Cold Case Files - I SURVIVED: I Didn't Know Which Way Was Up

Episode Date: August 31, 2024

Angel and her friend Jessica are attacked and shot after going to confront the ex boyfriend of Jessica’s younger sister. Elyse is a professional skier looking to make fresh tracks on back country powder with a group of friends when they are buried in an avalanche. Richard works as a stockbroker along with his son. The two are attacked by a former client who walks into their office with a gun. Progressive: Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. 

This program contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. He lifts up his gun and looks me straight in the eye and starts to unload his magazine inside of me. Real people. I was being tossed and turned so hard. I remember my face being shoved into the snow and just, it's like you're just being pile-driven.

Who faced death. I always wonder how I would die and this is how it is. And lived to tell how. And I'm begging and pleading with God, please don't let me, don't let me go yet. I have too much to live for. This is I Survive. It's October 2010 in Webster, Texas.

23-year-old Angel and her husband have three young children between them. Angel has been best friends with Jessica for seven years. Me and Jessica, we met at a restaurant. When I started working there when I was about 16 as a hostess, she immediately befriended me. And we went from there, inseparable. Jessica was the most selfless person anybody could ever meet. She was very generous, very nice. She's an all-around great person.

Angel and Jessica were watching Angel's stepson playing football. Jessica's little sister called her during the game while we were watching my stepson. Said that her ex-boyfriend had come to replace him employment, had started a lot of drama. Her managers got into the middle of it and eventually got her fired. And she was extremely upset about it. Jessica's sister and Jermaine were very on-again, off-again for the past two years. Their relationship had gotten volatile at times. She had called the police a couple of times as well.

Jessica was worried about her sister, so Angel suggested they should go check on her. As we were on our way to her house, Jermaine called and stated that he wanted to talk to Jessica about what happened earlier with Jessica's little sister. He sounded very calm, nothing out of the ordinary. Jessica really didn't like Jermaine because of what he had done to her little sister over the years. So she pretty much wanted to go over there and say, we're going to put a restraining order on you because of what you've done today and wanted to get it over with and get Jermaine out of her little sister's life. Me and Jessica pulled into the garage.

As we pulled in, I told her, I have a really bad feeling about this. She looked at me and said, everything is going to be okay. I said, okay. And she was getting out of the car, and I told her I'm going to pull the car into a parking space and back it up. Just in case something happens, we're going to be pointing toward the driveway. I don't think Jessica felt any fear whatsoever. She might have been a little mad, but she was not at all fearful of him.

So she got out and started to go upstairs. I waited there for about two minutes and I saw Jessica come running down the stairs as fast as she could possibly go. And then I saw another pair of feet coming down the stairs and I had no idea who it was or what he was doing. She's running towards the car at this point and yelling, go, go, go. And I'm sitting there in shock, not knowing what to do at all. So as she's getting in the car, there's a man following her.

He's about 10 feet behind her. She gets in the car, and as she's getting in the car to close the door, he starts to shoot. The first shot didn't sound loud at all. I really didn't know what it was, but it was a straight shot and went straight into her chest. Immediately she was unconscious. She was falling back and as she's falling back on the middle console, I see another bullet go into her arm and into the headrest behind me in the driver's seat. I'm frozen with my

hands on the steering wheel. The car has already started and it's not in drive or anything but Jessica's falling towards the gear shift to where I can't get to it. So she falls on top of it bleeding everywhere and I am in total, total shock and I have no idea what's going on. The only thing I know is that there's a guy outside the car shooting at us. I'm so scared now. After the bullet went into the headrest behind me,

I decided it's time for me to get out of the car. I have to. I don't have a choice. So I get out of the car, and I'm hiding behind the car now where he's on the other side. I think about my husband. I think about my children. I think about my entire family and what they're going to do without me. You know, I can't imagine my kids growing up without a mother whatsoever. I can't imagine my husband raising my children without a mother whatsoever, and him not having me there.

