The day after Gina Marie Tisher’s body was found—January 6, 1976—the killer struck again. This time, he kidnapped a young college student in broad daylight, right in the parking lot of Fullerton Community College.
He watched her pull in, picked his moment, and moved fast. This was how he operated—calculated, controlled, and without hesitation. She was the one. He had to do it.
As she got out of her car, he stepped forward, pulled a small semi-automatic pistol from his coat pocket, and ordered her back inside. She hesitated. Even with the gun in her side, she resisted. He shoved her, barked threats, and kept pressing the weapon against her ribs until he got her behind the wheel again.
“Start the car,” he ordered.
She refused.
The tension exploded. He shouted, jabbed the gun into her harder, promised to kill her right there if she didn’t move. Eventually, he took control. The engine started. He drove her away.
What followed was an all-day nightmare. He held her captive for hours—raping her, assaulting her repeatedly, driving her farther from safety with every mile.
That night, deep in an orange grove in South Orange County, he tied her up. Then he tried to finish the job.
He strangled her.
He beat her—savage blows to the head and face.
Then he dragged her from the car and dumped her in a ditch like trash. He thought she was dead.
But she wasn’t.
Somehow, this young woman—bloodied, broken, barely breathing—crawled her way to the roadside. A passing couple spotted her and flagged down a sheriff’s deputy. Her fight to survive became the key to everything.
The miracle wasn’t just that she lived. It was what happened next—how her courage helped us crack the case open.
That’s a story for next week.
Read the full story in The Parking Lot Rapist.
Lee DeVore True Crime 