Imagine, for almost 50 years... three women fought to find the identity of the beast who made their lives worse than hell forever. This soul-stirring story is of three women - Kathy Rottler, her younger sister Sherry Rottler Trick and their friend Candice Smith, who were subjected to a horrific and unforgettable attack in the year 1975. Their only fault was that they had asked a stranger for a lift to go for a walk.
It was a fateful night in August 1975 when 14-year-old Kathy decided to go out with her 13-year-old friend Candice and her 11-year-old younger sister Sherry. This was the first time these three had stepped out without an elder from the family. The three were standing on the roadside and asking for a lift to a teen hangout near Cumberland, Indiana.
After some time, a man in a white car stopped near the three and said that he would drop them to their destination. The three got into his car, but soon they realized what a big mistake they had made. The car passed their destination and when the three protested, the man told them that they had been kidnapped.
He said he would keep the three of them hostage and demand ransom in return. The terrified girls tried to open the door but found that there was no handle. The screws, bolts and door panels had been removed. What happened next gave these three women a terrible pain for almost 50 years.
After a 15-minute scary drive, the car stopped in a cornfield. Armed with a knife and a gun, the driver tied the girls' hands. According to the news website 'People', he then raped Sherry on the ground in front of the car and then stabbed all three of them repeatedly. He left these girls there in a half-dead state and ran away. Their condition was such that it seemed as if they might not survive.
A few minutes after the attacker fled, Candice saw Kathy on the ground and dragged herself towards her. They thought Sherry had been kidnapped. The two managed to reach a nearby highway and stopped a car for help. Luckily for them, a retired police officer stopped his car to help them.
When he saw both the girls soaked in blood and heard their story, he immediately reached the same place to search for the third girl. After a little search, Sherry was found in the cornfield, but her condition was very bad. She was breathing but was bleeding badly. He immediately took these three to the hospital.
Candice had 12 knife cuts on her neck and she had to get 300 stitches. All three survived, but the horror of that night did not end there. No one had any clue about the name or identity of that beast. When the news of this incident spread, there was a stir. The newspapers dubbed that beast as 'Indiana Slasher'.
The police who reached the spot found a rope, a handkerchief and a cigarette butt. Initially, the police suspected a prisoner who had been released recently. The victim girls thought that he was the attacker, but later he was declared innocent. When no clues were found, the case was shelved.
All three victim girls tried to move on with their lives, but everything was not so easy. They felt that perhaps the police or the law enforcers did not care about them. All three started feeling lonely and humiliated. Among them, Kathy stopped going to school after some time. She felt that she was responsible for whatever happened because it was her idea to ask for a lift.
However, Kathy kept calling the police to get updates on her case. She also frequently visited the police headquarters and demanded justice for herself. Finally, Kathy's efforts bore fruit and the attacker was identified in January, nearly 50 years later. The name of this beast was Thomas Williams. He was identified through DNA samples taken from the clothes of the three victims on the night of the attack.
Unfortunately, however, he had been dead for 41 years before he was identified. He died in 1983 at the age of 49 while serving a sentence in Texas for a bank robbery. In January, the three women received a call informing them of the identity of their attacker, which was a painful moment for them.
This was a moment that reopened their 50-year-old wounds. They saw the face of the attacker from almost five decades ago. But he had been dead for 41 years. These three women have now shared their stories in a new episode of 'People Magazine Investigates'. This episode titled 'The Indiana Slasher' will be aired on Investigation Discovery on December 30.
In her story, Sherry said, 'That monster did not get any punishment for the crime he committed against me, my little sister and my innocent friend. But I forgive him and thankfully he is dead now. Now he cannot do this to anyone else. He is finished and finally finished.'
PC:NBT