We got married, and we said till death do us part. So hopefully right then and there, I'm not going to die, and I'm begging and pleading with God, please don't let me go yet. I have too much to live for. As I'm hiding behind the car, I'm waiting for Jermaine to stop shooting, and I hear the bullets still going.

I'm thinking to myself, I told Jessica, let's not come here. She said it was going to be okay. It's not okay. You know, why did we even come here? The whole thing feels unreal. It does. It feels like you're in a movie, like Die Hard or something, trying to fight for your life and stay alive as long as you can. It's like you immediately go into survival mode and it's like you can't even imagine anything like that happening to you. Nobody ever thinks that until it really does. With Jessica motionless and bleeding in the car,

Jermaine suddenly stopped firing. I see him come around to the car where I am. And he doesn't say anything. He doesn't do anything. He just stands there for a second. And you can see the rage in his eyes. I've never seen anybody look like that in my entire life. And I'm begging and pleading with him not to shoot.

Please don't shoot me. I have children. I have a life to live. I have a family that loves me. He doesn't say anything at all. He lifts up his gun and looks me straight in the eye and starts to unload his magazine inside of me. Totally all 16 bullets, the rest of whatever was left in his clip came straight towards me.

Bam, bam, bam. The first shot was the loudest shot I've ever heard in my entire life. It sounds like an explosion going off right next to your ear. And it hits me in the leg and I immediately fall down. As I'm in a squatting position, because I'm trying to protect myself,

and he's still going, and I'm sure he misses me a couple times with the bullets, and he gets me all on my right side three times, and then in my arm another three times as well. So I have no idea what's going on anymore. My body is in total shock. I feel the warmth of the blood, but I don't feel the hurt whatsoever. He shoots a couple more times, and I'm sure he misses me again.

They're going into the cement. They're going in everywhere. As Jermaine unloaded his clip, he looked down. He realized he had no more bullets. And so he walks back upstairs very calmly like nothing ever happened. I'm bleeding everywhere, and I can feel the warmth of the blood, but I can't, you know, I can't move my legs. I'm looking around trying to figure out if there's anybody outside,

and I know I can hear people talking amongst themselves, but I can tell they're behind other cars in the garage. They're not coming to help. They're trying to figure out what just happened, what the noises were. I start screaming as loud as I can, help, please come and help me. Somebody, anybody, call 911, please. I see this lady come up. She's talking to me. She's trying to figure out what happened, and I can tell she's scared, just as anybody would be, but she's trying to figure out what happened, and I can tell she's scared, just as anybody would be, but she's trying to calm me down at the same time because obviously I'm losing tons of blood.

So she's holding one of the bullet holes that hit one of my major arteries, and she thought that I was going to die right there in her hands. I told her that a guy named Jermaine shot us, that he had gone back upstairs to be looking out for him because I was worried that, you know, if he came back down, something was going to happen. While the woman attended to Angel, another passerby tried to help Jessica, who was unconscious in the car. I look down and my arm is shattered. I can see everything, muscles, bone, tissue, everything. I had no idea. The only reason it was shattered

is because I put my right arm up above my head and my face to protect it. And if I hadn't have done that, I would have been shot in the head three or four times. I'm looking at my arm and I'm thinking about it. You know, what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? And she's trying to talk me you know down again because I'm starting to freak out and I hear another voice and I kind of figured it wasn't the young man that

was helping Jessica this was a very deep stern voice and I knew it had to be Jermaine that came back downstairs. He sounded mad, he sounded upset, and he was getting more and more aggravated as time went on. Jessica's car was blocking Jermaine's car from leaving the parking garage. As he's saying things, I can hear bits and pieces of it. And what I hear is, you need to move your car. And the young man says, it's not my car. I can't bits and pieces of it, and what I hear is, you need to move your car. And the young man says, it's not my car. I can't, you know, I'm not going to start it and move it.

