TWENTY-SEVEN
Connie divorced her third husband, Bob Jackson, while Rex was in Cottonwood. Soon thereafter, she married a kind gentleman from Sandpoint named John Hollister. It was his second marriage. They lived in a small house on A Street on Pack River.
In 1987, before Rex Krebs’s release from Cottonwood, Connie and John Hollister decided to pack their bags and head for greener pastures. John was unemployed at the time and his brother-in-law had recently opened a welding shop in Arroyo Grande, California, just sixteen miles south of the town of San Luis Obispo. The brother-in-law told John’s sisterthat he needed some help, she called her brother, and he agreed to relocate. John moved first, followed by Connie one week later. The couple set up in a small yellow rental home on the corner of Mentone Avenue and Eighth Street in Oceano, less than a mile-and-a-half from Grover City (now known as Grover Beach) and the Pacific Ocean. Their house was easy to spot due to the massive palm tree that reached well over thirty feet high in the front yard. The street they lived on seemed a bit run-down; however, the houses were clean and the neighbors were all relatively well mannered.
Things seemed to be looking up for Connie and John in Oceano. John enjoyed working at the welding shop. Connie enjoyed decorating the small home and looked forward to anotheraddition to the household. Her younger brother Calvin Howell planned to move down from Idaho to work at the welding shop. Soon after Calvin moved in, Connie received word that Rex was out of Cottonwood. She contacted him at Diana Krug’s home in Lewiston, Idaho, and suggested that he come to California and move in with them.
Rex readily agreed.
Upon arriving at his mother’s home in Oceano, Rex asked her if he could convert a room attached to the garage into his own personal living quarters. She thought it would be a great idea and agreed. She let him know that he could use the bathroomand shower inside the house. She also offered to cook Rex’s meals for him and wash his clothes.
It seemed like the perfect setup for the ex-con.
Rex set about installing wires for his electricity. He took hammer and nails and erected some wooden walls, which he sealed and painted. Rex did all the labor himself.
He looked forward to having his own space.
In less than two weeks, Rex landed a job at the local Wendy’s hamburger restaurant. He enjoyed the job because it gave him a sense of responsibility, which he had been lackingmost of his life. He made enough money to buy his own clothes. He even made enough to purchase a used white VolkswagenBug, which made getting to work much less of a hassle.
He also made friends.
One of those friends was Leisl Turner. The attractive seventeen-year-old Arroyo Grande High School senior and Wendy’s coworker caught Rex’s eye immediately. After gettingto know her better, Rex and Leisl spent much of their work time cutting up together. Soon they were spending time together outside of work.
Rex began to learn more about his new friend. Leisl had come from a difficult family background. She was born and raised in Colorado. Her mother and father were divorced, and Leisl never got along with her mother. She moved out of her mother’s home for three months. Then, in June 1986, she moved halfway across the country to live with her father and his girlfriend in a tiny apartment. Due to the cramped environment,that did not work out either, so she moved out again.
Leisl was on her own until she met Rex. Given his past, he did not seem to mind. In fact, he enjoyed driving her to school and to work. He even let her borrow his car so she could run errands, go to her job, or shop at the nearby mall.
In a short period of time, Rex and Liesl began to date. On their first official date, Rex took her to Taco Bell. He became enthralled with his younger coworker. He often wrote her love letters and romantic poems and secretly delivered them to her. Rex invited Leisl over to the Hollister residence for a romanticcandlelit dinner. Rex even cooked the meal. The teenage girl fell for the gestures and soon the couple moved in togetherinto Rex’s garage bedroom.
Rex, not wanting to mess up a good thing, asked Leisl to marry him.
She agreed.
The young couple engaged in an intimate relationship immediately.According to Leisl, Rex had a predilection for kinky sex. He constantly pestered Leisl to perform anal sex with him. She refused his requests. He also asked the seventeen-year-old girl if he could tie her up with a rope when they had intercourse.He told her he wanted to bind her wrists together, as well as her ankles. Again she refused. She did not worry that he would get angry at her. She saw him get upset at work if things went wrong, but she did not fear for her own safety.
Not until she saw the picture.
