Cold Case Files - I SURVIVED: I Felt Like I Had Escaped Through Death

Episode Date: July 26, 2025

Jennifer is abducted and tortured by a serial killer who has already murdered four other women. Neely Ann is with her four year old daughter when they are trapped in the attic of their house ...by a flash flood.Apartments.com - To find whatever you’re searching for and more visit apartments.com the place to find a place.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi, iSurvive listeners. I'm Marisa Pinson. And before we get into this week's episode, I just want to remind you that episodes of iSurvived as well as the A&E Classic podcast Cold Case Files, City Confidential, and American Justice are all available ad free on the new A&E Crime and Investigation channel on Apple Podcasts and Apple Plus for just $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. And now onto the show. This episode contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. He started sucking on my neck and I just laid there staring at the roof thinking, some people
Starting point is 00:00:39 are sick. Real people. That's when I opened the front door and I saw my car was already underwater. So obviously I wasn't going anywhere and obviously my parents were not getting to me. Who faced death. And then I thought, I'm going to be raped. At least. What else?
Starting point is 00:00:59 I don't know. But raped. Definitely. And lived to tell how. And I said, you're a coward. You're a moron, you're not going to kill me, you're not going to kill me. I was taunting him. I wanted him to go, yes I will, and just shoot me. This is I Survived. It's September 1992 in Palm Springs, California. Jennifer, a 19-year-old nurse, is working
Starting point is 00:01:28 the night shift at a handicapped children's center. I had been laid a few times because I wasn't used to the bus schedule. And the lady that I relieved, she told me if I was laid again, she was going to have to tell the boss. And that kind of scared me because I was afraid to get in trouble or even lose my job, which I loved. One night, Jennifer arrived at the bus stop early and went to a store to buy food. While waiting in line, she saw her bus go past. And I just started to panic and looking at my watch,
Starting point is 00:02:00 thinking, I'm going to be late. I'm going to get fired. And then I just heard the sweetest little voice say, excuse me, do you need a ride? And I thought, yeah, I do, but you're a stranger. So my initial reaction was, I looked at him and I said, no, no thanks, I don't need a ride. Thank you though.
Starting point is 00:02:19 The stranger rolled up his car window and began to drive away. He was just gonna leave. And so I had a split second to think and I was thinking, Ranger rolled up his car window and began to drive away. He was just gonna leave. And so I had a split second to think and I was thinking, I need a ride. He offered me a ride. I'm gonna lose my job. He's leaving. If he were some sort of psycho, why would he just leave?
Starting point is 00:02:36 I think he would come try to drag me into the car or something. And so I actually yelled to him, yeah, okay, yeah, I'll take a ride. And he was just so nice and he was just geeky and just soft spoken and in stature, physically smaller than me. And of course my mentality back then when I was teenager, I thought I could easily beat him up if he were to do anything to me. When we were pulling up to my work, he said,
Starting point is 00:03:08 so how about I pick you up in the morning and we go to breakfast? So I thought, I'm just going to give him a fake number. That always tells them you're not interested. They call it once and then you never hear from them again. And he was totally nice, totally friendly, and I was just thinking, oh gosh, how sad for him when he calls that number and it's not the right number. And so I just played it off. Okay, bye. Have a nice night. Yes, he says, yes, I will. I'll give you a call. And I said, okay, see you later. And he dropped me off.
Starting point is 00:03:39 When her shift ended early the next morning, Jennifer walked to a nearby bus stop. A car pulled up beside her. It was him. It was just him from the night before, the happy-go-lucky, nice, still little scrawny guy that was totally harmless. And I thought, okay, I'll get a ride home with him and I'm never gonna talk to him again, you know?
Starting point is 00:04:01 And so I got in the car and there was just a little talk about how was your night, oh good, how was your night, just typical stuff. And then all of a sudden he said, you know that phone number you gave me? And I thought, oh gosh. And he said, that was the wrong effing phone number. And he just turned into a completely different person
Starting point is 00:04:23 and started yelling, started cussing. He just became something that I had never seen before. He just became evil. He's cursing. He's turned into another person. I had no time to think. I didn't know if he was just going to lash out and then be nice. I didn't know what was was just going to lash out and then be nice. I didn't know what was happening.