It's not my car. I'm just trying to help her. Jermaine is getting mad, very mad and angry with this guy. And finally, after I would say two or three minutes, Jermaine starts to cuss at him. You need to move the effing car now or I'm going to shoot you. The young man moves the car up and Jermaine gets in his car. I'm about 10 feet away from his car behind it, laying there. I hear him start his car up, I see this lady stand up and walk off. So I have no idea what's going on. I don't see the car coming because I'm looking the opposite way and

the next thing I know he was reversing over me. When the tire was going over me it literally felt like I had like an 800 pound elephant sitting on top of my neck and chest. I can hear him shift his gears into drive, and he puts it in drive and goes straight back over me in the same position, neck and chest area. Drives up a little bit. He stops his car. I don't know what he's stopping for,

but he lights up a cigarette calmly and drives off. One of the witnesses rushed back to help Angel. She tells me I have tire marks all over me now and, you know, checks if I can still breathe, checks if anything, you know, is going on respiratory-wise now. I thought I was going to die. I kept on saying, I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die. And so she calms me down. She gets me real quiet and finally says, do you hear it? Do you hear the sirens? They're coming.

They're coming right now. And I would think it felt like an eternity. God, it felt like an hour before they got there. But I guess it was only like five or 10 minutes. They're checking me out and finally put me on a stretcher. And I'm screaming and yelling because it hurts now. It hurts. As Angel is put into the ambulance, Jessica is still unresponsive in the car.

I have no idea where Jessica is. I'm trying to figure out where Jessica is. Is she going to be in the same ambulance with me? Are we going to get life flighted? Is she going to be right next to me? I want to know where she is the entire time and nobody will answer. A week later in the hospital, I wake up finally able to talk, able to remember things. I see my husband, I see my mother, and I see one of my other really good friends. And they're standing next to me, and I knew what they were going to say.

I just didn't want to face it. So they finally tell me, you know, Jessica didn't make it. They had come back from her funeral, and they didn't want to tell me because the doctors had told them not to, that I wasn't stable enough to take that kind of news. In the back of my mind, I kind of figured that she was already gone, but I'm still wondering how come you know she hasn't done anything she should be in the bed next to me

and she's not and I have no idea what to say or do anymore my best friend in the entire world is gone and I was there to watch her die and it's not the last memory I want of her

so you know I pretty much just fall back in the bed to watch her die. And it's not the last memory I want of her. So, you know, I pretty much just fall back in the bed and start to cry. I don't have any words to say or anything to do. Angel was in the hospital for 16 days. Police officers chased Jermaine when he sped away from the shootings. They cornered Jermaine in a parking lot where he killed himself before he could be arrested.

I survived because I had to. My body went straight into survival mode, and I have four reasons to live. I have three children and a husband that loves me entirely too much. But I'm here because I want to be here still. I have a lot to live for. I Survived is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking.

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join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company & Affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states or situations. It's February 2012 in Stevens Pass Washington ex-ski racer Elise now skis professionally leading clinics and doing demonstrations my specialty is free ride I go and ski large huge crazy mountains with um lots of steeps and cliffs and powder and essentially make it look fun. It's all about smart skiing and being a part of nature and reading the mountains and reading the snow.

I was in Stevens Pass to do a one-day event. The next day, I had a free ride day to go do whatever I please, meet up with friends and go skiing. Elise planned to spend her free day skiing in the fresh powder snow. She was one of a group of 13 experienced skiers heading for untracked terrain away from the ski slope. What we were planning to ski wasn't anything crazy. It wasn't dangerous. There weren't any cliffs we were jumping. We were just really seeking powder.

We were heading out to Tunnel Creek. We knew that this is an awesome place to get some fresh turns in. And we also knew that if we took the right route, we could find a safe way down the mountain. I had skied the day before, and it was fresh snow, and I had skied in the backcountry, and the snow seemed to be fairly stable.

