Cold Case Files - I SURVIVED: I Didn't Even Have Enough Time To Think About What Was Happening

Episode Date: June 7, 2025

17 year old Danielle is attacked by her mother’s boyfriend who stabs her repeatedly and leaves her for dead. Deborah is part of a crew delivering a yacht when it sinks along with their life raft. Gordy and Betty are terrorized in their home by an escaped convict before he takes them with him as hostages.This Episode is sponsored by BetterHelpApartments.com - To find whatever you’re searching for and more visit apartments.com the place to find a place.BetterHelp: Visit BetterHelp.com/SURVIVED to get 10% off your first month!Progressive: Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, iSurvive listeners. I'm Marisa Pinson. And before we get into this week's episode, I just want to remind you that episodes of iSurvived as well as the A&E Classic podcast Cold Case Files, City Confidential, and American Justice are all available ad free on the new A&E Crime and Investigation channel on Apple Podcasts and Apple Plus for just $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. And now onto the show. This episode contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. He yanked me with so much force.

My first reaction is, oh my God, he's going to rape me. Real people. It's the most difficult fight to stay sane when you have sharks eating someone else underneath you literally inches away. Who faced death. The only thing I can think of is how much is it going to hurt to have your throat cut. And live to tell how. He knows that I'm alive, so he's trying to get rid of my mom so he can finish what he

started. This is I Survived. It's December 2005 in Albany, New York. At 5 p.m., 17-year-old Danielle arrives home from school thinking she is alone. While chatting with her friends on her computer, Danielle suddenly hears her mother's partner, Dante, in the kitchen. Dante was my mom's boyfriend for about two and a half years. He lived with us for a decent amount of that time.

I just had this weird feeling that I didn't trust him. Like, there had been a few incidents one time, like a couple of our games where our PlayStation went missing, and it was kind of weird. Dante came out of the kitchen and just quickly asked me if he could borrow my brush or he could shape up his hair. So I told him, you know, no problem, and I think I went within a minute or two

after he asked, I went to go look. The bedroom lights were not working, so Danielle used a lamp. I went to go look. The bedroom lights were not working, so Danielle used a lamp. I went to go look for the brush. Could not find it. And I had the lamp in my hand, and I went to go give it back to him, and he grabbed me. The lamp dropped, bulb broke, and he yanked me.

With so much force, it happened so quickly, I didn't even know how I made it from the hallway to my mom's bed. That's how quick it was and how forceful it was that I didn't even know. Dante was a big guy, 6'2", 6'3", 5'4", 115 at the most. So me compared to him, I honestly had no chance. He got on top of me and straddled me,

and my first reaction was, what are you doing? What are you doing? And I'm yelling at him, get off of me, get off of me, what are you doing? And he's just pinning me down by my arms, holding me down really, really hard and just kept telling me to shut up, shut up, shut up, yelling at me.

And my first reaction is, oh my God, he's gonna rape me. So as I'm laying there and I'm trying to push him off and I'm telling him, get off of me. What are you doing? What are you doing? Get off of me. And he's yelling, shut up, shut up. And I'm pushing and I'm pushing.

And the last time I tried to push, I felt a knife with my hand. I'm pulling back, and I feel my fingers go over a knife. And it was a kitchen knife. I panicked and immediately thought, he's trying to stab me. My first reaction is to throw my hands up and protect my face and my neck,

because that's what he's trying to get. So I'm throwing my hands. Just keep trying, keep trying, and keep trying. I looked at him, and he looked possessed, like he was so angry. And I couldn't understand why any of this was happening. I did nothing wrong. I think I wanted to ask him why he was doing this to me, but I couldn't get it out. And he was just staring at me like he wanted to kill me.

He looked at me like he wanted me dead. He proceeded to try to stab me and I felt him jab me once or twice. When he stabbed me, it's kind of a straight across on this side. And then on this side, he was definitely trying to do some damage and trying to find something

that would cause me to die. So he reached over and grabbed the pillow and pushed his whole entire body weight on my face. And I passed out in probably three seconds. I don't even think I had enough time to think about what was happening. That's how fast it was. I thought in those three seconds that I was dying. Danielle was unconscious for over an hour.

It was a really weird feeling when I woke up. Like, I can't even describe how it felt. He had covered me with a blanket, and I just laid there. I had to sit up because it was really hard for me to breathe laying down. And so I sat up, and I had on a gray shirt that day. So I knew something bad had happened because my whole shirt was covered in blood. I was like, oh my God, what happened? I thought I was dying.

