Cold Case Files - I SURVIVED: I Didn't Even Realize I Was Shot

Episode Date: December 9, 2023

In January of 1981, 18-year-old Cheryl Bartlett Fann was walking home late at night with her fiancé Bud, when they were suddenly abducted and taken to an abandoned garage by two attackers. They would go free for years until DNA revealed who their attackers were…and how they were related. Sponsors: Prose: Take your FREE in-depth hair consultation and get 50% off your first subscription order today PLUS 15% off and free shipping every subscription order after that! Go to Prose.com/survive  Bombas: Go to Bombas.com/survived and use code survi ved at checkout for twenty percent off your first purchase Huggies: Get your baby’s butt into Huggies best fitting diaper! Huggies Little Movers. We got you, baby. 

This episode is brought to you by Huggies Little Movers. Get your baby's butt into Huggies' best-fitting diaper. Huggies Little Movers. We got you, baby. An A&E original podcast. This episode contains descriptions of sexual assault and violence. Listener discretion is advised. I was telling her about the dreams I was having, and she begged me not to go out because the neighborhood was bad. And being 18, I thought, I'm okay, I can take care of myself walking up there.

But she begged me not to go out and I didn't listen to her. In 1980, Cheryl Phan lived in Toledo, Ohio with her fiancécé Bud, their two-year-old son Eric, and Bud's brother. Bud was a meat cutter at a local grocery store. Bud's income was supporting both of us and our two-year-old. My life did revolve around my son. My son was everything to me. Bud's income was enough to support the young family, but just barely. The neighborhood was a very, it was a poor neighborhood, but that's all

that we could afford at the time because it was, we didn't have a car and that's close enough for him to walk to work. One night, Cheryl decided to surprise Bud at work. That night, I got my brother-in-law to cut my hair. He did my makeup real nice. I went down there to surprise him because he was working. He walked home by himself every night, and I walked down there to meet him. It was around 12.30 at night. Nothing was out of the ordinary. I walked all the way up to the store and everything was

fine. I wasn't scared. I just was excited about going there. The streets were very well lit. That's one of the reasons why I wasn't scared of walking up there. It was only about a 15-minute walk from their house to the store that Cheryl had done many times before. When I walked into the store and walked into the back where the meat department is and I walked through the doors, he looked at me and was very angry with me because I walked up there by myself and being in a bad side town. He just started yelling and saying, I've asked you not to walk up here. You shouldn't be out. Why are you out? And then I explained to him I wanted to walk home with him,

and then he was okay with it. He wasn't okay. He was still a little angry. I was a little upset because when I walked in and he was upset with me, all I was trying to do was surprise him, and at the time I didn't think it was that bad because I didn't get scared or nothing. I walked up there and everything was fine.

On the way home, we went back the same way that I came there. We went across Broadway, down Field Street, and then down to Seeger. But we never made it to Seeger. This is I Survived, the podcast where we talk to people who've lived through the worst things imaginable and all the tragic, messy, and wonderful things that happen after survival. I'm Caitlin VanMol. There was no one on the streets. It was quiet. We were having a good time walking back. We were cutting up and talking about our future.

We were talking about setting a date, getting married, having more children. We were probably about 20 feet from the end of, or right on field in Seeger, and my heart started beating really fast. I seen a man across the street in a green army jacket and a bargain and he started walking a little bit faster and then he started coming across the street and my heart dropped and I looked at Bud and he just said again don't worry you're with me nothing's gonna happen to you well when I see him come across the street he started running towards us and at the time he

pulled the gun out he was a not a big guy but like a medium medium-sized he wasn't very tall he came up to us and he pulled the gun out, threw two Bogdans at us, and told us to put them on. And I kept looking at him, and he told me to put them on and put them over our face. And I figured if I'm going to die or something's going to happen, I want to know the person that did it. I pulled the cap down, but then every chance I could, I pulled it up to see where we were going,

just in case I did survive. And I could give the police the full description. With the knit hats over their faces, or what Cheryl refers to here as a bargain, they offered the man the few things of value they had on them to hopefully make him go away. They didn't have much, but that's not all he wanted. He put his hand out for us to give him the stuff, and then we gave it to him, and then that's when he just stuck in his pocket, and then he got behind us with the gun in our back. Well, actually in my back, because he was afraid that

Bud was going to do something, and that way he had reason to shoot if he had to if he was going to try anything. When I finally realized that it's where we're 99.9% that we were going to be killed I was more worried about my son what was going to happen to him. The alley that we went down was a residential alley and it wasn't paved it was stoned it was it was light but it was still a little dark. It was like a dim light. When we were, before we went down the alley, I was hoping that somebody seen us out there

because we were making such a racket talking to him that we were hoping that someone did see it and called the police, and then the police would come down through our rescue through the alley, but it never happened. He told us to stop. He pushed the gun in our back, or in Bud's back, and told us to stop right here. While Cheryl was hoping for someone to see them and come help, another man did approach. But it was clear he wasn't there to help Cheryl and Bud.

