Cold Case Files - I Saw Her Go Straight Up Like in the Jaws Movie

Episode Date: June 13, 2026

A malicious workplace shooting haunts the nightmares of Cheryl, Carol and Layla. Tamara swims through shark infested waters in a desperate bid for survival. Alberto, who teaches law enforcement, must solve the mystery around multiple attacks against him.Apartments.com - To find whatever you’re searching for and more visit apartments.com the place to find a place.First Leaf - Head to TryFirstLeaf.com/survived for 50% off your first box PLUS free shipping for an entire year!Mint - To get the new customer offer and your new 3-month premium wireless plan for just $15 a month, go to Mintmobile.com/survivedProgressive - Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.Shopify - Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at Shopify.com/survived and take your retail business to the next level today!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming, Ontario. This episode contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. I just thought he's got the gun reaching out and pointing at me. I'm on the floor and he's like making up his mind whether to shoot me or where to shoot me. Real people.

From the poisoning, I am so sick. They put me on the gurney. I pass out. My heart stopped four times. Who faced death. My worst fear was I knew I was bleeding and I looked down and it was a gray shark bigger than I was.

And lived to tell how. I had the phone in my hand and I called the sheriff's office and for all intensive purposes I gave a dying declaration. This is I survived. It's July 2006 in Seattle, Washington. Cheryl is the marketing manager for the Jewish Federation of Seattle. I was sitting in my office, you know, answering the last few emails of the day, kind of noticing the clock and what time it was,

and a little anxious for Kelsey to show up. Kelsey is Cheryl's niece. The receptionist that day was Layla. I was hoping to actually slip out of the office early so that I could maybe get out and go on a little hike or something like that. But I had to wait until Cheryl's niece came in because she didn't have the code to get into the building. and so I needed to let her into the door when she came.

A man forced Kelsey at gunpoint to help him through the security entrance. After she came up, she ran straight to the bathroom, and I thought, geez, she must really have to go, because usually we say hi to each other and everything. And then the man came up the stairs, and when I asked him if I could help him, he got out of gun and asked to see my manager. I slowly backed away with my hands up

towards my manager, Cheryl's office. And I could hear this loud, angry male voice. I just thought, maybe she needs my help. So I stood up from my desk and started walking towards my office door in the hallway. And I whispered to her that there was a man with a gun at the front desk who was upset about the war in Israel, Lebanon, and wanted to speak to my manager.

The whole of the gun looked as big as an eye, like a human eye, to me at the time. I just kind of went into emergency management mode, I guess. and just thought, what's the first thing that needs to happen here? And I looked at him, and he was just spouting off about things like Israel, and I'm an angry man, and I'm a Muslim. And I turned to my right a little bit, and Carol Goldman sits in a cubicle kind of diagonally from my office door.

And she was the only person I could see immediately in my eyesight, other than Layla, and this man with a gun. And I just turned and I said in Carol's direction, call 911 as loud as I could. I turned around, I saw Cheryl, I saw Leila, and then I saw this guy holding this gun pointed at me, and nobody was saying anything at the moment. And I'm sure it wasn't very long after that that he shot me,

but I didn't hear the bullets or anything or feel it because I was just kind of in this stunned disbelief. And the next thing I knew, I looked at my knee, and there was these two little red droplets of blood on my knee. That's when it kind of registered in my head, like, oh my God, I've been shot. Carol had been shot just above her knee. And he turned and he just kept firing in my direction and in Layla's direction. My manager was just pulling me into her office when he shot me.

I immediately fell down onto the ground, and I kept thinking I wanted to get up and, you know, wait until he was reloading and try to stop him. but I realized I just, I couldn't move. And I wanted to call 911, but I couldn't get to a phone because my leg was just totally dead. A bullet lodged in Layla's spine. Cheryl was shot through the abdomen.

I actually didn't realize that I'd been shot. And I kind of looked at him and I said, I was really puzzled. I was, why are you doing this? And then he raised the gun and pointed it at my face. I'm on the floor and he's like making it up his mind, whether to shoot me or where to shoot me. And I was just waiting. I couldn't see anything. My face was in the rug. I couldn't hear anything because my ears were ringing.

