'He thought he had killed me'

Lexington Herald-Leader ^ | 12/13/03 | Art Jester

[Holly_P]

LOUISVILLE — Every time Holly Dunn gets up to speak, she knows she's going to cry.

It happens, as it did this week at Fleming County High School, when she describes the horrors of Aug. 29, 1997, when her life was changed forever.

With her hands and feet tied by an assailant, she watched helplessly as Chris Maier, her boy-friend and fellow University of Kentucky student, was bludgeoned to death.

Then the assailant -- the so-called Railroad Serial Killer, Angel Maturino Resendiz -- raped her, stabbed her with a screwdriver or ice pick, beat her on the head 10 times with a railroad tie and left her for dead.

Dunn also might cry when she wonders out loud why she survived, or when she looks back on the whole ordeal and explains how it gave her life new direction.

"Good has come from it," she told a group of rapt girls in Fleming County. "Talking to you is part of my healing process."

"I'll probably be healing the rest of my life," she said.

That seems virtually certain, because Dunn, who will be 27 next month, has become known as an exceptional speaker for groups devoted to helping victims of rape and sexual abuse.

The Evansville, Ind., native would like to do more speaking nationally, and she's considering writing a book.

Dunn lives in Louisville, where she is a manager-in-training at a hotel. She's involved in several activities, including her sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma; Young Professionals; and she is a trained sexual assault advocate. She appeared in an Evansville production of The Vagina Monologues, a play about women's issues, including violence against women, which benefited a local domestic violence and sexual assault center. And she has a boyfriend in Lexington.

But "my speeches are really keeping me busy," Dunn said.

"She is powerful," said Eileen Recktenwald, executive director of the Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs. "I've never met anybody like her. She acknowledges for victims who can't say so that, 'Yes, you are going through hell.'"

Carol Jordan, director of the University of Kentucky Center for Research on Violence Against Women, said: "Holly Dunn is a very gifted and articulate young woman who has the strength to take what happened to her and transform it into something amazing."

Quite simply, Dunn shares herself, honestly and openly. She is credible, and she is frequently humorous, breaking up a frightening recollection.

She channeled her emotional pain so that she can counsel other women who have been -- or might someday be -- the victims of rape and sexual abuse.

She is healing, but accepts that she will never be fully healed.

"There are still days I cry, still days I'm upset, still days I have to stay home in bed," she said.

Inevitably, wherever she speaks, Dunn is sought out afterward by listeners.

"She finds people who have been raped but haven't come forward," Recktenwald said.

Dunn was invited to speak at Fleming County by a teacher, Karlyn Vice, whose daughter was impressed when she heard Dunn speak at UK.

"These kids are young. They haven't been out in the world," Vice said. "I wanted them to know you can have some really hard knocks in life and still survive and go on."

In an interview this week in Louis-ville, Dunn discussed the rape and her life since.

"I knew almost as soon as it happened that I wanted to talk about it to help others," she said. "I feel like I survived for a reason."

Dunn is convinced that her attacker did not intend for her to survive.

She felt safe with Maier

It was two days after classes started at UK when she, Maier and two of his friends got bored and left a party. They walked to the railroad tracks between Waller Avenue and Rosemont Garden to watch trains.

"I felt completely safe," she said.

Dunn, then a 20-year-old junior, had known Maier, a senior from North Canton, Ohio, for three months. A couple of weeks earlier, before he left on a trip to Maine, Maier, 21, told her: "I want to be more than friends."

Dunn said: "I talked to him almost every day he was in Maine."

"When I was with him, he made me feel like the most important person in the room."

Maier, a 6-foot-5 theater major, "was always smiling," Dunn said. "Whenever you saw him he gave you a hug. He gave great hugs."

She was happy.

"It was a clear, cool night. You could see the stars," she said.

"Chris' friends looked at us and were saying, 'You two are in lovey-dovey grossness.'" The friends returned to the party.

"We sat there and talked for a while," Dunn said. Then, at about 12:30 a.m., the couple got up to walk back to the party.

Suddenly, they were confronted by Maturino Resendiz.