So when I woke up, it was like a second chance to live. So that's how I took it. So the first thing I looked for is a phone, because I did not have a cell phone at the time, but there was no phone. So I looked at the clock and it was around eight, so I'm like, okay, my mom's going to be home soon. I hear him start coming down the hallway, and I'm sitting up, so I'm like, oh my God, oh my God. I'm thinking, why is he still in my house? I was completely confused. Why is he still here?

And so I start thinking, okay, how do I get out? Danielle held her breath as Dante approached the bedroom. Now it's time to play dead. That's all I could do. So I proceeded to lay back down, cover myself with a blanket, stop breathing. He uncovered me and grabbed my arm and tried to check for a pulse.

So I'm freaking out, scared, like, oh my God, he's gonna know, he's gonna know. And he took the blanket off of me, got on top of me. Oh my God, this time he's gonna rape me. He's gonna rape me. He's gonna rape me. I'm just sitting there not breathing, hoping to God that he does not realize that I'm alive. So he just kind of stood over me and said,

I'm sorry, Danielle, and walked out of the room. Every 10 minutes, Dante checked on Danielle to see if she was dead. Every time he came in, I was nervous because I thought he was gonna see if she was dead. Every time he came in, I was nervous because I thought he was going to see my eyelashes flutter. It hurt not to breathe and it hurt to breathe. It was a horrible situation and I just remember trying really hard to be quiet and hold my

breath for as long as possible because I knew the minute I exhaled, it was gonna be noticeable and he was gonna know. He comes running down the hallway. Again, I lay down, cover myself up and stop breathing. This time he just comes and he kinda like wraps me up in the blanket and pushes me right off my mom's bed. I was laying on the side of the bed,

really on my side, kind of, it was very uncomfortable. And I heard the door and I'm, okay, my mom's home. Danielle was out of sight on the floor between the bed and the wall. My mom actually sat on the bed and I just wanted to jump out from that blanket and just hold her. I just wanted to get to my mom so bad. And all I could think of was that if I let her know that I'm here,

he's going to take the same knife and hurt my mom. So I just laid there and I was quiet. And my mom left the room again and Dante came back. Still bleeding heavily from the knife wound to her neck, Danielle continued to act dead. There was a window that led to an enclosed back porch. He opened the window, moved my mom's bed so he could get to me, picked me up, put me out on the back porch.

And I just remember laying there like, oh my God. There was no door leading to outside. I couldn't run out and find help. I had to go back through the house in order to get anything. So I was just back there, like, what do I do now? Now this back porch was used for storage. There was clothes. It was—there were broken windows, so it was freezing.

It was just like being outside. I wanted to lay where I was at first because I assumed that he was going to come back and look through the window to make sure that I was still there. If he was checking on me while I was in my mom's bed, he's going to check on me again. Danielle decided that to survive, she had to get her mother's attention. I opened the door and the first thing I remember

hearing is them talking about going to a hospital. I'm wondering, do they know what happened? Who else could be hurt? I was scared. My mom just kept saying, we need to go to a hospital. We need to go to a hospital. And Dante kept telling her, no, no, everything will be fine. And I'm like, what are they talking about?

To explain the blood in the bedroom, Dante had slit his wrists. My mom assumed that the blood that she saw was his blood. So therefore, no one is thinking that I'm somewhere hurt or somebody else could have been hurt in the house. They think it's Dante. As he's pacing, he's looking at the back door. And at some point, he realizes that the back door

has been opened. So he just stood there staring at the door. I had gotten really, really, really strong somehow because I remember hoping that he could see me staring at him, hoping that he saw me and he knew that I was not dead. I heard him ask my mom to go to the store or somewhere and I'm like, oh my God. He knows, he knows that I'm alive. So he's trying to get rid of my mom so he can finish what he started. I was not gonna let that happen.

I mustered up every ounce of strength I had. I just swung the door open and I ran. I ran through boxes, whatever it was, I just ran. And my brother saw me first because my mom's back was to me. And my brother heard me and he saw me. And as soon as he saw me, the look on his face, he immediately ran to his room and grabbed the phone and called 911.