And that was it. I just thought this is it. I'm dead. The gunman fired a shot at Cheryl's head but missed. He then turned his attention to Pam, another office worker in the room next door. I saw him run by following Pam. And after that, there was another guy. gunshot and then after that I heard several more gunshots one right after the other. I heard a woman screaming that she was bleeding to death and just all kinds of different sounds as he continued around the building. Well, I could hear moaning and crying. I could hear some female voices and then it kind of hit me that, you know, the last thing

I had been thinking before all this happened was I was waiting. for Kelsey. And I thought, oh my God, she's going to walk into this situation. I have to get out of here. I have to stop her from coming in the building. Cheryl's niece, Kelsey, had already been in the building for several minutes. I think it was at that point that I felt my side was kind of burning. And I was on my stomach. And I reached my hand underneath me and pulled it out and it was a little pink. I thought, oh, I must have been grazed. Cheryl had been shot through the abdomen. I was in a short skirt in sandals.

It was casual Friday. I wasn't dressed to be shot and get away. And I got up and I went right to the door. I was right by the door and I just peeked around the corner and I couldn't see them. And I thought, I mean, this might be my only chance. And so I just ran as quickly and I tiptoed and ran at the same time in these open sandals, trying to keep them on my feet, down the carpeted hallway. And I thought, oh, no, it's hardwood floors in the reception area.

How am I going to run in these sandals and not make noise? And I thought, well, this is my chance, you know. So I kind of peeped my head out of my cubicle to try and see, is it safe to reach up and grab the phone and call for help? And since I didn't see anybody or hear anything, I thought, all right. Yeah, we took a Dunwin here at the Deuce Rederation. Okay, and what are they doing? shooting at people.

Okay. Where are they right now? I'm in the hallway. How many, is it just one person? Yeah, just one person. Radio report of a shooter in the hallway of the Jewish Federation. How many people are shot? Uh, several.

At that time, I didn't know what was going on with anyone else, and I had no idea if anyone else was calling. I just knew that I had to get help so that myself and anybody else that could possibly get out of this alive. of this alive would get the help that they needed. I went down half a flight of stairs, and there was Pam, who worked in the office right next to mine. I didn't realize that she was even still in the building.

And here she was laying face up on the landing, and her eyes were open, and she wasn't blinking. It wasn't like they were glazed over, there was nothing behind her eyes, and they were just staring. She had beautiful, beautiful blue eyes. and blonde hair and she was dressed, you know, just, you know, casual day, Friday, really cute little outfit. And here I said, she's just laying there. She's not, I couldn't believe that someone could be there and then not be there so fast.

It was just all mixed up. You know, there's this guy who might come out after me with a gun. There's Kelsey outside. There's Pam sitting here. All these decisions that I had to make just like that. And so I just thought I have to, I can't do anything for Pam. And so I had to just step over her body and keep going down the stairs. Carol, hiding under her desk, was still on the phone to 911.

They asked me, you know, are there other people injured? And I said, yes, there's other people injured. I know because I heard them. Okay. Have you actually seen him at all? He shot me in the leg. Okay. Okay.

Because he asked for the manager, and then he got out of down and started shooting people. He shot me in the knee. Do you know what kind of a gun it is? Is it a handgun or like a rifle? Yeah, handgun. I think I was pretty calm. I was kind of just in this like survival mode and very focused on, I just need to tell him what's going on.

I was also focused in trying to be quiet. I wanted to be quiet because I didn't want to draw attention to myself. And then he came back around. And I saw him aim his gun over the cubicle wall at where I knew that Carol was laying. And I just had it in my mind that he was going to shoot her in the head and that he was going to kill her.

While Carol was on the phone to 911, the gunman approached her. And then they asked, is that gunshots you hear in the background? And I initially said, no. Do you know where he's at now? Are those still gunshots in the background, ma'am? No, but I know he's down the hallway. I didn't even realize he was there.