Starting point is 00:04:45 It was really confusing. Then he just pulled over really quick. And then I saw a knife come out. I saw a gun. He pushed my head into the dashboard. And he pulled my arms behind my back. And he started pulling twine out from under the seat and tying my hands with Twine.
Starting point is 00:05:10 And I started asking him if it was a joke, what was he going to do to me? And he said, shut up, bitch. And he leaned over, and he locked my door, and he put my seatbelt on me, and then he pulled the lever on the side of my seat, and then he just pushed my chest, and I went all the way back and then he just kept driving and I just stared at the roof.
Starting point is 00:05:29 Jennifer's abductor drove her out of the city into the surrounding desert. It is miles and miles of deserted desert with mattresses and burnt couches and if you see a car out there that's kind of weird you wonder what they're doing out there and then I thought I'm gonna be raped at least what else I don't know but raped definitely I can't even put into words how I felt all I could think of though was that I made a bad choice and I knew something bad was going to happen. And I knew I was with this person that wasn't going to show me any mercy no matter what
Starting point is 00:06:19 I said or what I did because I tried to say everything. And his goal was to execute a plan. You could see it in his eyes. Jennifer's attacker is a serial killer. Andrew Erdiales has already raped and murdered four women. It was like, he was like a demon. I've never seen a person act like that ever. And just looking at him, he looked different.
Starting point is 00:06:49 If I would have seen what he looked like now, the night before, I would have never went near that car. It was just oozing out of his body. He was just pure evil. And it was like a nightmare coming to life. He pulled over and he climbed into the passenger seat where I was at. He took my shoes off and he started hitting me with them
Starting point is 00:07:17 in the face and screaming at me, screaming at me and calling me a bitch. And he took his knife out and he just started trying to cut my shorts off of me. Then he cut my underwear off of me on both sides and just pulled them out. And that was the first time I thought he's done this before. He was just do do do do do, you know, this was nothing for him. He's done it before. Jennifer was sexually assaulted. And then he grabbed my underwear,
Starting point is 00:07:50 and then he just started doing that to my face, like punching out my mouth, and he started shoving my underwear down my throat. And then he got my bra, and he tied it around my head to hold the underwear in. And then he told me to tell him that I loved him. My mouth were full of underwear, and I couldn't say anything. But I knew if I tried to, it might save my life.
Starting point is 00:08:22 So I tried to say it, and I eventually just lodged the underwear into my mouth. And then I just would say, I can't say it with the stuff on my face. I tried to move my head. I couldn't do anything with my hands. So he took it off, and he just got close to my face and looked me in the eyes and he said it again. He said, tell me you love me. And so I said, I love you. And he slapped me and he said, say it like you mean it, bitch. And I thought to myself, oh my god, I'm only 19. I haven't told anybody that I loved him. I don't know how to say this." So I said it again and it just, it just wasn't right. And so then he started strangling me.
Starting point is 00:09:16 I just sat there looking into his eyes thinking, this is going to be the last thing I see before I die. And thinking, too, what have I done so bad ever in my life to deserve to be treated like this? And then I decided not to look at him anymore, so I shut my eyes, and I heard a ringing in my ears really loud, and my face felt really hot. And then suddenly I just saw white and I don't know how to explain any of it,
Starting point is 00:09:51 but I felt peace. And that's when I believe he killed me. I had no pain. I had no fear. I was, I felt like I was free from it. I felt like I had escaped through death and I was content. Finding the one can feel impossible. And in today's world, it's even harder. False profiles, inaccurate pictures, incompatibilities, ghosting on dates. Is this sounding familiar?
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Starting point is 00:10:50 stage of life you're in, settle down in your perfect home by using apartments.com. No more swiping and awkward first dates. Make it easier to get a place that gets you. Visit apartments.com, the place to find a place. Jennifer is abducted by a stranger and driven into the desert. Her attacker is a serial killer who has already murdered four women. After being sexually assaulted and strangled, Jennifer believes she is dead. I felt like I had escaped through death and I was content. I didn't know how I got there, but I knew I felt happy and I knew that I was, that I had passed away.
Starting point is 00:11:33 And then suddenly I started feeling things happening to me again. I started having feeling back in my body and the side of my head and then a bash to the chest. And then I saw his eyes close to me like this, and then far away, and then close again, and far away. But I didn't know what was happening. And then all of a sudden I just came back into it, and I could feel my whole body,
Starting point is 00:12:04 and I knew the situation again. And he was bashing me back and forth and hitting my head on the side of the car and punching my chest. And he was reviving me. Because I think he didn't want me to die so quickly. And then I just told him, kill me. Please just kill me, because I knew he was going to.
