48 Hours - A Stabbing in Colts Neck

Episode Date: May 21, 2023

A woman outwits a young stranger who attacked her in her own home. What will it take to find him? "48 Hours" contributor Jim Axelrod reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

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to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. It is farm country, horse country, bucolic, upwardly mobile, wealthy type of community. Affluent. Affluent. It's a quiet place.

Tiny unassuming house. Just a simple farmhouse. Colts Neck has a lot of these. Yes. This beautiful little farmhouse with this beautiful farm star, you know, in the middle of it. In July of 2013, I was an assistant prosecutor in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Donna Unshako was alone. She had just gone to bed for the evening. An intruder came into her house and attacked her, stabbing her repeatedly.

911, where's emergency? Oh, my name is Donna. I just got stabbed. Where are you? I'm really bad. A kid just came in and stabbed me. I think he hit my heart. I'm pouring gushing blood. Okay.

I'm losing consciousness. Keep your eyes open. Donna. Donna. I was driving home. It was maybe like three o'clock in the morning, 3.30. As I pulled up closer, I saw big SUVs, cop cars, lights flashing everywhere. I was like, where is my mom? And they were like, well, she has been attacked. And she's on her way to the hospital.

They couldn't tell me whether she was alive or she wasn't. I was new into major crimes. I didn't have the experience of some of the older detectives. So I had never seen that much blood before. Why would somebody do this? Who did this? What did she ever do to anybody, you know? On that night, in the early morning hours,

we got a 911 call from a worker from this restaurant. About how far from Donna's house are we standing right here? This is about an eight-minute drive. They called because they saw a subject walking through their drive-thru. Aberdeen detention police. One of my customers in drive-thru was approached by a man with no shirt

but had a knife in his hand. Knocking on windows, carrying a knife. One of the witnesses who saw the young man, she agreed to come in and give us a sketch. Everybody was asking about the police sketch. It was in every store. People were frightened. Can you tell me about the tip?

I get a call. The woman on the other end says that she's calling about the stabbing in Colts Neck. She said, I think my cousin may have something to do with that. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing the best idea yet. A brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario,

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lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Tiny Colts Neck, New Jersey sits just 50 miles from New York City. But it might as well be a world away. So in July 2013, this quiet community was rocked by news of a violent home invasion where the victim was stabbed repeatedly. The only thing more shocking?

My name is Donna Unshako. The only thing more shocking? My name is Donna Angshako. The victim survived. I lost, in total, close to three quarters

of the blood in my body. There's no earthly reason why I'm alive. None. If I had asked you at the time

to give me a list of a hundred things you're worried about, where would have home invasion been? Oh, no. None. If I had asked you at the time to give me a list of a hundred things you're worried about, where would have home invasion been? Oh no, never. Donna worked for a company that brokered fuel for ships on the nearby Jersey shore. She and her daughter Kirsten lived in this farmhouse on the edge of flower fields. She was 20 when she had me, so we're only 20 years and one day apart. Friend Sharon Sharp hired Donna decades ago. Kirsten had just been born?

Yeah, Kirsten was a baby. I thought she was really brave, being a single mom, very young. I was by her side all the time. Kirsten, who now works as a welder, recalls what life was like just prior to her mother's attack. We were going to the gym multiple times a week. Not only was she mentally like, mentally strong, but she was physically strong. She was so fit. She did Tough Mudders with Kirsten.

I like that competition. I like to show strength, physical strength. Things couldn't have been any better at that time. That's when Saturday of July 4th weekend rolled around. Monmouth County Detective Andrea Tazi says they were having a heat wave. It was humid, but we had no rain or anything like that. I mean, it was a dry night. So Donna...

Had her windows open. Yes. She had her windows open just to circulate air. Kirsten was out at a party. So I was home doing laundry. I'd say about 11, 11.30. I decide I'm going to get ready for bed. I let the cat out. I went and brushed my teeth.

But just as she was drifting off to sleep... I heard what I thought was the cat. I heard something, and I remembered, oh, I forgot to let the cat in. Without turning on any lights, Donna headed downstairs to open the front door for her cat. But instead, when I opened the door, I saw someone standing there. In the split second after seeing this person on my porch, I saw the knife. He was trying to cut into the screen of the window that was right next to the front door. She says she didn't recognize the young white male standing right in front of her, holding a large knife.

