Angel Resendiz: The Railroad Killer

It was Labor Day weekend, 1997, at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, and Holly Dunn's world seemed full of possibilities. She was a popular sorority sister, and the 20-year-old had a new boyfriend, a theater major named Chris Maier. That August night, the couple took a midnight stroll to the railroad tracks and kissed under the stars. Suddenly a man appeared; he was holding what looked like an ice pick. Terrified, Chris offered him money. "No, I don't want that," the man said as he tied up the couple. A moment later he picked up a rock and smashed it against Chris's skull, killing him; he then raped Holly and bludgeoned her with a wooden board, breaking her jaw and eye socket. "I was screaming in my head," Holly recalls. "Then I was unconscious—I don't know how long. I just remember appearing in someone's front yard."

By a hair's breadth, Holly escaped death at the hands of Angel Resendiz, better known as "the Railroad Killer," a predator who authorities say may have murdered at least 14 people, many in the Southwest in the 1990s (PEOPLE, July 12, 1999). Her

Raising $500,000 from grants as well as corporate and private donors, she worked with police to get six detectives moved into Holly's House. Holly has spread the word by speaking to community groups, and police or social-service workers direct victims to Holly's House. There, immediately after an attack—or, in the case of children, sometimes years later—victims from Evansville and surrounding counties give their statements. Amy, an Indiana mom with two daughters she says were molested by a relative, tells how Holly helped put her girls at ease the day they gave their statements. "She plopped right down on the floor with them," recalls Amy, who says the relative has since been charged with child molestation. "She was a