He was with the man holding the gun in Bud's back. He was very tall, and he was like a husky, a built person. And he had an army jacket and a bargain on, too. And I kept lifting up the hat, and again, the other one kept telling me to put it down so I wouldn't see their face. At the time when he was walking, I was pretty sure in my mind thinking they had this planned. They came past us. They parked the car down at the other end of the alley. So it was planned. They just told us to go into the garage, and that's where the worst night of my life happened.

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hair consultation and 50% off your first subscription order. Cheryl and Bud were taken into a cluttered one-car garage. They had to step over boxes and other garage-related junk to get to the back. I fell a couple of times. I hurt my knee. I got back up, and then Bud was holding, reaching for me to help me back up, and they just kept pointing the gun farther in our back. Bud was trying to stay cool so he wouldn't agitate them

because he was afraid that they were going to take off with me or kill him and then God knows what happens to me. I was upset. I was crying. I was hysterical. My heart hurt from being scared. I just wanted out of there. I'm begging them to let us go, and they said no,

that my time will come. I told them that I had a 2-year-old at home, and they didn't care. As they said, it was not their problem. The first one had a knife to my throat, and then they made me get undressed. Having a knife to your throat is very scary, especially when you have the point in your throat.

It is terrifying, and all you can think of is, it's just a matter of time before I'm dead. From what I heard, he said, Tony, I will go first. And then he agreed, and that's when I was told to take my pants down. I refused, and that's when he took the knife deeper into my throat, and I heard the gun click back, and that's when I knew they were going to end up shooting him. But the second one, I was like, And I heard the gun click back, and that's when I knew they were going to end up shooting him, Bud.

The second one, he pushed me down to the ground because I refused to lay down, and he pushed me down to the ground, and then I was raped. While I was being raped, I had made my mind and body go to another world with my son playing in a play yard. I just concentrated on my son. I didn't want to think of what was going on right there at that moment.

I blocked it out. While I was being attacked, I could smell the greasy grudge on him. I could smell the bad odor, the bad breath, because you could smell it while he's talking to you. When the first one was over with, I thought, okay, it's good, it's done, he did whatever he had to do, they're going to let us go, or they're going to kill us one. And then I started hearing the buckle, and then I knew the next one was going to get his turn.

I was 18 years old, and all I could think of was, I've only been with one person, and here this was happening, and my life was never gonna be the same again. I would always feel dirty, and it was never gonna be right. When they were done, the last one told me to stand up and get dressed,

and then they shoved me over next to Bud, and then they told Bud to hold me tight because it would be the last time that he would hold me. He grabbed me, and again, he said, don't worry about it, everything's going to be okay, and that he loved me, and he held me tight. And then he went back, and then I heard the gun click again, and then that's when they shot us, or shot me in the back.

I was gone. I was going to be dead. Who was going to raise my son? What was going to happen? That's all I could think about. The men ran off after firing only one shot. Bud, who survived the shooting, pulled Cheryl out of the garage and onto the street in front of the house. I did not feel no pain. I didn't even realize I was shot until we ran around the front of the house,

because I didn't feel the bullet go in. Bud stood there, and he made me turn around, and he looked in the back of my coat, and that's when he realized there was a big puddle of blood in the back of my coat. When I realized I was hit then I started hyperventilating. There was no pain at that point. I was hyped up on adrenaline and then that's when the pain started hitting in. The couple was out of the garage and on their street. They needed help, badly. But with Cheryl bleeding and hyperventilating, it was hard to find someone willing to get involved. The first house we went to, they wouldn't answer the door. The second house, there was a little old lady, and I don't blame her. She seen me bleeding, and she told us to go away. But we finally got to the third house, and Bud sat me there and asked the man

if I could come in and wait while he... First, I asked him, did he have a phone? And the man said no. And then Bud went to a friend of ours that lived across the street and called the ambulance, and I was sitting at this man's house. I couldn't breathe. I was bleeding all over the place. He was yelling at me

because he thought I was going I was bleeding all over the place. He was yelling at me because he thought I was going to get blood all over. And I yelled at the man and started screaming. And then the next thing I knew, I blacked out because the next thing I knew, I was at the hospital. They were sticking IVs and trying to get x-ray. The police were there just about the time I was getting there. They came in right away and started barreling questions at me and I was so confused with everything. And I just wanted to be left alone and just get this bullet out and get this over with. And they wouldn't do it. They had to talk to me, which I understand. I was able to give them a full description because when the first one came up to us, I made sure I looked directly in his face.

