People Who Suspect They Encountered A Serial Killer Share Their Experiences

Our instincts can determine whether or not a person we're interacting with has a moral compass.

It's our critical thinking, however, that can cloud our innate judgment. We want to believe that people are genuinely good, but unfortunately, that sense of ideal optimism isn't a part of our reality.

And sometimes, there are those whose curious behaviors or vibe indicate obvious red flags.

Curious to hear about social interactions with people who emitted ominous signals, Redditor fossacecak asked:

"People who are pretty sure they’ve encountered a serial killer, what happened?"

Warning: these accounts are not for the faint of heart.

How vehicles are used can be very telling about a situation.

The Mystery Trips

"Had an employee that worked for me doing minor maintenance repairs on construction equipment. One day it just took him way too long on a job and I was pissed."

"I pulled the GPS info and he was nowhere near where he was supposed to be. My admin and I both called him repeatedly with no response. Now I'm even more pissed because this wasn't the first time he took too long/didn't answer his company provided nextel radio."

"We start digging. Find out it has happened repeatedly. He gets back late and I waited for him, alone, in my office. I terminated him and he took it surprisingly well. Surprised me because I dealt with a ton of BS as a woman working in a male dominated field and company."

"Few years later, I'm working in a different location for the same company and some cops show up and want to know what I remember about him. I tell them I fired him, etc. They subpoena the GPS records from the company. Then they started finding the rest of the bodies."

"He pled down and pled guilty to avoid the death penalty."

– Shot_Construction455

The Killing Van

"Robert Lee Yates was an Army pilot flying OH-58s while I was flying UH-1s (same battalion but different company) at Fort Drum, NY. They would send us down to fly helicopter simulators once a year in Pennsylvania to maintain our instrument ratings. We would carpool in one vehicle."

"Bob had a van with shag carpet in the back so he would drive about 5 of us during those trips. It was about a 4 hour drive so we'd joke and tell stories to pass the time."

"I was a fairly new pilot who enjoyed hearing the veteran pilots tell war stories. Bob was a CW3 at that time and was a bit odd but nothing alarming."

"18 years later we see him on TV being charged with multiple murders across several states. He had used a corvette and a van for the killings."

"Yes, that same van."

– monroerl

Getaway Car

"was once sat in my car at the back of a country lane carpark eating pizza in the dark with a friend, no street lights and just woods surrounding. Finished up and turned on the headlights and all we could see was a man army crawling towards the car, was a few metres away."

"I have never turned the ignition so fast and sped off in my life, to make it scarier the guy just slowly got up and looked at us, didn’t try to chase or grab the car or anything. "

– Pen_dragons_pizza

Declining A Maniac's Invitation

"Not me, but my uncle - his manager at the fast food place where he worked in high school invited him and another kid over to his place after work."

"My uncle and his friend declined, and were very glad they did years later when it became public what exactly his former manager, John Wayne Gacy, was doing to and with those kids he invited over."

– Kandlish

"My uncle accepted a ride from Gacy. He wasn't supposed to be hitchhiking but it was the 70s. At some point he got a bad vibe and jumped out at a red light. When Gacy was arrested he put two and two together."

"Edit: since this got some traction, here's the full story. Uncle was 16 and decided to hitchhike home. Dude pulls over and he gets in. Immediately, the guy locks the car. As they're going along, this guy starts getting pretty creepy, saying things like we could go to the airport and I'll fly you anywhere you want."

"My uncle is very freaked out at this point and waits for his moment - he pulls the lock and jumps out at a light, and takes off running. He says the guy started following him but by going through alleys and stuff he was able to shake him off."

"After he gets home, my grandma could tell something was wrong so she asked him what happened. He admitted to hitchhiking and told Grandma what the dude had done/said. Grandma got a baseball bat and they drove around town looking for the guy, but didn't find him."

"It was not too much later that they arrested him and the story broke. My mom rode her bike over and watched them take the bodies out from down the block, or so she says."

Brush With Death

"My grandmother swears she met David Parker Ray, aka the Toybox killer. My grandfather was stationed in Fort Bliss so she took her 3 daughters camping in Elephant Bute State Park, the same place where he was a ranger. She said a ranger kept trying to get them to stay in his trailer instead of camping by the lake."

"Obviously they refused and went on a hike but when they came back their campsite was trashed so she packed them all up and drove home in the dark."

"When I got into true crime and was telling her how close he was to us she relayed the story, and when I showed her a photo she said that it was definitely him just aged a bit."

"Not his usual MO but this would have been in the mid-seventies and no one's exactly sure how long he killed for. *edited changed national park to state park."

– BalanceAcrobatic577

Kidnapping Attempt

"We were having a family barbecue at my cousin's farm in the late 70's / early 80's, when my 12 year old cousin decided to ride his bike to the store. Just after leaving, a van pulled over to him and the driver tried talking him into the vehicle."

"When that didn't work, the man got out and tried to force him into the van. My cousin kicked and screamed and refused in every way possible to get away. A passing car saw what was happening and stopped, which probably spooked the van driver. The guy got back into his van and drove away immediately."

"My uncle, who was a member of the RCMP, had heard the commotion, had jumped into his car and drove to see what was going on. He managed to catch up to the van and arrested the guy for attempted kidnapping."