And my mom turned around in the process, and I just ran to her and grabbed her. I couldn't say anything. And I'm just holding on to my mom, and she kept asking, what happened? Who did this to you? Who did this to you? And Dante's running past me and my mom

and telling my brother that he sees the people outside to go get them, to go get them. And so he's running out of my house and my mom just kept asking me, what happened, who did this to you? I said, Dante, and I fainted. Responding to the 911 call, the police caught Dante running down the street.

I was laying on the floor and the paramedics came and immediately they start cutting off my clothes because I couldn't tell them where I was stabbed because I didn't know. I remember asking him, am I going to be okay? Am I going to live? Am I going to live? And he said yes. And it was just a huge sigh.

Like, I made it. I made it. I ended up having around 160 stitches internally and externally. And I also had nerve damage to my tongue and I could not chew for three to four days. My tongue is actually still crooked and I still have a little bit of nerve damage left over from what he did. Dante pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in prison for aggravated assault. I don't think he was smart enough to know what he should have done because if you have someone unconscious and you're trying to kill them and if you know what you're doing,

I should have been dead. I survived because I wanted to live. I felt like 17 years is not enough. I felt like there was so much I still needed to accomplish, so much that I could do that it wasn't my time. I could not let myself die. I did not look at myself as a victim, not once. I looked at myself as a victim, not once. I looked at myself as a survivor. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Let's talk honestly for a second about men's mental health.

There's still so much stigma out there. So many men feel like they have to keep it all bottled up that showing emotion is a sign of weakness. But the truth is, real strength comes from taking care of your mind and being open about what you're going through. Men today face huge pressure to perform, to provide, and to keep it all together. It's no wonder that 6 million men in the US suffer from depression every year and so much of it goes undiagnosed. It's okay to struggle. In fact, opening up and doing something about it is one of the most courageous things you can do,

for yourself and for everyone who depends on you. If you're a man feeling the weight of the world, please talk to someone. A friend, a loved one, or a therapist. Therapy isn't just for people who've experienced major trauma. It's a powerful tool for learning positive coping skills, setting boundaries, and becoming the best version of yourself. That's why I love what BetterHelp is doing. With over 35,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform, having served over 5 million people globally.

It works too. The app has a 4.9 out of 5 rating from over 1.7 million client reviews. It's convenient, easy to fit into your busy life, and you can switch therapists anytime. Take that first step. Reach out to BetterHelp and see what taking care of your and you can switch therapists anytime. Take that first step, reach out to BetterHelp and see what taking care of your mental health

can do for you. As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. Talk it out with BetterHelp. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com slash survived. That's better, H-E-L-P dot com slash survived. I survived is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game, shifting a little money here, a little

there and hoping it all works out? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can be a better budgeter and potentially lower your insurance bill too. You tell Progressive what you want to pay for car insurance and they'll help you find options within your budget. Try it today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, price and coverage match limited by state law, not available in all states. It's October 1982 in Annapolis, Maryland. Experienced sailor Deborah is crewing on a yacht delivery

from Maryland to Florida. This 60-foot yacht has a crew of five, including Deborah. Boat provisioned. We left around, probably around 10 o'clock and sails up. We had a beautiful sort of following wind and we had the spinnaker up. Everything looked peachy keen. On their first night, the sailors worked rotating shifts,

four hours on watch and four hours sleeping. So we sailed into the night, everybody on their watch. And the next morning we woke up and Meg made a little breakfast and it was beautiful. But something was happening with the weather. The wind began to build a little bit. We didn't think much about it. We were all pretty good sailors.

But the weather continued to build over and over, just more, just a little bit, just increments. And by that night, we were coming into a little bit of a storm. And then through the night, I would hear John and Mark on deck, and I could tell that they really weren't working at it, that maybe they were drinking too much. It was a nightmare. It was just a nightmare. And Mark is just raging drunk. You big wusses, it's not that bad out here.

I've been in more storms. And I'm just like, shut up and go downstairs. As Deborah and Brad took charge, the boat was struggling in a violent storm. It only got worse throughout the night. It got to the point where I almost couldn't steer the boat. I'm like, oh my God, how much worse does it get? Brad and I were just so exhausted.

We were so exhausted. We went down to wake up Mark and John. Couldn't even wake them up. They were out, out cold. And I looked at Brad and I said, I don't know what to do. What are we going to do? He goes, we're going to have to sail this boat.