"He had been standing behind an electrical box probably six feet from us," she said.

They thought they were being robbed.

They begged him for mercy. They had little money, but they offered him credit cards, ATM cards and car keys. He refused.

Maturino ordered them to get down on their hands and knees. They complied, she explains, because of "a feeling of being absolutely scared and not knowing what he would do."

"Chris said to me, 'I think he has a knife.'"

"He began to gag us with an old shirt and hog-tied us, with our hands and feet tied up. I keep sticking my tongue out when he tried to gag me so it wouldn't work.

"I dug my hands into the ground. I wanted somebody to know I had been there."

Then, Maturino Resendiz began his assault.

"We were face down. I remember Chris being hit. He was hit with a 50-pound rock.

"I heard Chris gurgling. I said, 'Go turn Chris' head so he doesn't choke on his own blood.'

"The man said to me: 'He's gone. Don't worry about him.'"

She kept talking, trying to prevent being killed.

Then he removed her corduroy pants and raped her.

She felt as if she were floating above her body.

"I didn't feel pain. I didn't feel anything. I was numb."

"Even when he stabbed me I didn't feel it," she said.

When Maturino Resendiz was finished, he put her pants back on. Then he picked up a railroad tie.

"I was hit in the face five times and on the back of my head five times," she said. "He thought he had killed me."

The killer and rapist fled.

Dunn was unconscious. Eventually, she got up, covered with blood, and walked to a nearby street. She found a house lit up. A man had come home from work.

"I remember it was 2:49. I opened the screen door and went in. I didn't even knock. The man called 911 for me."

She had a broken jaw, a broken eye socket and four cuts on her face. She was given the "morning after" pill to prevent pregnancy. She was tested for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. She was tested again six months and a year later. All results were negative.

She spent five days in the UK hospital, upset that she couldn't attend Maier's funeral. For a month, her mouth was wired shut.

"I was eating ground-up chili for lunch and ground-up chicken noodle soup for dinner. I lost 22 pounds. I had a lot of survivor's guilt."

Starting a slow recovery

She and Maier's family exchanged letters but did not meet for a year and a half.

"I thought they would be mad at me because I survived and Chris didn't," she said. "They thought 'She's been through enough and we don't want to put her through any more pain.'"

Dunn returned to UK three months later. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in finance in 2000. She went to work for her sorority, visiting 32 campuses.

In 2001, she returned to Evansville. She started work on a master of business administration degree, which she will receive this month from the University of Southern Indiana.

She credits her support group at Bluegrass Rape Crisis Center as crucial to her recovery. Susan West, UK's director of fraternity and sorority affairs, provided lots of help.

But it was "two years of living in fear" until Maturino Resendiz was found and arrested. He has since confessed to 14 killings, including Maier's. All occurred near railroad tracks. Maturino Resendiz was convicted in Texas of murder in one case and now sits on Death Row.

Dunn testified at his trial.

"It was the worst day of my life," she said. "The trial was just as bad as the night of the attack. It was reliving it again, and he was in the room. And the room was full of strangers."

"There was a scowl on his face, but I didn't look at him while I testified. I felt as if I were going to collapse. I almost lost it when I had to identify him."

She told Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Larson that she would be extremely reluctant to testify again.

Larson said that as long as Maturino Resendiz is on Death Row in Texas, it's unlikely he would be brought to Kentucky for trial.

Dunn believes the death penalty is a just and valid punishment for Maturino Resendiz. If and when he is put to death, she won't attend, she said.

Dunn got her start speaking at a religious retreat in Evansville in 1999. For four years, she has talked to prospective sorority women at UK. She has also spoken at Centre College, Depauw University and the University of Oregon.

In 2001, she decided to let her name be used publicly. Until then, it had not appeared in the news media, which normally do not print the names of rape victims.

Over the last six years, she has experienced what she calls "signs" that are connected to Maier.

For example, she remembers that as a child her family sang with her If I Were a Butterfly ("I thank you, Lord, for giving me wings.") She sang it with her sister in the UK hospital when she had trouble sleeping.

So, when Dunn received a program from Maier's funeral, she was startled.