I tried to slam and shut the door. My fingers were protruding out. He stuck the knife through the opening and cut my finger so that I immediately let go of the door, and then he pushed his way in. I'm backing into my kitchen. We're face to face. It didn't register to me that he was actually going to stab me.

But without a word, that's exactly what the stranger did. He slashed my cheek, and you can see that here, and actually it starts back here. There was no way to process that that happened. Donna's attacker came at her with the knife again. He then slashed three times on this side of my neck. She tried grabbing the knife, but only cut her own hand in the process. Did you feel like you were dealing with somebody who was really strong?

No, but I felt like he was very sure. Like he was very in control of himself. Donna was starting to weaken from the injuries. I felt like my legs were going to give out. So I braced myself against the corner of my bathroom right next to the front door. Sure enough, she slid down to the floor. I was in fetal position and I'm bleeding. And he came over and it was kind of like he was playing, you know, with the knife and just started jabbing at me.

So that's when he caught me here. And he got me in the when he caught me here. And he got me in the back of my neck here. Finally, Donna's attacker spoke to her. This was when he decided to ask me for my car keys and if I had a lighter. A lighter? Mm-hmm. I just answered him.

There's a lighter in my purse, and my purse was on the table back in the kitchen. So he went over and was rummaging through my purse and got the keys, got the lighter. Donna's assailant ended up taking her entire purse with him, but not before returning one last time to Donna, still bleeding on the floor. He said, you dead bitch, and plunged the knife into my chest. Once he plunges the knife in and then removes it, what does he do then? He just walked out the door. With no neighbors in earshot, Donna knew she must get help, somehow. Your phone isn't in reach.

No, my phone was upstairs in my bedroom, charging. Donna had no landline in the house. But even as the blood was draining rapidly from her body, she had one pressing concern above her own survival. Kirsten could come home and find me. I just didn't want her to have to experience any level of the horror that I had just gone through or any other levels in finding me there dead. So this is a mother's instinct as pure as it gets. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. You know you have to get upstairs if you're going to be able to make a call for help. Right.

How do you get up those stairs? That I don't know. There was divine intervention that helped me up those stairs. No doubt. No doubt in my mind. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder?

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In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases. And this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informants Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus.

Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. She's a tiny little woman. You have to imagine that many stair bones. And she just willed it. She was not going to die there. Former Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Lori Gerhart says Donna Unshaka was determined her daughter Kirsten would not come home to find her dead. She knew she had to get to her cell phone upstairs. I don't remember my feet or my hands actually touching the stairs.

The energy that it took for me to get up off the ground and up those stairs, I was definitely guided. The amount of strength that goes into that is just unimaginable. But the motivation was you. Yeah. Yep. Maybe I was there, guiding her in spirit. Once Donna made it upstairs, she faced a new challenge after peering out her bedroom window.

She had a car sitting right here? Right, she had a car sitting right in this area. I could still see the car was there, and I could see the car was on and he was in it. If I take my phone off the charger, it's going to light up. He's going to see the light. Afraid her attacker would come back for her, Donna did her best to hide the light of the phone. Then, just getting it to work became the next hurdle. My hands are covered in blood, my touch screen. I was trying to swipe and swipe, so I ended up having to wipe my hands off,

wipe the phone off, wipe it down on the bed, and then I was able to do the touch screen and get through to 911. My name is Donna. I'm shocked I just got stabbed. Really bad. A kid just came in and stabbed me and he stole my car. Okay, okay, okay. Just stand up on me, okay? Where did you get stabbed? In the neck, blood is cushing out, and in the chest. Detective Andrea Tazzi says Donna's ability to place that call despite her injuries was amazing. But then Donna did something even more extraordinary.

She gave a detailed description of her attacker. Okay, do you know what he looked like? Yeah, he was probably about 17. White, real skinny, curly hair. Blonde, dirty blonde hair. It was pretty chilling to listen to Donna and be able to hear her accurately talk about this is what happened, this is what he looks like. I'm losing consciousness. And then hear her fade out. Donna? Donna?

Hello, Donna? Donna? Yes, ma'am. I think I just sat down for a minute. Hello, Donna? I'm in fact, in the airport, yes. Donna? Yes, ma'am. All right. I think I just need to sit down for a minute. Police and paramedics arrived less than eight minutes after Donna dialed 911, but her attacker had already fled. Donna was rushed to Jersey Shore University Medical Center and into trauma surgery.

