Ten Real-Life Final Girls
- Flora Irvine-Hall
- Jul 26
- 8 min read
By Flora Irvine-Hall
These women came face-to-face with real-life evil
TRIGGER WARNING: This article contains details about violence and rape
The Final Girl. She’s the character that makes it the end. The lone survivor who endured being chased and tortured by a crazed killer. She’s a beloved trope.
But what about the real-life final girls?
Below is a list of ten women who survived the unthinkable.
1. Cythia Vigil
On the 19th of March, Cynthia Vigil was kidnapped by the toy box killer, otherwise known as David Parker Ray and his girlfriend, Cindy Hendy.
David Parker Ray was a kidnapper, torturer, rapist and suspected killer. His nickname, the toy box killer, is due to him using soundproofing methods on a trailer, which he called his “Toy Box” where he would torture and rape his victims.
Ray pretended to be an undercover police officer and told Cynthia she was under arrest for illegal sex work.
She was then put into the back of his trailer and taken to Elephant Butte where she was held captive for three days.
Cynthia planned her escape by waiting until Ray had gone to work. She managed to unlock her chains but he was spotted by Cindy.
Cindy broke a lamp over Cynthia’s head but Cynthia managed to stab Cindy with an icepick.
Cynthia ran, wearing only a slave collar and padlocked chains. She found help in a nearby home.
2. Juliane Koepake
Julie isn’t really a final girl in the traditional sense, but she’s still a remarkable woman and with a crazy story of survival.
When she was 17, Juliane was flying over the Peruvian Rainforest with her mother, when the plane was struck by lightning.
Above two miles off the ground, the plane broke into pieces.
The next day, Juliane woke up in the jungle completely alone. Remarkably, she had no serious injuries.
Ten days later, Juliane found a hut with a palm leaf road, an outboard motor and a litre of gasoline.
Juliane had a wound on her upper right arm that was a metre long and infected with maggots. Juliane sucked the gasoline out and put it into the wound. She managed to pull out 30 maggots.
It was the next day when Juline heard men’s voices.
The men treated her wounds and took her back to civilisation.
The day after she was rescued, she was reunited with her father.
The searched long and hard for her mother until they found her body on the 12th of January.
Juliane’s mother had survived the crash but died several days later due to injuries.
Juliane recalls the last words she ever heard her mother say, which were: “This is the end, it’s all over.”
3. Corazon Amurao
In 1966, eight nursing students were horrifically murdered.
The act was carried out by Richard Speck, who already had 41 counts of arrest. Speck had been arrested for drunk driving, trespassing, forgery, violence, rape, robbery and murder.
The tragic ordeal took place in Jeffrey Manor, which is in Chicago’s far south side.
Speck killed the nursing students by slashing their throats, strangling them and by stabbing them. It was also believed that he raped one of the students before killing her.
One nursing student, Corazon Amurao, survived. She survived by hiding under the bed.
4. Rhonda Stapley
In 1974, Rhonda Stapley came face to face with one of the world’s most famous serial killers, Ted Bundy.
Rhonda was 21 years old when she accepted a ride from Ted Bundy who then raped her.
Bundy told Rhonda that his name was Ted as he announced he was going to murder her. He choked Rhonda in and out of consciousness. By some miracle, she still manged to escape.
Rhonda never reported the crime as she felt a great deal of shame and feared that her mother would take her out of school.
One year later, the news reported that Bundy had been arrested for abduction.
Rhonda expressed that she felt both relief and guilt over this. She felt revealed that her attacker was behind her bars but felt guilty for not saying anything sooner.
She also felt that because others had already described Bundy to the police, that she’d be questioned as to why she didn’t say anything sooner.
In 2016, she published her memoir, I Survived Ted Bundy: The Attack, Espace & PTSD That Changed My Life.
5. Mary Vincent
If Mary Vincent was a character in a horror film, you’d probably scoff at her surviving and say that it wasn’t realistic. But it is realistic, because she did.
Mary ran away from home when her parents were going through a divorce. She briefly lived on the streets before going to visit her grandfather in Berkely, California. Mary got homesick while she was there so decided to hitchhike home. Unfortunately for Mary, she’d hitch a ride with Lawrence Singleton.
Mary started to get suspicious of Singleton when he deliberately kept going the wrong way. Mary tried to flee but she was knocked juncaceous with a sledgehammer.
When she woke up, she was tied up and violently raped by Singleton who then chopped off both her arms at the forearm with a hatchet. After this, Singleton threw her off cliff, leaving her for dead.
Shockingly, Mary survived. In spite of her horrific injuries, she manged to clime to the top of the cliff and dipped the stumps of her forearms in mud which slowed the bleeding down. She then tried to flag down drivers to help her. After walking in severe pain for nearly three miles, a couple stopped to help her.
6. Kala Brown
On the 30th of August 2016, Kala Brown and her boyfriend Charlie Calver, went missing. On the 3rd of November 2016, Kala was found chained up inside a metal crate.
