How Cindy Paulson Escaped Serial Killer Robert Hansen

Updated October 20, 2024

April 19, 2020 ~ By Shari Rose

After she was kidnapped by Alaskan serial killer Robert Hansen, 17-year-old Cindy Paulson escaped captivity and directly led to his arrest, finally ending the Butcher Baker’s 12-year killing spree

Known as the Butcher Baker, Alaskan serial killer Robert Hansen kidnapped and murdered at least 17 women from 1971 to 1983. Once he had control over each target, Hansen took his victims in his private plane to remote areas in the Alaskan wilderness to hunt them down with a rifle. Had it not been for Cindy Paulson’s escape from this serial killer’s grasp at an airfield, Robert Hansen’s murder spree surely would have continued unabated. This is the story of how a 17-year-old survivor turned the tables on a prolific killer and prevented an untold number of other victims from experiencing the same fate.

• Robert Hansen Picks Up Cindy Paulson in Anchorage
• Paulson Escapes Hansen at Merrill Field
• Cindy Paulson Helps Anchorage Police Identify Her Kidnapper
• Portrayal of Paulson’s Story in “The Frozen Ground”
• Other Hansen Victims Exhumed & Identified in Alaska

Robert Hansen Picks Up Cindy Paulson in Anchorage

Living in Anchorage with her mother, Cindy Paulson was a 17-year-old dancer and sex worker who frequented many of the same establishments that Hansen visited while looking for targets. On June 13, 1983, Robert Hansen pulled up to Paulson in his car and propositioned her.

The teenager agreed to get his in car, but as soon as she did, everything changed. Hansen immediately pulled a gun on Paulson and placed her in handcuffs.

“And he had cuffed one of my hands, and I was trying to get loose and he pulled out a gun,” Paulson said in a police interview three months after the attack. “Then he had got my other hand cuffed, I don’t know how he did it, it was just frightening, ‘cause I didn’t really … I fought, but not a lot, ‘cause I knew he would do something.”

Robert Hansen then took Cindy Paulson to his home, sexually assaulted and tortured her for hours. In addition to the handcuffs he kept on her wrists, Hansen also tied a rope around her neck and tied it to a coffee table in his house. Having spent hours and hours trapped in the serial killer’s home, Paulson took note of every detail that she could remember, including the bars he had on his windows and a bullet hole in the floor.  

“And then about five hours later he woke up and came over there and I told him all I want to do is go home, ‘cause I live with my mom, and I won’t tell nobody,” Paulson said to Sgt. Glenn Flothe, the Alaska State Trooper leading the investigation.

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“He said that he had a plane over at Merrill Airfield and that we would go there, then he would take me to his cabin and bring me back. And I knew that I wasn’t going to come back,” she recounted.

After some hours in the home, Hansen began showing Paulson his large collection of hunting trophies. He originally told her that his name was Don, but she could easily read his real name listed on these awards. Paulson said it was at this moment that she realized he was going to kill her because she now knew his true identity. So she resolved to try and escape, if the chance ever arose. 

Paulson Escapes Hansen at Merrill Field

At around 5am, Hansen drove the two of them to a local airfield called Merrill Field, where his private plane was waiting. Hansen parked, got out of the car, and told the still-handcuffed Cindy Paulson to not move, or else he’d kill her. 

After Hansen left the car to fuel and load his plane, Paulson threw her body into the driver’s seat and managed to open the door. Wearing no shoes and her hands still cuffed, the teen sprinted for the nearest street. Hansen turned around in time to see Paulson escape. He gave chase, yelling at her to return, but Paulson successfully ran onto Sixth Avenue. As luck or fate would have it, a driver in a pickup truck just happened to pass by, took one look at her, and pulled over.

After several terrifying and tortuous hours in the Butcher Baker’s captivity, Cindy Paulson was finally free. She asked the driver, a man named Robert Yount, to take her to a nearby motel where her boyfriend was staying. 

Still at the airfield, Robert Hansen made his way back to his car and quickly sped off. However, an observant security guard took notice of Hansen’s strange behavior and wrote down his license plate and car model.  

Back at the motel, Paulson, still in handcuffs, got a hold of her boyfriend over the phone at the front desk. Soon after, a motel employee made a call to the Anchorage Police Department. 

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Cindy Paulson Helps Anchorage Police Identify Her Kidnapper

When police arrived, Cindy Paulson provided a highly detailed account of her horrific ordeal, including information about Hansen’s car, the interior of his home, the street his property was on, and even little details about the gun the serial killer threatened her with.

Less than an hour after Paulson escaped Hansen, the teenager was in a police car headed for the hospital, as is standard protocol for a victim of sexual assault. While en route to the hospital, they drove past the same airfield Paulson had just run away from. She remembered which area of the airport that she had been taken to, and what Hansen’s plane looked like. Cindy Paulson then asked the officer to stop so she could lead police to precisely where Robert Hansen’s blue and white plane was still parked.

Noticing the scene taking place, that same security guard who noted down Hansen’s license plate flagged down the officers and shared his information. With the details about Hansen’s car and the plane’s registration, Anchorage police contacted the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for final confirmation.

As officers pulled into the hospital with Paulson, they received a call that the registration for both the car and plane matched that of Anchorage local Robert C. Hansen.  

Portrayal of Paulson’s Story in “The Frozen Ground”

Though it would be another four months or so until Hansen was finally arrested for his 12-year-long serial killing spree, Cindy Paulson’s escape and resulting story gave police the break they needed to finally identify a suspect in the dozens of unsolved murders that took place throughout Anchorage. Police secured a search warrant to search Robert Hansen’s home and arrested him based on the ample evidence found in his possession.

Paulson’s escape and her choice to help police catch Alaska serial killer Robert Hansen was the subject of a 2013 movie called “The Frozen Ground,” starring Nicolas Cage and Vanessa Hudgens. Thirty years after surviving the Butcher Baker, Cindy Paulson spoke with Hudgens to provide guidance on how the actress should play her in the film.

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Reflecting on what Paulson shared with her about the terrifying survival she experienced as a teen, Hudgens said, “[Paulson] gave me an extremely solid foundation and told me her earliest memories that she had until where she is to this day.”

Other Hansen Victims Exhumed & Identified in Alaska

A woman only known as Horseshoe Harriet was finally identified as one of Robert Hansen’s victims in October 2021, 37 years after her body was found near Horseshoe Lake. Nineteen-year-old Robin Pelkey was living with her father and stepmother in Anchorage before she disappeared, and the case had gone cold as it soon as it began. Nearly 40 years after she was murdered, Pelkey was laid to rest with a grave marker that finally had her name on it.

The final unidentified victim of serial killer Robert Hansen is a young woman only known as Eklutna Annie. She was likely Hansen’s first murder victim, and her identity remains a mystery to this day.

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