John drove Laura to his home to 'get a notebook'. It was the start of 22 hours of hell.

It's like a scene from a horror film. 

Florida drivers spotted a young woman, a teenager, crawling naked and handcuffed along a roadside, half-drained of her blood. 

She'd survived over 20 hours of torture, at the hands of a sadistic man.

You almost can't believe it's real. But 19-year-old Laura Murphy lived it, and lived to tell the tale. 

The teenager, originally from California, had been hitchhiking when she met a neat, clean-cut driver in 1985. 

Her mother told the Tampa Bay Times that she'd been visiting friends in Melbourne, Florida beforehand.

The driver introduced himself as John Crutchley, an engineer who offered to take her to where she needed to go. 

It seemed easy. It seemed harmless. 

According to the Orlando Sentinel, Crutchley claimed a tough upbringing before becoming a high-tech engineer, studying at George Washington University. 

He said he had trouble dating — picking up women who were "submissive, had low self-esteem and had a 'death wish'."

"My self-image was very, very weak. I started running around with a lot of people like myself, really lost souls," he said. "Everyone I dated wanted to die."

He was smart, and he was dangerous.

When Crutchley insisted that he needed to take a detour to his house to pick up a notebook, Laura became suspicious, per the Orlando Sentinel. 

He lived in Malabar, about a 15-minute drive from Melbourne. Her suspicions were right. 

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When Laura refused to enter the home she'd been unwittingly driven to, Crutchley's evil nature was exposed. 

He choked her until she was no longer conscious, and dragged her into his lair. 

When she woke up she'd been stripped naked, strapped down to the kitchen counter and bound. A video camera was placed in the room, filming the horrifying scene, per People. 

She was repeatedly raped and strangled; and Crutchley had another chilling proclivity. 

He used medical syringes to drain Laura of her blood — and drink it — eventually withdrawing nearly half her blood, according to Oxygen. 

But it wasn't the end for Laura. 

After around 22 hours in his captivity, she managed to escape, pulling herself through a bathroom window and stumbling unsteadily to the roadside, naked, looking for help. 

She was found and authorities were sent to the Crutchley home to arrest him. 

When asked about his crimes, Crutchley said she was "begging to be roughed up." 

Inside the home, they found syringes, materials for bondage and many belongings. 

They found jewellery, stacks of credit cards, locks of hair and ID cards that belonged to several different women who had died, Oxygen reports. 

He became known as the 'Vampire Rapist'.

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A 1992 book written by criminal profiler Robert Ressler said, "I was very glad [authorities] asked me to get involved in the case, because while the police knew they had caught a dangerous rapist, after I found out a few things about Crutchley, I thought it probable that they had a serial killer in custody."

Crutchley was never charged with any crimes related to serial killing, but investigators later suspected him in 24 to 30 disappearances and homicides across multiple states.

"There's no crimes they can link me to," he said, per Associated Press.

In 1986, Crutchley pleaded guilty to kidnapping and multiple counts of sexual battery. He was given 25-years-to-life in jail. 

The man did speak with media about his crimes, calling pornography evil and saying he got his ideas from magazines. 

The Washington Post reports he was let out after just 11 years. 

A day after his release he was arrested and sent back to prison for violating his parole – testing positive for marijuana.

On March 30, 2002, he died inside his cell. The Sentinel reports that he died of asphyxiation. Investigators first believed he took his own life, but other inmates said he liked to engage in autoerotic asphyxiation – the restricting of oxygen to increase pleasure during masturbation. 

He was 55 years old. 

Laura Murphy, on the other hand, was treated in hospital and has since kept her life private. 

Her mother did speak out when Crutchley got out of jail. 

"My daughter and I think he should have gotten life," the woman told the Orlando Sentinel.

"He says he is a changed man, but I think he is a sick man. And I don't think he can ever change."

Featured image: Getty.