Serial killers

One of the most interesting conversations I have ever had was with Lisa, a woman I had met at the Houston rodeo. She had asked me where I was from and I replied that I had just driven in from New Orleans by myself.

She remarked that you should never do this because that's dangerous and then told me her own story which I would like to repeat here.

Several years earlier in her early 20s Lisa had been working as a clerk in Atlanta. Her life was routine going to and from work until one day. She last remembered leaving work one Friday then woke up finding herself in her underwear tied to a chair in a warehouse.

A strange man demanded that she remove her remaining clothes. He had apparently been observing her for several weeks and already knew her patterns which enabled him to chloroform her and take her away. Although she herself never remembered ever seeing him before this.

She was extremely worried but had noticed she was not fully tied and that the door behind him appeared open. In a panic state she ran through the building and opened the door finding herself in a dirty alley in what appeared to be Sunday morning.

This man was still chasing her but despite her bare feet she ran toward a single car on the road. She was able to match the speed of this car driven by an elderly couple on their way to church. After incoherently pleading she was able to convince them to stop and assist her. Her kidnapper vanished but based on her description of him and the evidence found police were able to arrest and tie him to several murders.

He had a pattern of attacks on women and would have killed Lisa had she followed all his instructions.

Lisa found it very difficult to tell her family what happened and never told her father unto his death.

But she decided to tell me, another stranger her story. She had gone on to get married had children and tried not to withdraw from the world.

She went on further to talk about trusting people and concluded that you never could really trust someone but in order to go on and live in the real world you still have to.

Many bad things happen to travelers and each person has their own response to severe trauma.

On some level we do expect some level of risk with travel but random violent acts are most disturbing to us. There has always been concern that travelers might be more susceptible to random violence because they stick out.

Traveling in groups and blending in may offer some protection but severely sociopathic criminals will always be hard to detect.

Worldwide acts of violence appear to be more severe and more common. Causes of violence- poverty, addiction, gambling all lead to disruption of the family unit causing social disruption and making violence more acceptable. Although we may not be able to detect and prevent sociopathic individuals from harming others like Lisa we can hopefully limit future crimes by breaking the chain of violence.

Sometimes we often get inundated with daily stories of terrible violence making people very afraid to travel or trust people. Bad news travels farther and faster than good and good deeds rarely make the front page. Lisa wanted me to share her story and emphasize that most people are fundamentally decent but we still have to be careful while not shutting out the world.