The Murder of Elizabeth Reiser — and How Her Best Friend Battled to Survive
When the unthinkable happened, Brandi Hicks had only her wits to save her from the hands of a monster.
It was May of the year 2000, and best friends Elizabeth Reiser, 17, and 18-year-old Brandi Hicks from Ohio were just days away from their high school graduation. With exams finished and long weeks of summer stretching ahead of them, they were looking forward to an evening of fun and relaxation.
They had a choir banquet to attend at their local church first, and then the two girls planned to head out to the video store to rent a couple of movies they would watch at Brandi’s house.
“Ordinarily, Liz would never have been out on a school night, but it was only a few days until her graduation and all of her work was finished, so we let her go,” Elizabeth’s mother Becki later told the Times Reporter.
A fateful meeting
While they browsed the titles at the video rental shop in their home town, Liz and Brandi were approached by an older guy who told them he had no way to get home. He asked the friends if they could give him a ride and offered to pay them $20 for the favour.
