I escaped Railroad Killer who tortured me with ice pick & bludgeoned my boyfriend to death after creeping up on our date
With her legs tightly bound, student Holly Dunn lay helpless by the side of a railway track, staring at the sinister figure of her attacker smashing a giant rock onto her boyfriend head.
As she looked at Chris Maier’s motionless body, she had no idea if he was still alive.
All she knew, for certain, was that she was next, as her attacker turned his attention to her.
“That’s when I thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to die’,” admits Holly, who will never forget the events that unfolded that night in August, 1997.
Holly, then 20, and Chris, 21, were both students at the University of Kentucky in America.
Just hours earlier, the unsuspecting couple had been at a party in Lexington, Kentucky.
During the evening, the pair had decided to get some alone time.
Wandering off, they found a quiet spot by a railway track, just a few streets away.
It was dark but the couple felt safe in the residential area.
They cracked open cans of beer and began chatting, but their peace was shattered when a stranger emerged from behind an electrical signal box near the tracks.
“He just said, ‘Do you have any money?’” Holly says. “He had an accent that made me think he was from Mexico or a Spanish-speaking country. It didn’t feel like it was anything dangerous.”
Little did they know, the man standing before them was one of America’s most wanted men.
Angel Maturino Resendiz had already tortured and killed six people, all near railway tracks. He was dubbed “The Railroad Killer.”
He took pleasure in killing, using weapons as varied as an iron and a gun. Now, he had Chris and Holly in his sights.
Initially, Resendiz approached Chris. “Chris got down on his knees, and it looked like he was going through Chris’ backpack,” Holly says.
In reality, he was restraining Chris. Resendiz then bound Holly.
I stopped fighting. I wasn’t feeling any pain. I just thought, ‘I need to say my last prayer.’
Holly Dunn
Speaking in tonight’s new Channel 5 documentary, The Railroad Killer: I Escaped a Murderer, Holly recalls: “That’s when I saw he had a weapon, which was some kind of ice pick.
“He took my belt off, pulled my hands behind my back, and tied them with my own belt.
“I thought, ‘This man is going to hurt us.’”
Resendiz briefly walked away, and Holly managed to free her hands but couldn’t untie her legs or help Chris.
“I had this feeling in my chest, like a running squirrel, a feeling of anxiousness and panic,” she recalls. “But Chris had this peaceful calmness about him. He kept saying, ‘It’s okay. Everything’s okay.’”
Moments later, their attacker returned, carrying something heavy.
“It looked like a rock, something so big he struggled to carry it,” Holly says. “He just came over and dropped it on Chris’s head.”
Holly watched in horror as her boyfriend’s body lay still beside her.
She knew she was next.
Broken eye sockets and jaw wired shut
As Resendiz climbed on top of her, she went into survival mode.
“I started punching, biting, screaming, trying to hurt him, trying to kick him. That’s when he stabbed me in the neck with the ice pick. ‘Look how easily I could kill you,’ he said. So I stopped fighting. I wasn’t feeling any pain. I just thought, ‘I need to say my last prayer.’”
While he raped and horrifically beat her, Holly made a crucial decision: she would not let this man destroy her spirit.
She dug her fingernails into the ground, hoping to leave behind her DNA, and committed every detail of her attacker’s face to memory. “I knew every scar, every tattoo,” she says. “And I told myself, ‘If I make it through this, I will get you’.”
After the attack, Resendiz attempted to beat her to death with a piece of plywood. “I don’t remember being hit but from my injuries, I know he struck me five or six times in the face.”
I definitely had survivor’s guilt because [my boyfriend] Chris didn’t make it.
Holly Dunn
Thinking she was dead, Resendiz walked away into the night. Somehow, Holly found the strength to get up and stagger into a nearby house where the homeowner immediately dialled for help.
Holly’s injuries were extensive. She spent five days in the hospital, having lost four pints of blood.
Her jaw was fractured and wired shut, her eye socket broken, and her face covered in cuts.
Though her physical wounds eventually healed, the emotional scars ran deep.
“I didn’t get to go to Chris’s funeral because I was still in the hospital,” she says. “I definitely had survivor’s guilt because Chris didn’t make it.”
Train tracks triggered panic attacks
For the next two years, Holly lived with constant fear and anxiety.
The sound of a train or the sight of railroad tracks could trigger a panic attack.
She desperately hoped the police would catch the man who had murdered her boyfriend and tried to murder her.
They had DNA from her attack, but without a national DNA database at the time, the investigation stalled.