"The communion song was If I Were a Butterfly," she said.

The first time she met Maier's parents, Dunn was wearing a Golden Bear ring that can only be bought in Vail, Colo.

"His mother wore the same ring," she said.

Recently, she was sitting at night on her porch. There is a wind chime with a Bar Harbor bell. Bar Harbor, Maine, was where Chris had gone shortly before his death.

"There was a really windy breeze," Dunn said. There was a whiff of danger, and she felt afraid.

Then the Bar Harbor bell rang.

"It takes a really heavy breeze to do this," she said. As she thought about it, her fear vanished.

"I relaxed and smiled. It brought me back to reality. I smiled and thought of Chris and went inside."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Herald-Leader news researcher Linda Smith-Niemi contributed to this article. Reach Art Jester at (859) 231-3489; 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3489; or ajester@ herald-leader.com.

[Holly_P]

In 1997, Holly Dunn was raped and left for dead on the railroad tracks by Angel Maturino Resendiz, who also killed her boyfriend. She spoke about her experiences Wednesday to girls at Fleming County High School.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Angel Maturino Resendiz was an illegal... I mean "undocumented" Mexican immigrant who crossed the border into the United States to murder people who lived close to rail lines, then scurried back home like a cockroach until the coast was clear and he could cross back over to kill a few more innocent people.

I think this man deserves Social Security.

And anything else he and his fellow "undocumented" Mexican immigrants demand.

[TASMANIANRED]

One of the best reasons I have ever seen for carrying a gun.
I am very happy that this young lady survived but this event was not necessary. Both of them were of age. The young man at very least should have been packin.

[Holly_P]

I'm left wondering why the boy friend didn't resist. Boy friend 6 foot 5 is a big man.

She said they thought the killer had a knife though. Wonder if he actually had one?

[JRandomFreeper]

The young man at very least should have been packin.

The rapist had a knife. The young man should have fought back. His education taught him to comply with the man with the weapon, and taught him to ignore the weapons attached to his body and laying about, like the stone that took his life, and the railroad tie that nearly took his young lady's life.

A bully is a coward, and it only takes a man standing up to run most of them off.

If nothing else, he could have given his date 30 seconds head start. My dog knows this, from instinct, but never attended public school to have it beaten from him. The victim was truly a victim of modern education.

/john

[yooper]

Homerun.

[TASMANIANRED]

The young man was probably victim of both his parents and the public school system. My sweetie and I recently had a discussion. Most men these days have never been in a fight. It is not something that comes natural.

Most people are actually embarassed and don't believe a crime is about to happen. When braced by young toughs ( it is called an interview) most people with respond with timidity. It is behavior of the rabbit ( also known as prey, food for predators) What is called for is returned firmness and the preperation for conflict.

Young men have been trained to be non confrontational. They have been feminized to act nice and be non threatening.
They have been trained to act like victims.

Most people don't really believe that they will ever be the victim of a crime ever in their lives. You cannot ever be prepared for something you don't expect to happen.

This world is not compatible with complacency.

[Holly_P]

The rapist had a knife

The article doesn't say that. It says they THOUGHT he had a knife. No knife was used in the attack. A 50 pound rock and a rail road tie is all that's mentioned in the attack.

[basil]

It's still illegal for students to have a weapon on most college campuses. Stupid, but true. We must work to change this, as college coeds are very often targets.

Self defense is a basic human right--even for college stdents.

[Holly_P]

I am a coed. I carry a knife and know how to use it. It would probably be considered a weapon but I don't care about that.

All the concealed carry laws I have seen don't allow under 21 years old to carry anyway. I think Missouris was 23.

I have a friend who is in Iraq and he is a 20 year old who is now carrying legally but when he comes home he can't.

[Restorer]

Maier, a 6-foot-5 theater major

Too bad for her he wasn't a 6-foot-5 Marine. Maturino's career would have ended a lot sooner.

I personally find it difficult to imagine getting down on the ground, putting myself in great vulnerability, when ordered to by someone who "might" have a knife.

Not only do most men today not know how to fight, few have been taught that it is their obligation to protect women and children. The government will take care of that, you know.