It would be a few more hours before Kirsten arrived home from her party to a house surrounded by flashing lights. I saw the caution tape and that her car was gone. Police told Kirsten what happened to her mother. You were deeply shaken. Oh, yeah. I remember at one point my knees buckled. They had the SUV, the undercover cop car. The trunk was open.

So I was like, can I sit here? Because I feel like I'm going to pass out. As Kirsten was processing the news, an all-out manhunt had already begun for Donna's assailant. Detective Tazi says another 911 call had come in shortly before Donna's attack. I was going to pick up my daughter, and there was a kid hitchhiking. From a driver who saw someone walking along the road near Donna's house.

They saw a young man with a backpack and khaki pants. He was walking close to the fog line and kind of stepping into traffic, and she felt that he was kind of a hitchhiker. He was on the northbound side, walking southbound, and I'm afraid he's going to get hit by a car. How old about? I'm going to say like 18, 19, 20, something like that. She was concerned because she just thought that maybe he needed help in some way.

And was a car dispatched? Yes, yes. They didn't find him, though. Still, the Good Samaritan driver had inadvertently given the investigation its first lead. I felt that the hitchhiker was my person. It was too coincidental for that time of the night in that area for somebody to be walking. And then 15 minutes later, Donna's calling to say that she was stabbed. And there was about to be another tip not long after Donna's 911 call from a fast food restaurant five miles from her house. They saw a subject walking through their

drive-thru, knocking on windows, carrying a knife. And it looked like it had blood on it. Employees from the Taco Bell quickly called police. Do you have any description of him? Yeah, he was wearing, you know, like those army pants. And he had no shirt. He was white with like really like bushy hair, but it was like long, like the skater type hair. How old was he? I don't know. He looked like he was like 18. Police rushed to the Taco Bell and started canvassing the nearby shopping center.

They didn't find their suspect, but they did find something else. So there had been a bolo put out on Donna's vehicle. Be on the lookout. Right. And in the process of looking for this person here, they found the car. And in the process of looking for this person here, they found the car. Donna's stolen car, this BMW, had been ditched behind a movie theater. It was lights on and it was running.

So it clearly was an abandoned vehicle. Tazi says the car would become crucial. There was blood all over it. And so we were hoping that we would get some kind of DNA evidence of our suspect. Did you? We did. Sharon Sharp will never forget the dread she felt when she arrived at the hospital to see her friend Donna on Chaco, only to be told she wasn't there.

I'm picturing the color draining from your face and the air leaving your lungs. Totally. No, this cannot be. There's no way. She has to be here. Did you think maybe she had died? Yes. Yes. It turned out, with her attacker still on the loose, the hospital had admitted Donna under an alias to protect her. Sharon was allowed to see Donna the next day.

An intensive care room I've never seen before. It looked like an enlarged, massively enlarged cockpit wall because there were tons of machines behind her, and she looked almost like a puppet. Surgery was seven hours, I believe. Despite losing three-quarters of the blood in her body, trauma surgeons had saved Donna's life, but at a tremendous cost. You may find the pictures you're about to see disturbing.

I pretty much looked like a living cadaver. I had 37 stitches on my face and neck, 38 staples in my chest, seven stitches in my hand, and now internally my sternum is wired shut. And as for that final stab to Donna's chest just before her assailant left... It missed my heart by the edge of a dime is what I remember them telling me. The edge of a dime.

When she talks about the margin that the knife missed her heart by. Yeah, if she was any slouched over anymore, that would have been it. Kirsten says as soon as her mother was able to talk, she had one simple request. I remember her saying, all I smell is this blood in my hair. Can somebody please wash my hair? Sharon says they got permission and then she and two of Donna's family members did their best to wash Donna's hair as she lay in her hospital bed. We were determined to see if we could make her smile. So we turned it into a ridiculous idiot session with three of us, like a factory line.

We laughed through our tears. And anytime anybody would get too serious, we would make it funny. But her hair was far from Donna's biggest concern. She was sure her attacker would find her and finish the job. She was convinced that he was in the hospital. And we kept telling her, no, you're here under an alias.

I survived. I stood face to face with him. I could 100% positively identify him. He's coming back for me. Detective Tazi says they were pretty sure the young man knocking on windows at the Taco Bell drive-thru shortly after Donna's attack was their suspect. Within two days, a customer who saw him met with a police sketch artist. And was able to provide pretty great details on the person she saw that night.