Starting point is 00:12:24 And he kind of just looked at me. Please just kill me because I knew he was gonna. And he kind of just looked at me and it was a look of no I'm gonna have some fun with you before I kill you. He started sucking on my neck and I just laid there staring at the roof thinking some people are sick and, none of my friends are gonna know where I'm at when I do die. I have no way to tell anyone anything. And I just stared out the window and I saw a bird and I thought, I wish I could tell that bird
Starting point is 00:12:56 to call 911 or something. My thoughts were just ridiculous. There was nothing that was gonna save me. And then I felt his slobber going down in between my breasts, and I was just laying there in disgust. And then when he was done sucking my neck, he lifted his face up and he just looked at me in the face,
Starting point is 00:13:18 and then he smiled. And that's when I realized he wasn't sucking my neck. That's, he tried to take a bite out of my neck, and he had skin and blood in his teeth. He opened the door, and he pulled me out, and I stood up, and I saw how far away the road was, and the cars looked like ants.
Starting point is 00:13:41 They were so small. There was a burnt-down building. There was trash in the desert. Everything They were so small. There was a burnt down building. There was trash in the desert. Everything just seemed so evil. And he put the gun in my mouth like that. And he said, I'm going to pull it. And I just went, squinting my eyes. And then he didn't pull it. And then he put it back up against my head. And I said, you're a coward. You're a moron, you're not gonna kill me, you're not gonna kill me. I was taunting him, I wanted him to go,
Starting point is 00:14:09 yes I will and just shoot me. I wanted to die. I was done with it. I didn't know what his plans were. If he was gonna torture me for just the day, maybe a week, maybe a year, I didn't know and I didn't care. All I knew was I was gonna die in the end.
Starting point is 00:14:27 So I would prefer to die now than be tortured like this. So I yelled at him and called him names and told him to kill me. And then I could just see that Eve was gonna change his plans. He kind of looked a little bit confused and he left me standing there and I just stood there thinking, now what? What's going to top what have you are what you already have done to me?
Starting point is 00:14:51 You know, now what are you going to do? He pops the trunk and he gets out two bags and then my heart just sunk because there was knife blades sticking out of the bags. And I just thought, oh my gosh, he's gonna cut me up. And so I just begged him to kill me, and he wouldn't. My arms are still tied behind my back. He lifts my feet way up in the air, and I just fall into the trunk, and then he slams it shut. And then he gets in the driver's side
Starting point is 00:15:32 and starts the car and starts to drive back towards civilization. So I started to think, I know he's bringing me somewhere else, and I know he's bringing me somewhere else because I just ruined his plan, because I told him to bringing me somewhere else. And I know he's bringing me somewhere else because I just ruined his plan because I told him to kill me here. And it made him a little confused looking,
Starting point is 00:15:51 and he wanted to be in control. I did just start to panic because I thought, who am I kidding? I'm in a trunk now, and I have my hands tied. He's bringing me somewhere else. It was another feeling of, I'm doomed. What am I going to do now? And so I started to panic and I started to cry
Starting point is 00:16:16 and I started to shake. And then I just stopped and I thought, I'm just going to pray. I just said, God, you really need to hear me right now because I'm in a really bad situation and I'm with a guy that's like the devil and I'm gonna be cut up into pieces and I really need to know that you're here right now
Starting point is 00:16:40 because you're the only person that I can call. Then I just got adrenaline and hysterical strength and confidence all of a sudden. And I didn't feel scared. And then I just started going like that and trying to pull my arms apart. And I kept doing it and maybe for a minute, nothing would happen, and I wouldn't quit.
Starting point is 00:17:09 And I just kept trying it, and then I heard, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. And the twine was coming off. And then eventually it all came off, and I was just like, oh my gosh, okay, I got that done. Now what? Now I need to get out of the trunk. And so I went like this and I felt
Starting point is 00:17:28 where the middle of the trunk would be. And then there was a bunch of a board, the carpeted board over that. So I started ripping it all off and then I twisted the lever and then I saw light coming all in. We were on a road that was a two-way road, and it had a lot of cars that would travel on it.
