Dawnette Sue Wilt: Captivity, Survival, and the Risico Testimony

Dawnette Sue Wilt was a 16-year-old from Indiana who, in April 1984, survived abduction, sexual assault, torture, and three stab wounds inflicted by serial killer Christopher Wilder near the end of his cross-country spree. She crawled out of a wooded area near Watkins Glen, New York, after Wilder left her for dead, and her testimony to the FBI later became central to how investigators treated Tina Marie Risico, the other teenager Wilder had forced to help lure her.¹

How She Was Lured

On April 10, 1984, Wilder and 16-year-old Tina Marie Risico, whom he had abducted six days earlier in California, arrived at South Lake Mall in the Gary, Indiana, area. Under Wilder’s orders, Risico approached Wilt with a fabricated offer of a photography or modeling job.¹² Risico later said she complied because she feared for her own life: “I just did what he said.”³

Once Wilt was inside the stolen Mercury Cougar, Wilder held her at gunpoint, taped her eyes shut, and bound her limbs.¹

Two Days of Captivity

Over the next two days, as Wilder drove east, he subjected Wilt to repeated sexual assault, electrocution using a lamp cord, and other forms of torture. Risico, present in the vehicle and at stops along the way, later recounted hearing Wilt’s screams from the bathroom of a motel.³

How She Survived

On the morning of April 12, 1984, Wilder reportedly saw a television broadcast of Risico’s mother pleading for her daughter’s return on Good Morning America. He drugged Wilt and drove to a secluded wooded area near Watkins Glen, in New York’s Finger Lakes region.¹

There, Wilder tortured Wilt for roughly thirty minutes. When he tried to suffocate her, she fought back. He then stabbed her three times, twice in the back and once in the chest, narrowly missing her heart and puncturing a lung.¹ Wilder left her in the woods, apparently believing she was dead, and drove off with Risico.

Wilt was still alive. She later described her decision to keep going in stark terms: “If I had decided not to get up, then I would have died for sure.” Using her own trousers as a makeshift bandage to slow the bleeding from her punctured lung, she crawled toward the road. A passing motorist named Charles Laursen found her and rushed her to a hospital.¹ A UPI report from the time described her being found “stabbed and bleeding” while “wandering along the roadside in Penn Yan, N.Y.” on the night of April 12.⁴

Wilder was killed the following day, April 13, 1984, during an attempted arrest by New Hampshire State Police near Colebrook.⁵

Why Her Testimony Mattered in the Risico Case

With Wilder dead, the open legal question was what to do about Tina Marie Risico. Her attorneys demanded complete immunity from federal and state prosecution before she would cooperate with investigators, and she temporarily halted interviews while that request was pending.⁶ The question divided the FBI: agents in the Miami field office wanted to pursue Risico aggressively, while the Indianapolis office considered using a federal grand jury subpoena to compel her testimony.⁷

FBI agent Michael Kogut publicly stated his belief that Risico had remained with Wilder out of “abject fear of her life.” U.S. Attorney Salvator Martoche called a grant of immunity “premature,” noting that while there was no current basis to treat Risico as anything other than a victim, “that can change.” FBI agent Gordon Gwinn acknowledged that “there are still a lot of things in the gray area.”⁶

Wilt’s testimony, given on April 12, 1984, proved pivotal. As the person Risico had been coerced into luring, Wilt was the key witness to whether Risico had acted as an accomplice or as a victim following orders under threat. Investigators used her account to assess whether federal charges against Risico were warranted.⁷ Wilt herself eventually came to view Risico not as a willing participant but as another of Wilder’s victims. She initially believed Risico and Wilder were together, but ultimately concluded Risico had been acting under duress.³ Risico was never charged with any crime, and law enforcement classified her as one of Wilder’s three known survivors alongside Wilt and Linda Grober.⁴

Where Her Story Stands Now

Wilt spoke publicly about her ordeal in the 2023 Hulu documentary The Beauty Queen Killer: 9 Days of Terror, which also featured Risico. It was one of the first times the two women discussed their experiences on the record together.³ Wilt’s account, of a teenager who was drugged, tortured, and stabbed three times, then bandaged her own wounds and walked out of the woods to find help, has since been recognized as one of the more extraordinary survival stories in the Wilder case.

1
Catching Evil. The Mystery of Tina Risico, the Stunning Courage of Dawnette Wilt
2
ABC News. Survivors of Serial Killer Christopher Wilder Speak for First Time
3
E! Online. Beauty Queen Killer Christopher Wilder’s Survivor Tina Marie Risico Speaks Out
4
UPI. Kidnapped Teenager Freed After Terrifying Run With Wilder
5
Miami Herald. Christopher Wilder Serial Killer
6
UPI. Wilder Victim Seeks Immunity
7
Catching Evil. Episode 15: Dawnette’s Story