Investigators then took the sketch to the hospital. What did Donna say when she saw that sketch? She said, yeah, that was incredibly accurate. She tweaked it a little bit. She said that, yes, that looks like the person who stabbed me. looks like the person who stabbed me. His curly blonde hair, he was like a surfer kid or a skateboarder or something like that. Former assistant prosecutor Lori Gerhart says the sketch of the suspect

was soon plastered all over Monmouth County and on law enforcement social media. So people are obviously talking and trying to figure out, do we know where is he from? Who is this kid? And it's scary because you like to have a sense of security in your community. Investigators reviewed the cameras of stores in the shopping center near the Taco Bell to see if they'd get lucky and spot their suspect, hoping the more images they had, the more likely the chance of identifying him. We were trying to go back and look at video from various businesses

to see the description and really to put out the bolo, like this is who we're looking for. Security cameras had captured the suspect once again. The surveillance we got from the store over there was from inside the store, but it was pointing outwards. I see. And it definitely caught him. Oh, yeah, you could see him walking. Wow. As police kept looking for the suspect,

Donna was turning a corner, at least physically. Amazingly, after just four days, Donna Unshako was released from the hospital. Sharon says that was all due to the training Donna had done prior to the attack. Clearly, she's very physically fit. She couldn't have survived this if she wasn't. It's an amazing thing. You were out in four days.

But as you leave the hospital, you are also walking back into a world where whoever did this to you is still out there. Right. But also, I wasn't going back to the farm. I wasn't going back to my house. No, there was no way. In fact, Donna would never step foot in her house again. She and Kirsten moved in with family living in New Jersey. Then, just eight days after the attack, not long after the police sketch began circulating, Detective Tazi's phone rang. I take the call, and the woman on the other end says that she's calling about the stabbing in Colts Neck. I said, okay. I said, how can I help you? And she said, I think my cousin Brennan Doyle may have something to do with that. It was the first time Tazi had heard the name Brennan Doyle. He was just 16 years old.

His cousin told Tazi word was going around her family that Brennan was involved in the Colts Neck stabbing. The cousin had seen Brennan just days prior to Donna's attack. Between July 3rd and 6th, because he was up in Connecticut for her wedding with his family. He had attended her wedding. He attended her wedding, and she was able to provide us a picture of what he looked like

during the time he was up there for the wedding. The photo she sends is Brennan with long curly hair, wearing camouflage shorts, looking very much like the kid in the sketch, and more importantly on the videotapes. Brennan's resemblance to this sketch all around town was about to become even more important because of what the cousin told Detective Tazi happened a few days later. She was staying at Brennan's family's lake house in New Hampshire as a wedding gift and Brennan, his brother, and the mother showed up there unexpected. Hang on, This woman is in Lake Winnipesaukee. She's on her honeymoon?

Yes. And all of a sudden, there's Brennan, Brennan's mother, Brennan's brother, crashing her honeymoon? Yes. And the dog. But what was even more surprising was Brennan's appearance. Brennan's hair was cut. The next time she sees him, he's cut his hair? Yes.

So that's a big red flag. Yes. Brennan Doyle's cousin told investigators that Brennan showed up just days after Donna's attack, hundreds of miles from home, with his hair suddenly cut short, similar to this. Like Donna, the Doyle family resided in Colts Neck. Former assistant prosecutor Lori Gerhardt. We lived in a very nice house, two sons, a mom and a dad. The life of a typical Colts Neck teenager, it's a life of wealth, it's a life of privilege.

Doyle was a student athlete on wrestling and hockey teams. Detective Tazi started digging into his background. He had never been arrested. There was never any charges filed against him prior to our investigation. According to the prosecutor's records, police had been called to the Doyle house for what they refer to as family conflicts. The location of the home would turn out to be very important. Where did Brennan live? So if you make a right up here and you go up maybe a quarter of a mile on the left. So that's close.

