It's the spooky time of year where horror and gore are all around us. In movies, shows, and campfire stories, we share the most gruesome tales to scare one another.
But when you're faced with real life horror, that's a different stories.
In a 2019 study from the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime found chances of falling victim to a homicide worldwide are about 6 in 100,000.
So we went to Reddit to know what it's like to narrowly escape a murder.
Redditor EntertainerWeary7463 asked:
"People who escaped killers in the last second, what is your story?"
Thank goodness they escaped to answer this question.
A terrifying bike ride.
"I was biking home at midnight from work in the city, 2 people stopped my bike, 1 had a bike 1 was on foot. My flight reaction kicked in I started biking as fast as I could. She tried to grab my bag but couldn't hold on and the guy chased me down on his bike for another half mile dinging the bell saying he was going to kill me. Was able to lose him and make it home without them in sight."
"Side note: my car got broke into that night as well."
"All after a working double in the ER."
"Let me add, who knows if they were gonna kill me but given the area I was in and circumstances, I was scared for my life and felt like they would have left me beaten and unattended to, so I feel this qualifies."
"The ringing of the bell with the death threats is a nice touch."
Strangers at a bar.
"It's weird, I was just thinking about it the other day. At the time, I was 22 years old and I went to a casino in New England. I got pretty intoxicated and met this older guy at the bar. I asked him if he wanted to go outside to smoke he said yes. And we went outside and 3 tribal police jumped out of the bushes and slammed him to the floor because he was on the run for assautling and murdering someone."
"So I didn't escape, the Native American police saved me."
"You were very lucky."
"Yep. The part I think about the most is that invited him outside- he didn't even have to do the work. As a good prospective victim, I did it for him. At the risk of sounding melodramatic I wonder if he saw this tendency in me from far away somehow. I do NOT talk to strangers at the bar anymore. In some ways that's sad but it's for the best. Obviously from that point onward I come from a bias perspective on the benefits of socializing with random people."
Caught in the act.
"I was walking home from a late shift and heard this commotion behind a few stores, as I got closer I noticed that it was a guy literally stabbing the sh*t out of another guy, he turned around to see me and came running toward me, I knew of a side alley for service us near my work and I cut down there and circled back round to find the man had been brutally stabbed but not fatally, I called the emergency services and the man lived, the CCTV of that night was able to help police identify him and he's currently in prison on 2 counts of murder and 1 attempted. So yeah that was close."
Escaped the most prolific killer in the U.S.
"I once heard this story where there was this guy coming home late at night when some guy offers him a ride and he accepts. But then he gets this odd feeling and jumps out of the car. A few years pass and he sees this documentary on tv on a serial killer. Apparently the killer had took off his back seat door handles and when the police ask him why he did it he answers, 'Cause the first guy I tried to kill jumped out of the car.'"
- kie_m
"I saw this too it was a college hitchhiker who needed to get back to his dorm when John Wayne Gacy picked him up"
"Oh man that hitch hiker is very lucky to have got out of that car alive."
"Believe it or not, Gacy apparently gave a few hitchhikers rides and didn't kill them. One even offering to have sex with him for money (almost all of his victims did) but he declined."
"33 murders, paid around 150 young men for sex. 20 percent chance of murder. Horrifying. 5th most prolific serial killer in US history (that we know of)."
- drak0ni
Another hitch hiker.
"Hitchhiking back in the day and a guy in a big shiny Cadillac gave me a ride. He then proceeded to tell me about the two young men he slept with the night before."
"Told him to let me out right here and he kept going. Pulled off on a gravel road and drove down it before stopping. He started to reach under his seat as soon as the car stopped."
"I spun around and kicked his head bouncing it off his window, got out and ran like hell back to the highway and immediately got another ride."
"Have absolutely no idea if I hurt him bad or not and I never lost a single night's sleep over it."
"Wow that was close! Good job on the fast thinking and action!"
"No thinking involved. That was just pure scared sh*tless reaction."
"Did they ever get caught?"
- ZaYeDiA
"Never even knew their name. And from the little bit of reading I've done on it, most psychopaths aren't caught. A very small percentage of society, but with 330 million in the US it still adds up."
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Parenting is a lifelong commitment but the load is certainly lightened when kids go off to college or move away for their first "adult" job. It can be quite ...Saved by a seven year old.
"I was five years old when this happened."
"My parents had just separated and my mother decided to attend a girls' night out. She commissioned my 16-year old, male cousin to babysit my siblings and me."
"After my cousin put my siblings and me to bed, he invited some friends over to hang out. One of his friends was completely messed up on acid. Said friend went into the kitchen, grabbed a butcher knife from the block on the counter and walked towards my bedroom."
"My brother (who was 7) happened to be watching this guy from his own bedroom. As soon as he saw him walking towards my bedroom, my brother jumped up from bed, ran into my room, grabbed my arm and pulled me off the bed just before acid guy began repeatedly stabbing the mattress."
"I don't recall what happened next that night. I only remember looking at my shredded mattress the next morning and then watching my mother talking to some people at the front door."
"I would later learn that once I was dragged off the bed, my brother began screaming, which brought my cousin and his other friends running. Upon seeing the carnage, they all wrestled acid guy into submission, called the cops and had him hauled away."
"The people at the door the next morning were the acid guy's parents. They offered to pay off my mother in exchange for her dropping the charges against their son. Mom agreed. I got a new mattress and my mom bought a nice, above-ground swimming pool with the leftover money."
"Acid guy would go on to finish college, get married, have several children and now owns a successful car dealership. He's not exactly a killer, but only because of the quick thinking of a seven year old."
