She Escaped Florida’s ‘Vampire Rapist’ — and Lived to Expose His Hidden Horrors By Christina Coulter

Laura Murphy was found crawling naked and handcuffed along a Florida roadside in November 1985 — her body missing nearly half its blood — after surviving more than 20 hours of torture by a man investigators later suspected in 24 to 30 disappearances and homicides across multiple states.

Murphy had been hitchhiking when John Crutchley, a clean-cut engineer with a secret obsession, offered her a ride. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Crutchley insisted they stop at his Malabar home to pick up a notebook.

When the 19-year-old refused to go inside, Crutchley choked her unconscious and dragged her into the home. She awoke stripped naked and strapped to his kitchen counter, her arms and legs bound while a video camera recorded the ordeal.

Crutchley raped Murphy and used medical syringes to drain nearly half her blood, according to the Los Angeles Times and Oxygen. She escaped about 22 hours after the assault began, crawling through a window and staggering naked and handcuffed to the roadside for help.

Inside Crutchley’s home, investigators found syringes, tubing, bondage gear, and jewelry — as well as a stack of credit cards, locks of hair, and ID cards belonging to several deceased women, per the outlets.

FBI profiler Robert Ressler later said he was “very glad” to have been brought onto the case, adding that after learning more about Crutchley, he thought it was “probable that they had a serial killer in custody,” Oxygen reported.

Police in five states reviewed unsolved murders potentially tied to Crutchley, who was dubbed the “Vampire Rapist” after Murphy’s escape.

Authorities in Florida told the Tampa Bay Times they believed he might have been involved in 24 slayings, including three in Brevard County — but the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office closed its investigation in August 1996 without filing additional charges.

“When I did what I did, I was at a totally different place in my life,” Crutchley later told reporters, according to the Tampa Bay Times. “I feel exceptionally bad about that. I devastated my family. I have nothing but a devastated life in Florida.”

Crutchley pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexual battery in 1986. He was released on parole in 1996 but returned to prison two years later for a drug conviction.

On March 30, 2002, he was found dead in his cell at Hardee Correctional Institution with a plastic bag over his head. Death investigators determined it was an accidental act of autoerotic asphyxiation, per the Deseret News and the Orlando Sentinel.

Laura Murphy was hospitalized and eventually recovered, but has remained out of the public eye since the attack.