Inside the Shocking Murder Cases Linked to Hooters Restaurants

Wearing the famous orange shorts and earning the title of a “Hooters Girl” carried a certain kind of visibility and status—but for some women, that attention may have also placed them in terrifying danger.

Across a series of crimes that stretched over more than 10 years, five women tied to the well-known Hooters restaurant chain—including a newlywed, an aspiring college student and a young mother—were violently killed. Their cases are revisited in Oxygen’s The Hooters Murders: Deadly Shift.

The killings involved chilling circumstances, from an obsessive stalker who allegedly could not be deterred to a possessive boyfriend and even a pair of killers searching for a vulnerable target. Together, the cases highlight the hidden risks that could come with a job built around public attention.

“You start to realize there are dangers out there,” one former waitress says in the special. “But unfortunately there’s nobody there that’s able to protect you.”

Hooters did not provide a comment to producers regarding the allegations raised in the docuseries.

Here’s everything to know about the shocking crimes and the women who lost their lives: 

Hooters Waitress Tanya Hillerud is Found Shot to Death in Her Home

The crimes began in 1997 when Hooters waitress Tanya Hillerud was discovered dead in the bathroom by her roommate with a single gunshot wound to her head. 

Investigators would learn that just two days earlier, Hillerud had posed in a photo at the restaurant with professional basketball player Matt Geiger, who also slipped her his number on the receipt, according to the Tampa Bay Tribune.

When she showed the receipt to her live-in boyfriend Vincent Rizzi later that night, a fight ensued. 

“Rizzi was a possessive person,” private investigator Mike Holden told the outlet. “He was also a very jealous man.”

According to investigators, Rizzi shot and killed Hillerud two days later. He was convicted of the killing in 1999, the outlet reported. 

Investigative reporter Kate Taylor explained in The Hooters Murders: Deadly Shift that former and current Hooters waitresses she spoke to told her that taking photos with customers was a required part of the job.

“Tanya’s just doing what she’s expected to do here,” Taylor added. “She’s doing what she is literally paid to do as a Hooters Girl and her boyfriend shoots her for it.”

Waitress Tina Foster is Killed By Customer Posing as Model Photographer

In 2001, Hooters waitress Tina Foster was discovered in Roanoke, Va. dead inside her white Ford Mustang, according to the Oxygen special.

Foster’s best friend told police that before her death, the pair were supposed to meet a man Foster had meet at Hooters, who offered to take modeling photos of her. Still, investigators had no clues to the man’s identity—until they received help from Hooters Girls working at another restaurant location.

“These Hooters waitresses had seen a man doing the same thing, offering to take free model shots at a different Hooters location,” Taylor explained in the documentary. “From this tip, police were able to track down and arrest Christopher Haynes.” 

Haynes—a married father of two—had taken advantage of Foster’s dream of becoming a model by posing as a photographer who could help her career. 

He ultimately confessed to killing the 20-year-old in the back seat of her car, strangling her and then bashing her head in with a flashlight.

“She was a nice lady. And I’m sorry for what I did,” an emotional Haynes told detectives in a recording of the confession played in court, according to the documentary. “The life I took from them. Tell ‘em I’m so sorry.”

Haynes ultimately pled guilty to the killing and was sentenced to life in prison.

Carrie Ann Williams is Discovered Dead By Dumpster, Still Wearing Her Hooters Uniform

On the morning of October 4, 2002, the body of Carrie Ann Williams was discovered next to a dumpster in Chesterfield, Va. 

“She’d been shot in the head,” Taylor explained in the special, “and wrapped in plastic and she was still wearing her Hooters uniform.”

Though Williams boyfriend Raleigh Campbell was suspected in the crime at one point, he was acquitted at trial, NBC 12 reported.

The murder has never been solved. 

“It was determined that she was killed immediately after leaving her shift, which suggests that she was killed by someone who knew that she was working at Hooters and knew when she would be leaving,” Taylor told producers. “So whoever waited for her in the Hooters parking lot that night is still out there.”

Hooters Customer Roger Troy Develops Dangerous Obsession With Alissa Blanton

Alissa Blanton was just 21 years old when she moved from her St. Louis home to Merritt Island, Fla.

“Alissa friends describe her as someone who just always saw the best in other people,” Taylor said in the documentary. “She wanted to become a kindergarten teacher because she just loved working with kids.”

To help fund her dream, Blanton got a job at the local Hooters. But just weeks into the gig, Blanton caught the eye of one of the restaurant’s much older customers, 59-year-old Roger Troy. 

Former waitress Tara Nelson—who trained Blanton—described Troy, a regular who came in daily, as giving a “redneck grandpa” vibe.

“He was heavily involved in guns and shooting ranges,” she remembered. “He was just kind of someone that would sit for hours.”

According to Taylor, Troy went from being a friendly customer to becoming increasingly demanding of Blanton’s time, following her around and expecting all of her attention. 

When Troy asked for her personal phone number, Blanton gave him her email address instead. 

“That night Alissa received her very first email from Roger Troy. And Alissa, nor anyone around her, could have predicted what evil that email would have set into motion,” Taylor remarked in the special. “Because Roger’s infatuation with Alissa would go from a simple crush to an obsession to something that was much, much worse.”

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Troy began sending her dozens of emails, making daily visits to the restaurant to see her, giving her unwanted hugs and following her out to her car at the end of her shifts.

As Nelson explained, “He had this idea that him and her were really meant to be together.”

“Alissa never said anything to anybody,” Nelson added. “Probably because she was so nice, you know, she didn’t want to be mean.” 

Still, Troy’s troubling behavior did catch the attention of the store’s manager, according to the documentary, who confronted him one day in the parking lot and told him to back off. 

After the confrontation, Troy’s emails to Blanton got nastier. 

“What a waste of humanity you are,” he wrote in one, adding in another exchange, “What a stupid, vain, selfish, woman child.”

Terrified, Blanton quit her job in September 2008 and moved 60 miles away to Orlando to try to escape the harassment.

Before her death, Blanton tried to get an injunction against Troy, sharing that he’d started stalking her in Orlando, driving by her home and showing up when she was out in public. 

Yet the injunction was denied after the court ruled the facts weren’t enough to declare Blanton a victim of domestic abuse or sexual violence or that she was in “imminent danger,” according to court records obtained by the documentary.

As her sister Denise Espita explained in the doc, “She had only been there for about three days, when she disappeared.”

Surveillance footage revealed someone approached Contreras’ vehicle as she walking up to the vehicle. Moments later, the figure is seen going to the driver’s side of the blue Jeep and then driving from the lot, as a small white sedan followed closely behind.

“Police now know this likely is some sort of abduction,” DiGiacomo said, “and there’s at least two suspects.”

The Jeep was later found abandoned in the Boulder City desert with Contreras’ body inside. She’d been strangled and stabbed repeatedly before the inside of the car was set on fire.

“There’s no such thing as a pretty homicide scene, they are all ugly, but there are some that stick out in your mind more than others,” DiGiacomo said. “This stands out as one of those that you’ll just never forget.”