A German backpacker attacked at Salt Creek has revealed the chilling words her 61-year-old kidnapper uttered when she interrupted him sexually assaulting her traveling companion.
Lena Rabente, 25, and fellow backpacker Beatriz, from Brazil, took a ride with Roman Heinze early last year from Adelaide, hoping to go to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road.
But after stopping to camp at the remote beach in South Australia, Lena awoke to find Beatriz, naked and bound with rope, laying in the sand with the Heinze standing over her.
‘I shouted at him something like “leave her alone, get away from her, let her go” and he turned around to me and he said something really strange that I didn’t get immediately in that moment,’ Lena told 60 Minutes.
‘He said something like “I just wanted to try her”,’ the 25-year-old recalled.
A German backpacker attacked at Salt Creek has revealed the chilling words her 61-year-old kidnapper uttered when she interrupted him sexually assaulting her traveling companion
Lena Rabente (left), 25, and fellow backpacker Beatriz (right), from Brazil , took a ride with Roman Heinze early last year from Adelaide , hoping to go to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road
But after stopping to camp at the remote beach in South Australia, Lena awoke to find Beatriz, naked and bound with rope, laying in the sand with the Heinze standing over her
Lena and Beatriz, 25, spoke publicly for the first time on Sunday about their horrific ordeal and their struggle to survive.
Lena said Heinze, 61, began beating her over the head with a hammer after she interrupted him attacking Beatriz.
Heinze, who was now travelling by car, then chased Lena on the sand dunes for nearly a kilometre.
Dashing in all different directions, Lena dashed, making sharp turns as her attacker pursued her in his 4WD.
As she tired, Heinze began to hit her with his bumper bar, causing her to fall – but every time, she would get back up and continue to run.
‘I was so determined that I didn’t want to die. Not here, not now,’ she said.
Eventually tiring, Lena made a drastic decision that saved her life. She ran at the car, launching herself on to the bonnet before climbing on to the roof.
‘I thought, I’m safe on the roof, he can’t get on the roof,’ she said.
‘I felt a bit like, in a movie – it felt like James Bond.’
Lena Rabente and Beatriz (pictured) have relived the horrific ordeal they experienced when Roman Heinze kidnapped and tortured them at Salt Creek
Lena told an amazing story of survival, revealing she climbed on to the roof of Heinze’s 4WD while he was driving it in an attempt to escape
The women managed to escape the frightening ordeal, and Heinze (pictured) was found in his car further down the beach, all on the same day
Heinze tried desperately to get Lena off the roof of his car. She kicked towards his face as he tried to hit her with the hammer again and again.
Meanwhile, the German woman’s head is still gushing blood from the initial blow. She described it to the program as ‘blood rain’.
Heinze then returned to his car and started driving erratically in an attempt to throw her off as she clings on for dear life.
Meanwhile, a car approached Beatriz, who had fled to nearby bushes after Lena had been able to untie the rope binding her hands and ankles.
She ran towards the car, stark naked, screaming for help. Inside the car, a group of men called a nearby roadhouse, who notified police.
Beatriz begged the men not to take her back to the entrance of the isolated beach, instead she asked they help find Lena, who was still on the roof of Heinze’s car.
Heinze was caught and arrested after his 4WD became bogged in a sand dune (pictured). He was jailed for 22 years
Heinze answered an ad the women posted on Gumtree requesting a lift from Adelaide to Melbourne early last year (pictured: camp site at Salt Creek)
The man eventually lured her down, throwing away his weapons in the process. Now barely conscious, Lena got into the front seat, and the pair began to travel down the beach – straight past Beatriz and the men who rescued her.
Though she was on the brink of consciousness, Lena jumped out of Heinze’s car and ran for the men – who later revealed they could not tell if she was a man or a woman, such were the extent of her injuries.
Police, alongside the roadhouse owner, began to search for an escaping Heinze. They found him bogged in the sand of the dunes, with his hands on the wheel of the car.
He was arrested, and did not put up a fight.
In an interview with 60 Minutes, Lena (left) said she ‘felt like James Bond’ as she moved to distract Heinze from her friend, who laid naked and bound on the beach