Teenager believed to be Australian’s victim

Press, 14 April 1984, Page 11

Teenager believed to be Australian’s victim

NZPA-Reuter Rochester A teen-age girl found stabbed but alive near Rochester, New York, yesterday, may be the latest victim of an Australian racingcar driver sought for questioning in the murders of at least four young women, the F. 8.1. said. Christopher Bernard Wilder is on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s “10 most-wanted list,” suspected of killing the women after luring them away with promises that he would photograph them for fashion magazines. Wilder, aged 39, has been charged with kidnapping in the abduction, torture, and rape of a Florida student. The stabbing victim, Dawnette Wilt, aged 16, had

been lured away from a shopping mall in Lake County, Indiana.

The F. 8.1. said that on Tuesday Miss Wilt had been approached by a woman using the name Wilder, who asked if she wanted to pose for fashion photos. The woman had led the girl to a car where a man, armed with a gun and a knife, abducted her. The F. 8.1. said that the three had driven to Akron, Ohio, on Wednesday, and to Syracuse yesterday. Miss Wilt had been found on a rural road near Barryngton, about 40km south of Rochester. She had had numerous stab wounds, including a punctured lung, but was now in stable condition in hospital.

The F. 8.1. said that the man fitted Wilder’s description but was clean-shaven. Before Wilder vanished from his Florida home on March 17 he had a beard. An F. 8.1. agent said that it appeared to be the first time that the suspect had used an accomplice. Wilder is wanted for questioning in the killings of four young women and the disappearance of two others across the United States in the last two months. Wilder, a bachelor, is an Australian who races cars part-time. In 1982, while visiting Australia, he was charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting two 15-year-old girls. He failed to appear at the trial last week and lost SUS4OO,OOO bail.