Vicki Webb, a courageous survivor who is now in her mid-60s, is featured on Investigation Discovery’s “People Magazine Investigates: The I-70 Killer” programme detailing her terrifying near-death encounter in Houston, Texas, in January 1994. Although they are divided because of numerous inconsistencies in the killer’s method of operation, the authorities think she is the only survivor of the I-70 killer. Even Nevertheless, the serial killer is still at free almost three decades later, and the authorities have not made many public disclosures. How did Vicki manage to survive and who is she? Let’s investigate.
Who is Vicki Webb?
Texas’s Houston Police Department received a late-morning 911 call from a man on January 15, 1994. He claimed that when he and his girlfriend entered the Alternatives gift shop, a small establishment in the Rice Village retail centre close to Rice University, they discovered the female employee lying on the ground. According to Jeff Truesdell, a staff writer for People Magazine, “She had been shot, yet she was still clinging to her life and had been rushed to the hospital.” According to X-rays, the bullet was in her spinal cord and might have caused paralysis or possibly been fatal.
Vicki Webb, a 35-year-old woman who was shot in the neck for the next day, managed to survive the incident somehow. The I-70 killer, who terrorised the Midwest in the spring of 1992 and is thought to have murdered at least six store clerks, is thought to have left her as the only surviving victim. Vicki explained how she decided to start her own business by opening a small gift boutique in Houston, Texas, in 1993. She recalled: “My shop was quite whimsical, but bright, colourful, and cheery.”
Vicki claimed that back then, she had a young daughter, and providing for her was one of her major responsibilities. But when “a short man with long, shaggy blonde hair” entered her business in the late morning of January 15, 1994, her life was irrevocably altered. He looked around and talked about meeting his niece, and she remembered that he was her first customer of the day. “He said he was waiting to meet his niece,” she recalled. He wouldn’t stop telling me how much she would enjoy the shop. He presented himself as a colleague in my line of work.
a sincere Vicki informed the customer that business was typically quiet at that time of year as he pointed at a copper picture frame he was interested in buying. She remembers approaching the object, grabbing it, and going back to her desk to record the transaction. Vicki claimed that a gunshot caused her to drop to the ground as she approached the counter. For the sake of her daughter, who was at the time 13 years old, she prayed while she lay there, badly injured. The man leaped over her and searched the till before coming back to her.
Vicki remembered how she mimicked the dead-lying poses in the films she watched. The assaulter briefly exited the store, and she recalled not feeling anything and having problems breathing. But when he came back, he dragged her behind the counter and rolled her. He removed my trousers, which I don’t recall, she recalled. However, I was not sexually assaulted. After then, he pointed his rifle at her forehead, but it didn’t shoot. It clicked, Vicki continued. He then simply laughed. He is an extremely ill man.
When Vicki heard some noises outside her business, the attacker immediately fled, thinking she was already dead. The small-caliber bullet had hit her between the second and third vertebrae, chipping a bone that struck her spinal cord and briefly paralysing her from the neck down, according to the medical professionals who examined her when she was brought to the hospital. The doctors failed to get the bullet out of her spinal column. Doctors claim that Vicki’s spinal anomaly, which caused the slug to bounce off her vertebrae and lodge in her skull, was the sole reason she lived.
Where is Vicki Webb Now?
As she recovered from many surgeries, Vicki provided the authorities with a description of the culprit. “He was a short guy, maybe around five feet eight,” she recalled on the programme. He was exceedingly slender, haggard, and thin. I’ll always remember that he had jockey looks. He was probably in his mid-30s. He looked outrageously leathery or worn and was quite tanned. Vicki was able to regain her ability to walk after several months of therapy. She was warned by the authorities that the I-70 killer might have later targeted her.
Vicki took a plane to Wichita, Kansas, to see the composite sketches of the serial killer. “The composite was similar,” she said. There were parallels. I never said it was exactly that. I remember the voice more clearly for myself. The voice would be familiar to me. I can still recognise his voice today. However, the authorities lack conclusive evidence to link her to the other I-70 killer’s victims because of the sexual aspect of the crime and the lack of shell casings at the crime scene.
Vicki kept a low profile after the shooting and recovery, avoiding any publicity. She moved out of state, got remarried, and changed her name. But as the years went by, she gradually developed the confidence to refuse to let her attacker to continue having power over her life. She had travelled the entire world without looking back. The slug that is still in her neck nearly three decades later is the sole physical reminder of the crime that is still with her.
I still experience the impact of the gunshot every day, Vicki said. Uncomfortable but not painful. Every day, I feel like someone is choking me. My new normal is this. I have pain every day. She prefers to believe her attacker is gone in her thoughts until she can confront him in court. However, for security reasons, her present name and residence have been withheld.
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