So here we are with this unforecast crazy storm, and Brad and I, by now, we've been on watch for eight hours. So finally, we get them woken up. Mark's hung over, John's hung over. Brad and I are exhausted to the very core of our being. So Brad and I went down into our bunks and left Mark and John on a secure deck. All they had to do was steer. While sleeping off her exhaustion, Deborah was abruptly woken by Brad.

And I wake up and I'm in my shorts and my little sweatshirt and he goes, come on, come on, we gotta go, we gotta go, we gotta go. And I jump out of my bunk and I land like knee-deep in water and I'm like, what's going on? And I look over to my right and the whole window on the leeward side of the boat had been mashed in and water was cascading in and John's on the radio going, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday.

Mark's up on the deck just howling in the wind. I crawl up on deck as fast as I can and Brad's behind me pushing me. This boat is going down. It's listing to the port side, and it's slowly, slowly, slowly, it's just filling with water. And all there is is this shredded, ripped-to-hell boat with the helm lashed down. It's been tied down. The boat was now steering itself as Mark had tied the wheel to the deck and gone to sleep.

It was just like a surreal nightmare. It was like, this can't be happening, but it is. All of a sudden I look at Brad and he's trying to unkleat the rubber zodiac dinghy from the deck. And he says, come on, come on, we're going to go. We pushed the rubber zodiac dinghy over the side and we swim out with it. As the crew scrambled to get off the sinking boat, Meg got caught in the rigging. The rigging was slicing through her legs and leaving these huge gashes.

So I swam back in, and I grabbed her. And I just said, hold on. And she held on to me, and I was able to swim back out to the zodiac dinghy. Here we are in the middle of this ocean. This boat just does this and all of a sudden it writes itself and little by little in less than two minutes it sinks completely. The yacht had sunk before anyone could activate the emergency locator beacon.

It was so cold. And then all of a sudden this huge, huge wave rolls up and breaks on top of us and it flips the rubber zodiac dinghy and throws us all out everywhere. We couldn't fight with the storm, which also meant that we had to tread water. It was just exhausting and hopeless. As dawn broke, the storm finally subsided and the crew climbed back into the dinghy. And it was so incredibly cold because the wind chill was 40 degrees. The water temperature was 76 in the Gulf Stream. I jumped back in the water, and Mark was in the water, and he was being very difficult.

And he started screaming at me, quit kicking me, quit, just leave me alone. And I'm like, dude, I'm not near you. So I put my hand in the water, and I started looking, and all I could see were these long, tubular bodies. And then it dawned on me, I just was like sharks! There were like hundreds of them big little fins you could see through the top of the wave and there were these bodies just floating around you so now we were not

only freezing to death we were surrounded by sharks. The colder you get the thirstier you get, the more your mind begins to become a bit delirious and it starts setting in. And it started really with Meg. Meg began to moan a lot and moan about her legs and so we uncovered them and noticed that they began to get really red around the sides and there was no way to turn around the infection. So here we were, sloshing around in this mush of excrement, dead seaweed, blood, pus, urine, and Meg's wounds were just getting worse. She was hypothermic, and she was also very dehydrated.

And Mark and Meg and John were bickering. We're all gonna die. All of us are gonna die. And I'm just like, stop. Everybody just stop. We've gotta focus. And I just hear this. Shoo, shoo, shoo.

And I'm like, oh my God, what are they doing? They're drinking salt water. And I'm like, are they nuts? Every sailor in the world knows you absolutely never ingest salt water. I'm like, are they nuts? Every sailor in the world knows you absolutely never ingest saltwater. It's a kiss of death. Everybody's kind of looking at each other really oddly

because I know when you drink saltwater, it causes your brain to malfunction and your kidneys to malfunction and then the conversations begin. John's saying, it's right there, don't you see it? I just saw land. And we're going to go get a pickup. And once I'm going to swim to land, I'm going to get a pickup.

And the land's right there. And you're saying in your mind, there's no land there. Delirious from drinking seawater, John thought he could reach land and jumped overboard. And he swam, and he swam. And we're all screaming at him and Meg's crying. And all of a sudden he gets about 200 yards out and you just hear this, wahhh! This just death-curdling scream.

And we all knew what had happened. The sharks had gotten him. Meg was just bawling and we're all crying. And it's just like, this is the beginning of the end. There are five of us and we're one down. So we all sat there just in total shock. It was unbelievable. And Meg was beside herself. So I went up and sat with her and tried to console her.