[Pukin Dog]

Let me get this straight, a 6-5' young man does not fight back against a little Mexican dude? He just lays down and lets himself get clubbed with a rock? Who were his parents, Fonda and Hayden?

[JRandomFreeper]

It says they THOUGHT he had a knife.

Correction noted.

My (almost) 21 year old would likely have used training to access the situation and repel the attack. The date probably would have lived.

/john

[Holly_P]

No one need wonder if I have a knife - I do. If attacked I will slash with my very sharp knife with all my might. I am not a big person but I am fast and will not lay down and die or be raped either. Not without one helluva fight any way.

[JRandomFreeper]

It's still illegal for students to have a weapon on most college campuses.

You don't get it. If you are a standard issue human being, you have many weapons attached to you at your disposal. Right fist, left fist, right foot, left foot.

And in a dorm setting... irons, ironing boards, and plugged-in curling irons make excellent field-expedient weapons. Not to mention air freshener and a Bic(tm) lighter.

It's about education. We're not training our children to recognize threats and what to do about them. Regardless of the regulations.

/john

[Gigantor]

'I think he has a knife.'

No bad thoughts for the young man, but any perp confronting me better have something or else.

[Holly_P]

P.S. I'm on a roll now - If I am with some guy who wants to give up without a fight I'll kick his arse too.

[Rocky]

The article doesn't say that. It says they THOUGHT he had a knife. No knife was used in the attack. A 50 pound rock and a rail road tie is all that's mentioned in the attack.

"Then the assailant -- the so-called Railroad Serial Killer, Angel Maturino Resendiz -- raped her, stabbed her with a screwdriver or ice pick, beat her on the head 10 times with a railroad tie and left her for dead. " He had either a screwdriver or an ice pick.

[Hildy]

Have you ever had something violent happen to you? I was 18 when two men with rifles stuck them in my face. You never know what you will do until it happens to you.

[JRandomFreeper]

My baby girl just recently qualified again with the M-16. She scored expert with hand-grenades.

And the guy she dates wouldn't have complied with some bozo with a possible knife.

Who would have thought that this branch of the family tree would be military?

/john

[Dan from Michigan]

I may not be 6'5, but I am of Irish blood and would fight this criminal to the end win or lose, if that was me(or shoot him if I had my .45 with me).

The thought of leaving a girl to be a sitting duck to this guy would be too much on my conscience to bear.

[JRandomFreeper]

Have you ever had something violent happen to you?

Yes.

I hope I have trained my daughters well enough that they know what to do on training. I'm glad that's never been tested.

/john

[tinacart]

"I think this man deserves Social Security."

Yup, and a drivers license, and the right to vote in local (meaning school, city, and county - to BEGIN with) elections. After all, as the demoncraps are claiming and the republicans aren't disputing too loudly, HE IS A HUMAN BEING FIRST AND FOREMOST!!! (Heard that argument on CNN by a demoncrap congresscritter when Lou Dobbs tried to argue the "undocumented worker" label...). Take care, and keep vigilant, Tina

[henderson field]

Resendiz -- another reason to stop immigration and increase the penalties for coming here illegally and for hiring illegals.

[Holly_P]

He's on Texas death row. How long can he last there?

[Holly_P]

You're right. I missed that part. I still would not give up witghout a fight.

[stlnative]

I am so glad this woman survived and I cannot imagine what she went through, it had to be just horrible! I know the hell that many folks around here including me went through while this animal was on the loose.

I remember this murdering pig well and I was so glad when he was finally captured... He killed a elderly man and his daughter about 20 miles from me, here in Southern IL right before he was captured. They lived right near the railroad tracks and they are the same tracks that are about 3/4 of mile behind my rural,(there is nothing between my house and the tracks except for a small area of woods). I hear the train roll through several times during the day and once at night around midnight. The tracks run along RT.3 and the Mississippi River. Everyone around here in this rural area was on edge with loaded guns ready, as word was already out about the 2 people he killed in the area before it hit the national news. They had helicopters flying around for days as people claimed to have seen him in several areas around here near the railroad tracks. They had the tracking dogs out also. It was not a goodtime as no one knew if he was still in the area or if he would come back. I kept my doors locked at all times during the day and I left the dogs outside so they would bark if someone came on the property and I had the gun within reach 24 hours a day. I even refused to let my niece come down for weekly visit in the country, due to him being in the area and killing those 2 people, 20 miles down the tracks from me. I would not have been so on edge if the same darn tracks did not run right behind my rural home.