That morning a few members in our group checked the avalanche forecast and the forecast said considerable. There's a scale for avalanche danger, safety hazards measurement, and considerable is about right in the middle. Whenever there's a lot of fresh snow there's always going to be avalanche danger. I think even you could find it to be considerable when you go to a ski resort. When avalanche danger is high or extreme, that's when it's all red flags and you should not go in the backcountry. The group decided the risk was manageable with their experience and by taking reasonable precautions. They hiked up from the chairlifts to get above the fresh powder snow. Once we got to the top and were getting ready to drop in,

we all discussed more or less what we were going to ski. We decided to get into like a buddy system and we each paired off. I paired up with my buddy Chris. To minimize the risk, the group started to ski the slope in sections. We only ski one person at a time and you ski from island of safety to island of safety. Chris went first, skied about 500 feet or so. I went second and we came to stop at this island of old-growth trees. Old-growth trees are indicative that avalanches don't come through here. These trees have survived for a very long time for a reason.

A few more skiers descended. They stopped in about the same area as us. We were all discussing how amazing the day was and how much fun we're having and you know hooting and hollering and then out of nowhere this billowing plume of snow came from the trees for the first split second it was surreal it's like what is happening right about then Chris started yelling at me, avalanche, Elise, avalanche. The snow beneath me grabbed my feet. And it's hard to say how deep it was at that time, but all it did was have to snatch my feet and then I was in it. For the first second, I thought I can ski out of this, and I started skiing off to my right. But it was too powerful and it sucked me right in. The power of it was amazing,

and it was amazing how much it grew so fast. I instinctively pulled my trigger for the Avalanche airbag backpack that I was wearing. When activated, the safety backpack instantly inflates airbags to keep the wearer close to the surface. It makes you so much larger that you naturally will rise to the top of an avalanche

and all the debris. The avalanche hit so hard, Elise had no idea whether the airbags had inflated or not. I couldn't tell because the way I was being tossed and didn't even know what was going on, that was I even on top of this thing? Was I on top of the avalanche or was I... With the amount of snow you just don't know where you're at and what's going on.

I felt helpless and it felt like, wow, this is the real deal. This could be it. This is the way I'm going. This is the end of me. When I really started getting tossed around by the avalanche, I realized, well, this thing's actually pretty serious. And then it started just picking up more speed and more power. I started thinking about my husband. We had this whole life plan together. And it just seemed like, wow, it's ending so quickly.

And I felt so bad. Goodness, gosh, I'm going to feel so bad that this is what he's going to have to deal with, that he lost me. I decided that don't continue to think negatively. Think positively. You're still alive. You're still conscious. This avalanche is having its way with you, but keep it together.

I reminded myself of what it's like when I'm surfing and you can't breathe and you're just being manhandled by the ocean. I felt the exact same way, and I reminded myself to relax and not fight it. I was being tossed and turned so hard, I couldn't have made any decision to do anything with my body other than just go with the flow of the avalanche. There were times that my breath was being completely taken away. I remember my face being shoved into the snow,

and just, it's like you're just being pile driven on the whole ride down. As the avalanche kept going on, it would slow down. And I'd think, oh great, finally this thing is coming to a stop. And then the next thing I knew, it would pick right back up and gain speed again and power again. I didn't know which way was up and which way was down. I couldn't see anything but I guess white. It felt like being stuck in a white washing machine. The avalanche funneled Elise down the

mountain and into a deep ravine. The airbags from the safety backpack Elise was wearing kept her at the surface of the avalanche. Once the avalanche came to a stop, the only thing that was above the snow was my face and my arms. But once I actually stopped, it felt like I was in cement that was being solidified into concrete. When you have an avalanche that travels almost 3,000 feet, by the time you get to the bottom, the snow becomes really heavy. The snow had solidified so much that I couldn't even move my head up.

I had a helmet on, so that helped keep my head completely just stuck in the snow. I felt so helpless. Naturally, you do want to try and unbury yourself, and when every time I tried to do that and the snow would go on my face, it made me a little panicky. If one avalanche happened, there could be more. Maybe not all the snow went.