I didn't realize he had come back the second time to shoot me. I didn't hear it. I didn't see it. I didn't even feel it. The gunman shot Carol through the elbow while she was on the phone. And then he looked at me and pointed the gun at me and shot me again. And that's when he shot me in the shoulder. And then he continued walking down the hall.

In the movies, when someone shot, if they're shot, if they, They're really badly hurt they pass out, and I had assumed since I hadn't passed out, I was not really badly hurt. I maybe knew subconsciously I'd been hit, but consciously I was completely oblivious to the fact that he had come back and shot at me a second time. Cheryl was trying to get out of the building to safety. And I just thought the police are out there. If I just go storming out of the building, they might think I'm the shooter.

They might shoot me. So I had my hand on my side and one arm in the... air just to try to indicate that I wasn't the bad guy. And there were at least three guys in SWAT outfits with long black guns. One of them definitely pointed in my direction. And then this uniformed, regular uniformed guy, very tall man. And I just turned to him with my arm up and my arm on my side. And he said, you have to keep going.

You're still in the line of fire. Suddenly down the hallway, I hear this guy say, I have a hostage. And I'm thinking, oh my God, he's taking Leila hostage now. Because I have no idea where Leila is. I have no idea where anybody is. I didn't even know who all was in the office at the time. The gunman had eventually taken Dana a co-worker hostage. He went out and he saw that Dana was on the phone with 911.

And he started cursing at her. He's standing right in my doorway and he's holding me hostage and I'm pregnant. Would you like to help me? Does she know him? No, sir, hold on here. Here he is. He is. Who? Get on the ground, right there. Who are you? Why are you holding her hostage? This is a hostage situation. I want these Jews to get out.

Why are you so upset at these people? I'm not upset as a people. I'm upset at your foreign policy. These are Jews. I'm tired of getting pushed around and are people getting pushed around. What's your name, first of all? Let's talk. My name is Neveed Haught. How many people are in the office with you? I don't know.

I just have one person here. You have one person. Do you have your gun out on that person? Yes, I do. Is that person scared? Yeah, I shot her once. You shot her once? Yeah.

But where did you shoot her? I shot her in the arm. In the arm? Okay, she's going to need an ambulance, don't you think? Yeah, I don't care. I have this gun pointed out of her head. I know. He shouted obscenities for a while about wanting to be on CNN and wanting the war in Iraq to stop.

But he gave himself up after a few minutes and walked out of the building with his hands on his head. Here, I'll give myself up. You're going to give yourself up? Yes. Well, you can walk out the front with your hands on your head, okay? Okay. And that's all right. They put me on a stretcher and carried me out, and they were very kind in asking all of us to close our arms.

eyes when we went down the stairwell where Pam's body was still laying. I thought they were telling me to close my eyes so that I wouldn't get dizzy at the weird angles when they took me down the stairs. But it was to try to help us not have to have that memory of her. Sheryl's 14-year-old niece Kelsey had hidden in the bathroom throughout the shooting. The entire siege lasted approximately 15 minutes. The five surviving gunshot victims were taken to the hospital. I hurt. so badly. But there was Kelsey standing over me. You know, with tears in her eyes, saying I love you because she knew that that was the most important thing for me to hear right then. In his 2008 trial, Navid Hauch's lawyers pleaded that he was insane. The jury could not reach a verdict,

and the judge declared a mistrial. Hawk was retried in 2009. He was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to life without parole, plus 120 years. I learned that I am very good and very calm under pressure because it's something you would never know about yourself until that happens. And for me, it was just kind of like instinct took over once I realized what was going on. I survived because I was calm. I got a harm's way and did what I could to call for help when I was able to do so. Finding the one can feel impossible.

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slash survived. Try firstleaf.com slash survived. At first, I didn't think it was real. I woke up to this blinding light and I was transported to another place. Pluto TV. Then I heard a voice. Come with me if you want to live. There were thousands of movies and shows and they were all free. The truth is our it. It's just so beautiful. On Pluto TV, free streaming of Terminator 2, Fringe Arrow, the 100 NX files may cause excitement, loss of sleep and sudden belief in extraterrestrial. No credit cards or alien encounters necessary. Pluto TV, stream now, pay never. It's 1981 in Ormond Beach, Florida.

