Woman Voluntarily Sits in Truck of Man Who Creeped Her Out

Who does this?

Morna Brennen did this when she was 22. She and a few friends went to a bar and stayed there late.

At some point while they were there, a man took an interest in Morna. But she was creeped out by him and pretty much ignored him.

Later when it was time to leave, Morna and one of her friends went out into the biting cold and dark parking lot.

Her friend was going to drive her home. Suddenly, someone from near the bar called out the friend’s name.

The friend told Morna to wait for her, that she’d be right back.

So Morna waited alone in the very cold air.

Then someone appeared before her from the parking lot – the creepy man who had approached her earlier inside the bar.

She told him she was waiting for her ride to rejoin her outside and take her home.

The man suggested that she wait inside his warm truck rather than shiver outside in the cold.

What Morna did: Went inside the man’s truck by her own free will.

What Morna should have done: Gone back inside the bar.

What could have possibly compelled her to sit inside the vehicle of a man who, just a short while earlier, had given her the creeps?

Nobody will ever know, but one theory is that she thought it would have been rude to decline a kind gesture. Women, as children, more so than men, are trained to “always be nice.” Perhaps Morna’s judgement was clouded by being trained since childhood to never appear rude.

Another theory is that despite the way this story is told on Investigation Discovery, Morna was actually forced into the truck.

One might also suppose that had Morna declined the man’s offer and headed back towards the bar, he would have ambushed her from behind and dragged her to the vehicle, forcing her in.

Or perhaps he would have killed her right in the parking lot, then sped off.

So what ultimately could have saved Morna’s life?

When her friend decided to go back into the bar, Morna could have followed as well, if for no other reason than to avoid standing outside in the frosty air.

Nobody knows how much time passed between the time her friend left her and the man approached her.

But if you’re ever standing alone in a dark parking lot in the wee hours of the morning for longer than a few minutes while waiting for your ride to come out of a building, it’s time to go back inside the building.

The man, Rickie Kiger, drove off with Morna in the passenger seat, and soon after butchered her, dismembering her body. This occurred in the mid 1980’s, long before smartphones with emergency apps were invented.

Though it’s possible that Rickie approached her only 20 seconds after her friend left her, it’s easy to believe that had Morna sprinted back into the bar the second she saw him, she would have gotten inside before he had a chance to grab her.

Robert Siciliano personal security and identity theft expert and speaker is the author of Identity Theft Privacy: Security Protection and Fraud Prevention: Your Guide to Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft and Computer Fraud. See him knock’em dead in this Security Awareness Training video.