What happened to Monique Hoyt, the runaway who escaped Rodney Alcala in Woman of the Hour?

Woman of the Hour tells the creepy true story of serial killer Rodney Alcala and his appearance on The Dating Game TV show, but one of the most insane storylines is about the runaway girl who escaped a gruesome fate. Monique was one of the few who survived an attack from Rodney Alcala during his deadly killing spree from 1968 to 1979.

Monique’s story

The film tells a lot of Monique’s story, but the timeline gets a bit confusing by chopping and changing between different murders. The true story is that the runaway was just 15 when she escaped Rodney Alcala on Valentine’s Day in February 1979. This was a year after his appearance on The Dating Game.

She was hitchhiking home when Rodney offered her a lift, but he actually took her back to his apartment and sexually assaulted her.

He then drove her to a mountain range in California and took photos of her just like in the film. She survived the encounter by feigning embarrassment and asking Rodney to keep what had happened between them, and then slipping away when he went to the toilet at a service station.

She filed a police report against him and he was arrested, just like at the end of the film. However, what the movie didn’t show is that he was set free after this arrest because his mother posted his bail.

He went on to kill two more women after this and was finally arrested for good later in July 1979. The murder of 12 year old Robin Samsoe is what got him permanently behind bars and on death row.

Where is Monique Hoyt now?

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via Netflix

Over 30 years after she escaped Rodney Alcala, Monique testified against him in court. She was 46 and delivered the “most searing” testimony against him, according to the LA Weekly report that was following the trial. She was “so shaken” by confronting Rodney that she “needed an LAPD detective to sit with her” while in the courtroom. The report also said she “never got over” the attack and has lived a “troubled life” since.

Monique lives a private life and not much is known about her apart from the trial itself. She was extremely angry about Rodney’s 1994 book, You, the Jury, in which he wrote “outrageous” tales about her.

Woman of the Hour is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• An uncanny side by side comparison of the Woman of the Hour cast versus the real people

• The Dating Game episode with the real Rodney Alcala has resurfaced and it’s terrifying

• Anna Kendrick says the ‘weird remark’ about nudity scenes in Woman of the Hour was real