Tamara and three friends in their early 20s are planning to go sailing on a catamaran. My friend Randy had called and asked me if I wanted to go out on a catamaran. He was kind of setting me up on a blind date with a friend of his, Daniel. And he owned the boat. And so I said, sure. We went out on a 17-foot catamaran. This was very small, so it only seated like four people.

There's one sail in the middle. There's no cabins or anything down below. The group sailed one mile from shore. At one point I saw some dark clouds coming up kind of far offshore, but then I saw some lightning also. And it just came really, really quick. And so by the time the guys had saw it, they said, it's too late, so it's better to stick out the,

waded out out here instead of trying to run in and go into the storm. The catamaran was battered by the storm and one of the pontoons filled with water. And unfortunately, 10, 15 minutes later, the boat ended up flipping. As I fell off, I scraped my leg on the pontoon and the fear of shark. Immediately was in everyone's head. At that point, we just scrambled and we were able to all get up on the hole. and we were able to put our knees up to our chest and be able to stay out of the water. And we just got settled there and tried to think what to do.

And basically, I know we were all at the idea that it was still daylight, the storm was passing. Surely there's going to be boats back out on the water. They had been at sea for over six hours and were drifting further from shore. They had no food or water and were wearing only. bathing suits. We heard an engine and Daniel said that it was a Coast Guard cutter. And it came so close and we were sure we were whistling really loud. It was completely silent out there. So we just whistled and screamed and everything and it cut its engines off. We're going, oh my God, you know, they've heard us. They're going to hear us. We're going to be saved and we were happy and

we're getting all excited and this is going to be so cool and we're going to be in the paper and and then the engines started up again, and the ship went off elsewhere. And then that was just like the reality hit us, and we were just quiet. And Christy, who was sitting in front of me, she was very quiet, and I could tell also that she was just making peace,

and I just had a sense that she knew she was going to die. They have drifted nine miles, from shore. Crack of dawn, I just looked over and when I saw the light, I said, that's the sun coming up. Shore's got to be the other way. I'm out of here. I'm going. Once the sun comes up, we might lose our direction.

So we knew we had to go. But I think I thought I was going to die. So either way, I just wanted to die trying. And Christy was the only one that didn't know how to swim that well. So I told her about the salt water, you know, it keeps you buoyant. So you can just float on your back. And if you get tired, we'll wait and just, you know, do your best. And so we all took off.

And I took off first. I was up in front. And it was only probably about an hour into the swim that I looked back. And I heard Christy screaming and saying that yelling for Randy to come and get her. And I thought, you know, first I thought she was just drowning or tired or something.

I was yelling, you know, saying just float or whatever. And then I realized I saw her thrashing about in the water. And then she went straight up, just like in the movie. And in the Jaws movie, and she went straight up and straight back down into the water. And I knew she'd been hit by a shark. So I yelled to Randy that it was a shark. And he thought she was drowning. So he was yelling back to her and, you know, calling her name.

And she was just, you know, screaming, come and get me now. And she went up again. and down and he was swimming while this happened, and he didn't see that it was a shark. He just thought she was drowning. So the last time I saw her go up, and she just went face down into the water, I knew that, you know, I knew she was dead.

It was like she was completely pale, completely white, and I knew she'd lost all her blood. I knew if he went back, he was gonna get killed also or attacked, you know, whatever. And I was a good distance ahead, and I said, there's no way, unfortunately. There's nothing I can do to help, I just knew it. And I was not, there was, there was no way I was going to go back there.

And so I just turned around and kept swimming. After about 15 minutes of swimming, 15, 20 minutes, after seeing Christy get hit by the shark, the, I got bumped by something. And I looked down and it was a gray shark, bigger than I was. And I just split second vision of Christy and me saying that's not how I want to go. There's no way that I can die like this. I put myself in the frame of mind of a fish or that I belonged in the ocean. It was the weirdest thing just in nanoseconds. It was like I belong here. I belong here too so you know get out of my way too. So I just kept

swimming backstroke. I went slowly of course and smooth as smooth as I could but slow. And so I obviously had 15 20 minutes of wondering if it was still under me. The currents were were really, really bad, so I couldn't stop. Anytime I stop, it would just take me back or east or north or south instead of west where I wanted to go. Tamara had now been swimming for over five hours. She had lost sight of her two male companions. I didn't hear any screaming, which was one thing.

