Cold Case Files - I SURVIVED: I Didn't Want Myself Or My Daughter To End Up In A Million Pieces

Episode Date: October 11, 2025

Michelle worked as a bank manager when three gunmen break into her home and take her and her daughter hostage. She has explosives strapped to her and is given instructions to rob the bank she works at. Teenagers Troy and Josh are swept out to sea by a rip current on a small fishing boat without supplies for days.This Episode is sponsored by BetterHelpBetterHelp: 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, I Survived listeners, I'm Marissa Pinson, and if you're enjoying this show, I just want to remind you that episodes of I Survived, as well as the A&E Classic Podcasts, 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 advice. They grabbed me by my hair and put guns to my head and forced me face down on the floor. Real people. We had cuts both of us all over our bodies. I mean, just the pain we were in just was excruciating. Who faced death. You'd be in the water for 20 minutes and next you'll see sharks swimming around you.

And live to tell how. They said, you're going to clean out the vault for us. or your daughter will be murdered and you will watch and you will be next. This is I Survived. It's November 2000 in East Vista, California. Michelle is an assistant vice president of a bank and a single mom. It started out as a very normal day rushing out the door, getting my daughter to school, getting to work,

A lot of loan documents that day, I remember. And one thing really stood out during the day is a gentleman came in that just seemed odd. And that was really the only thing that stood out. And after he left, I didn't think anything else about it. After work, Michelle picked up her seven-year-old daughter, Brea, from school. Before making dinner, I thought it would be a good idea to just relax on the couch and have a little fun. And we sat down on the couch, and she took my boots off, and we were just laughing and giggling. And the next thing I heard was the most unbelievable, loud, thundering sound,

just one big crash or boom or just thundering sound that I cannot explain in words and turned in the direction of that noise and saw them coming in, SWAT style, all dressed in black. And masks and guns and wood was everywhere, and they had kicked in the door and broke right through the lock and everything. Three armed men had broken into her house. And when I turned towards Brea, who was to my left at the time, she was running towards the bedroom,

and before I could even get up and go to move with her, it was that quick that they grabbed me by my hair and put guns to my head and forced me face down on the floor. I was screaming, no, no, no. and they were telling me to be quiet. Don't make us pistol whip you in front of your kid. They were saying, do you know why we're here? We know that you're the manager of the bank down the street.

We are going to be here with you all night long until you get it into your head. That exactly what we want you to do, you're going to clean out the vault for us or your daughter will be murdered and you will watch and you will be next. The largest man of the three was on my back with his knee in my back

and I could hear duct tape unrolling. I could feel myself being duct taped and I could hear the duct tape continue to unroll once I was taped so I knew that they were probably taping my daughter as well. I was just asking them, where is my daughter, where is she? And I'll do anything

they were asking me questions and saying, we already know the answers, we're checking to see if you're going to lie to us. So that was when they began asking questions about when does Brinks drop off money in the morning. We need you to get this much money, how much money's in the vault. And they said, we've been watching everything you do.

We know where you eat. We know where you get ice cream. We know where your daughter goes to school. They had been casing the bank and me for two months. Michelle was begging to see her seven-year-old daughter. When I first saw her was when they pulled me up to my knees and spun me around, and I saw that she was laying on the floor face down.

She was duct taped, and one of the men was standing over her with a gun pointing down at her. And she wasn't talking, and I just wanted to run to her. And you could tell she was just in absolute shock. in terror and shaking. And at the time she was only seven years old. They had a duffel bag filled with ammunition, filled with they all had guns. And the ringleader pulled out a bag and came over

and pulled out what looked like dynamite, sticks of dynamite, and said, what does this look like? And I said, it looks like dynamite. And he said, that's exactly what it is. and we're going to put these on your body. We're going to put these on your daughter's body and showed us a detonation device and said, if you do not do every single thing

we tell you to do and do everything right with no mistakes, you will disintegrate. Almost immediately, I kicked into paying attention to every single little detail. Face down on the carpet, I noticed he was wearing black Doc Martin boots. When I was pulled up to my knees, I began noticing the types of clothing that were wearing

or the little tags on the back of their pants. I started immediately grabbing hold of anything I could have control over so that in case we did make it out alive and survive this, I could do whatever I could possibly do to help the police apprehend them. They would ask me to repeat their plan back to them. What are you going to do? This is what you're going to do.