Rex kept a framed photograph of a beautiful blond young woman on his nightstand, next to his bed. Leisl wanted to know more.
“Who’s that girl, Rex?”
“Her name was Lisa.”
Leisl noticed his emphasis on the word “was.”
“She was my fiancée. She and I were engaged to be marriedback in Idaho,” Rex wistfully recalled. “She had been raped and murdered. That’s why I stole those cars.”
Leisl did not know what to make of this statement. “What do you mean, Rex?”
“I stole those cars so I could be put in jail and kill the personwho raped and killed her.”
Leisl looked at Rex in shock. Maybe he thought this would make him look heroic. Unbeknown to Rex, what he told Leisl repulsed her.
“Did you do it? Did you kill the guy?”
“Yep,” he replied rather nonchalantly. “I found him and I killed the son of a bitch.”
Leisl tried to hide the look of fear on her face. All this time she thought her fiancé had merely stolen a couple of cars and had a run of bad luck. Now she had no idea what to make of Rex Krebs. All she knew was that she wanted to get out of that garage.
Leisl did not understand why Rex had told her that story. Did he do it to intimidate her? If so, it worked.
A few days later, Leisl ran into her stepmother on the ArroyoGrande High School campus. They spoke for a while and both agreed that it was fine for her to return to her father’sapartment. Leisl wanted to move out of Rex’s garage, but she had no idea how to do it without incurring his anger.
Leisl returned to the garage. Rex had not come home from work yet. She rummaged through his dirty work clothes when she came upon a tiny scrap of white paper in his blue jeans. It contained a girl’s name and telephone number.
For Leisl, it was her ticket out.
When Rex returned later that evening, she confronted him. She wanted to know who the girl on the piece of paper was and how Rex knew her. She accused him of cheating on her and she let him know, clearly, that they were through. She stormed out of the garage door that Rex had installed and out of his life forever.
The date was May 17, 1987.
TWENTY-EIGHT
May 24, 1987
B Street, Oceano, California
10:00
P.M.
Shelly Crosby (pseud.), a twenty-one-year-old mother, separated from her husband, felt restless as she sat alone in her comfortable duplex apartment. Her roommate, Lisa Wood, worked the night shift at Farm Boys restaurant in Pismo Beach and would not be home until 6:00
A.M.
the next day. In fact, Shelly hardly ever saw her roommate because she worked the day shift at Farm Boys. On this particular evening Shelly’s daughter and Lisa’s two children were with a baby-sitter.Shelly had no kids to worry about, but she also was bored out of her skull. She grabbed her coat and headed out the side door.
Shelly ended up at Harry’s Cocktail Lounge, located on the pier over the Pacific Ocean in Pismo Beach, around 11:30
P.M.
She sat near the bar and ordered a tequila sunrise. She chatted up a couple of guys in the bar, but just to keep her company. She headed out the door as the cries for “last call” rang out. She still felt restless.
Shelly decided to pay Lisa a visit. She hopped into her car and drove down the main street in Pismo Beach to Farm Boys. As Shelly walked in to her place of employment, she passed a young man, about her age, with stringy brown hair and nondescript facial features. He looked up at her as if to get her attention; however, she focused only on Lisa. She walked by the young man without acknowledging his presence.The man seemed to recoil as if struck with a forceful blow to the abdomen.
Shelly pulled up a chair and ordered a stiff black cup of coffee.
The young man rose from his chair and glanced at Shelly. She still did not notice him. He opened his mouth as if to say something to her, then turned around suddenly and slightly stumbled on his way out the door.
Shelly was blissfully unaware of the young man.
She spoke animatedly with her roommate as the night seemed rather slow. She would not get Lisa in trouble. The two women spoke of nothing important, just Shelly’s desire to get out of the apartment. Lisa tended to three customers, who straggled in late, and Shelly ordered more coffee. After another ninety minutes Shelly felt exhausted. She informed her roommate that she had to go back home and gave her a hug good-bye. Shelly turned for the exit and passed through the large doors. She walked up to her car, pulled out her keys, unlocked the door, and slid into the vinyl front seat.
She did not see the young man from the restaurant. He sat in the front seat of his beaten-up white Volkswagen. His car lights were off. He had his eye on her.