And it was just impossible. Mark said, let me, I'm gonna sit here and take care of Meg. And the next thing you know, I hear Brad shaking me, and he goes, what is Mark doing to Meg? And I'm like, what are you talking about? And he goes, just listen. And he's going, come on, bitch, just do what I say. Brad and I jump up, and Brad just grabs Mark by the neck

and he goes, dude, I have so had it with you. You leave her alone. You don't need to molest this woman. She's dying. Mark's just like really angry and he's going like, F you all, I hate this thing. We're all gonna die anyway. I'm gonna go back to 7-Eleven for beer and cigarettes. So he lowers himself over the side and Brandon are kind of freaking out Meg's lying back in the back

And she's sure it's just shivering and crying and all of a sudden we feel this Bam on this rubber zodiac dinghy and then again bam and bam and all of a sudden this frenzy Breaks out around us. There are sharks everywhere. And they're actually eating Mark underneath the rubber zodiac dinging. And it's the most difficult fight to stay sane when you have sharks eating someone else underneath you literally inches away.

And they've ate him for hours. Brad and Meg and I huddled up together and just lay there and just pray. After Mark was eaten by sharks, Meg broke down. She starts doing this weird thing with her hands in the air, kind of like a Spanish dancer. And her eyes get very focused and still. and she starts mumbling. And what it sounded like to me was that she was speaking in tongues.

And she just kept doing it and doing it. And it was almost like I understood it. And the next thing you knew, she just kind of sunk back into herself. And I had her in my arms. And I fell asleep again. And then we woke up, and Meg was dead. So we took her jewelry off for her family because it was the only way we would be able to prove to

them that she died at sea because she would never take her jewelry off. And then we took her clothes off and we said the Lord's Prayer, Psalm 23, and we rolled her body off into the ocean. So I said to Brad, I said, you know what, Meg's just died in the bottom of this. We really need to wash it out. We turned it over. But not before. I said to Brad, I said, you know what, Meg's just died in the bottom of this. We really need to wash it out. We turned it over. But not before. I said, but first, I want you to hold me and I'm going to stick my head in the water and I'm going to see if there's sharks.

Because we haven't seen sharks in a while. The sharks that had been following them for three days were gone. So we turn it over, wash it out. I jump back in and then I try to get Brad in. Well, Brad is, you know, 6'3", and weighs 250 pounds, and I mean, we're just like, or, do you know what I'm saying? I don't know. And I'm just trying to pull him back in, and I couldn't get him back in.

And I didn't feel like he was trying, and I started crying, and we'd gotten this fight, and he was so angry at me for turning that boat over and I was crying and all of a sudden he goes look and I'm like what? He goes look there's a ship. So we stand up and we start yelling and flagging our hands and it's really actually much closer it's a huge freighter than anything I've seen but you know those things kind of drive themselves so everybody might be sleeping who knows. We're both really down and this thing goes right by us. And we both just sit back down and just start crying. And all of a sudden this huge freighter starts making this arcing turn and we're like, oh my God, they see us. And I just jumped off and went overboard and started swimming.

And then they threw over a life ring. And then I started thinking, oh my god, I'm just like bait for a shark. But I didn't care. And then all of a sudden, I was able to body surf over, grab the line. And when I got to the end of the line, because I couldn't look behind me, there was Brad.

He had the life ring, and he was holding onto me. We finally make it to a gangplank, and these two burly guys reach down, and they carry us up and put us on the deck. And in my brain, I still have this vision of Brad and I lying on the deck of this Russian freighter, like the catch of the day. It was without a doubt one of the most sad days I've ever spent because for only two of us to have survived when everybody could if they'd just waited one day.

I survived because I was put into an environment where I had no choices. I had to deal with the immediate and what was given to me and I did it. Finding the one can feel impossible. And in today's world, it's even harder. False profiles, inaccurate pictures, incompatibilities, ghosting on dates. Is this sounding familiar? But if you're ready to make your move to a new place,

it doesn't have to feel like dating. All it takes is a simple search on apartments.com to find your perfect match. Whether you're looking for a three-bedroom condo downtown, a two-bedroom duplex in a quiet neighborhood, a cozy studio in a walkable city, or even a single-family home in a cul-de-sac, you can find a place that checks all the right boxes. So whichever stage of life you're in, settle down in your perfect home by using apartments.com. No more swiping and awkward first

dates. Make it easier to get a place that gets you. Visit apartments.com, the place to find a place. For weeks now, New Jersey residents have been plagued by unexplained drones flying overhead. Is there intelligent alien life? And if so, has the government been covering it up? UFO sightings the military can't explain. Congressional hearings. Pentagon whistleblower. What does it all mean? What does it all mean?

