Patricia Candace Walsh, a 24-year-old white female from Seattle, Washington, was murdered in early 1990 after embarking on a cross-country missionary journey with her husband, 25-year-old Douglas Scott Zyskowski. The couple, deeply committed to their evangelical Christian faith, left Seattle in November 1989 to attend a religious convention in Georgia. They traveled by hitchhiking, believing it was part of their spiritual calling to share their faith with strangers.
After the convention, they continued westward, last making contact with friends and family in January 1990 from El Paso, Texas.
Authorities believe that near El Paso, the couple accepted a ride from serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades, a long-haul truck driver later dubbed the 'Truck Stop Killer.' Rhoades is suspected of abducting the couple shortly after picking them up. Douglas Zyskowski was murdered first—his body was discovered on January 21, 1990, along Interstate 10 in Sutton County, Texas. Patricia Candace Walsh, the 24-year-old white female victim, was held captive for over a week in Rhoades' truck, where she was reportedly raped and tortured before being shot four times in the head and neck with a. 22 caliber rifle. Her body was found months later, on October 26, 1990, by deer hunters in a remote, mountainous area of Millard County, Utah. Her remains were not identified until 2003 through dental records and DNA testing.
The suspect, Robert Ben Rhoades, was already serving a life sentence in Illinois for the 1990 murder of 14-year-old Regina Walters when he was linked to the deaths of Patricia Candace Walsh and Douglas Zyskowski. Rhoades had outfitted the cab of his truck with restraints and torture devices, and investigators believe he may have been responsible for numerous other murders across the country. He was extradited to Utah in 2005 to face charges for Walsh's murder, but at the request of the victims' families, the case was later transferred to Texas, where prosecutors could try him for both murders simultaneously and pursue the death penalty. Rhoades remains incarcerated, and his true number of victims is still unknown.
