Just a few days later, on Monday 10 November 1986, 17-year-old Kate was walking along her street in the fashionable suburb of Nedlands. She was on the Stirling Highway when a friendly couple pulled up and asked her for directions. While she was chatting to them the man jumped out of the car, produced a knife and forced her to get in.
She was taken back to Willagee, where she was tied to the bed and raped twice. Kate was forced to phone her parents to say she was all right, and while on the phone she had the presence of mind to draw stick figures on a writing pad, symbolising the phone number she was calling from. It was smart thinking because not only would those stick figures help Kate recall the phone number, it was also evidence that she had been in the house.
The following morning David Birnie left for work, and Kate was left alone with Catherine. Kate convinced Catherine that she desperately needed to use the toilet and eventually Birnie relented and undid the chains. Coincidentally someone knocked on the door while Kate was free from her chains. The distraction gave her the only opportunity she would have, and she escaped through an unlocked window.
Semi-naked, Kate ran through the streets of Willagee until she came to a nearby supermarket in a small shopping centre. Close to hysteria, she demanded that they call the police.