We are here to try and figure it all out with our new Ancient Aliens podcast. There is a doorway in the universe. Beyond it is the promise of truth. It demands we question everything we have ever been taught. The evidence is all around us. The future is right before our eyes. We are not alone. We have never been alone. Listen to the Ancient Aliens podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts.

It's December 1997 in Owatonna, Minnesota. The driver of a prison transport van is attacked by three inmates who hijack his vehicle. After dumping the van in a residential area, two of the convicts are recaptured by the police. Arriving home from work, 60-year-old Gordie is met by the police. The cops were in the sitting in the driveway with their cars and lights on. And so I went up to them and asked them what was going on. They told me that there was an escaped convict in the neighborhood. I felt secure and safe that he wasn't in the house, and I figured if he was outside, the

cops would have found him, so I just stepped through the kitchen door and out from behind came a knife and a big wrench. I just froze at the time because I didn't know what to do. From there he made me go over set by the table where I had to tie myself up with a cord. The police search of Gordy Street did not include looking inside any of the houses. He was about 6'2", with beard and shaggy hair. And he had my clothes on. He told me that he did escape from this van.

He said, I haven't killed anybody yet. He says, but this ain't going to stop me. So I knew I was in trouble. I did not want Betty to come home into this mess. Gordy knew that his wife Betty was due home any minute. I got out of the car, went into the house. Gordy was sitting in my chair, which is not typical, and he had a strange look on his face.

Didn't think too much about it. I kind of bent over to greet the dog. And when I stood up, I came face to face with a very large man who had a fillet knife very, very close to my throat and a very large wrench in the other hand. Well, Betty turned pale white. He just looked evil.

It was like I was numb. I was in shock. I couldn't put it together. What was he doing in our house? What was going to happen to us? We just tried to be as nice to him as possible, just to keep him busy. I can still smell this man. It was a smell I will never forget. It was a putrid, overwhelming, sweat, perspiration smell.

He never touched Betty, but he did hold the knife to her neck. It was a putrid, overwhelming, sweat, perspiration smell. He never touched Betty, but he did hold the knife to her to make her go where he wanted her to go. He was in control. He had told us that he was a three-time loser. He had nothing else to lose, and he wasn't going back to prison. Too scared to challenge their tormentor, Betty made coffee.

He drank a lot of coffee. The only direct question I remember him asking me was if there was any guns or if we had any drugs. And I said, no, no guns. And I thought the strongest drug we probably had was extra strength Tylenol. He said he had already eaten all of them. I tried to give him money.

I tried to give him my pickup to get out of there. But he was looking for guns and drugs. He talked about luring girls into empty buildings. He talked about beating a young man in Florida, putting him in the hospital. So actually killing somebody to him was the next step in his career. I tried to tell him how to get out of town and he just wouldn't go for it. He said, I'm staying here until 5 o'clock. The police changed shifts at 5 o'clock and they're stupid. Refusing to leave until 5 a.m. the following morning, the convict demanded food.

I fixed him a frozen pizza, which is really about all I had, and more coffee. And I was hoping that she'd have thrown it at him when it was hot, but she did not. I was terrified. I was definitely working by remote control. What I was told to do is what I did. There was no doubt in my mind,

if I didn't do what he wanted, he would use force. I did not want to be killed in front of Betty. He's got this knife, this fillet knife that he's holding. I'm thinking that we're going to die. It's just a question of when and how much it's going to hurt. When he saw his picture on the news, he says, I look good. He says, I'm proud of myself. the news, he says, I look good. He says, I'm proud of myself.

And I, to myself, I said, how can you be proud of yourself for what you did? Well, we found out during the news conference, of course, that his name was Homer Landon, that he had been picked up in Kansas for a violation of parole in Florida. After the news had finished, the convict decided they would watch his favorite show.

