Exclusive The now 63-year-old woman narrowly escaped serial killer Christopher Wilder in 1977 when he was just 16 years old, but didn’t know it until years later.
In late June of that year, Leanne, who asked to give only her first name, was hanging out with friends on a beach in Fort Lauderdale when two beautiful brunette women in their 20s, both wearing black T-shirts that said “Barbizon Models,” approached the then 16-year-old Leanne and asked if she would like to talk to their boss about a modeling job at a local department store.
Lianne thought to herself, “Why not? I could use the extra money.”
“They were so lovely and sweet and they were chatting with all of us girls there and I was totally smitten. And I got up and talked to the guy and he was very polite and very professional,” Lianne told Fox News Digital. “He was wearing shorts and I think he was wearing a polo shirt or a button-front shirt. … He gave me his business card and as a 16-year-old I totally believed his story and the girls were right there.”
The serial killer may be connected to the unsolved murder of a young woman in New York in 1983.
Leanne met Christopher Wilder when she was 16 years old. (Handouts)
Leanne spent the next four hours talking to the man she learned was an Australian-American serial killer and former Australian woman. FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives Christopher Wilder: Wilder murdered at least eight women in the 1980s.
Wilder, also known as the “Snapshot Killer” and the “Beauty Queen Killer,” drove around the country looking for girls on beaches, in shopping malls, etc. He photographed them and offered them modeling opportunities. He was killed in a shootout with New Hampshire state police in 1984. Two months of serial killings.
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The killer’s name recently appeared in headlines again following the release of the Hulu documentary series “Beauty Queen Killer: Nine Days of Terror,” which premiered in May. In the documentary series, survivor Tina Lisico recounts how she was kidnapped by Wilder in 1984 when she was 16 years old, taken on a nine-day road trip across America, during which she was forced to help Wilder commit crimes.
Lianne wants Lisiko to know she’s not alone and understands how Wilder forced her to do what she did more than 40 years ago.
Christopher Wilder was a serial killer accused of murdering at least eight girls and women in the 1980s. (FBI)
Lianne said Wilder tricked her that day on the beach in June 1977. First, they were walking with the brunettes on the beach while Wilder asked Lianne interview-style questions. Then, the two separated and Wilder asked Lianne if she wanted to go somewhere for a cold drink.
They walked across the street from the beach, in and out of stores, and Wilder kept asking her questions about her family, where she lives and her goals in life.
Watch “Surviving a Serial Killer”,
Leanne said she survived an encounter with killer Christopher Wilder.
He pointed out what people were wearing and told Leanne that her flip flops looked bad on her and encouraged her to take them off, which she did and spent the rest of the day walking around barefoot.
He also suggested she walk in front of him and sway her hips to look like a model, but Lianne claims he never behaved in a sexy way during their four-hour exchange.
“I can’t explain it. He was incredibly calm.”
“I can’t explain it. He was very calm and he asked me questions about my goals in life and stuff. Think back to your first job interview. It was just like that,” she said. “He commented on fashion trends and seemed very knowledgeable. But I’m 5’4. I’d never thought about being a model. I was a pretty girl, but I was never a beauty queen.”
During the trip, Wilder wanted to call a colleague to let her know he had found a potential model, and Leanne watched him make the call on a pay phone, only to discover that the colleague he was speaking to was driving a luxury sports car on the overpass directly above them.
The full extent of Wilder’s crimes remains unclear. (FBI)
“He was waving at the cars that were passing us. And he [laughing]”‘Oh, yeah, that’s crazy. I can’t believe I just saw you,'” Lianne recalled. “He was pretending to be talking to a guy in his car.” But she was impressed, since car phones weren’t common at the time.
Wilder then suggested they go to a shopping mall to look at different fashion trends. Leanne agreed, and Wilder walked her to her car, where he told her she had to participate in a trust-building exercise.
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“In a grassy area under the trees in the parking lot, he said, ‘OK, let’s talk about performing,’ and then he said, ‘I want you to close your eyes and seduce me with your face.’ I was 16 and didn’t know how to look outside of romantic movies,” Leanne said, adding that at that point he hadn’t tried to touch her or let her touch him. “I had to close my eyes and just make a facial expression, and he said, ‘OK, do you know about the trust activity?'”
The trust activity in question involved blindfolding Leanne during a drive to the mall, where she told Wilder that she was in the youth choir at her church and was getting ready to sing. “She sang “The Republic Hymn” at the Independence Day service, and Wilder asked her to sing it out loud while blindfolded and driving.
“I’m in this car blindfolded singing ‘Glory, Glory, Hallelujah’ a cappella.”
“I was blindfolded and singing ‘Glory, Glory, Hallelujah’ a cappella in my car, which was really stupid,” she said. “I wouldn’t be sitting in my car blindfolded singing for strangers if I didn’t totally believe everything he said.”
Leanne considers herself lucky to have escaped her encounter with Christopher Wilder alive. (Handouts)
However, Wilder’s business card, the work clothes he was wearing on the beach, and his lack of flirtatious attitude convinced Leanne that she was talking to a real fashion scout. In the car, Leanne gave Wilder her home address, her mother’s phone number, her place of employment, and other personal information. Because Leanne was still underage, Wilder told her she would need to ask her mother for permission to become a model.
Wilder took Leanne to a local shopping mall where they browsed different fashion styles before taking her back to the car and blindfolding her again.
“You could have knocked me down with a feather.”
“After he blindfolded me, he took my left hand and pulled me across the console and placed me on his lap. I was shocked, really shocked, knowing he had exposed himself. He pulled down his zipper himself. He could have pushed me down with a feather,” she said. “I had no idea this guy was a pervert.”
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Leanne “calmed” and pulled her hands away, then began crying, and Wilder tried to comfort her.
“He said, ‘OK, man … look, come on, you just get out of here.’ I lived really close to the mall. He said, ‘Go home and get yourself something cold to drink and I’ll call you and your mom on Monday,'” Leanne said.
She told her mother about meeting Wilder and how he offered her a modeling job, but never told her what happened after — a regret she still harbors.
She didn’t think much of her chance encounter with the modeling scout until years later, in 1984, when news broke that a serial killer had kidnapped a teenage girl named Linda Glover from a Tallahassee shopping mall, blindfolded her, forced her into the backseat of a car, and eventually glued her eyelids together.
But despite the similarities between her experience and the 1984 kidnapping, Lianne remained skeptical whether the two were the same person, as she had heard on the news that the suspect was originally from Australia and the man she spoke to in 1977 did not have an Australian accent.
Then, about 10 years ago, Lianne found more information about Wilder on the internet and Googled him “just out of curiosity”.
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“And there was a picture of his face, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is the guy,'” she said, adding that she also discovered he was born in Australia but didn’t have an Australian accent. … Of course I was stunned and realized who it was that had taken me.”
Now, when Lianne thinks back to her experience on the beach that day in 1977, she recalls her near encounter “with this twisted, evil character” and hopes other women who encountered him will come forward to share their stories.
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“My heart goes out to anyone who may have encountered him. If anyone reads this and encountered him but was safe like me; [Risico] And let those around you know you are not alone. You are not stupid.”
Local media reports say Wilder may be linked to additional murders in Florida and New York.
