Surviving a serial killer: Holly Dunn's story
Besides working through the physical injuries, it would take much longer to overcome the emotional and psychological pain.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WHAS11) -- It’s been 20 years since Holly Dunn, 40, was heading into her junior year at the University of Kentucky.
It was a new year with a new boyfriend, Chris Maier. They were happy times.
But on August 28, 1997, Holly and Chris were at an off-campus party on Suburban Court when they decided to take a walk on the tracks nearby.
Lurking in the shadows was Angel Maturino Resendiz.
Resendiz approached the young couple demanding money. He then bound and gagged both Holly and Chris, and with Holly lying next to Chris, Resendiz smashed Chris’ head with a heavy rock.
Holly could remember hearing Chris gurgling with blood, and she pleaded with Resendiz to check on her boyfriend.
“He went over to him and came back to me and said he’s gone, don’t worry about him anymore,” Holly said ending with a shrug.
After, Resendiz stabbed, raped and beat Holly.
“I was hit with some kind of board, they never found what he hit me with.”
Thinking he had killed her, Resendiz left Holly for dead by the tracks and disappeared.
When Holly came to, she struggled over to the only house she could see with a light on and burst through the door begging for help.
“She walked in, I was alarmed at first because I thought somebody might be coming after me,” Chad Goetz told the local media after the attack.
Holly was on a long road to recovery.
Besides working through the physical injuries – a broken jaw and eye socket, a stab wound, and deep gashes on her scalp – it would take much longer to overcome the emotional and psychological pain.
It would take some time as well for police to realize her attacker was a serial killer, traveling the rails from state to state, murdering at least 15 people.
Holly provided the description for the sketch artist, and led by the FBI, a massive manhunt was on for the infamous “Railroad Killer.”
Family eventually convinced Resendiz to turn himself in to a Texas Ranger at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Resendiz was tried, convicted and then executed by lethal injection on June 27, 2006.
Holly didn’t attend the execution of the man who murdered her boyfriend, who violated her and beat her nearly to death.
She is the only known survivor of the Railroad Killer.
In the years since the attack, Holly would find love, marry and have two boys.
Always willing to tell her story, Holly could relate with other victims of sexual assault and violence.
She eventually opened Holly’s House in her hometown of Evansville, IN as a safe place for adults and kids surviving intimate violence.
Twenty years after the brutal attack, Holly published a book, “Sole Survivor,” which has helped with her recovery.
“It was somewhat freeing,” Holly said at a Barnes & Noble book signing in November.
Holly believes the book can help others heal. “My hope is that it stays on the shelves and that people that need it can get the book when they need it.”
Holly no longer needs to tell this story of terror, survival and recovery from her own mouth. It’s in her own words and as she says, “that’s all in the book.”
►Contact reporter John Charlton at jcharlton@whas11.com. Follow him on Twitter (@JCharltonNews) and Facebook.