It wasn’t until December 1998, when a well-known doctor named Dr. Claudia Benton was murdered in Houston, Texas, with similar brutality, that the police finally got their break. DNA from that crime scene linked Dr Benton’s murder to Resendiz.
Police now had a prime suspect and investigators working on Holly’s case believed Resendiz was also her and Chris’ attacker.
Now on a manhunt to find Resendiz, police released footage of him appearing in a previous court case on other charges.
The footage aired on a national television programme called ‘America’s Most Wanted’.
Facing her attacker
Although his appearance had changed, Holly knew instantly from his voice that it was the man who had left her for dead.
In July 1999, Resendiz surrendered to US authorities. He had been hiding out in his home country of Mexico, only crossing the borders near railway tracks to commit his heinous crimes.
Holly, who was in England at the time, later became a key witness in the murder trial of Dr. Benton. Although Resendiz was being tried for more than one murder Dr Benton’s trial was key because it was in Texas – where the penalty for murder was the death sentence.
Holly was asked to testify.
I looked over at him, and he had no emotion on his face. I started breaking out in a cold sweat and nearly fainted, but I knew I had to do this, not just for me but for all the families who had lost someone to this man.
Holly Dunn
She said: “I felt like I was speaking for myself, for Chris, and for all the other victims. There were nine at that time, but we later found out there were many more.”
During the trial, she faced her attacker once more.
She says: “I looked over at him, and he had no emotion on his face.
“I started breaking out in a cold sweat and nearly fainted, but I knew I had to do this, not just for me but for all the families who had lost someone to this man.”
Sentenced to death
In 2000, Angel Maturino Resendiz was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection in June 2006.
Shortly before his execution, he confessed to additional murders, bringing the total to at least 15 across six states.
Reflecting on the sentence, Holly, now 47, a wife and mum-of-two, says, “I think 100 per cent it was a just sentence for him. I had to forgive him, and I did that for myself, not for him. I didn’t want to carry around that anger and hatred. I let those feelings die with him.”
Today, Holly is a motivational speaker and a passionate advocate for survivors of violent crimes. She co-founded Holly’s House, an advocacy center for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence in her hometown of Evansville, Indiana.
Death penalty in the USA
The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, remains one of the most contentious issues in the United States. It is a legal process where a person is sentenced to death by the state as a penalty for a crime. Here are key points to understand about the death penalty in the USA:
Legal Status
- State vs Federal: The death penalty is permitted under both federal and state law. However, its application varies widely across states. As of 2023, 27 states retain the death penalty, while 23 states and the District of Columbia have abolished it.
- Moratoriums: Some states that technically retain the death penalty have imposed moratoriums, effectively halting executions.
Crimes Punishable by Death
The death penalty is reserved for the most serious crimes, typically first-degree murder with aggravating factors. Federal law also allows the death penalty for certain other crimes, such as espionage and treason.
Methods of Execution
The primary method of execution is lethal injection. However, some states allow alternative methods, including electrocution, gas chamber, hanging, and firing squad, depending on specific circumstances or inmate choice.
Controversies and Debates
- Ethical Concerns: Many argue that the death penalty is inhumane and a violation of human rights. Others believe it serves as a deterrent to serious crimes and provides justice for victims.
- Wrongful Convictions: There is significant concern about the risk of executing innocent people. Advances in forensic science, particularly DNA testing, have led to the exoneration of several death row inmates.
- Racial and Economic Disparities: Critics point out that the death penalty disproportionately affects people of color and those with limited financial resources, raising questions about fairness and equality in the justice system.
- Cost: Studies indicate that death penalty cases are more costly than life imprisonment without parole, due to lengthy and complex legal processes.
- Recent Trends
- Decline in Use: The number of executions and new death sentences has declined significantly in recent years. This trend reflects growing public skepticism, legal challenges, and shifts in political attitudes toward capital punishment.
- Supreme Court Decisions: The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on various aspects of the death penalty, including prohibiting its use for crimes committed by minors and individuals with intellectual disabilities.
Through her work, she transforms her trauma into a powerful force for good, helping others find strength and healing.
“I love the people I meet when I go out and speak,” she says. “It is so empowering to be able to talk about what happened and to use my story to help others. I live with this every day, but I focus on the good that has come from it. I’m so grateful for this second chance at life, and I live each day to its fullest.”
Holly still keeps a photo of Chris where she can see it every day. “He’s a little reminder to enjoy every day because he was truly the most precious person. We all want to live our lives like he would.
“I escaped a murderer,” she says. “But I’ve found a way to make that part of my story, and I’m determined to use it to make a difference.”
The Railroad Killer: I Escaped a Murderer airs on Channel 5 tonight at 10pm.