Starting point is 00:17:50 It was on the outskirts of the town. He was driving pretty fast, and I could hear him talking under his breath and pushing the gas, and then he got stuck on the sand. That's when I threw the trunk open, and I jumped out, and then he got stuck on the sand. That's when I threw the trunk open, and I jumped out, and my hand got caught. And I started trying to pull my hand out, and then his door opened, and when I saw his door open,
Starting point is 00:18:16 I just ripped my hand out of there, and I just took off running. And I kept thinking to myself, don't look back, because I knew he was behind me. I didn't know if I wanted to know how close he was, but I kept thinking, don't look back, don't look back. My curiosity got the best of me and I turned around and looked back and he was chasing me down the road
Starting point is 00:18:38 with a machete and when I saw that, I thought I'm still getting away, but I need help. I need someone to pick me up. I need a ride. And the car pulled alongside of me. And when they were going the same direction as me, I just grabbed onto their side view mirror and I was running with their car and banging on them and trying to grab at them. And the window was halfway down, and the woman said,
Starting point is 00:19:05 no, go, go faster. And he rolled his window up. It was an elderly couple, and they just left me. And then I saw a truck coming towards me. And so I was just screaming, putting my hands up and running towards that truck as fast as I could.
Starting point is 00:19:22 And the next thing I knew, they were opening the doors and pulling me into the truck. The only evidence they had was the size of his teeth that they measured on my neck, nothing else. They had no tire tire prints, tire tracks because when they went to look for them, a bulldozer had already run over them to clean the sides of the street. Just everything went in his favor in the way of evidence. There was, there was nothing but the teeth marks. Jennifer heard nothing from the police for five years. Then one morning in 1997, a police car arrived at her house.
Starting point is 00:20:05 They told me to come down to the police station, so I went down there. And they said that they might have caught the guy who had done this to me five years ago. And I was like, oh my gosh. And they said, okay, we want you to look away and we're going to put down some pictures. And so I looked at the pictures and right away he stood out and I said, it's this one. The detective kind of sat back and picked up the picture and he said, well, this is the guy that did this to you. He knows your name.
Starting point is 00:20:43 He knows everything about you. And this guy also is a serial killer who killed eight women and you're the only one that got away. Police had already arrested her attacker at Wolf Lake in Indiana after a tip from a prostitute. A gun registered in his name was linked to the murders of two women found floating in the lake in 1996. So he was arrested in Chicago. And when they arrested him, he sat down and he just started talking about everything. And he told them, well, I guess I'm not going to work today.
Starting point is 00:21:17 And you might want to call the cops out in California because they'll have some information for you too. And there was one that got away and her name was Jennifer. Andrew Erdiales confessed to the murder of eight women. Four of his victims were killed after he attacked Jennifer. He was sentenced to death in 2002, but in 2003 executions were halted in Illinois. Erdiales was found dead in his prison cell in 2018.
Starting point is 00:21:45 The cause of death was ruled suicide by hanging. I survived because I prayed to God and I thought rationally and logically instead of thinking emotionally. And in thinking like that, I was able to figure out the way to get out of the situation instead of being a victim and panicking and letting the situation take me. He confessed to killing all eight women and he knew
Starting point is 00:22:20 details of everything. He knew color of their underwear, the styles of their shoes, the material of their shoes. He knew my address. He knew my, where I lived, where I worked. He knew everything about me. And he told the cops everything. And his story and my story matched exactly. form narrative episodes backed by meticulous research exploring cases where passion leads to peril. Take, for instance, Blanche Taylor Moore, a seemingly devout preacher's wife who concealed
Starting point is 00:23:11 a deadly secret, leaving a trail of poisoned partners. Or the tragic tale of Chad Shelton and Dwayne Johnson, whose sudden deaths unveiled a web of familial deceit and revenge. These aren't just stories, they're deep dives into the human psyche and the dark side of love. Join us on Love Murder as we uncover the chilling narratives of love gone fatally wrong. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
Starting point is 00:23:35 or your favorite podcast platform. It's May, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee. Neelyann, a teacher and solo mother, lives with her four-year-old daughter. It has been raining constantly for several days. Well, nothing is that predictable in Nashville, but we have all seasons. So I mean, we get a little bit of everything. And we definitely go through the periods that it rains a lot. So you did hear people on the news talking about,
Starting point is 00:24:05 you know, there might be some flooding or, but I mean, it wasn't like a panic, this is gonna be awful. It was just, there was talk that it was a lot more than normal and it had been pretty consistent and constant for five days. On the sixth day of rain, Nealey Ann was with her daughter in the living room. We were sitting on the couch
Starting point is 00:24:21 and when I'm grading my papers, she does her pretend work. So she had all her little pretend papers out and You know my mom had called to check on us because I talked to my mom and dad, you know every day and it had been raining a lot and That's when I got up and I checked it outside the door and I was like, you know mom It's there's some rain in the yard, but you know, I really think it's gonna be fine Really? There wasn't even any on the street yet. It was basically in my yard, in my neighbor's yard, there would be little puddles.