So I would repeat their words and their plan back to them. Their language throughout the night was just very sexually explicit. They were saying, we want to do this, this, and this to you. I was just so scared that they were going to rape myself or my daughter. They were in constant contact with who they said was a team of people, six people outside of the house on walkie-talkies, saying money one to money two, money two to money three. So that was sort of their demeanor and their language throughout the night.

Eventually, the intruders allowed Brea to join Michelle on the couch. And I was just stroking her hair and telling her I loved her. And I was just crying. I mean, I was just crying the whole time. And she was shaking and just curled up. And we sat there for a really long time until I let them know I needed to use. I needed to go to the bathroom. And the ringleader, the short, stocky one,

said, I will take her. And he took me to the restroom. And when I saw this person's eyes with the bathroom light on, I knew that it was the same man that had been in my bank that day. That was the odd man that, you know, I was very uncomfortable around him when he was at my desk that day.

day. One of the most disturbing things about him at my desk or one of the things that made me the most uncomfortable were his eyes. He had very distinct, large, round, bulging, red, almost droopy, watery eyes, really distinctive eyes. And so for me to turn the light on in the bathroom and see those very distinct set of eyes was just, I mean, it was like a, like a light went on. And I sort of flashed back. to him giving me a business card, I put it in my top right drawer of my desk, and right then I counted the tiles on the bathroom wall to know how tall he was. I went back into the living room and told my daughter right then at that time, sweetie, if we make it out alive, everything's going to be okay. At 11.30 p.m., Michelle's roommate returned home from a party. My roommate came in and they grabbed her and drug her into her room. She was screaming, get out of my house, how dare you. She was cussing at them and calling them all kinds of vulgar names.

And she was very intoxicated and really heightened their level of aggression. They began pacing. They began holding guns in our faces, put the gun right up her nose, and told her she needed to listen and told her that they were gonna blow her head off if she did not cooperate. And it was about 4.30 in the morning when my daughter said,

Mommy, I wanna go lay in your bed. Please, can we go lay in your bed? You know, that was our little sanctuary. So I asked them, can I please take her into my room? Can we please just go lay down in the room for a little while? And the ringleader said yes, and sat at the end of the bed, watching us with the gun at us while we were able to go in there

and just rest and lay in my bed for a little while. And I was just smelling her hair and stroking her hair. And when you're just there and you're with your child and you're holding your child and you don't know if this is the very last time you're ever going to be able to hold them, it's really, really excruciating. The ringleader came over and stood over me at about 6.30 and said, time to get up. Time to get ready for work.

The men said they'd kill them all unless Michelle robbed her bank where she worked. I was blow-drying my hair, and he was watching, and he unplugged the blow-dryer and said, that's good, and it's time to put the dynamite on your body. and they brought the dynamite in and the big guy was the one who actually brought it in and duct taped it to my back really, really tight into my ribs

to where you couldn't hardly breathe it was really painful. The intruders strapped two sticks of dynamite onto Michelle. And they said it's time to put it on your daughter and they did the same thing to her. That's when she really started to tear up because it was so pain.

Mommy, it hurts, Mommy, it hurts. What are they putting on me? I didn't want to tell, you know, of course I wasn't going to say it's explosives. I said it's just something so that they'll be able to keep track of where you are, and everything's going to be okay. And it was right then when the ringleader took my arm, said, let's go to the living room, sat me on the couch, and said, you have 10 minutes to say everything you need to say

say to your daughter because this is going to be the last time you'll ever see her alive if you mess this up. We were on the couch together and I was just telling her that she was, she's perfect for me, that she was exactly everything I'd ever hoped for when I planned to be a mom. And then he came out and he said, time to put your daughter in the closet and led us into her room where he forced her into the closet. I just couldn't imagine her in the closet. You know what I mean?

Just sitting there, sort of waiting to explode. And I just wanted to keep her mind off of that and somehow give her something, you know. So I got her a little piece of paper and pen and just said, write mommy a note, write mommy a letter because I'm coming back and I'll, I'll be back as soon as I can. And she said, don't go.