He was planning to teach her a lesson. Never look down at another man again.
Shelly started the ignition in her car, checked her hair in the mirror, and pulled out of the Farm Boys parking lot. She was ready to crawl into bed and get some shut-eye. She was only five miles away. As she drove home, she pulled into the Grover City 7-Eleven. She had no idea that someone had been following her for three miles. She purchased a pack of cigarettes and a bottle of Pepsi.
Shelly jumped back into her car and pulled out onto Grand Avenue. By the time she got to Thirteenth Street, she felt strange. She looked up in her rearview mirror and saw two bright headlights staring back at her. The car behind her had practically parked itself on her rear bumper. She pulled away from the stop sign and kept an eye on the car. She tried to get a glimpse at what kind of car it was, but the dark streets made it difficult for her to get a good look.
Shelly drove for several more blocks, taking several turns that she normally would not take, to get home. The car continuedto follow her. The headlights seemed to track her every move. It was still too dark to see what kind of car it was.
Finally Shelly arrived at her street. Eighteenth Street.
She drove about fifty yards up the street and took a left turn up the concrete incline drive-in, past the brown wooden fence, which did not fully surround her house. The driveway remained open at all times, since there was no gate. She pulled up the small hill, turned off her lights, and sat in her car. She wanted to see what the other car would do next.
Shelly glanced up in her rearview mirror and watched as the car slowly drove past her driveway. This crazy fool had definitely gone out of his way to follow her. She started to get a little scared, until the car eventually accelerated and continueddown Eighteenth Street. Shelly felt safe enough to get out of her car and hurry inside to the safety of her ground-level,one-story apartment. As she leaped out of the car, however, she noticed that the driver had turned the car around and headed back toward her. The car did not stop, but rather drove back down the street the way it had entered.
Shelly did not feel comfortable yet. She kept on eye on the vehicle. Sure enough, the driver pulled the car back around and headed toward her. It slowly crept up the narrow asphalt road until it came to a stop beside a field about one hundred yards from her apartment.
Shelly darted behind the six-foot-tall wooden fence and peeked through a four-inch round knothole. She easily spottedthe car. The driver had turned off the lights and seemed to be looking directly at her. She sensed that the driver could see her through the tiny knothole.
Shelly pulled back, but not before she got a decent look at the vehicle.
It appeared to be a beaten-up old Volkswagen.
Even though she was nervous, Shelly felt safe enough to go inside. After making sure she locked all the doors, she turned on the living-room lamp and headed to the bedroom. She felt safe in her nice and dark cave of a bedroom. She and Lisa had pinned up blankets over the windows to keep the sunlight from coming in. Despite the initial adrenaline rush, Shelly was not afraid. She stripped out of her clothes, except for her panties, and threw on her comfortable old gray sweat bottoms and a lavender tank top. She crawled into bed and immediately fell asleep.
Forty-five minutes later, she woke up.
A man’s smooth hand covered her mouth.
Shelly had no idea what had happened. Suddenly, as if from behind a curtain, a man’s voice warned her: “Don’t say anything louder than a whisper.”
She lay completely still. In fear, but quiet. She glanced up at the intruder and noticed that he stood over her and had one knee on the bed. Her movement caused a reaction in the man. He aggressively placed a sharp blade on the left side of her throat. It was a ten-inch knife with a seven-inch blade. It appearedto be almost three inches wide. The man made sure that the sharp edge grazed against her cheek. Shelly stifled a scream. She had no idea what to do.
The man added to the tension when he leaned into her face, his breath smelling of liquor and cigarettes. He asked her in a hushed tone if there were any kids in the house.
“Yes,” she lied in a voice lower than a whisper.
“What did you say?”
“Yes.”
The man did not pursue that line of questioning any further.He seemed more interested in tormenting the young mother.
“Do you have any sharp kitchen knives?” he inquired.
Shelly looked up at him with pleading eyes. She did not want to answer.
“Sharp enough to cut your throat with?”
Shelly closed her eyes and began to cry. She did not want to die here. Not like this. “I don’t know,” she replied.
“Don’t worry, mine is.”