Starting point is 00:24:48 And in mine, there really wasn't even what I would consider a puddle. It just looked really, really wet, and you wouldn't let your kid go play in it because it'd be messy. And so I went back to grading, and I had stacks everywhere. It's the end of the semester,
Starting point is 00:25:02 and literally I heard what sounded like if you were at the ocean when the water comes in. But I wasn't at the ocean, so I knew that's not what it was. And I said out loud, I hear water. It's weird, because when I stood up, I really didn't even know which direction to go. I just knew that I heard water. And then I happened to turn and look at my sunroom,
Starting point is 00:25:24 and it's just one step down. And I could already see, oh, there was brown water all the way up to the next level. So, I mean, it was that fast. It's not like trickling in the house. It literally sounds like if you're standing on the ocean and you hear the water come in, that's what it sounds like coming into the house.
Starting point is 00:25:42 Alarmed, Nealy Ann rang her mother. I said, Mom, you know, water's coming in everywhere. And so she said, Daddy and I are coming. We're on our way. And the time that I'm standing there, it's almost up to the couch now. As the water continued to rise, Neely Ann's main concern was her daughter, Lowell Ann. I pick her up, and you know, she's four, so she's not a baby anymore. So I've got her and I've got the two dogs
Starting point is 00:26:07 and I take them to the kitchen countertop because that was the highest thing. At that point, I can tell Lola-Lanne is scared. Everything is floating. Lola-Lanne's baby dolls are floating by, everything. Computer, I mean, it's all. And at one point, the refrigerator's behind me and Lola-Lanne says, Mommy, the refrigerator's moving. And at one point, the refrigerator's behind me, and little Ann says, mommy, the refrigerator's moving.
Starting point is 00:26:27 That's when I opened the front door, and I saw my car was already underwater. So obviously, I wasn't going anywhere, and obviously, my parents were not getting to me. My thought was, I did not want to call 911 in front of my daughter, because I didn't know how many questions they would ask, how much fright it would cause.
Starting point is 00:26:44 I called my mom back, and I said, mom, you know, the water's rising very quickly. My car's under water. Don't dare come here. I need you to call 911. And she said, you know, well, how bad is it? And I said, I need you to call 911. They need to come get us. 911 advised Nealy Ann to move everyone up onto her kitchen countertop.
Starting point is 00:27:05 Well, that's where I already was with Lil' Ann and the dogs. And I took a deep breath in because then I thought, okay, if that's the advice I'm getting, this is about to get bad because, well, I'm feeling it rising up past my stomach at that point. Automatically, I knew I need to stay calm. I don't need to let her know how serious this is. I guess for me as a mom, that what she needed from me was just primary. And so I had all the fear. I had all the anxiety.
Starting point is 00:27:35 I was terrified. I knew deep down, like, it was a very serious situation. At that point, I was moving from mentally, at the beginning it was, I am losing everything I own. I cannot believe I'm about to start over as a single mom to I want to get out of here alive with my daughter. I knew when the water was rising that quickly and I could feel it on my waist and I could feel it swirling around and the electricity was still on and, you know,
Starting point is 00:28:01 everything's floating that we had to get to the attic. Neilie Ann climbed up into the attic with her daughter, Lowell Ann. While we were in the attic, I also had to constantly just remind her that it's going to be okay and we're safe because you were hearing noises that you don't hear in a house. Things breaking and crashing, because as the water would come in the current, I'm assuming it was furniture falling, you would hear loud thuds, which you wouldn't normally think you would hear with water, but things were falling against the walls.