Yeah. The teen and his family lived within walking distance of Donna's house. Up the very road that driver had reported seeing someone she described as a young hitchhiker just prior to Donna's attack. I'm afraid he's going to get hit by a car. When does the Doyle family return to Colts Neck? Later in July. With Brennan and his family back in town, Tazi reached out to the family,

saying investigators were canvassing the neighborhood. What happened when you went to the house? We spoke with Mrs. Doyle. She was nervous. Her voice was cracking. Did this raise an eyebrow for you? It did. We asked if Brennan and his brother could come and look at the composite sketch and if they had any idea who that person might be on the sketch. Did Brennan come out? He did. Tazi says she wanted to see Brennan's hair to confirm what his cousin had told her, that it had been cut

much shorter. It seemed the teen tried to stay a step ahead when he came out to greet the detective. He was wearing a hat. He was wearing a baseball hat. I think wearing a baseball cap was a calculated move. It might have been, but it didn't work. You could tell his hair was cut short. Next, Tazi showed Brennan the police sketch of the suspect, the same one Donna helped tweak to look just like her attacker. How did he react? He looked away. He looked at it, looked away, and said, I don't know. I don't know. He was nervous and he was scared. And he got very quiet. There is a reaction. Eyes are down. No eye contact. People are nervous. Mom starts redirecting the conversation. Doyle's family and his attorney denied our request for an interview. We asked CBS News consultant, defense attorney Matt Troiano, to study the case file.

And I think that that probably confirms what they believe going in. Brennan's odd behavior and resemblance to the sketch and video evidence may have been striking, but with nothing else to go on yet, Tazi thanked the Doyles for their time and left. Did you know that was your guy? I was pretty confident that we were on the right track with him, but we also have a duty. We had other leads that were coming in, so we were doing a lot of follow-ups. As investigators worked the case, Donna was struggling. Weeks after the attack, the reality of what had happened to her had taken hold.

I lost everything that night. I lost my home. I had nowhere to go. I lost my car. They took it into evidence. Donna, you lost more than half your blood. Exactly. I lost a lot. Donna says that's when, in addition to her physical recovery, she faced a new challenge. Symptoms of PTSD started to show up. I'm not eating. I'm not sleeping. I don't care about anything. I'm angry. I'm sad. I'm happy.

I'm, you know, every emotion under the sun at any minute. I felt like I was going crazy. I was always thinking, I don't know who this kid is, but he climbed through the window in that second that I fell asleep, and now he's hiding in the closet, you know, kind of crazy thoughts. Sharon Sharp says Donna's fear meant even friendly visits required a new protocol, including announcing her arrival every step of the way so as not to trigger Donna. I'm going to come around the hedges now and I'm going to enter the backyard. I'm going to be touching the gate in three, two, one. I would shake my keys first, which had bells on them.

Say, it's me, Sharon, I'm coming. The investigation lasted through the summer of 2013. Brennan Doyle remained the only likely suspect. Detective Tazi says investigators took the next step in September. We got a warrant to obtain his DNA, his fingerprints, photographs of him, just things that are personal to him. When the results came back, there's a fingerprint match, then ultimately there's a DNA match. Brennan Doyle's DNA was a spot-on match to unknown DNA found in Donna's car in a number of places. Eleven different DNA samples and pieces of evidence found in that vehicle. And really, there's no reason why Brennan-Doyle's DNA should be in this woman's vehicle. He's a stranger to her.

should be in this woman's vehicle. He's a stranger to her. One more crucial piece of evidence was found in early October in the most unexpected spot. Repairmen were servicing an air conditioning unit that was on the top of the strip mall. They found the knife on the roof right near the air conditioning unit. A knife, looking weathered as though it had been there for months, found on a bowling alley roof in the very same shopping center where the Taco Bell was located and where Donna's car had been abandoned. How important was the knife?

It ended up being very important because the knife was from a set. We determined that that knife matched another knife that we knew came from the Doyle household that had been taken months earlier. Through a twist of timing and fate, the Colts Neck police already had another knife from the Doyle home, taken after police were called to the house a few weeks prior to Donna's attack, following an altercation between Brennan and his brother. There's a knife that's apparently used by the younger brother

in a threatening manner. Police are called, police take the knife, and the situation ends. There was no charges or anything that came of it, but they secured the knife in their evidence vault. It was the same brand name, the same look. It was a silver knife. It was from the same collection. Correct.

That was kind of the icing on the cake to get a search warrant. They had moved during the course of this investigation, so we got a search warrant for their new home. The search of the new Doyle residence, also in Colts Neck, turned up the rest of the knife set matching the one found atop the shopping center. In late October 2013, Brennan Doyle was arrested. What kinds of charges was he facing? Serious ones. Attempted murder, carjacking, weapons possession.

These are the most serious of crimes that we have. the most serious of crimes that we have. What do you make of the evidence against Brennan Doyle? Take a look at the complete investigation at 48hours.com. Months after Donna's brush with death, her alleged attacker, Brennan Doyle, was in custody, facing six counts, including attempted murder and carjacking. He pleaded not guilty. You have to look at the seriousness of the offense.

