Three girls hitchhiked to a teen hangout. They never got there.

Note to readers: This story contains graphic descriptions of violence.

The man was given many names, none of them his.

Cutter. Hunter. Predator.

For nearly half a century, he played a starring role in Kathie Rottler’s nightmares. He turned the darkness into something that she, her little sister, and her childhood friend would fear forever.

The women were able to imagine the man’s face and the clothes he was wearing on August 19, 1975, when he brutalized them. But they never knew who he was or who else he was hurting.

Kathie’s search for answers to these questions would last decades – after her marriage, after the births of her children and grandchildren, after the loss of loved ones.

But the Indianapolis woman couldn’t give up.

The man had stolen her peace of mind, her voice, and her younger sister’s innocence.

Their story is one of pain, yes. Of guilt. From trauma. But it is also the story of a deep bond between sisters.

A summer adventure

In 1975, the cell phone was just a glimmer in the eyes of the world, without any of the advanced capabilities of today. Google didn’t exist. It was the year Jimmy Hoffa disappeared and the year Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft. “Jaws”, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” hit theaters.

Kathie was 14 years old. And on August 19, 1975, all the Indianapolis teenager wanted was to make the most of the last days of summer.

A family friend offered to teach Kathie how to play pool at a teen hangout called The Barn. She asked her father if she could go.

Yes, he told her, as long as you bring your sister. Sheri, 11, loved going along.

All good.

Kathie wore a navy blue and white striped top, jeans and sandals. She borrowed her older sister’s new white Western-style shirt and buttoned it over her tube top, rolling up the sleeves and tying the ends at her waist.

She ran the brush through her wavy brown hair, with lighter, almost sun-blonde highlights.

Kathie invited her good friend Kandice Smith to join them.

When the trio left the house, the sun had already disappeared over the horizon. It was dark, but none of the girls were nervous about walking at night. At that time, the only thing Kathie feared was being grounded for not doing her chores.

It was a clear and warm night. Perfect for a short walk.

The girls headed south to East Washington Street, also known as US 40, and stopped at a gas station. They liked the clerk there, in part because he sold them cigarettes. Smoking made girls feel good.

As they left the gas station with their cigarettes, Kathie offered another idea: Let’s hitchhike to The Barn.

Kandice and Sheri didn’t want to. The Granary was less than a mile away. They could walk there in 15 minutes. But Kathie, who had hitchhiked before, convinced them to give it a try. They crossed the street so the cars would go in the direction they wanted, and Kathie gave her a thumbs-up.

Almost immediately, a man driving a light-colored station wagon pulled up alongside them.

There is no way out

One of the girls opened the back passenger door, but the back seat was folded down. There was no place to sit.

Sit in the front with me, said the driver.

Kathie went in first, noticing a faint odor of oil and grease that reminded her of a mechanic.

The driver wore a pink and white striped shirt and brown work pants, with a gold Pulsar watch shining on his left wrist. He was clean-shaven, and his short, wavy, reddish-brown hair was streaked with gray and curled at the ends. For girls, he had an indiscriminate age – old, like his parents.

Sheri got in the car next, then Kandice.

Kathie asked the man to take them to The Barn. He agreed, pulling away from the curb and heading east on Washington Street.

Kathie pointed out their turn, but the man acted as if he hadn’t heard her. He sped through the intersection, his foot pressed firmly on the accelerator.

The girls started to panic.

Kathie first tried to reason with the man, asking him to turn around. Then she told him that her parents would ground her if she didn’t come home. He seemed indifferent to her pleas.

Kathie yelled for Kandice and Sheri to open the door or window and jump out.

Kandice looked for the doorknob, but there was none. The window crank was also gone. The interior lining of the passenger door has been completely removed.

Kathie reached for the accelerator, hoping she could get the car going fast enough for the police to stop them. But she couldn’t reach it, so she grabbed the steering wheel.

The man’s patience ran out. He pulled out a gun and pressed it to Kathie’s temple.

Shut up and go away, he told her, or I’ll blow your head off.

There was no way out.

‘You are the first’

The man continued driving east on US 40 for more than five miles, heading out of Indianapolis toward rural Hancock County. Just past County Road 700 West, he turned around and turned right. Then he turned left onto a narrow dirt road lined with huge corn stalks.

He stopped the truck and got out, scanning the area with his eyes. When the man noticed another car passing on the main road, he moved the truck into the cornfield.

Trembling, the girls piled into the front seat.

The man walked around the front of the car to open the passenger door. He blocked the opening and then wrapped a rope around the girls’ hands and through the side window so they couldn’t escape.

He asked their names and ages. Katie: 14; Candice: 13; Sheri: 11.

You’re the first, he told Sheri.

Kathie warned her sister to do what the man said because he had a gun.

He led Sheri to the front of the car. He tore off her shirt and lifted her onto the hood.

This is your first time, isn’t it? the man asked.

He spat into his hands and ran them up and down Sheri’s body. The older girls watched in horror as he raped her.

They frantically searched inside the car for another weapon, a knife – anything they could use to defend themselves.

The rope around Kathie’s right hand was loose. She thought she might be able to break free. But where could she go? She was in a cornfield. The man had a gun. And Kathie couldn’t leave her little sister with him.

Within minutes, the man returned. No Sheri.

Pretending to be dead

The man opened the passenger door and slammed the gun into the side of Kandice’s face so hard she saw stars.

You smart guy, he said.

He ordered the 13-year-old girl out of the car and, after checking to see if she had money, forced her into the path of the right front tire. Trembling, Kandice lowered herself to the ground.

A knife flashed and the man began stabbing Kandice in the neck. She tried to fight him, hitting him once in the face. But he continued to stab, cutting her arm when she raised it to defend herself. The knife entered her body a dozen times.

When the man paused, Kandice pretended to be dead. She held her breath and lay still.

He grabbed her by the hair, dragged her into the cornfield and dropped her body in the dirt.

So he went back to get Kathie.

He untied the teenager and took her out of the truck. Kathie turned to the front, where she had seen him take her sister and friend.

No, he said. Go back there.

He told her to stop at the back tire and sit down. She sat cross-legged on the floor and looked at him.

And now, she asked.

He stabbed her in the neck. She thinks it was five times.

He returned to the front of the station wagon and stabbed the other two girls again.

When the man returned, Kathie also held her breath. He caught her wrist. He dropped it. Then he grabbed her feet and threw her into the cornfield.

Looking for help

Kathie stood still. She heard a car door open and then close. An engine roared to life.

Weak from blood loss, Kathie struggled to her feet and tried to see where he was going. She watched him stop at a stop sign.

Suddenly, she felt a hand wrap around her leg.

Startled, Kathie fell to the ground before realizing the hand belonged to Kandice, who was lying next to her.

“Where is Sheri?” Katie asked.

Kandice said she thought the man had taken Sheri with him. They looked but did not see her. They needed help.

Kathie and Kandice got up and headed toward the highway. Kandice saw a house near the cornfield, but Kathie didn’t want to go near it. What if the man who attacked them lived there?

At one point, Kandice looked over and saw a drive-in movie theater lit up, with people entering the parking lot and a man at the ticket booth. When the girls approached, there was no one there. She was hallucinating.

Kandice and Kathie staggered toward the road.

This article originally appeared in USA TODAY: 3 girls hitchhiked to a teen hangout in 1975. They never got there