I was, you know, kind of calm me down a little bit because I knew if they'd got hit by sharks, then I probably would have heard something because it was so quiet out there. As Tamara suddenly realized that there were several sharks, nearby. There was like a feeding frenzy going on. It was just a bunch of fins and just going at it. And the currents were taking me that way, so I had to start swimming against the current to go south and get around that. And once that happened, it's just, you know, you just kept stroking. That's all I got to say. I just kept stroking. I was hallucinating. I had a lot of thoughts. I sang most of the way.

I tried to keep my spirits up. I did have a lot of thoughts about my life so then I was thinking about all these people that do die and come back they would say their life flashes before them mine flashed about six hours of swimming I was disoriented because with the sun up I you know you're still kind of losing bearings and the currents I was afraid of where they're going to take me and I looked up and there was a cloud in the sky and this and it went straight east-west the one side of the cloud so I did backstroke and I followed the cloud in the whole way

So that was something incredible. By now, Tamara had been swimming for over seven hours. She was exhausted and suffering from dehydration and exposure. Finally, when I got almost all the way in, I couldn't break the riptide right there. I could see the shore. I could see the lifeguard. I went almost straight in from the boat. I ended up being in almost a straight line.

I didn't have the strength to get through there. I kept trying to, you know, backstroke, front stroke, everything. and I thought I was, that was it. He couldn't, the dive guard did not see me. And it was just, I mean, mentally it was really, really hard because I'd done all that work to get there. And I was just so few feet from shore and I thought I was going to die.

As Tamara approaches shore, a 26 mile per hour undertow is pulling her back out to sea. There was the lifeguard stand. And he was there and I was yelling and whistling and I was too tired to break the current, the riptie. I just remember to do, if I did side stroke, that I would cut this way instead of cutting through if I did side stroke, that I could, you know, break it like that.

And I did side stroke, and I broke through it. And then he saw me. And he came running out and yelling at me because he thought I was a lifeguard, swim and laps. I just told him instinctively, I said, I just swam about nine miles. There's a boat out there. One person's dead, and there's a couple of other guys, but I don't know if they're dead or alive.

Tamara was suffering from dehydration, exhaustion, and sunburn. The Coast Guard collected Daniel ashore five miles away, and Randy was rescued at sea. Christy's body was never found. I went to the hospital that day and saw Randy, and he was in the hospital for, I think, about two weeks. He had hypothermia and all that. and Daniel, the guy that owned the boat, I don't know what happened. I didn't see him again.

He also, I think, like me, went to the hospital, but then he left. And I never seen him again. Tamara went to work on boats in the Bahamas to help her overcome her ordeal. And I still do this day, I won't go in dark water, but surviving that also gives you just a whole new outlook on life.

Dying wasn't an option for me during that time, so I just had to keep good thoughts. thoughts and say, okay, I made it another minute, I made it another five minutes, I made it another hour, and just keep going and thinking about family or your future and not giving into the negative thoughts is how I survive. When people hear that Mint Mobile plans are only $15 per month, a lot of people wonder, what's the catch? Well, I can tell you, there isn't one.

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Alberto's family is often helped out by a friend named Elizabeth Reynolds. She would, you know, try to help my mom out. run errands for her, do things that the caregivers wouldn't do for her, color her hair, give her pedicures, manicures, and everything. But I thought it was very, very nice for her to do such a thing. I thought she was really a gentle person, you know, by doing this and a real humanitarian by reaching out the way she did to help my mother and father. She asked Alberto, a former law enforcement officer, for help finding work. I was teaching criminal justice and law enforcement in Corpus Christi, Texas.

