A woman has exposed her chilling encounter with sexual predator and murderer Victor Paleologus, who was known for luring several women by offering to make their Hollywood dreams come true while posing as a film producer.
In 2003, Victor wandered the Century City mall in Los Angeles in search of a beautiful woman who would soon become a victim of his deadly plan.
It was then that he met 21-year-old Kristine ‘Kristi’ Johnson and seduced her with an audition to become the next Bond Girl. However, just two weeks after meeting Victor, Kristi’s lifeless body was found by hikers in a nearby ravine.
Nearly thirty years later, Kristi’s story will be featured in a new episode of Dateline airing Friday night, as another woman opens up about her chilling interaction with Victor.
In an exclusive clip shared with DailyMail.com, key witness Alice Walker speaks for the first time on the NBC show in a sit-down interview with Keith Morrison.
Alice Walker has exposed her chilling encounter with sexual predator and murderer Victor Paleologus, who was known for luring multiple women into traps
Alice remembers the eerie encounter she had with Victor and how she later discovered the killer was preying on her at the same time as Kristi.
She said during their “very strange” encounter that she “did this going around in circles” and that Victor made her “cross my legs and then…cross one ankle over the other ankle.”
“And it was just really important that my ankles were really, really tight,” she added.
Upon hearing her story, Keith replies, “That’s strange,” while Alice repeats, “Very strange.”
In a voice-over the reporter adds: ‘But not yet frightening. Then Victor told her to come back again when the director was available, and a few days later she did.
‘But there was still no director and this time it got a bit weird. When he told her to try on the tie he brought.”
Alice then continues her story, “So what I did is, he put the tie on, and I put my thumb over the knot so he couldn’t actually put a tie on me. And I just held my finger there…’
Keith wonders, “Did you really do that?”
Now a new episode of the podcast will chronicle the terrifying confrontation with the death of another woman (the building where Alice met Victor)
The episode’s trailer opens with a sit-down interview with Alice and Keith
She replied, “Yes, I took off the tie and left.” He said, “Let’s try again in a day or two. I’ll see what the schedule is.”
The clip also shows the place where Victor lured Alice.
Friday night’s episode also includes interviews with another key witness Cathy DeBuono.
In 2003, Victor wandered the Century City mall in Los Angeles in search of a beautiful woman who would soon become a victim of his deadly plan.
Alice’s shocking story became even scarier when she discovered what the man she met had done to Kristi.
Before she was found dead, Kristi’s roommate told investigators that the aspiring star “was very excited when she got home because she was going to audition for a James Bond clip.”
Former prosecutor Ronald E. Bowers shed further light on the details of Kristi’s conversation with the man she met at the mall, previously telling Oxygen’s Real Murders Of Los Angeles: “She was told if she wore a white blouse, a black mini skirt , nylons and stilettos had heels, that would really make an impression.’
The man also told Kristi that the job would pay $100,000.
Kristi had worked as a makeup artist, but when she went to the so-called audition, she had worked at a cell phone company, the Los Angeles Times reported.
On February 15, she drove her white Mazda Miata to the Hollywood Hills and stopped to ask for directions.
Kristi’s mother Terry Hall reported her daughter missing after she failed to show up for work two days later.
To find out what happened to the 21-year-old, a tip line has been set up where the public can request information about Kristi.
Kristine ‘Kristi’ Johnson (pictured with mother Terry Hall) was just 21 when a stranger approached her in an LA mall and told her he was a film producer looking for the next Bond girl
He arranged to meet her in the Hollywood Hills for the audition. Just over two weeks later, Kristi’s body would be found by hikers in a nearby ravine. She is depicted as a child on the left and right
Hundreds of calls poured in, including from three women – one of whom was Susan Murphy – who recalled a similar story to Kristi’s.
Susan told investigators that she had been in the same shopping center as Kristi on January 24 when she was wanted by a man who asked her to audition for a Bond film.
Another detail that stood out was that Susan revealed that she was also asked to wear an identical outfit that Kristi described to her roommate.
Susan was wary of the situation and took her boyfriend with her when she met the man for the second time the next day.
When they asked him for identification, the man, who Susan would eventually identify as Victor, ran away.
Other women who came forward had nearly identical experiences to Susan and Kristi, and their stories matched his pattern of criminal history.
For example, in 1989, Victor, posing as a Columbia Records executive, attacked then-21-year-old Christine Kludjian in a hotel room after inviting her to a music industry party.
She managed to escape and Victor was given three years’ probation for false imprisonment by force.
Tragically for Kristi (seen as a child), nearly three weeks after she first met Victor, hikers found her body in a Hollywood Hills ravine on March 3.
Nearly a decade later, in 1998, he was charged with the attempted rape of a 24-year-old woman, giving him another chance to appear in a Bond film. He was sentenced to prison but was released on parole in 2003 after serving three years and five months behind bars, the LA Times reported.
But tragically for Kristi, nearly three weeks after she first met Victor, hikers found her body in a Hollywood Hills ravine on March 3.
Her hands and ankles were tied and she had been strangled.
Victor avoided the possibility of the death penalty when he pleaded guilty to Kristi’s murder in 2006.
Instead, the then 44-year-old was sentenced to 25 years to life.
In July 2023, a group organized in honor of the 21-year-old known as Justice For Kristi campaigned to block the possible parole of her killer.
Nearly twenty years after being in prison, Victor faced a parole hearing.
“Paleologus does not deserve freedom or a second chance to endanger another innocent victim. Before Kristi’s murder, he showed how chronically dangerous he is when he was convicted of the rape of Heather Maher in 1998,” the group said in a statement at the time.
“He served five years at the San Luis Obispo Men’s Colony and was released on January 20, 2003.”
Ultimately, the killer waived his right to a parole hearing and will not be eligible again until 2025.
“What a pain in my back this is,” Kristi’s mother Terry told Oxygen.com after hearing the news.
“It’s interesting, sometimes in life you don’t realize what a big burden you’re carrying until it’s lifted.”
Friday’s special episode of Dateline, titled The Girl With The Hibiscus Tattoo, airs on NBC at 9pm ET/8pm CT.