And that was when she started grung. and screaming for the very first time, please don't leave me, please don't go. And in that moment, I just became totally robotic, totally numb, checked out. The only way I got through that moment is knowing that I had to go do everything they told me to do to perfection without any mistakes

to save her life and get back to her. I just remember him grabbing my arm and saying time to go to work. And I stood up and I turned and just started walking towards the door and I could hear her screaming going, no, mommy, no, don't leave, don't leave me. And just wailing and crying for the first time. And with every step that I took towards the door, it was fading. This episode is sponsored by Better Help. October 10th is World Mental Health Day, and this year it's all about saying

thank you therapists. Think about how many lives have been touched by those moments in therapy, the time someone felt safe enough to cry, or when the right question brought clarity, or when a tiny step forward suddenly felt like hope. Better Help Therapists have been part of over 5 million journeys like that, all around the world. That's 5 million people who had some people who had some people. someone show up for them. I'll tell you one thing I'll never forget from my own therapy experience

was when my therapist said, you don't have to carry this alone. It's such a simple line, but hearing it out loud broke something open for me in the best way. And I'll always be grateful for that. Better help makes it simple to find a licensed therapist who gets you. They use over a decade of experience to match you with someone based on your needs and preferences and with more than 30,000 therapists worldwide, there's a really good chance you'll find the right fit. And if not, you can switch any time. Plus sessions come highly rated, an average of 4.9 stars out of five from over 1.7 million reviews. So this World Mental Health Day, take a moment to thank the therapists who make life's toughest moments feel a little lighter. And if you've been thinking about it, maybe this is the

perfect time to start your own journey with BetterHelp. This World Mental Health Day, we're celebrating the therapist who've helped millions of people take a step forward. If you're ready to find the right therapist for you, BetterHelp can help you start that journey. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com slash survived. That's better help.com slash survived. Michelle and her daughter have been strapped with explosives by gunmen. Michelle has been taken at gunpoint to rob the bank where she works. When I walked into the bank and went immediately over to my desk, I pulled, I opened up that right

hand drawer and I saw his cards sitting there. I shut the drawer, and I immediately picked up the phone to call and check on voicemail. Michelle had been warned not to use the phone and not to call the police, which is when I just immediately hung up and thought, oh, my gosh, I wasn't supposed to use the phone. I already made a mistake. I messed up. What's going to happen? Am I going to blow up any minute now?

And I was just frozen there for a second and staring at the picture of my daughter on my desk. and just, I was just, you just die inside. You just die inside. I was just wandering around the bank with dynamite on my body, not knowing what to do, not knowing what to say, trying to help my employees

as much as I could without alerting them because I didn't want, I didn't want my daughter or myself or my roommate to end up in a million pieces. The Brinks truck dropped off the money at the bank. Michelle went into the vault with a colleague. I brought one of my employees in there with me because everything's in dual control. I had to tell her this is what's going on. This is what happened all night.

I lifted my shirt. I showed her the dynamite on my back and said, if there's any kind of serial numbers or any kind of distinctive markings, write it down as evidence, and please wait until I call you and I know my daughter's alive before you call the police or we might be blown up. She began to panic. I actually had to calm her down and say, just calm down. You can do this. Call corporate security.

Do not call the police. My daughter's in a closet. My roommates duct taped with dynamite. Please do not do anything that is going to jeopardize our lives any further. Michelle began to put money in a duffel bag. I didn't know how much money I was grabbing. I didn't know how much money I was giving them. I had absolutely no idea.

Michelle had taken $340,000. During the course of the night, when they were going over their instructions over and over and over, they continually said, you need to put it in a specific order, hundreds, 50s, 20s, 10s, the rest on top. They specifically said no funny money, no marked money. If we find out that you put any of that, any marked money in the bag, don't make us have to come back here and kill you. Don't make us have to come back here to hurt you. So there was no way I was going to do anything

to further jeopardize my life, my daughter's life, my roommate's life. I was going to do everything in my power to do everything perfect and right exactly the way they said it, whether or not it was against bank policy or not. So I come out of the bank and I throw the duffel bag full of money

into the passenger seat. Michelle drove the gunman to a drop-off point and is then told to drive home. At this point, I had been away from my daughter for approximately an hour and getting into my car and driving with the stick still on my back, not knowing if she's dead or alive, what am I going to find when I get home, wanting to get there as fast as I could, wanting to alert anybody at the the stoplights that I could and just, there were so many things going through my mind and I had to drive past the bank to get back to my house, which was only about two miles away.