She wanted me to teach her. She wanted to take my courses, and she wanted to be a police officer. She became a little fixated, if you will, as far as calling me on my cell phone. She started coming over to the house. As soon as I get out of work, she didn't know what time I was getting out of work, but she'd show up. Late one night, Alberto returned home from dinner with colleagues, and Elizabeth was waiting in his driveway. She asked me how my dinner was. And I said, well, how did you know that I was having dinner? Her tone was like an angry wife. So I didn't want to anger her. She just, she appeared to have

some twisted attraction. Elizabeth left the farmhouse. About 7 a.m. in the morning, she knocks on the back door to the farmhouse. And she walks in looking like a southern bell. And she was being very, very charming. And asking for forgiveness, things like that. About three minutes later, I hear a thump on the door. Sounds like a, you know, the traditional drug raid thump, you know, when you go, you know, conduct a raid on a house.

So I opened the door and I saw a large Mexican-American gentleman with a gun in his hand pointed right at my face. I asked him if he was sure who he was looking for. When he tried to answer, he made a big mistake by giving me that edge. And I took advantage of that edge to slam that door shut. You know, I hit both dead bolts. I screamed at Elizabeth Reynolds loud enough to call 911

I reached back to my hip to look from my sidearm I didn't have it with me I didn't have my cell phone either I didn't have anything Alberto had left his gun at the office placed my left foot on the door I kept my body

my torso behind the brick veneer I felt you know that would stop the bullets if he tried to you know because I would have shot right through the door. I figured he was going to do the same thing. Elizabeth had left the room heading for the back door. I was trying to listen for her car. She should be taken off. She slammed the door to my room, and I figured she did the right thing to keep that door between the criminal and her. She had the door, she had me, she had another door than the criminal. So I figured she did that strategically,

and I felt that was good. She was smart for doing that. Elizabeth unlocked the back door and the gunman entered the house behind Alberto. So at that point, I got three in the back and I never heard the shots. But I did smell gun smoke and I don't know why, but I could taste metal in my mouth. I ran out that door, ran into the house through the laundry room, grabbed the cordless phone. and when I was there in the kitchen I got another one and I got shot in the abdomen.

I never stopped. I kept running for some unusual reason. I saw Elizabeth Reynolds in the hallway with her arms crossed and tapping her foot and I thought when I saw that I thought that she was making a big mistake by not running for her life. Why she would stay there, I didn't understand that.

The perpetrator came after me, shot me again. I went down. When he shot me, he got me in the arm. And then it entered my body. I spun around. I got back up. He shot again, got me again. I ended up with five rounds just in my torso.

Plus, I had one through my left arm. And my right arm was bleeding also, so I had a bullet fragment in my right arm. Alberto hid from the gunman in some bushes. Elizabeth was taken hostage. He went and took her at gunpoint, and they went and they got into my sedan, my crown Victoria, and they took off in that. I really felt that he was going to kill her

and that it was my fault, you know, because I didn't have my sidearm, I should have taken him out. So I wanted to, I wanted to survive, I wanted to make it. I looked down and I saw, a lot of blood, but my liver was fine, my heart was fine. I had a, what appeared to be a sucking chest wound,

I could tell by the blood coming out of my mouth. It was pinkish. I knew I had time to live. I didn't want to lay down. I sat down, but I kept my torso up. Laying down, you know, was giving into death, as far as I was concerned, I was going to do that. I kept my poise.

I kept, it was important to stay as dignified as possible. Alberto called 911 and was airlifted to the hospital. He was in and out of the hospital for over four months for multiple surgeries. He lost almost half of his colon and small intestine and a third of one kidney. Elizabeth had been released by the gunman the day after the shooting. You know, I started asking her about the crime, this and that and the other. Again, she started saying, oh, she's so glad that I'm fine, you know, that I lived. I went to her house after work, and she said, yeah, my mother and I, you know, we just want to say a prayer over you.

And we made you a really good spaghetti dinner and everything. And I'm like, oh, hey, that's very nice. That's really nice. And so I just got there and I ate my, you know, I ate the salad. And then I ate the spaghetti. And I didn't even finish with the spaghetti. And she's like, oh, my goodness, look at this. Seven o'clock already.

