it. So that one bit of evidence that could prove that Christopher Wilder was the killer or wasn't the killer is missing. The case still remains unsolved.

You just have to wonder how many other people may be wilder victims.

The end of Wilder's bloody cross-country odyssey has not closed the case.

The FBI is examining the car in which Wilder shot himself. The most significant find may be this briefcase containing blood-stained tape, a knife, gun holster, passport, $4,900, as well as photographs of several unidentified women, the kind Wilder reportedly enticed with promises of modeling jobs. He had Beth's keys. He had all her personal stuff. I mean, the reality sunk in that, you know,

Probably never going to find out where she's at unless someone else had information. My parents, they were trying to hang on to something that would find Beth. We're just going on a theory that possibly liking Beth so much as he did, that he really didn't harm her. When my mom passed away, she passed away pretty young, 59. She died of a broken heart.

There's a lot of reasons to be hateful towards Christopher Wilder, right? But if I ever feel really angry about him, is what he took from our family was the chance to be a family, right? With my kids. It's sad we never found Rosario Gonzalez or Elizabeth Kenyon's body. The poor families have to live with it. And there's no doubt in my mind that he killed other girls.

You gotta figure this is not all he did. But I don't know what else more we could have done. You want to be able to feel like you did all you could do. Do you feel like you did? Oh, I do. Yes, I do. And I'm not saying that. I tell you, you know, you gotta be able to live with yourself, you know? 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.

While it would not have happened to me if it were not for her, 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. Yeah. Tina faced possible prosecution for Dawn's abduction. After a thorough investigation, the U.S. Attorney's Office came to a decision.

- After redoing our investigation, the United States Attorney's Office in Buffalo has declined to prosecute Ms. Resico for any of her involvement in the kidnapping of Ms. Wilt in Indiana and her transportation to the Buffalo area. - So they have a final decision? - Are there any specific questions you would want to ask either Tina or Don? - Um...

have they had a good life, because I truly hope they have. I would hope somebody doesn't survive that and then have to live the rest of their years in torture because of it. So I would just, I would ask them if they've had a good life because I hope that somehow through it all they found peace.

It has not been an easy ride, but there's been some incredible joy and incredible satisfaction. 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, right?

When I came back, as I mentioned, I was closed off. That was a lot of anger. Heard my grandma all the time, my closest person to me, and I wish I could take that back, but it was because I was dealing with this internally by myself. So I was an introvert. But Lou broke me out of that. A friend, Bruce the Brush, did this for our anniversary. At age 25 is when we got married. I married Lou.

me in Vegas. Lou was well aware of every detail of my ordeal. And he was so laid back, big heart, that it changed me to become myself, my true self finally. At, you know, 32 years old, I had to become myself then. Hi, Tina. The woman of the hour. I turned myself around, got sober. I'm, you know, I'm living my best life now.

Hi, Sherry. Hi, bud. Look at you. You're all gray. Oh, my God. Hi, Holly. You're not that gray. I'm like, yes, you are. Hi, baby. I'm so glad you made it. Likewise. Hi. Hi, hello. I have an abundance in my life. I have lots of loving friends. They have been there through thick and thin with me, ups and downs.

and I love my friends. - I bet you are. - It's nice to officially meet you. I love you and I'm just so happy that you're here. I may not see them every day of my life, but that's what good friends are about. It doesn't have to be like every day. Sheena, how has this experience been for you? Uh, cathartic. Can you spell that? Not really. I thought it was going to be big words. Yeah. Cathartic, eye-opening, um...

I had forgotten some things or suppressed them, not really the same difference. And then having to read some things that I forgot that was happened to me that kind of, you know, jarred me. I, for one, was always concerned that Tina never talked about it. Yes. And last night, she called me and she told me things that

- Yeah. - See, I never talked about it with people because it's hard to understand. And you're gonna like, "Oh my God, you're out of your mind. How could that have happened? How could you say, like, how did that happen?" So I never talked to any of you about it because I didn't want to have to explain. - Do you think that what you went through as an innocent child helped you survive? I mean, do you-- - Yes. - Do you correlate that? - Oh, the survivor skills kicked in because of how mom brought me up.

I've been approached for all these years, many, many times, doing a couple of shows, and it just only focused on him. And then it didn't express who I am. I've never watched, listened, read about anything about this because, you know, it was my experience. I had it. But I do remember somebody saying to me that he had actually did turn around to see if I was still there and alive.

I love that he knew that, you know, that he came back for me and I was gone. And so I think this project in particular was compelling for me because this really is a story about survival and the other victims and their families having an opportunity to share who they were as people. They were much more than what happened to them at the end. 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 is Deborah Roberts. Christopher Wilder's 1984 spree lasted 47 days. In that time, he's known to have traveled 8,000 miles, kidnapped 12 women, and killed nine of them. The true number of Wilder's victims remains unknown.

If you have information about other potential victims of Christopher Wilder, please contact your local police department. If you are or have been the victim of sexual violence, help is available through RAINN, the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network. You can call their helpline at 1-800-656-4673.

Next week, we're bringing you a bonus episode with more on Christopher Wilder's long history of victimizing women and eluding capture.

The Beauty Queen Killer, Nine Days of Terror, was produced by Ample Entertainment and 101 for ABC News Studios. It's now streaming on Hulu. And while you're there, you can also find more from 2020. For all new broadcast episodes of 2020, don't forget to join us Friday nights at 9 on ABC. ♪

Hi all, Kate Gibson here of The Bookcase with Kate and Charlie Gibson. This week we talked to Whoopi Goldberg about lots of things. But one of the things we talked to her about is how as a science fiction and graphic novel fan, she never saw herself on those screens or on those pages growing up. I mean, I didn't realize that part of me until I watched Star Trek. And I saw it because I love sci-fi.

And for some reason, it never occurred to me that I was missing until I was present. You're not going to want to miss this episode of The Bookcase from ABC News.