So, and driving up the back roads and through the windy roads to get home, and I, as soon as I drove up, my roommate's car was gone. They had barricaded the front door with the chairs and I just had to struggle my way in and scream, hello, hello, and that's when I heard. My daughter say, mommy, we're back here. Just hearing her voice was just, my adrenaline was so high. I had just got done forcing my way in the door and knowing that she's alive and getting back there

just to figure out what to do is she still duct taped as do we all still have dynamite on us. I ran into the bedroom and my daughter was still curled up in the closet. My roommate was still on the bed. And I immediately ran to my daughter. just grabbing her face and kissing her and said, is the dynamite still on you?

No, mommy, they took it off, but she still had duct tape on her hands and her feet. So I immediately began to get that off of her feet and her hands, and then we both began to untape and unductate my roommate who was on the bed. And I told them, the dynamite's still on me. You guys need to go for help. You guys go for help.

I'll stay here. I don't know if this thing's going to detonate. I don't know what's going to happen. going to happen. And my daughter was going, no, mommy, no, I'm not leaving you. My roommate said, Michelle, they took it off of our body so fast. They just carelessly ripped it off of our bodies. I know I can do this. And I was saying, no, just go run for help. And she's like, let me just cut it off of you. And at that point, I just wanted it off my body. I was saying, just take it off of me, just get it off of me. And she ran and got scissors and cut it off of me and took the duct tape

in the dynamite and put it outside on the retaining wall, and we ran to the neighbors for help. Began recalling a lot, a lot of detail, and the FBI and the police were really, really happy, but I immediately began to tell them to cover my desk and get the card out of the right-hand drawer of my desk that I know that one of the people who did this to us was a man named Christopher Butler. The men were captured within nine days. Christopher Butler was sentenced to two consecutive life. terms plus 64 years for kidnapping and armed robbery. His accomplices received life sentences plus 32 years. It's never over for survivors. Even though we did survive and we're choosing a very

positive path, it doesn't mean that we don't have to cope with the effects of a violent victimization almost every day of our lives. Michelle never returned to her house or to her bank job. She and her daughter suffered severe post-traumatic stress. I survived because I'm my daughter's mother. And I survived because there's so much more life to live for me. It's April 2004 in Charleston, South Carolina. Troy and Josh set out for a fishing trip in their boat. Well, Troy and I have gone fishing probably hundreds of times.

We used to live in a neighborhood that was backed up to the water. The boat that Troy and I had was just an old fiberless sailboat that my uncle had given to me that we were fixing up just for fishing. We were going to go take the boat to the beach and we were just going to have a short little fishing trip because it was on a Sunday. I had school the next day. Troy was 15 and Josh was 17. We didn't take any food because we didn't plan on being out there for a long time.

We planned on going for about an hour to fish for, you know, anything really, just anything that would bite. The boys had never fished before in the inlet. And we were just trying to get into some deeper water because, you know, sharks will come and swim and eat bait that get stuck in the lagoon and stuff. And we were just paddling around. We were probably 30, 40 minutes that after we put in, we saw. started getting caught in the current which led us out to the ocean and you know we tried to paddle off to the side you know we tried to fight it but it just every time you paddle it just turned the boat around on you you couldn't control the

boat at all and eventually pulled us into the root current which actually just shot straight out into the ocean we had no sails on the boat we had no motor it was just the the frame the body of the boat us and we had some paddles we had a total of four paddles. When the boat started drifting away and getting into that rough current, I kind of started laughing, you know, Josh, you know, started yelling at me and telling me, we got to get out of it, we got to get out of it. And I was kind of laughing, thought it was all fun because the waves were balancing us around or whatnot. And then, you know, it started sucking us away. A rip current pulls water from the shore out to the sea, as fast as eight feet a second. I knew what a rip

current was, but I mean, I really didn't know the seriousness of it because I've never experienced how powerful it was until that day. Rip currents caused nearly 100 deaths a year. And then I looked back at the beach, and then we were just a couple hundred yards off the beach on, and then I realized, you know, we're not getting out of this paling. Both boys had left their cell phones in their truck. When we first realized we were in trouble, I really didn't worry about it too much. I figured that, you know, once six, seven o'clock,

you know, our parents would realize that something might happen, you know, they'll be looking for. So I wasn't too worried. The water was really cold. When we first got into the current, the sandbar wasn't very far away from us. The sandbar was 100 yards away. I jumped in with a rope trying to swim back to the sandbar,

which I figured if we got to the sandbar, I could pull the boat back with us. But I was halfway there, and Troy looked like he was about to drown, he just couldn't swim no more. I started panicking. My hands started becoming numb. I'd actually bite my finger,