The prosecution felt the crime warranted trying Doyle as an adult, even though he was 16 at the time. And in juvenile court, Brendan is looking at four years maximum in a youth detention facility. In adult court, he's looking at up to 30 years. A judge would rule in assistant prosecutor Gerhardt's favor, but there was a catch. Doyle would now be entitled to post bail

set at $760,000, which he did. When you heard he was out, did all of the fear come rushing back? It wasn't so much fear as it was anger that he was even allowed to be bailed out. The thought of running into Doyle terrified Kirsten. She says he even haunted her dreams. I didn't realize how much it was affecting me. I had no idea until I was like falling asleep and all I see is his face. As prosecutors developed their case, the details of what happened that horrific night began to emerge.

that horrific night began to emerge. What does Brennan Doyle say happened the night of July 6th heading into the morning of July 7th, 2013? Mushrooms. He says he was under the influence of hallucinogenic mushrooms. According to investigative reports he examined, Matt Troiano says that on the night of Donna's attack, Doyle claimed he was losing touch with reality

and had gotten into a fight with his father. He has a knife in his hand, dad kicks him out, and he kind of loses his mind, makes bad decisions. Police thought it was likely that Doyle, who lived a short distance away, approached Donna's home looking to steal her car. I don't know if his intent was to kill Donna. Certainly when he started stabbing her, that became his intent.

To me, what he's doing is he's getting rid of the witness. Gerhardt believes Doyle did not act like someone incapacitated by drugs. Doyle drove five miles to that shopping center after leaving Donna's house. This kid manages to ditch a knife. He abandons the car and that's not a kid who's so high on mushrooms he doesn't know what he's doing. Triano says while a lot of the evidence against Brennan Doyle was strong, the knife, the security camera videos, one thing put this case over the top. What is going to seal the fate of this boy, this kid, is that there's DNA in her vehicle

that links to him. It's indefensible. But as it turned out, there would be no need for a defense. In August of 2015, Brennan Doyle agreed to a plea deal. In return, the prosecution dropped all but the two most serious charges, carjacking and attempted murder. It was very important for me that he admit his guilt. If he took the plea, he would have to confess his guilt to the court. In October 2015, Brennan Doyle, now 18 years old, appeared in Monmouth County Superior Court for sentencing. Donna, who'd attended every court appearance,

was there to face him one last time. Even though I felt overpowered by fear, I wanted him to see me as strong and as a survivor. It was an emotional day for Kirsten, there to support her mother. When you would look at him in court, what do you remember feeling? What do you remember feeling? Anger. Just very angry. Sorry.

The drugs turned me into a monster that night. Doyle was permitted to address the court. I pray and hope her wounds will lessen and she will recover eventually. I am asking you to forgive me. Going to prison will be the hardest thing I will ever have to face in my life. I'm afraid. Brennan Doyle was sentenced to 15 years in state prison. The law requires him to serve at least 85% of that time.

Justice has to be done on both sides, and we have to be sensitive to that. We have a 16-year-old kid who, for the most part, had absolutely no prior history. The court has a balancing act to do. Did it feel like justice? It did not. What would have felt like justice to you? More like years 40 years 50 years if not longer even with doyle off the streets donna was still struggling she had found ptsd and domestic violence support groups but says there were none for victims of random attacks. So in 2015, she decided to create her own, Survivors of Violent Crimes. The reason we took to the support group was to help each other cope.

Donna connected with fellow survivors, Tiffany Ott and Dana Richards. Together, they held meetings and felt gratified they could help when more survivors joined. They're finding relief in knowing that they're not alone. But Donna says her work isn't done. Her future plans include helping victims connect with trauma therapists and offering self-defense classes. As she grows her support group, she's also educating others. She travels to prisons, meeting with inmates, and addresses police cadets so they can understand the victim's point of view.

I got up. I made it up the stairs to my bedroom, where my cell phone was, but I got through the 911. I got through the 911. She survives. And she's building a life. How could anyone not applaud that? Donna says the physical scars that remain are a reminder of the surgeons who saved her life. This is artwork.

They're beautiful artwork. You could either get sucked into the darkness or you just keep going. I did what I had to do to be here today and go another day. A couple disappears. We're in a million different directions trying to find her and him. A lot of people trusted him with a lot of money. He told me that he was adopted by Ronald Reagan's son.

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