When Kayla and Charlie first went missing, a Facebook page was set up by their friends and family.
But things started to get strange. In October, a post was made on Charlie’s Facebook account announcing that he and Kayla were married.
Facebook users also started to receive messages from Charlie’s account, reassuring them that he and Kayla were both safe.
It is now believed that he had been hacked.
Kayla and Charlie were taken hostage by Todd Kohlhepp, who also happened to be the owner of the real estate company that Kayla worked for.
Kohlhepp was a registered sex offender but managed to get a real estate licence after lying about felony chargers which is how he would eventually become Kayla’s boss.
When Kayla was found by authorities, she told them that Kohlhepp had shot and murdered Charlie.
When she was held captive, Kayla was repeatedly raped. She was also too scared to try and escape herself after Kohlhepp showed her the corpses of his other victims.
7. Kara Robinson
It was the 24th of June 2002 when 15-year-old Kara Robinson had the grave misfortune of meeting serial killer, kidnapper and rapist Richard Marc Edward Evonitz.
Kara was out on her friends yard when she was approached by Evonitz when he tried to give her some pamphlets. Once he realised that the parents of Kara’s friends weren’t home, Evonitz held a gun to Kara’s neck before forcing her into a plastic bin with a gag in her mouth.
She was taken to his apartment where she was raped, forced to smoke marijuana and tied to his bed.
When Kara’s abduction made it the news, Evonitz tied her to a homemade wooden apparatus to spread her legs.
While Evonitz was sleeping, Kara managed to free herself, escape and identify her kidnapper to the police by identifying information that she found on Evontiz’s refrigerator.
In 2023, a film about Kayla’s escape, starring Katie Douglas was released. The film can be streamed on Paramount.
8. Lisa McVey
Lisa’s story is a tale of survival and resilience.
It was 1984 when 17-year-old Lisa McVey was abducted by Bobby Joe Long, a serial killer who had previously murdered eight women.
Lisa was riding her bike home after finishing work when Long jumped out, knocked her off her bike and dragged her into his car while holding a gun into her head.
Long blindfolded Lisa and then raped her. While this was happening however, Lisa clenched her jaw so she could see through a small space in the blindfold when she relaxed it again.
Through the space, Lisa could see that Long’s car had red carpet and white seats as well as the word “Magnum” written across the dashboard.
Lisa was then taken back to Long’s apartment where was repeatedly sexually abused. Long kept her blindfold on during these attacks. During one of the attacks, Lisa touched Long’s face and could feel that he had a moustache and a snub nose which are physical traits she would later use to help identify him.
Lisa was a highly intelligent young girl and came up with lots of ways to leave evidence such as touching everything in the bathroom in order to leave her fingerprints behind.
Lisa also tried to bond with Long in order to get inside his head.
Long told Lisa about his past murders and explained that he was doing this as a result of bad breakups. Lisa tried to sweeten Long by telling him that she would be his girlfriend.
She also told him that her father was ill and she was his only caregiver. This was a lie, but a lie that would lead to her freedom.
After 26 hours, Long put Lisa back into the back of car and dropped her off near her grandmother's house.
Long kept Lisa blindfolded and told her he was sorry and to wait five minutes before taking off her blindfold.
Lisa did as she was told.
But Lisa’s horrific ordeal wasn’t over yet.Neither her grandmother, nor the female detective that she first spoke with believed her.
But then Lisa met detective Larry Pinkerton. And he believed her.
And with Lisa’s help, they were able to track and identify Long.
Today, Lisa is a master deputy with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s office.
Lisa’s story was adapted into a film also starring Katie Douglas called Believe Me.
9. Enietra Washington
It was 1989 when Enietra was walking to a friend’s house when she encountered Lonnie Franklin Jr.
Franklin repeatedly asked Enietra if she wanted a lift and even made a racist remark about her being a black women and how “you couldn’t be nice to people like her.”
Enietra didn’t want to seem rude so obliged.
After Franklin made a stop at his uncle’s house, he shot Enietra in the chest.
Franklin then raped Enietra twice and took a picture of her bleeding body before pushing her out into the street.
By some miracle, Enietra managed make her way to a friend’s house where she received medical attention.
It was nearly two decades later when Franklin was arrested for murdering 10 victims between 1985 and 2007.
Enietra was a star witness of the trial.
10. Cindy Paulson
On the 13th of June in 1983, 17-year-old Cindy Paulson was abducted by Robert Hansen, otherwise known as The Butcher Baker.
Hansen took Cindy back to his home in Anchorage where she was chained up, raped and tortured.
Hansen, who got his nickname due to being a baker, then tried to get Cindy to get on his private plane.
Cindy was certain that he would kill her if she boarded the plane, so fled from the scene while still in handcuffs. She managed to flag down a motorist, who took her to safety.
Despite Cindy reporting Hansen, he managed to convince the police that Cindy was just trying to extort money from him.
Months later however, he was finally arrested for murdering multiple women.
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