and I couldn't feel anything. And I ended up turning back around, try to help Troy and all that. So once we realized we couldn't swim against the current, we just figured the best bet was to stay with the boat. We screamed for help for a long time, and no one saw us, and we just drifted all the way off the beach line

where we couldn't see the beach no more. On board, the boys had some fishing gear. Josh, he decided, you know, why waste time was just fish while we were out here. And he thought he saw a fence, so he went to go fish and a wave hit the boat, and he fell and lost his balance. You know, I lost my pole in the water because I knocked me over, and I dropped the pole, and my tackle box and my bait all went out of the side of the boat. So we had nothing, we had fishing bullets with no hooks and no bait. You got really, really mad and just started, you know, cut.

you know cussing and throwing stuff off the boat and like crazy man and I felt bad that you know we made that mistake I should have been responsible on to say you know we shouldn't go out there something could happen but we just didn't think about at the time you know we're excited we're going fishing well the first night that we were out there was really cold it went down to a record temperature at that time of year it was below freezing the boys didn't have any warm clothing My hands were numb and blue. I couldn't feel anything. I was shivering, you know, uncontrollably.

We hugged each other to get body heat. Even when we were laying down, you know, we just, you know, pee-right where we were just so we could get warm just for that five minutes. But then when the water came and back in the boat, it would wash, you know, it washed the pee away, so, you know, we got cold again. The waves was just very choppy and there were huge swells. I mean, it was just like it was a big beast, and we couldn't do it. anything we're just you know how to fight as much as possible the boat was 14 feet long it's

an unsinkable boat you can't think it even if it broke in half it's got a sealed hall which is filled with foam and so they had what called self-bailing where the water if it came in it goes out by itself instead of having a pump on it it had two little holes down at the bottom of it so water would come in and it would go back out and it was just like an ongoing process And sometimes when the wave, you know, because it was rough, a wave would come over on the boat. We'd have to get out and open the bail holes up, let the water run out and then, you know, scooped the rest of it out. But we constantly were wet the whole time. Well, the second day, the first thing that we did, you know, we looked to see if we could see anybody, any boats, any land.

And unfortunately, we didn't. And we realized, well, maybe that they didn't search, you know, last night they're just waiting for a new day. And then they're going to start searching. Coast Guard was searching off the South Carolina coast, but the boys had been swept farther north. Well, during the second day, you know, we were both hungry. We hadn't eaten since that morning, which we didn't even eat a good breakfast. You know, so we were talking about food, we were talking about drinks. You know, you're out in the ocean and the water looks like, you know, blue Gatorade that you wish you could drink, but you can't.

The salt in seawater, dehydrate cells in the body. We had one little hook in the boat. I mean, it wouldn't even, it was just the tiniest little hook for a little baby fish. And we'd actually peel pieces of skin off our finger and tried to catch like a little fish or something with it. Of course, they'd end up just grabbing it. The hook was so small, it couldn't eat. It wouldn't have done any good anyways. During the day, the temperature went up to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. I jumped in the water and swam around. Of course, we couldn't stay in there long because you'd be in the water for 20 minutes and the next day you'll see sharks swimming around. you. But when that night came and we didn't see nobody the second day, you know, my hope really got blasted away. I told Josh, I said, that's not good, you know, it's the second night and

no one's, you know, we haven't seen nobody. I survived is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch. their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it, so your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates, potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations.

Troy and Josh have been lost at sea in a small boat for two days. We didn't think we were going to make it too much longer. We're tired. We're worn out. We had no food, no water, dehydrated. We gargles our salt water. Try to keep our mouths, you know, some type of moisture in there, but it ended up just drying your mouth out even worse. Normally the body needs 2.6 quarts of fluid a day. We were getting nervous. You know, we didn't think anyone was going to find us. We've seen tugboats go by. They were just,

really far from us and since our boat was so small we looked we were like a needle in haystack compared to them but i mean we waved at everyone we saw and screamed and yell but i mean it just never worked we tried to actually keep our hopes up you know saying that you know we god want us that we would have been dead already you know um somebody's gonna find us shortly it's not gonna take much longer the boys parents feared they had drowned josh and i we cry all the time We cried mainly because of our family and our friends that we wouldn't, you know, ever to get to see him again. It was horrible. Troy and Josh have had no food or water for three days.