He wanted to watch Murder, She Wrote. I thought to myself, this is, it's almost other world kind. I mean, we're watching a show that we enjoyed watching too, but we're watching it with a man who I think is eventually going to kill us. At 10 p.m., the prisoner ordered Gordy and Betty upstairs to their bedroom. When he made his lay down on the bed, it was an uneasy feeling. I didn't know what he was going to do next. It was scary. It was eerie.

He'd stand in the door and he'd watch us. And each time he did this, I thought, now's the time when he's going to... this is when he's going to kill us. He was in control the whole night with a knife in his hand. He never laid that knife down. Gordy would say, how are you doing? And I'm, you know, I mean, what am I supposed to say?

I'm doing fine, honey. You know, this is just a walk in the park. The only thing I can think of is, how much is it going to hurt to have your throat cut? How many times will he have to stab us before he's sure we're dead? But don't let my kids find me. Make sure that it's a stranger that finds the bodies. I don't want the last thing that my kids remember about me to be laying

in a pool of blood. Gordy is, I think, feeling worse by the minute because the typical man should protect his wife. I was trying to figure out ways to save Betty, how to escape. And there was things going through my mind, is he gonna kill us? Gordy wanted to slide a dresser in front of the door and go out the bedroom window. But first of all, I knew he'd hear us. I knew he'd hear us. I knew he'd get in. I knew that's when we'd die. I couldn't do it. I just froze. I couldn't do it. To make sure that Gordy didn't challenge him, Homer humiliated Betty. He

would make me go into the bathroom with him. He would make sure that the knife was always in a position where if I moved, I would run into it. He'd make me go on one side of the door, and then he'd leave the bathroom door open and make Betty stand in the doorway and watch him. It was the most degrading, humiliating experience. This is not something that happens in my world, but he knew that if I was in there with him,

Gordy was not going to do anything. Homer decided he would disguise himself as Gordy in order to escape. First he tried using Gordy's electric shaver. His beard was quite long. He burnt the shaver out. In my mind, the identity wouldn't work because he's 6'2", I'm 5'8", but he did take my clothes

and wear them, took my glasses and wore those, my cap. About 5 o'clock in the morning, 5.30, he came and he said, well, I've got good news and I've got bad news. And he said, the good news is I'm leaving and the bad news is you're coming with me. His intention was is that because the cops were so stupid and he was a southern boy, they would think that he would want to go south, so he was going to fool them by going north.

He managed to get Betty into the car and taped her to the seat belts so she couldn't get out. There wasn't another level of terror that I could go to. I'd been operating on just sheer terror, nerves, whatever it is, just doing as I was told. By the time we got four blocks from the house, I had already broke the duct tape,

so I knew I was gonna escape someplace, but I wasn't going to do it without Betty. Homer stopped at a store for cigarettes. He went in and then Gordy said to me, I have busted the tape. He opened his door, he jerked my door open and started ripping at the tape. He said, we have to go now. It's our only chance. And I'm frozen.

There are some things that you can do when you are scared. The adrenaline starts flowing. But she was hesitant, because she could still see him in the store. He literally pretty much pulled me out of the car. We ran across the parking lot, up a ditch, across a service road, and onto the highway. It was probably a run of maybe two, two and a half minutes that to me felt like it took

days to make. It was at that point, I think was the first time I looked back at that convenience store and Homer Land was just coming out of the door. I did stand in the middle of the highway to fight the car down because if you stand on the side, they're not going to stop for you. So I had to stop somebody. Gordy flagged down a passing motorist who drove them to a police station.

I finally let that part of me that had wanted to go into a puddle of female bawling, I needed to let it all out. I had been holding onto it now for 14 hours, and it wasn't pretty, but it was what I needed to do at that time. Homer Land was captured later that day in Chicago and sentenced to five more years' imprisonment. I don't think he wanted us. He just wanted to get away, and if he had killed us to do it, he would have done it. Six months after his release, Homer Land died during a high-speed police chase.

I survived because there was something in the back of my mind that says your life ain't over yet. Do what you have to do and go on with your life. My husband was there to protect me, even though he thought he wasn't. I survived because I did what I was told and took the opportunity to escape when I could. This summer, Pluto TV is exploding with thousands of free movies. Summer of cinema is here. Feel the explosive action all summer long with movies like Gladiator,

Mission Impossible, Beverly Hills Cop, Good Burger, and Transformers Dark of the Moon. Optimus! Bring the action with you and stream for free from all your favorite devices. Pluto TV. Stream now. Pay never.