God, I've got a long day tomorrow. I'm going to be very tired. I almost get to my house, and lo and behold, man, I am so sick. I mean, I'm vomiting. I'm pulling over the road to vomit. And I'm starting to black out. So I'm kind of like on the shoulder, and I'm driving with my hazard lights on. And so I call it in, and I, you know, I call the Kleber County Hospital.

I tell me, hey, I'm in route up there. and I don't know what's going on. Maybe I've got an infection, you know, with my colon because they had removed 45%. Maybe it's my small intestine. Maybe it's my left kidney. Maybe it's those two bullet fragments I still have in my spine. And then I passed out. I wake up and I'm in the critical care unit.

Alberto's stomach contents were never tested for poison. The doctors, police, and Alberto did not suspect Elizabeth. After four days in the hospital, Alberto was visited by Elizabeth. They're about to release me from the hospital, and she brought me some onion soup from TGIF. She knew I loved it. I was tired of the hospital food. I ate the whole thing. I started getting so sick, the same way, just as sick as I got, you know, when I went to the hospital.

The same thing. I had to end up staying there another three or four days. I had become gravely ill from the food that Elizabeth Reynolds had been feeding me. And after every incident, I'd end up in critical care in a hospital. Alberto decided to begin his own investigation. I had faith in those criminal investigators, but nothing jived. There wasn't a fluid format of investigative techniques. I had been asking her, I said, look, why don't you just take a polygraph?

That way you're eliminated as a suspect. Elizabeth agreed to take a polygraph test. They met at a restaurant. We're waiting for one of the investigators to talk to her about signing the polygraph form to administer a polygraph. And I'm waiting for his phone call and I had just got a fish platter.

I ate all my fish plate. When the investigator never got there or the polygraph examiner. He was going to be brought there by the investigator. I guess something came up. He couldn't make it. About 35 minutes later, you know, luckily I had picked up one of my criminal justice students.

He was driving my car. Next thing, man, things get so bad for me physically. I throw up inside my car, can't even make it to pull the car over. I mean, I'm gravely ill. So bad that he's driving this fast. as he can to get to the hospital. He pulls up in there, they got a gurney, you know,

that they bring up to the car. They put me on the gurney. I pass out. My heart stopped four times. My doctor had already talked to my family, and they were there at the hospital. When he released me, he talked to me very, in a very stern way. He said, Al, I'm not going to release you from this hospital

if you go back to that blank blank woman, because I know she had everything to do with poisoning you. She had a lot of you. lied to the investigator, she said that the gunman was wearing a mask. He was not wearing a mask. She said that he jumped out of the car at 60 miles an hour. 60 miles an hour, he would have been dead. The body would have looked like a hamburger meat.

And then she lied about where she had dropped him off. Alberto continued to question Elizabeth's statements to the police. I'd been talking to the executives of the Crime Stoppers program, and I told him I needed them to. I needed them to raise the reward on my shooting, and they agreed to do that. And lo and behold, days later, somebody calls in utilizing the name of Lisa. And I remember Elizabeth Reynolds would call herself Lisa. To this day, we don't know who it was because it was anonymous.

We can only speculate. However, they gave up the shooter. The shooter's name was Francisco Perman. Bettis. He was at some nightclub and he was bragging that he had shot me. And that's when they brought him in for questioning and he broke in minutes, like five minutes he broke. He rolled over on her. And he started telling him, look, yes, I did this, but I was paid by Elizabeth Reynolds to do this. and she paid him with a check and she paid him with drugs. And also, we later learned in court that she paid him with sex.

Francisco Perez was arrested and sentenced to 60 years in prison for attempted murder. Elizabeth Reynolds was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to life in prison. It was difficult for me to live my life without. trying to find out who the gunman was, why they were trying to kill me, why they were trying to shoot me. The district attorney stated during court that her motive was the fact that she had an unhealthy love for me. She felt that if she couldn't have me, nobody was going to have me. Had I died, you know, she would have gotten, she would have gotten away free. Finding the one can feel impossible. And in today's world, it's even hard.

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