When I would think about food, it would hurt just as bad because, I mean, I like to eat. I'm a big guy. You know, me not having food is not good because I get really mad and I get frustrated. But, I mean, I was starving. You know, I just would think about, I even thought about one time to cut my own finger off. I told Josh, you know, if he would do it just to have something to chew on. I wasn't hallucinating or anything. I just needed something in my mouth, something with meat on it just to chew.

And Josh, you know, he'd tell me to shut up and that he wasn't going to do it, you know, and that, you know, if I keep asking him or say anything about it, that he's going to knock me out, you know. He kept on talking about it, and finally I had to take the knives away from him because I didn't trust him. I figured if I turned my back, he might be over there sawing his finger off. Troy, he goes, if you died, do you want me to eat you? I said, I really don't care if you eat me or not. I had to just take my clothes off and throw me in the water. So he was pretty hungry, he was, he's always been a big year.

You know, there was nothing out there in the ocean to block the sun from you. You know, so basically you're sitting directly under it, you were, it was pretty warm, you know, when you're laying on that boat, getting all the heat, you know. The sun and seawater dried their skin and caused painful cuts. My whole body was aching. My face was burnt, you know, really, really bad. We had cuts both of us all over our. bodies. I mean, just the pain we were in just was excruciating. I mean, it was just horrible.

The salt water were getting cuts and would sting really, really bad, and burn. I was drinking salt water when Josh told me not to, but I mean, you know, I kind of would sneak it here and there and he knew that, you know, it wasn't good for me and I knew it wasn't good for me, but I mean, what can you do when it's nice and cold and blue and it looks like Gatorade? You just want to drink it just to have something, that texture in your mouth. Drinking sea water increases the chance of death by 36%. They are now entering the fourth night at sea. On the fourth night, there was no wage period.

I mean, it was like a huge lake that was glassy, and I've never seen the ocean so calm in my life. But I had a really, really, you know, awkward feeling that said, you know, something is not right about the night. And I told Josh about it, I said, you know, something's telling me that tonight, you know, something's going to end up happening, you know, I just don't feel right.

And so I said, well, let's just start praying, you know, and he said, all right, I'll pray. We just dozed off. I heard a real loud noise, and I looked up, and it was just the front of a cargo ship. It looked like a hotel. It was, you know, just so tall, and it was, you know, coming right at us. And I, so I couldn't even say nothing. I was stunned, you know, I thought we were getting ready to get crushed by this boat, and I just grabbed Troy's leg and to squeeze as hard as they could.

You know, he came out and looked at it, and, I mean, both of us were just speechless. So we pretty much thought we were getting ready to get crushed. this huge cargo ship that just was right next to us. I mean, it was a crazy experience just seeing something that big, that close to you. The wave coming off the boat eventually just pushed us off to the side. And we started yelling and everything else.

I was trying to take the anchor. I was trying to get it untangled. I was trying to throw it out to the side of the boat. Hopefully it hooked to something. But I couldn't get anything, you know, couldn't signal anybody. After about the fifth day, I finally, every time we saw a boat, I would

even care. I wouldn't even look at them. Because we've seen somebody boasts and they just passed right by. You know, that ocean's so big, there's no way of tracking where we are. So we just figured that there's no, if they hadn't found us yet, they're not going to find us. After about the fourth day, I knew I was waiting to die. In fact, I asked God, I was like, why haven't I died? You know, because the body's not supposed to live more than three days without water. Depending on the heat, people can survive up to 10 days without water. I tried to jump into water one day and I, you know, I can't commit suicide just because I don't believe in it. But I figured if I swam down as deep as I can go and I ran out of air before I made it to the surface,

then it wouldn't commit suicide, which it is. But, you know, I tried, and it's so hard to kill yourself, it's hard to drown yourself at least. So when you hear something go, I'm starving, you know, Troy and I, you know, we'll just look at each other and say, and they really don't know what it's like to be starving, you know. Basically, the way it feels is that your stomach's eating your stomach, really. You're sitting there, you're, you look at anything. You know, you look at your fingers, you look at your hand, you look at Troy or he looked at me. You know, you're thinking, you know, what, he might taste good.

We found these little jelly balls and, you know, floating beside us. It's just like they're actually in little strands, they, you know, they'll connect to each other. You know, no bigger than eraser on a pencil. I mean, that's how little they are. And, you know, they'll strand together, and they actually glow at night. They're like a little green color. And we weren't sure what they were.

