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Truck Stop Killer’ Case Revisited as Police Link Robert Ben Rhoades to 50+ Suspected Murders

Investigators describe a long‑haul operation that used a modified sleeper cab to prey on vulnerable women across several states.

Overview

  • Rhoades targeted hitchhikers, sex workers, and lone young women along interstate routes from the mid‑1970s to 1990.
  • He was arrested on April 1, 1990 in Arizona after a trooper discovered a woman chained inside his truck’s sleeper cab.
  • Rhoades was later convicted of murdering 14‑year‑old Regina Kay Walters and is serving life in prison without parole.
  • A former FBI official recounted evidence of extreme torture, including a photo of Walters and taunting calls to her father.
  • Known victims include newlyweds Patricia Candace Walsh and Douglas Scott Zyskowski, and the case helped spur the FBI’s Highway Serial Killings Initiative.