In November 1985, 19-year-old Laura Murphy was discovered crawling naked and handcuffed along a Florida roadside — her body missing nearly half its blood — after enduring more than 20 hours of unimaginable torture. The man responsible, engineer John Crutchley, would later be suspected in dozens of disappearances and murders across several states.
Murphy had been hitchhiking when Crutchley, described as a polite and well-groomed professional with a hidden obsession, offered her a ride. According to the Orlando Sentinel, he insisted they stop at his Malabar home to pick up a notebook. When Murphy refused to go inside, Crutchley attacked her — choking her unconscious and dragging her into the house.
When she regained consciousness, she was stripped naked, bound to his kitchen counter, and filmed as Crutchley assaulted her. He raped her and used medical syringes to drain almost half of her blood, reports the Los Angeles Times and Oxygen. After roughly 22 hours of captivity, Murphy managed to escape through a window, fleeing into the night — still handcuffed and severely weakened — before flagging down help on the roadside.
Inside Crutchley’s home, investigators uncovered chilling evidence: syringes, tubing, bondage devices, jewelry, and a disturbing collection of credit cards, ID cards, and hair belonging to other women who were already dead. FBI profiler Robert Ressler later reflected that it was “probable they had a serial killer in custody,” Oxygen reported.
Authorities in multiple states reopened unsolved homicide cases potentially linked to Crutchley, who became infamously known as the “Vampire Rapist.” Florida officials told the Tampa Bay Times they suspected him in as many as 24 murders, including three in Brevard County. However, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office ultimately closed its investigation in 1996 without filing new charges.
Years later, Crutchley expressed remorse, saying, “When I did what I did, I was at a totally different place in my life. I feel exceptionally bad about that. I devastated my family. I have nothing but a devastated life in Florida,” according to the Tampa Bay Times.
He pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexual battery in 1986 and was released on parole in 1996, only to return to prison two years later on a drug charge. On March 30, 2002, he was found dead in his cell at Hardee Correctional Institution with a plastic bag over his head. Investigators ruled the death an accident caused by autoerotic asphyxiation, according to the Deseret News and the Orlando Sentinel.
Laura Murphy survived and was hospitalized after the attack. Though she recovered physically, she has chosen to remain out of the public eye ever since.