Some of Elisa's friends were above the avalanche when it slipped. Sometimes when people are there to be on top to try and ski down and rescue you, they can set off another avalanche. You've made it this far, but it doesn't mean you're totally safe yet. I was buried for at least 10 minutes. By the time I finally decided to scream help, the first person in our search party heard me. And he raced right to me and started to bury me. The first person in our search party heard me, and he raced right to me and started to bury me. We all started searching,

and immediately we found the others. Wenzel and I found someone buried just three feet to my left. He was about six feet down, but nonetheless, just a few feet from me. Another was found about 20, 30 feet above me and about six feet down.

The third person was much lower. The avalanche had kept those guys under the whole time. We had spent enough time trying to administer CPR that we pretty much knew that our buddies weren't going to make it. It had been too long. That was really hard. Of the four skiers caught in the avalanche, Elise was the only survivor.

When you are in a situation that other people die, and you ask the question why, the one difference I found was I had the backpack on. I survived because I pulled the trigger and it enabled me to stay on top of the avalanche. This guy was as cold and calculated as they come. Maybe we weren't going to get it solved. It was like the epitome of innocence that had been preyed upon.

This is a case that has no evidence. We didn't have DNA. We didn't have fingerprints. Step inside the court of law with the new true crime podcast, American Justice. We realized we have four men who answered the same ad for a job on a farm. My brother Ralph went to interview and he was never seen again. A podcast that explores impactful crimes and reveals how our justice system works. You have to consider that there are more possibilities than one. And sometimes, how it doesn't.

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in your stomach thinking how many people are we going to find? New episodes of American Justice are available every Wednesday wherever you get

your podcasts. It's March 2010 in Dallas, Texas. Father and son stockbrokers Richard and Chris work in adjoining offices. I specialize in buying and selling bonds, tax-free and taxable, for individuals in Dallas. My son works with me, has for 20-something years. We are friends as well as co-workers, and it has been a wonderful relationship. Chris's office is adjacent to mine. We had a window cut out between the two offices,

so when we sit at our desk, we can see each other and communicate. Richard had a long-term client named Robert, a disgraced attorney. He was caught in a sting operation, convicted of a felony, and served time in prison. And when Robert returned from prison, he really was not the same guy. He was withdrawn. You could tell he didn't have many friends. I had him over to my house a couple of times for cocktails and conversation, and I really considered him a friend of mine. Robert had done many deals with us, bond deals, and occasionally in the bond business, investors may lose some money. And in one deal he was in with us, he did.

And he apparently, obviously, did not take it well. After the loss, Robert stopped all communication. His mail was coming, being returned unopened. We couldn't contact him on the telephone. And we had not had contact with Robert for probably close to a year. One day, Robert walked into Richard's office without warning. It was 10 o'clock on a Monday morning. I just hung up the telephone from a call, and I looked up, and there was Robert standing in front of my desk. He was disheveled. He was nervous,

but that wasn't terribly out of character for him. I said, hey, it's good to see you. Let's sit down and let's talk. He said, I'm going to get a cup of coffee. I said, okay, go ahead. The next thing I heard

was a heavy caliber gunshot. I saw the gunshot flash through the window between my office and Chris's office. It was obvious that he had shot Chris from point-blank range, probably no more than 12 to 18 inches. So my immediate thought was, he's dead. And I figured out right there that he had actually come in to kill us.

It was an unbelievable feeling. I've never felt such a hollow, end-of-the-world feeling in my life. I really can't describe it. After the muzzle flash in Chris's office, Robert pivoted into my office and fired two quick shots at me. The first one missed, and the second one struck me in the left knee, which put me on the carpet. I determined right then not to beg and cry and plead.

