Content warning: This story discusses rape and violence. Tina Marie Risico is ready to share her truth. Forty years after she was kidnapped when she was 16 by serial killer Christopher Wilder , she spoke out for the first time in The Beauty Queen Killer: 9 Days of Terror to detail the brutal days she spent being tortured by the race car driver in 1984.
"A lot hasn't been opened in 40 years," Risico, now 56, shared on Hulu's new series. "I want to share my side of the story, my truth. Why did Tina survive being tortured and controlled? If nobody has ever been in that situation of captivity, it's difficult for people to grasp the concept.
But I lived it." On April 4, 1984, the then-high schooler had been at a mall in Torrance, Calif., to apply for a job at Hickory Farms when she was approached by Wilder, known as the Beauty Queen Killer.
He praised her good looks and told her he worked with a modeling agency, inviting her to go offsite to shoot some pictures. "This is the one point that I regret every second of my life, every day," Risico said. "I got in the car with this perfect stranger when all bells and whistles were going off in my head.
Why didn't I listen to my instincts? Why didn't I listen to the voice in my head?" They drove to the Anaheim woods, where Wilder pulled his gun on her and told her to take off her top. The Aussie later raped her in his car, she told investigators, before taking her on a cross-country road trip to evade police for his past crimes , includin.