He then dropped the knife, which landed with a loud
thud
on the carpeted floor. Instead of letting her go, however, the man grabbed another, even bigger knife, and thrust it toward her throat. He finally removed his hand from her mouth and again reminded her not to speak above a whisper. He turned her over onto her stomach and pulled back the covers. He grabbed both of her arms behind her back and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a smooth white nylon rope. It looked like rope used on outdoor laundry clotheslines. He clasped her wrists together and bound them with the rope.
Shelly struggled for a brief moment, but stopped when she felt the intruder harshly grab her right ankle. He then inserted the massive blade inside her sweatpants leg and sliced upward.He slit the sturdy fabric with a fluid motion all the way up to the inside of her thigh. After he finished the right side, he repeated the process on her left leg. He then ripped the tatteredsweat bottoms off with his free hand, leaving Shelly lying on her stomach, clad only in her panties and tank top. She remained tied up with the rope the intruder had brought with him.
He slowly moved toward her panty-clad bottom. He ran his hand over the smooth, silky fabric before viciously grabbing and slicing it with the knife. Her backside was now exposed for the man to gawk over.
He methodically repeated his slow torture with her tank top. He started from the bottom of the shirt and slit it all the way to the top. Right up the middle. He then clutched the materialand pulled it out from underneath her like a magician’s tablecloth.
Shelly lay nude on her bed. Tied up in ropes. Shivering.
The intruder grabbed the top of her head and began to shove a piece of cloth into her mouth. He wanted to gag her.
“I promise I won’t say anything,” she pleaded with the man. He stopped his attempt at gagging her and instead tried to use the cloth as a blindfold.
“I—I won’t look at you,” she cried out. He did not blindfoldher either.
The man moved away from her head, roughly grabbed her ankles, and yanked her toward him. She still lay on her stomach,but now the bottom of her legs dangled over the edge of the bed.
It got very quiet in the room. Suddenly the silence was shattered by the sound of a zipper being pulled down. Next thing she knew, the man jerked her legs apart. A sharp pain followed as he roughly penetrated her vagina with his penis. He continued to rape her. He pulled out and reinserted himselfinto her anus. The torture continued for what seemed like hours.
The intruder pulled himself out of Shelly, stood up, and grabbed her by the arm. He yanked her still-bound body up toward the top of the bed. She remained on her stomach, unableto see who had just violated her body. He grabbed her ankles and bound them together with a second rope. He then connected the rope around her wrists with this second rope around her ankles. He cinched the ropes together and had her in a hog-tied position.
The man climbed back onto the bed, slowly moving toward Shelly.
“Where’s your purse?” the rapist demanded.
Suddenly a loud noise disrupted him. It rumbled through the neighborhood like an angry locomotive. The sound came from Lisa’s car. It had a hole in the muffler, which she had been meaning to fix. It seemed to rock the entire neighborhoodas she pulled into the driveway.
Lisa usually arrived home from work at 6:00
A.M.
For some reason, she was home early.
Shelly did not know what to do. She feared that the man might attempt to attack Lisa as well. The man rose from the bed and then faced Shelly.
“Is that your roommate?” he asked.
“Yes,” Shelly whispered. She felt even more scared than before.
The man walked closer to her, but she still could not see his face. He leaned in and, with his smoke-filled and liquor-saturatedbreath, said something eerily grotesque to her: “Have a nice day.”
He turned around and headed out the way he came in. Shelly rolled off the bed and managed to squeeze her hands out of their restraints.
Less than one minute later, Lisa walked into the house. She dumped her purse and keys on the coffee table and slowly made her way into her bedroom. The room was too dark to see anything. She tried to keep quiet so as not to wake Shelly. Instead, she screamed when Shelly stumbled out of her bedroomhalf naked.
“Is he still here?” Lisa asked, scared out of her wits.
“I don’t know,” Shelly responded.
She remembered that the rapist had dropped the first knife under the bed. She grabbed it and cut the rope off her ankles.Lisa bundled her up and took Shelly to her mother’s house in Arroyo Grande. From there, they called the police, who suggested that she go immediately to the hospital for a rape exam.
Shelly had no idea how the man had gotten into her house. She also had no idea what he looked like.