You know, I told Robert, you know, I consider you a friend of mine. I'm, you know, stunned at this event, to say the least, and I just, I can't believe you're doing this. Robert told me that he could never catch a break and get ahead, and that he considered a portion of that to be my fault, and that he no longer wanted to live,

and if he wasn't gonna live, there were some others that weren't going to either. By that time, it was quite apparent who he meant. As I lay on the carpet, Robert walked up to me. He took about three slow steps up to me, and he, as they approached, I could see the weapon really for the first time. Robert was shooting a.45 caliber semi-automatic pistol. The destructive power short range is devastating. He walked up to me calmly and put the muzzle of the gun

right in the center of my forehead. And my thought was, I'm 66 years old. I always wonder how I would die. And this is how it is. And then I immediately thought, I wonder if this will hurt, and then I thought, I doubt it. Incredibly, he backed away from me. He just backed up about four paces. He pulled a client chair out from the table and he said, come and sit in this chair. Well, I didn't want to sit in the chair because I didn't want Robert behind me. It's much easier to shoot somebody from behind than when you're looking them in the eyes.

So I told Robert, I said, I can't walk over there, Robert, with this knee. And he said, that's okay, just crawl over here. So that's what I did. Robert casually dropped down on one knee, put the muzzle of his.45, about four inches from my right knee, and pulled the trigger. That one hurt.

It felt like being hit with a ball bat with a steel spike in it. Actually, it was astoundingly painful. My real fear at the time was, after the second shot to my right knee, is that Robert might start, what you might say, shooting me up, shooting out your elbows, shooting your feet, shooting your hands. People have been known to do that sort of thing, and there's nothing worse that could happen to you. It might not kill you, but you would be utterly ruined for the rest of your life.

He very calmly shot me in the right knee without saying a word, no discussion. He just did it. So it's becoming obvious to me what he's trying to do is take my son's life and cripple me. I mean, why would you shoot a guy again when he was down instead of just, let's get this over with? For the first time that morning, I was getting a little shocky. I could hear sirens, and Robert looked up at me and said, they're coming. And I said, Robert, we're across from the hospital. It's raining. There's accidents all over the place. I've been hearing sirens all morning. I didn't want Robert to feel like he was in a rushed situation.

I wanted Robert to feel like he had all the time in the world. I said, Robert, why don't you sit down at my desk, put the gun down. There are people on the way here right now that can help us both, and there's been plenty of excitement for one day with that robert retreated away from me uh several paces in fact behind my desk he pulled my chair out rolled it out of the way and stood behind my desk looked at me and said where do you think i should shoot myself to cause the least amount of disfiguration. He turned the gun upside down, got a hold of the grip, and pointed the muzzle up under his chin.

But he got the weapon 2-4 to the right. He pulls the trigger. You could see the ripple go up his cheek. The bullet never touched it, but the blast pattern as it went up moved his flesh, and that was eerie. Before another word could be said, he got a better grip on the weapon. He moved it to the center of his chin. He put it up under his chin and pulled the trigger, and that was it. He went down like a brick wall falling.

At that point, I'd been shot in both knees, so I couldn't walk. As I crawled toward the front door, I had to crawl directly past Chris's door. I had a total view of his office. And as I looked in the room, to my utter astonishment, it was empty. There was no Chris. When rescuers reached Richard, they did not know if Chris was alive or dead. As I was being taken out of the building, everybody I passed or saw,

I asked them about Chris. A guy came over to me and he said, I think I saw a big looking kid while I was sitting on the steps here being attended to by the medics. It looked to me like he was going to be okay. And I went, man, you just made my day, you don't know. As Richard was taken to Parkland Hospital, he learned his son was fighting for his life. Chris was five floors above me at Parkland and had a team of six guys working on him frantically to try to save his life.

We didn't know for hours that if he would make it or not. Prognosis was touch and go, but shaded a little bit to gonna make it side. Richard needed surgery on one knee, but his injuries were not life-threatening. Three days later, I was in a room at Parkland that held two beds. I was in there alone, just me. And the door opened, and they rolled Chris in. It was good to see them. They rolled him in, and that's the first time

I'd seen him since the incident. When Chris heard shots from Richard's office, he thought his father was dead. Bleeding from the neck, Chris had run to get help. Richard and Chris both recovered and continued to practice at their firm. I survived because I will always believe that Robert did not intend to kill me that day. He intended to kill Chris. Chris survived because Robert was standing and Chris was sitting.

And the bullet entered his face at a down angle instead of passing straight through. That was miraculous.