And I told the police officer this, and I told him how tall he was, what built he was, he had a beard, the stuff he was saying. And then when the second one came, I told him I was able to look a little bit then because I lifted my mask up. Cheryl's mom and uncle finally got to the hospital, but Bud wasn't able to stay with her. They made Bud go home because he was hysterical and he was upset. let me see him until the police officer was able to question him because they wanted to didn't want

us to be together with two different stories or the same exact story or something like that so they made him go home and sedated him i was able to talk to them a little bit and my uncle said everything's going to be okay don't worry worry. And then my mom, she just stood there and cried. When I first woke up, I remembered everything and I was more mad at myself because I didn't listen to her. I kept blaming myself for everything. I kept thinking maybe if I stayed home, I'd have been okay. This wouldn't all happen. This is all my fault. Of course, none of this in any way was Cheryl's fault. Being in the hospital and away from her son Eric was very hard.

But the emotional pain wasn't all she was feeling. When the doctor came into the room after the x-rays were taken, he said my right lung was collapsed. I was in the hospital for three to four weeks, and I only had one surgery that time, but then had multiple surgeries afterwards. It was very bad because I couldn't see Eric for the first two and a half weeks because I was in ICU for a week and then I was running a fever after that and they didn't want to take the chance of Eric being sick or having germs and bringing it up there to me. When she finally got out of the hospital, Cheryl had to return to the apartment just feet from where she was attacked in the road. When I was able to get out, we still had the apartment in Seeger. I was 18 at the time. My mom said, please just move back home. And I agreed. I was too scared to go back over there

because they had Bud's license. They knew where we'd lived. And I didn't want to take a chance to be in there again so I moved back home to my mom's well all three of us moved back home to my mom's. Cheryl and Bud tried to make it work but the attack ended up being too much for the young couple. Bud and I separated probably about a year after it happened. I believe the in my heart the reason why we separated and we went our separate ways is because I was attacked. He couldn't cope with it because I was a virgin when we met and the strain of being raped and then when it comes to being intimate and I couldn't, that took a big part of it too. With me having a hard time of being intimate,

Bud went on and looked for somebody else, and he met somebody else, and then he left Eric and I for her. Cheryl knew she needed help dealing with everything and sought out a therapist. Unfortunately, not everyone offering help has the purest intentions. I went to a psychiatrist and he turned out to be, they had charges against him because he turned out to be a pervert. When I went to him, he asked

me how the rape happened. He went detail to detail and I felt very, and I got out of there. The attack, coupled with Bud leaving her and their son behind, had lasting effects on her relationship with men. After it happened, after Bud left us, every time I got close to a boyfriend or partner, whatever you call it, I abandoned them. I couldn't deal with, when they find out what has happened to me, of them leaving me, or I more or less went wild after it happened.

I felt like I was abusing men by making them fall in love with me and then making them leave, but actually I was hurting myself. I realized it later on in life. But Cheryl did eventually find the strength to let someone in. We met, Danny and I met, he was my next door neighbor. And then I was borrowing a vacuum, and one thing led to another, and we went out, and then we've been married now for 33 years. I'm able to rebuild my life because of my husband. He has shown me love. He has shown me that I don't, that I'm okay, that I don't need to be scared, that he's there for me, and I know he would protect me to the end of the earth. A year after Cheryl's attack, her rapists were still out there.

On August 18, 1981, Leslie Sawicki and her date Todd Sabo were parked in Todd's van near the border of Toledo and Ottawa Hills. A man named Anthony Cook approached the van and threatened them with a gun. Todd grappled with Anthony, and Leslie got away. She called the police, and hoping for more help in the emergency situation, Leslie called her dad, Peter Sawicki, who arrived before police. Tragically, in helping Todd try to subdue Anthony Cook, Peter was shot and killed. Anthony was able to escape, but was arrested a month later. When Cheryl saw the news,

she was shocked at the photo on her television. When the news came on and we sat down and we watched it like we normally do, they showed his picture and I just started hyperventilating and I kept swearing up and down, that was the one, and then we called the detective the next day to get them to come out. To identify him and know that was him and knowing that they had him arrested, I was glad, I was ecstatic.

Cook was later convicted and sentenced to 20 years to life for the murder of Peter Sawicki. But that was just Anthony. The other man that attacked Cheryl was still out there. By this time, Cheryl was living in Tennessee. But the distance between her attack and where she lived didn't make her feel any safer. I felt a little bit safe because I was not in Ohio and I always still was constantly watching over my shoulder. You think, well, maybe he's here, maybe he's watching me, he's looking for me,

so I wouldn't testify against him. I felt safe, but then I didn't feel safe. In May of 1980, eight months before Cheryl and Bud were attacked, Sandra Petkorski and Tommy Gordon were attacked in a very similar manner as the other couples. Tommy Gordon was shot and killed. Sandra was raped and stabbed, but she survived. 18 years after Sandra and Tommy were attacked, police finally matched DNA from their crime scene to both Anthony Cook and his brother, Nathaniel Cook.

