Woman who accepted a lift from a 'serial killer' reveals how she escaped being murdered
Warning: This article contains discussion of sexual assault which some readers may find distressing.
A woman who miraculously managed to escape the clutches of serial killer Andrew Urdiales has revealed how she did it.
Jennifer Asbenson accepted a lift to work from who she thought was a 'kind' stranger, only to later realise he was a murderer who already had multiple bodies under his belt.
She was just a teen when she climbed into the car with former Marine Urdiales, who was then 32, in Palm Springs, California, in 1992.
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The carer was 'on the verge of tears' after realising she'd be late for her night shift as she had missed the bus, as she'd already been warned by her boss about being punctual.
So, when a man pulled up in a light-coloured sedan and offered to take Asbenson to her workplace, she previously told People how she thought to herself: "This is a Godsend."
Asbenson reckoned she could 'totally beat the guy up if he did anything weird', so she climbed into the vehicle and decided to take her chances.
The journey was largely uneventful, but when they arrived at Asbenson's work, Urdiales asked whether he could have her phone number.
"I wasn't interested in him but I didn't want to hurt his feelings," she told US broadcaster LMN in 2023. "I thought this will be the perfect chance to just give him the wrong number and I'll probably never see him again."
However, this wasn't the case - as the following day, Urdiales was waiting outside for her to clock off and offered to take her for breakfast.
Asbenson declined the invitation but did take him up on the offer of another lift as she didn't want to wait around for the bus - which proved to be a huge mistake.
During this car journey, Urdiales confronted her about giving him the wrong number and his true colours soon began to show.
"Suddenly he turned into another person and just screamed 'I called that number and some old b***h answered'," Asbenson said. "I just went into shock.
"He bashed my head into the dashboard, I saw a knife, I saw a gun, he tied my wrist behind my back. I just couldn't fathom what was happening, that this could be real."
Urdiales, who had already murdered four women at this point, then drove her to a remote part of Palm Desert while reclining her chair as far back as possible so she couldn't alert other motorists.
"All I could think of was, I made a bad choice," she previously told the I Survived podcast. "I realised that I was probably never going to come out of that desert."
Urdiales then cut off her underwear with her knife, with Asbenson recalling how he had 'nothing but rage in his eyes' and adding: "That's when I knew he had done this before."
He then launched a sick attack on the teenager, sexually assaulting her and demanding she told him that she loved him - before he then slapped her and told her to say it like she 'meant' it.
"I said it again, it just wasn't right, so he started strangling me," Asbenson said. "I sat there thinking, 'This is going to be the last thing I see before I die'."
The Girl in the Treehouse author then lost consciousness and was overwhelmed by a feeling of 'peace', leading her to believe that Urdiales had 'killed her', saying: "I had no pain, no fear, I felt like I had escaped from it."
Asbenson then realised this was merely wishful thinking, as she woke back up when the serial killer continued to attack her - prompting her to beg him to kill her.
Urdiales took a bite out of her neck, dragged her out of the car and bundled her into the boot, before restarting the car.
Asbenson said it dawned on her that being taken to a second location would likely result in her death - and thankfully, her 'adrenaline' and 'hysterical strength' then kicked in.
She managed to untie her arms and began taking chunks out of the roof of the car boot, while listening intently and realising the sedan had become stuck in sand.
Incredibly, she was able to pop the boot open and run for her life, refusing to 'look back' - but when she did sneak a glance over her shoulder, she claims to have saw Urdiales chasing her with a machete.
She flagged down a passing truck driver who took her to safety before she reported the narrow near-miss to police, however, cops didn't have a lot of evidence to go off.
It wasn't until five years later that the force contacted her again and revealed Urdiales had confessed to kidnapping her - and that he was going down for slaughtering eight other women.
Out of all of Urdiales' victims, she was the only one who managed to escape - and she bravely confronted him in court.
"I sincerely forgive you, and that does not mean what you did was right, it does not mean that one bit," she told Urdiales as he was given the ultimate punishment. "And that does not mean that you don't deserve the death penalty."
The serial killer was sentenced to death in 2002, but ultimately took his own life in 2018.
Asbenson has since channelled her pain into power and the mum-of-one became a public speaker and an advocate for trauma survivors.
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact The Survivors Trust for free on 08088 010 818, available 10am-12.30pm, 1.30pm-3pm and 6pm-8pm Monday to Thursday, 10am-12.30pm and 1.30pm-3pm on Fridays, 10am-12.30pm on Saturdays and 6pm-8pm on Sundays.
Topics: US News, Crime, True Crime
Olivia Burke