I-70 serial killer’s lone survivor played dead to save her life

Vicki Webb had no idea she would come face-to-face with a serial killer when she opened her shop on a Saturday morning.

It was Jan. 15, 1994, and the owner of Alternatives Gift Shop in Houston, Texas was giddy – she was going on vacation that afternoon.

A customer walked into her store.

“He looked different – not anything you would consider extraordinary,” Webb recalled to Fox News Digital. “He was just a small man who walked into the store, looking around. He was asking a lot of questions about the traffic patterns, like if the store had business, things like that. I just thought he was a scout for a retailer.”

“I blew it off, to be honest,” she shared. “Just blew it off. Didn’t think twice about it.”

Webb is sharing her account in ID’s true-crime docuseries, “People Magazine Investigates,” which explores some of the most high-profile cases from across the country.

It features interviews with investigators, loved ones, as well as those who covered the cases extensively.

The episode on the I-70 killer, an unknown shooter who unleashed carnage from Indianapolis to Kansas, airs Monday.

Webb said the short Caucasian man, who appeared around 5’8″, was gaunt and “slender,” reminiscent of a jockey. His “very tanned” skin was “ruddy” and “leathery.”

He was bow-legged with sandy brown hair and brown eyes. He wore Ropers, a type of cowboy boot. He appeared older than what he could have been. She guessed he was in his mid-30s.

His features seemed to imply he worked outdoors.

The seemingly unsuspecting shopper left. Soon after, he came back.

“He talked about his niece coming,” Webb recalled. “He was meeting his niece. He kept looking out the windows. He pointed to a frame that he wanted.”

Webb turned her back when she suddenly heard a loud bang. She fell to the ground.

“I didn’t even realize it was me who was falling,” she said. “It all felt like slow motion. But the first thing that crossed my mind was, ‘Please God, don’t take me. I have a 13-year-old.’”

Webb said she landed on her right side.

She watched as her shooter jumped over her and rummaged the cash register.

He then turned his direction to a conscious Webb, who played dead.

She got the idea from many old films she watched over the years.

“If he didn’t think I was dead, I would be dead,” said Webb. “And it was very easy to play dead because I could barely breathe. I was completely paralyzed from the neck down.”

He turned Webb over and her arm flopped to the floor.

He dragged her behind the counter and pulled down her pants.

He then forcefully pressed his gun against her forehead.

The man pulled the trigger. It clicked. He chuckled.

“[His laughter] was vicious, maniacal, evil,” said Webb. “Just pure evil.”

The shooter, who became spooked by noises he and Webb heard coming from outside, fled. 

Webb couldn’t move. She tried to scream. All she heard was silence. It wouldn’t be until 10 minutes later when two customers walked inside the shop. Pain exploded in her body.

The startled couple called the police. Webb was rushed to the hospital.

Doctors urged Webb she needed surgery, but there was a possibility she would be on a respirator for the rest of her life. She refused.

“I simply knew I was going to be OK,” Webb explained. “I didn’t have a vision. There was no crossover. I just knew. I was conscious the whole time. I was sure I wasn’t going to die. This was not my day to be taken.”

Webb was bedridden. She had been shot in the back of her neck. A grueling recovery awaited her. For over two months, she had to learn how to walk again.

“You have to learn how to put one foot in front of the other,” she said. “It became a family affair. But it was difficult. I had to learn how to do everything again. I remember getting very irritated because I couldn’t write, and they were trying to fit me for an instrument to help me hold a pen, help me move my right arm. I remember my daughter watched me put the tiny pieces of a sun catcher together, which took hours. But I lived.”

It would be months later that Webb learned from investigators that she was a possible survivor of the I-70 serial killer, the only one known.

“To this day, I still have the bullet nicely encased between C-2 and C-3,” she explained. “… I was in disbelief. I kept thinking, ‘How could this possibly be?’ But I wanted to make sure I did whatever I could to make sure this person was captured and held accountable.”

“I want to rip his throat out,” she admitted. “To be truthful, I want to know why. Why did he do this? What makes him target anybody? What caused that switch in his mind? That’s what I want to know – why?”

The reign of terror began on April 8, 1992, People magazine reported. Robin Fuldauer, a 26-year-old employee of a Payless ShoeSource in Indianapolis, Indiana, was found shot execution-style in the back of her head. Three days later, police found Patricia Smith, 23, and Patricia Magers, 32, shot to death. The women were discovered in the back room of La Bride d’Elegance bridal shop in Wichita, Kansas.

Then on April 27, Michael McCown was killed behind inside Sylvia’s Ceramic Supply in Terre Haute, Indiana, the outlet reported. Investigators believed the killer had mistaken the 40-year-old for a woman because he wore his long hair in a ponytail. He was shot from behind.

Then on May 3, Nancy Kitzmiller was found dead at a Boot Village shoe store in St. Charles County, Missouri. She was 24. Four days later, Sarah Blessing, who was working in the Store of Many Colors in Raytown, Missouri, was fatally shot. She was 37.

Retired Indianapolis homicide detective Mike Crooke said the shooter left behind identical bullet casings at each crime scene, the outlet reported. While money was missing from the registers, he believed the primary motive was the intent to kill. All the victims were store clerks with long brown hair working in small businesses along I-70. They were all shot with the same gun – an Erma Werke Model ET22 pistol, the outlet reported.

While the cases have gone cold over the years, police haven’t given up. In November 2021, a uniform task force was launched where investigators from Kansas, Indiana and Missouri teamed up to review their evidence and develop a new strategy to catch their killer.

A spokesperson for the St. Charles Police Department in Missouri confirmed to Fox News Digital that there are six known victims, as well as two possible victims from Texas.

“We cannot say with certainty the I-70 killer case and those in Texas are connected, but we do have to consider the possibility,” the spokesperson added.

Webb said she’s excited about the advances of DNA technology and how it can be used to help bring the families justice.

“I’m extremely hopeful that somebody knows something,” she explained. “And I am hopeful someone with any information will come forward. This person has stayed under the radar… He either works in the sun or is in the sun a lot because he was very leathered. We need to find him and hold him accountable. And if he’s deceased, we need that information out as well.”

“We need to help the other families get answers,” she shared. “He needs to get caught.”

For nearly two decades, Webb lived “on some pretty strong muscle relaxers.” Daily, it feels “like somebody’s choking me.” It’s a feeling that never goes away. Her right arm feels like “it’s covered with a balloon.” There’s hypersensitivity on her neck, which prevents her from wearing turtlenecks, scarves, or jewelry. Moving takes some time.

As for her store, it closed in November 1994. Instead, she merged with another shop owner, and together, they launched another business. Webb left in 1999 and pursued retail work as she was going through a divorce. She needed the healthcare.

But Webb stressed she lives.

“If you saw me, you wouldn’t even know I have a bullet in my neck,” said Webb. “Most people that I know in my life at this time have no idea. This didn’t define me. I’m still the same person. Perhaps I enjoy things a little more and take fewer things for granted. I’ve moved on and lived life to the fullest. I wake up and enjoy every day. I love what I do for work.”

“You can go through terrible things in life and come out just fine,” she added.

“People Magazine Investigates” airs Monday at 9 p.m.