When Cheryl got the call about Nathaniel's arrest, she was already dealing with a lot. At the time when I found out, my dad was in the hospital dying from esophageal cancer. My father was my rock. He helped me through it all. He would call every night before I went to sleep. And when I found out, I went to him, and I told him that they finally caught both of them and that everything was going to be okay. And I felt relieved, and I was happy that they were put away. And then I was crying in the middle and trying to tell my dad about it,

because here he was dying, and then he got to find out before he died that they caught him. But I was happy that they were caught. Anthony Cook was still serving his time for killing Peter Sawicki. The brothers agreed to a plea deal that would give Anthony life in prison but Nathaniel only 18 years, and therefore the hope of being released one day.

In the deal, they confessed to Tommy Gordon's murder, the murder of 19-year-old Connie Sue Thompson, and the rape and murder of 12-year-old Dawn Bax. Anthony also confessed to the murder of 21-year-old Scott Moulton, the rape and murder of Denise Siakowski, the rape and murder of Vicki Lynn Small, the murder of Stacey Balanek, and the murder of Daryl Cole, but said Nathaniel wasn't there during these murders. A woman named Julia Bates was the Lucas County prosecutor that made the deal. Julia Bates called me, I believe it was, and told me that the families agreed on a 20-year. And they didn't ask me if I wanted to do a 20-year agreement.

She just told me that the other families agreed on it, and that's what was being done. I felt mad because my case wasn't brought up, but she said that they confessed to it. But the DA's office said that it was because they didn't have enough DNA back then and that they had a bigger crime on the other case that they got them on and Mr. Sawicki's. I guess he was more important or the other case. Ms. Bates really didn't give me

a full explanation of everything. Bates told the Dayton Daily News, we could never prove the other cases. The DNA had disintegrated. Some cases didn't have DNA. There were no witnesses. There was no evidence. There was no confession. There were no fingerprints. On August 9th, 2018, Nathaniel Cook was released from the Allen Correctional Institution in Lima, Ohio. Anthony Cook remains incarcerated. I was living in Toledo when I found out through Brian Dugar that he was being released. And I went to court that day and they released him and it was not a good day for none of us. Cheryl still has ongoing trauma from the attack.

I've had 25 surgeries. I've had, from the bullet, it hit my pancreas, it hit my liver, and now I have what they call non-alcoholic fatty liver. I'm dealing with that. I'm dealing with other health issues because of that. I had internal bleeding in my ovaries and I had to have those removed. The scar is from the middle of my breastbone all the way down to underneath my belly button. I hate it. I've had it for 40 years. I'd like to see it gone, but there's nothing I can do about it. It's about an inch, half an inch to an inch wide in different spots.

I've just got one health problem after another. And then mentally wise, that's messed me up pretty much. Through the nightmare of her attack and having her attackers escape justice for so long, Cheryl has continuously drawn on the incredible strength inside her. I'm tired of playing the victim card or I'm tired of feeling sorry for myself. And I just want to get over this and get past it. I don't want to be that person that has to be scared every time I turn a corner. What I want to say to Anthony and Nathaniel is you may took my innocence and my dignity away when I was 18, but I'm 58 years old right now, and there's nothing you can do no more to harm me or hurt me.

Your time, karma will come back and get you. I am through with being a victim. I am a survivor. To speak to someone at the Rape Abuse Incest National Network, call 1-800-656-HOPE call 1-800-656-HOPE or 1-800-656-4673. You can also live chat with someone at RAINN.org. That's R-A-I-N-N dot O-R-G. I Survived is hosted and produced

by Caitlin VanMol and Law & Crime Network. Audio editing by Brad Mabee. For A&E, our senior producer is John Thrasher, and our supervising producer is McKamey Lynn. Our executive producers are Jesse Katz, Sean Gottlieb, and Shelley Tatro. This podcast is based on A&E's Emmy-winning TV series, I Survived. For more I Survived, visit aetv.com. Hold on to your jingle bells.

Pluto TV has all your holiday favorites for free. Enjoy Christmas classics like Scrooge with Bill Murray or Last Holiday with Queen Latifah. Plus, dive into festive channels like Holiday Movie Favorites by Lifetime or Hallmark Movies and more. Download the Pluto TV app on all your favorite devices and start streaming holiday favorites on live channels and on demand. With thousands of free movies and TV shows, Pluto TV is your home for the holidays. Pluto TV. Stream now. Pay never. I'm Brett. And I'm Alice. And together we host a

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