[henderson field]

In the '50s, the better junior highs, high schools and prep schools had boxing teams. For anyone who was not on one of those teams to attack one who had been would be very foolhardy. And that goes for illegal immigrants too.

[GeronL]

Then the assailant -- the so-called Railroad Serial Killer, Angel Maturino Resendiz -- raped her, stabbed her with a screwdriver or ice pick, beat her on the head 10 times with a railroad tie and left her for dead

Too bad one of them didn't have a gun

They followed the liberal message of appeasement and what did it get them??

[Joe Hadenuf]

Mexico is importing criminal illegal aliens terrorist by the thousands.

Don't believe me? Type in "LAPD most wanted" in Google search. There you'll see the hundreds of illegal alien rapist, murderers, robbers, etc that continue to prey on the American people. If someone could provide a link, I would appreciate it.

And remember, this is only LAPDs *most* wanted. The number of illegal alien hardened criminals number into the hundreds of thousands......

[GeronL]

I'm left wondering why the boy friend didn't resist. Boy friend 6 foot 5 is a big man

Our liberal society had taught them appeasement, don't ya know

[Holly_P]

This happened in 1997 - 6 and a half years ago. she's 27 now. Probably wasn't old enough for a carry permit even if Kentucky had one then.

My state (Illinois) doesn't have the law and not likely to get it any time soon with a dem gov.

[stlnative]

(killings 8 and 9 were in my area, well about 20 miles away... come to find out he was actually seen way south of us in the Pick-up owned by his victims, but the cops, search dogs and helicopters were crawling all over the place around here as they had reports of him being seen on the tracks around here. I think they were mistaken ID reports)

The Killings

Following is a list of the nine serial murders attributed to Resendez:


Christopher Maier
VICTIM 1: August 29, 1997/Lexington. KY: Christopher Maier, 21, a University of Kentucky student, and his girlfriend are attacked while walking along the tracks near the college. Maier is bludgeoned to death and she is raped and beaten, almost to the point of death. She miraculously survives.

VICTIM 2: October 4, 1998/Hughes Spring, TX: On this cool Fall evening, 87-year-old Leafie Mason is hammered to death by a tire iron by someone who enters her home through a window. Her front door faces the Kansas City-Southern Rail Line tracks only 50 yards away.

Dr. Claudia Benton
VICTIM3: December 17, 1998/Houston, TX: An invader breaks into the home of Dr. Claudia Benton, 39, of the Baylor College of Medicine, when she arrives home, the intruder rapes, stabs and bludgeons her repeatedly with a blunt instrument. Her home is near the rail lines that run through suburban West University Place. When the police recover her stolen Jeep Cherokee in San Antonio. TX, they find fingerprints on the steering column that match those of drifter Resendez, a known illegal alien. Three weeks later, a county judge signs a warrant for Resendez’ arrest for burglary – but, strangely enough, not for murder. There is not enough evidence, says he!


Rev. Norman Sirnic and wife Karen
VICTIMS 4 & 5: May 2, 1999 Weimar, TX: Late at night, the Reverend Norman J. "Skip" Sirnic, 46, and wife Karen, 47, are struck to death by a sledgehammer in the parsonage of the United Church of Christ -- located adjacent to the town’s railroad. The couple’s red Mazda is found in San Antonio three weeks later. Forensic evidence matches the killing of Dr. Benton in Houston


Noemi Dominguez
VICTIM 6: June 4, 1999: Houston, TX: Schoolteacher Noemi Dominguez, 26, is clubbed to death in her apartment, located near rail tracks. Seven days later, troopers find Dominguez’ 1993 white Honda Civic abandoned at the international bridge at Del Rio, Texas.


