The Real-Life Wolf Creek

Lena and Beatriz saved each other from a monster.

In February 2016, German backpacker Lena Rabente met Brazilian backpacker Beatriz for the first time in Adelaide. Both were young and adventurous but it was their first solo backpack trip in Australia so they decided to pair up as they had the same destination in mind, Melbourne.

They hopped onto Gumtree, a common site that backpackers used to find a ride and took on the offer of a man around their age but that man canceled on them last minute as he had car troubles. With no other choice, they turned to the second and last offer they had, from 59-year-old Roman Heinze.

When the 3 met up at the agreed location, Lena was not very comfortable with Roman but, with Beatriz around, she felt safer. During their text exchange, Beatriz did felt like Roman was slightly impatient but neither of them thought he was dangerous. They had no inkling on how volatile this man actually was.

Roman’s ex-girlfriend, Sylvia Clark attested to that. In the beginning, he was charming but the relationship soon turned ugly. After 6 months, Slyvia left him when he sexually abused her but she was too ashamed to involve the police. It was believed that Slyvia luckily escaped with her life as they had plans for a camping trip in Salt Creek where Beatriz and Lena would face their worst nightmare.

Without any discussion, he pulled up at Salt Creek, a remote fishing destination. Worried, Lena asked Beatriz whether would it be okay. However, once again, he did not show any signs of aggression or creepiness during the car ride. He was just a quiet man, so they thought. They even took a video with Beatriz in aviators smiling away in the front seat with Lena at the back.

Roman and Beatriz set up camp while tired Lena took a nap in the car. Roman then convinced Beatriz that there were kangaroos at the back of the sand dunes where Beatriz initially did follow him but eventually wanted to turn back but Roman knocked her down. Beatriz even thought it was a bad joke until she realized it was not. She threw the rope that Roman sneakily brought with him but it only made him furious.

193cm, he towered her,

“Either you make it easy or I will break your arm.”

She decided to choose her fights wisely. With her ankle and arms bound, Roman began sexually assaulting her. Beatriz decided to try and trick him that she was in fact on his side and he could do whatever he liked in the comforts of the camp. Beatriz thought she lucked out when he agreed but as they were getting closer to the camp, he suddenly changed his mind.

One chance. She screamed for sleeping Lena on top of her lungs.

And miraculously despite the wave, wind, and being enclosed in a car, Lena heard her cry for help. Lena saw Beatriz, lying down completely naked in the sand dunes with Roman over her but she did not attempt to escape alone. Instead, she shouted for him to stop and bravely went in his direction. When Roman came after her, Lena ran back to the car to get her cellphone to get help but Roman smashed her head with a hammer from the back. She was hit another 3 more times before she got to escape.

Despite her injuries and her bleeding head, she quickly untied Beatriz. For a chance of survival, both of them decided to split up so that at least of one them could make it. Completely naked and vulnerable Beatriz ran into the sand dunes and hid in the bush while Lena ran to the right where it was a plain field and had nowhere to hide.

She became prey to Roman where Roman chased her down with his 4 wheel drive, bumped her, send her flying, and chased her again when she stood back up. Despite the force of every bump, courageous Lena always stood back up and ran. She ran for nearly 1km before deciding that she could not keep this up as she grew wearier and wearier.

With all her strength, she ran towards the car and jump on the bonnet, and climbed on to the 4 wheel drive’s roof. Roman came out in anger and tried to pull her off the roof but now that Lena had the advantage of the height, she tried to kick him. She described her bleeding like,

Blood rain, It kept dripping on the roof.

Meanwhile, Beatriz fearlessly stopped an oncoming car even though she was completely naked. The group of young fishermen called the only local roadhouse, Adam Stewart, who knew the terrain well. Even though Beatriz could have gone back to safety, she insisted and convinced the group of young fishermen to search for Lena.

Roman tried to get her off the roof by driving like a madman but Lena held on with all of her strength. In the end, they came to a deal where she would come down if he threw away all of his weapons. He did. Perhaps, he was convinced that he could overpower her without the weapons. After all, she was weak from the previous fight and blood loss. Roman sped past the group of fishermen but luckily the fishermen caught a glimpse of Lena weakly waving for help in the front seat.

Despite the uncertainties, the group of fishermen followed Roman and finally cornered him on the sand dunes. When Lena stepped out of the car, Roman did not try to stop her. She was so bloodied up to the point that the group of fishermen was not even sure of her gender.

Adam Stewart called the police and even assisted the police in tracking down Roman who took off but ended up stuck in a sand dune. He was arrested and sentenced to 22 years in jail with the possibility of parole after 17 years.

Beatriz felt guilt towards Lena but Lena never blamed her one bit. Lena recovered from her physical injuries but like Beatriz, they still suffer from mental trauma from the incident as they would still feel uncomfortable and fearful in public. But, neither Lena nor Beatriz blamed Australia, but only on Roman Heinze. Lena said

‘I want you to know, Roman, that you could not defeat me. You could not break me. You could not win, even when you tried so hard,’

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