The lifeguard was no help.
"When I was 11 a sitter took a bunch of us to a public pool. Around 4ish, the sun moved and it was getting cooler so everyone headed out."
"I was last of our group in pool. Not a good swimmer. I noticed two teen boys pointing at me. They suddenly dove into the water. One grabbed my long hair and pulled me to the bottom while the other tore my bathing suit bottoms off."
"I fought like the devil and they eventually surfaced for air. I did too, and they jumped out of pool and took off. I regained my strength and got out of pool and found a lifeguard who I think must have seen something. Anyway, the lifeguard told me if I couldn't get along with people to leave the pool."
"My stepfather went to the pool when he got off work to have 'words' with the lifeguard."
"What kind of lifeguard is this?! Dude should not be in that role at all! I'm glad you survived!"
- xcomcmdr
"Almost sounds like they were in on it, they were so casual."
Our mental health system failed this family.
"My brother-in-law killed my mother and father-in-law and their dogs, set several fires, and was most likely on his way to our house for us and our dogs before his truck caught fire."
"He'd set several fires in town, including to his own property and a neighbor's, and something caused his truck to ignite - we don't know if it was some kind of accelerant and intentional fire or if gunfire returned from police set it ablaze. My partner is devastated; we were very close to his parents. Lots of therapy and support from friends and family lately, which has helped, but it's been hard -- especially because his brother was mentally ill and had tried seeking inpatient services months earlier only to be told it would be a 3 month wait."
"Please tell me he's either dead or in prison for life?!"
"He died in the truck, either as the result of the fire or of police gunshots. We don't know for sure yet."
"When I was maybe 10 or so years old, my family took a trip up the west coast of the United States. We stopped at a familiar thrift store we would always visit each time we'd go visiting in the area. My mom and dad usually didn't mind me going off in stores as long as I stayed a few aisles away."
"At some point in the store, I started to realize a man following me around. I didn't think much of it but kept my guard up just in case. (Was taught stranger danger early on). I get to the toy section, and was playing with a few random toys when the man started asking me questions randomly. 'You have pretty hair. Do you brush it yourself?' 'You like to play with toys? Which ones do you prefer?' 'What's your favorite color?'"
"At this point I'm getting scared because he was closing the gap between us and I was stuck down an aisle that only had one way out. He began coming closer to me, a creepy look on his face and as he tried to reach out to touch me I screamed bloody murder. EVERYONE in the store ran over to see what was going on."
"The man freaked out, grabbed me and tried to run. I'm screaming for my parents who came running a few seconds later and my dad punch the guy, grabbed me when the guy let go of me when he was punched, and we went to the front of the store to call the police. (Back when cellphones didn't exist). Police arrived and my parents told them what happened but I guess the guy bolted out the back door because he was gone. I don't remember all the details of how he escaped."
"A few years later I was watching the news and saw a familiar face and my mom started freaking out and told me and my dad that the guy on the TV (he was booked for kidnapping,). It was the guy who tried to take me."
Threatened to be set on fire.
"College buddy and I had just completed a big project and went out for late-night milkshakes to celebrate. On the way back he stopped for gas near campus. Three kids (maybe 13, 15 or 16, and 17 or 18) are there with a gas can asking for a ride back to their car. For some unknown reason my friend (who was normally pretty curmudgeonly) offers them a ride."
"We go several blocks to a sketchy part of town when they tell us to pull over behind a car parked along the side of the road. As soon as we do, the youngest kid opens the back passenger door and books it, the middle kid starts splashing gasoline on us, and the oldest gets out via the back driver side door and leans into the front trying to grab to grab the keys and demanding our wallets or they'll set us on fire."
"I go for the eyes of the guy leaning in, he pulls back and we skedaddle out my side, soaked in gasoline. The middle kid comes after me and I just push him and we start running. I lose my flip-flops and am running barefoot, we jump a fence and find a bougainvillea bush on the other side, and finally make it back to the gas station and call the cops. Within 1 minute we have (what I later learn) is every patrol car in town pull up."
"They take us back to find the car, which is abandoned with a gasoline pooling on the floorboards. We have it towed and go back to file a report and look through mugshots. The police question us for what seems like a long time, and finally as we're leaving one of them apologizes for the third degree and tells us based on the location they initially thought it might be a drug deal gone bad."
"Finally get back home, throw away my clothes, and as I'm showering and trying to get the gasoline smell off of me, notice blood running down the drain. Discover in my hasty barefoot retreat I'd stepped on a dime-sized piece of glass that was still embedded in my foot."
"Not a great night, although it has gotten me out of jury-duty a couple times."
The terror is unmatched.
"Two guys followed me home from work when I was 15. I called my mom because I noticed them and was being careful. I got inside my house and locked the door and the guys started banging on the window. My mom conferenced in 911 while I tried to find a different way out (one big window and one outside door for the whole house). Cops showed up right as the window broke and they were coming in. I remember being curled up in a corner yelling to 911 to hurry up. Nothing will ever match that terror."
"Please tell me they were arrested!?"
"They actually ran. I had to give a statement and do the drawing thing. My dad picked me up and we drove around town looking for them. We actually drove by one of them but he and I made eye contact and my throat closed up and I froze. On one hand, I'm glad because I'm sure my dad would've beat him half to death (if not completely) but on the other hand, they both still roam free."
The chances of being murdered are usually based on location, age, race, and gender, so it's hard to say what the actual chances are, but if you want to find out you can go to RateMyRisk.com and find out.
And try not to worry too much.
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