Josephine Konvicka
VICTIM 7: June 4, 1999/Fayette County, TX: Seventy-three-year-old Josephine Konvicka is killed in bed by a blow of a pointed garden tool to the head. She lived in a frame farmhouse not far from Weimar, where a month prior Rev. and Mrs. Simic were killed, and within shadows of a rail yard. Her car has been tampered with, but the killer is unable to find the keys.


George Morber
VICTIMS 8 & 9: June 15, 1999/Gorham, IL: An intruder breaks into a mobile home to kill its two occupants, After shooting George Morber, Sr.,80, in the head with a shotgun, he then clubs to death Morber’s daughter, Carolyn Frederick, 52. Their house sits only 100 yards from the a railroad track. The next day, a passerby spots Fredericks’ red pickup truck in Cairo, IL, sixty miles south of Gorham, being driven by a man matching Resendez’ description.


Carolyn Frederick
Most of Resendez’ victims were found covered with a blanket; none were of a tall or burly stature, for the killer himself is of a diminutive size and stature. But, he might well have been a giant for the terror he struck in the hearts of otherwise-relaxed communities. Citizens’ emotions ran high in the towns where he killed; in the smaller ones, especially, people who had never locked their doors and windows at night were now bolting them. Children were ushered off the dusky streets by nervous parents, shops closed early, and moonlit strolls ended.

[FreedomPoster]

Posts 5 & 7 nail it. And it really stinks that it is so.

Enjoyed your commentary in the F-14 thread.

[Holly_P]

you have mail

[dbwz]

I had a lot of survivor's guilt.

I know from reading the article that she now feels she has a purpose, but how sad is it that people have been conditioned in such a way that they feel guilty for living!

[GeronL]

I haven't been in a fight since I was a kid, but there is no fkerry way I would lie down and allow myself to be killed. I would have told her to run and I would have attacked him!

[Dan from Michigan]

I think Kentucky got CPLS in 96.

And Illinois I doubt will get them anytime soon. Blajgoyevich was the most anti-2nd amendment of the Illinois Congressmen when he was there. He's right there with Schumer, Kennedy, Jim Moran, and Feinstein.

[JRandomFreeper]

If I am with some guy who wants to give up without a fight I'll kick his arse too.

You sound a lot like my younger daughter... 'I won't wear no damn burka... F that!'

I should have worked on their language skills. ;>)

/john

[txzman]

DEATH. Even Christ did not interfere with the law of the land.

[montag813]

the so-called Railroad Serial Killer, Angel Maturino Resendiz -- raped her, stabbed her with a screwdriver or ice pick, beat her on the head

Tom Ridge's kind of stand-up guy. An illegal who pulled himself up by his bootstraps and then strangled someone with them.

I don't suppose we can get any Conservatives in Congress (are there any left?) to bring this case up the next time the House secretly votes in Amnesty at 2am. Wishful thinking. It seems the final destruction of our once-great nation will come with a whimper and not a bang.

[GeronL]

10 years or more. A judge has recently stayed an execution that halts all lethal injections until they find out if there's a painkiller involved. Apparently there can be no pain even if its been masked.

[Squantos]

We had this POS here in Carson County Texas once upon a time..........

His History............scroll down ......

http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/00-03/resenp2.htm

Stay Safe !

[hopespringseternal]

beat her on the head 10 times with a railroad tie and left her for dead.

Huh? Anybody ever pick up a railroad tie? Even an old, dried up one would probably weigh more than a hundred pounds.

[GeronL]

Most of Resendez’ victims were found covered with a blanket; none were of a tall or burly stature

6'5 ain't tall?

[At _War_With_Liberals]

He was feeling sorry for the alien as he was killed...

[At _War_With_Liberals]

He was feeling sorry for the alien as he was killed...

[GeronL]

I would not doubt that he felt his killers' pain

[stlnative]

I didn't write it and caught that also.

here the link
http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial2/railroad/

[Holly_P]

but how sad is it that people have been conditioned in such a way that they feel guilty for living!

I've heard WW2 vets say the same thing. I think it's probably natural to wonder why you survived and someone you care for didn't.