And so, you know, I was gonna eat something. And it was like another thing that if they were poisonous and it would kill me, you know, I would go to heaven. You know, I wouldn't be lost out at sea anymore. He ate one. And the next morning he was fine and he was like, I'll eat some more. So I took my hat off.

I'd scoop them up by the hat for and he'd eat them. I slept a few hundred down. And it tastes like, you know, an oyster, just really fishy and has probably twice as bad aftertaste. Jellyballs are considered a delicacy in Asian cuisine. They are always eaten dried or cooked. Every day was the same ordeal. We always looked for boats, always looked for rescuers. We always prayed.

We always cried. We always thought of our family. You know, that was just like an everyday process. We swam around a little bit. I told Troy, you know, we saw some sharks. I said, if a shark grabs me, I said, don't even try to help me. I said, just let them eat me. I said, I'm just, if it kills me faster, I said, it's fine.

Josh and I wrote notes in the boat to our parents with three ounce weights. It was tackle that was left over from the tackle box that we threw into water. It was a, it was a shape of a pyramid, and we'd use the point of it, and we'd actually, you know, get on the fiberglass, the boat and we just engraved letters to our friends we told them you know thanks for being friends with us you know we we've shared so many good experiences with each other and then when we talked about our family we tell them you know how much we loved them how much we cared for them but I mean

after writing those notes you know just you know it was we cried and it was hard to cry because we didn't have any tears basically you know it was just like it was just our hearts were crushed you know that now I'm not gonna see my dad no more I'm not going to see my mom you know any of my family you know On the seventh day, when I woke up, I looked out and there was just a, you know, a big old rainbow. And then next to know, I looked down in the water and there was three or four dolphins and then two little baby dolphins swimming around. You know, so I woke Troy, he was still dead asleep and I, you know, I had to show him. It was just an awesome sight.

Troy and I sat there in that morning and watched some dolphins for probably two or three hours. It was like all these signs were being thrown at us and I told Josh, you know, either we were going to die and go to heaven or someone's going to find us. And it was almost like I knew I was going to die that night. I knew I didn't have it in me to go another night. And we started praying, and I just started saying, you know, well, you know, God, I said, if you're going to rescue us and do it,

I said, not just let us die. You know, I basically gave him an option. He had no other options. And it wasn't five minutes later, Troy goes, I hear our engine. And I was like, well, it's probably going to be like every other boat. They're just going to go right past it. The boys had seen at least 10 other boats while they were lost at sea.

You know, something told me to stand up and to see where it was. And when I stood up and I realized it was coming right for us, it was like a burst of energy in me. And I started going crazy. And I told Josh to stand up. We started waving our paddles and screaming. And it was like they went straight for us. And it was just, it was an amazing feeling. A bad weather forecast had forced the fishing boat to change course.

As soon as I got on that boat, you know, it felt like our whole, everything was just licked off our shoulders. We couldn't hardly walk. It felt like it just hit us then that, you know, how miserable we were or how close to dawn we really were. The boys had drifted 111 miles to the North Carolina coast. The searchers in South Carolina no longer expected to find them alive. The first phone call I made was to my dad.

And, you know, I told him, I said, Dad, you know, I'm alive, I'm alive. He just screamed my name Troy really. out. And after that, he hung up. And I guess he was just really excited to hear that, you know, I'm still alive and still on the earth. Josh spent two days in the hospital recovering from severe dehydration. I survived because my granddad and my dad and all that, they always told us my whole life that, you know, if you get in a situation, don't panic, think about it, you know, stay with the boat, especially if you're on the water, always stay with your boat. And if it went in further advice and the friendship in God being able to say, there's no way.

would have ever made it. Drinking salt water and having fair skin caused Troy's condition to be worse. He had third degree burns and his feet had permanent nerve damage. I survived this trip mainly and I believe this is because of God, the grace of God, there's a reason why

I'm on this earth. Troy and Josh remain very close and still go fishing together. Our friendship now, it turns into a brotherhood and I mean, we're always there for each other and we will be there for each other until the day we die. This October, fear is free on Pluto TV

with horror movie collections from paranormal activity, The Ring. You will die in seven days. Scream. And from dusk till dawn. This is my kind of place. And don't miss the man-made nightmares in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or the world ending chaos in 28 days later.

There's something in the blood. All the scares, all for free. Pluto TV, stream now, pay never.