"Unfortunately, the charge didn't stick and the guy was eventually let go. The man's name was Clifford Robert Olsen. We're pretty sure that my cousin might have been one of Olsen's first attempts."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Olson

– Mombak

'Friendly' Cinema Guy

"This is a ‘definitely encountered a serial killer’ rather than ‘pretty sure’."

"I grew up in a small town in North Wales (UK). The local cinema had been closed for 15 years, but a guy from out of town had reopened it. As kids, this blew our minds, as it was a rural area, with very little to offer in terms of entertainment so it seemed unbelievable to us that we would actually have a cinema in town."

"On one visit to the cinema, I ended up needing to use the toilet during a film, so left the theatre, walked through the foyer and into the toilet. There was no toilet paper, so I went back into the foyer and spoke to the cinema owner to ask if he had any toilet paper."

"I was younger than ten at the time and very nervous about speaking to adults, but the owner was incredibly kind and friendly, gave me the toilet paper and we had a conversation about the film and how happy I was that we now had a cinema in the town."

"I used the toilet then went back into the theatre."

"A few weeks later the friendly cinema man was on the front page of every news paper. He was Peter Moore."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Moore_(serial_killer)

– finemechanics

Nightstalker's Love Letter

"A fiend of mine mentioned one of his aunts still has love letters from school that Richard 'The Nightstalker' Ramirez sent to her."

– gentlespirit23456

How Mom Avoided Danger

"My Mom once told us about a suspected run in she had with Clifford Olson."

"She was around 13 years old walking home from swim club and a man matching his description pulled up alongside her and tried to strike up a conversation. He would ask her where the post office was located and said he needed some help mailing a present."

"My Mom was smart enough to realize it was Labour Day and the post office was closed, she saw he had plates on his car from the US and had leather gloves on."

"When she finally worked up the courage to end the conversation and walk away the man started swearing at her telling her to get in the car and then he sped off. The dates and location all add up too, freaky sh*t."

"Edit. I didn’t expect this to blow up lol. I asked my Mom for more information but she pretty much told me the same story. She ran off the sidewalk into the park across the street to get away from him and didn’t stop till she got home."

"She never reported it to the police but told my Grandparents about the encounter, she wasn’t allowed to walk home from Swim Club anymore and the parents set up car pooling programs for the group."

– Happystabber

It's unsettling to imagine that serial killers walk among us.

Unsuspecting Cellmate

"I was in jail in Summit county in Ohio for being an idiot, basically, and came across the man that would be known as the Craigslist killer. The guy held Bible studies every night, was super preachy, and was very persuasive with people."

"He was in jail for a parole violation from a robbery case in Texas and was waiting to see if he would be extradited to Texas. Somehow Summit county messed up and released him even though Texas sent them the paperwork saying they wanted him."

"He and the kid he had been partnering with had already killed multiple people, and when he was released they failed to kill another person and were caught. Saw his face in the paper about a month later and was like holy sh*t, I was in jail with that guy lmao."

– jjkitsune91

The Unstable Son

"Whilst I was at university, I worked at a cafe in a local shopping centre. One of our regular customers was a mum and son who would come have breakfast most mornings. The mum was delightful, however the son always seemed a bit off. Nothing major just you’d say 'have a great day' and he’d reply with 'yes.'”

"Anyway, one day he comes in without his mum and has breakfast. The next day his face is all over the news as he had just been arrested for murdering his mum."

"Edit: Just to address some of the comments, the son was of adult age and reportedly suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. Mum was his carer.

The Unsatisfied Customer

"He wasn’t one when I met him…"

"Worked a retail job that sold iPhones at a high end mall. Guy comes in carrying a Nordstrom bag, wearing Gucci sunglasses and asks to buy an iPhone. While I waited for our BOH team to bring the iPhone, I’m making casual conversation with the guy."

"I ask what he does for work, says he’s an actor. I ask if he’s been in anything I might have seen…he says The Hunger Games. I say cool, who did you play? He mumbles something about being one of the tributes…"

"Conversation somehow leads to him asking if I’m single, I told him I was engaged and he was visibly annoyed. His attitude was very arrogant, and he did a lot of uncomfortable/creepy staring that I noticed after he took off his sunglasses."

"I had initially asked him if he was eligible for an upgrade on his phone, he was confident that he was. Well, after checking his ID (standard protocol) and pulling up the account…nope, not eligible. But his brother’s phone was eligible."

"He insists that he can use his brother’s upgrade, but I tell him that stuff like this needs to be approved by the main account holder/authorized users. So he calls his stepmom and asks to use the brother’s upgrade."

"His stepmom says no, and the guy throws a complete tantrum. Saying that his brother is too young for an iPhone anyway, that he’s fine using an older model, that he NEEDS a new phone."

"Stepmom doesn’t budge, yet I’m stuck there for at least twenty minutes while this guy yells at his stepmom trying desperately to get his way. He leaves in a huff and I’m so relieved to get away from this entitled prick."

"The guy was Elliot Rodger."

– harleeraen

While we'd like to think our gut can call an evildoer's bluff, it's the quiet ones, they say, we should be on the lookout for.

Because "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men (or women)?