Starting point is 00:28:29 And the furniture that was in the sunroom when we left was in my living room, and stuff that was in the bedroom was floating in the kitchen. And it was, I mean, things were just everywhere and the sounds were just so eerie. I get her calmed down, and we're reading books and singing songs, and as a mom, I could tell she was calm at that point. She had no idea that our lives were in danger at all. So I continued to play with Lowell Ann,
Starting point is 00:28:56 but as I'm doing that, I'm looking over my shoulder and the water is coming up so quickly. The attic steps probably had about eight steps and there were two left that were dry. So the water, it definitely was over five feet and I know if the water rises much more, I'm gonna have to start thinking about getting out of here because there are no windows in my attic.
Starting point is 00:29:18 Like once it got to the attic, that was it for us. We had nowhere else to go. There was no way to climb on the roof or anything like that. And you know, at the time you feel safe in the attic, but as the mom, you're watching the water rise. And I knew if it got over my head before I got out of the house, I couldn't even get her out of there.
Starting point is 00:29:35 And so I kept playing with her, but again, I said to myself, I've got, I'm giving myself 10 minutes. And if I don't hear from 911, I don't hear, if I don't hear something, we have to leave. At that point, I felt like if I get out of here pretty soon, I can stand on my tiptoes and I can hold her up above my head to get her outside. But I also knew once I got outside,
Starting point is 00:29:57 it was gonna be higher than that. So I mean, I didn't wanna leave the attic. Neely Ann received a text message from her sister. It said, John is on his way. And John is our family friend. I've known him since I was 10. But so I texted her back and said, by boat. Because I mean, I knew how high the water was in my house.
Starting point is 00:30:16 So that meant it was higher than that outside. You know, because at my house, there's two steps, three steps going down into the yard. And she said, no, he's swimming in. 10 minutes later, John reached the house. We're sitting there and we're reading books and I hear, hey, Niels. And I can hear it's coming from the front door.
Starting point is 00:30:34 So he comes in and I mean, it's all the way up here on him at that point. When he was standing looking up at me in the attic and he's standing down here, I can see the movement of the water over his shoulders. Like I can see how it's moving on him. And he is a very adventurous person, probably too adventurous, grew up on the water. And when I saw his face, like I knew this is so serious. He said, we need to get out of here. And I said, okay, well, you know, fire department supposed to be coming, 911 supposed to be coming. He said, no, we need to get out of here." And I said, okay, well, you know, fire department's supposed to be coming,
Starting point is 00:31:06 911's supposed to be coming. He said, no, we need to go ahead and get out of here. Let me go get something for Lowell land to float on. You know, and at this point, the water's almost all the way up. You know, all you see are baby dolls and stuff floating around. But he found my brown leather ottoman,
Starting point is 00:31:20 and it was, you know, it's a pretty good sus ottoman about that, you know, Lowell land could lay on it flat. And that was as much space as it had. I said, what are we gonna do? And he said, you know, it's a pretty good sus ottoman about that. You know, low land could lay on it flat, and that was as much space as it had. I said, what are we going to do? And he said, you know, I'm going to hold onto this end of the ottoman. You stay towards the back, beside her, and we're going to get out of the house. So when we got to the front door, though, I looked at his face and he said, okay, now. And so, I mean, I knew it was going to be awful. He said, when we get out, it we get out, the current's really strong.
Starting point is 00:31:46 And I'm at the end of the dead-end street, so we now have to travel all the way down to the end. And at this point, what you see is the tops of trees and houses. There are no cars. You can see nothing else. And we, of course, are the only people out there. So, I mean, it looks like a just deserted, it looks like something you'd see in a movie, like with like two people holding onto an ottoman
Starting point is 00:32:11 out in the middle of like a brown ocean. All you could see were trees in the tops of houses. So it looked like a deserted thing that you would see in a movie. It was way above my head, definitely above John's head. There was no walking in any way, shape. I mean, you definitely had to swim and kick to try and stay, you know, with the current. And at that time it is still pouring down rain the entire time, through every second
Starting point is 00:32:33 of the entire thing. So at one point I looked at John and I said, I need you to find a tree or something like for us to lean up against, rest against, because I mean at that point my legs were shaking, I mean, you know know physically I was exhausted. And about that time I looked at the end of the street and my brother's friend, the fireman, was at the end of the street and had a canoe. He was with two other men and they were screaming stop, like stop, stop, stop. They started to canoe towards us to get to us.
Starting point is 00:33:07 And it was so strong that it took three very fit people paddling a canoe to get to us. That's how strong it was. With only enough room for LowaLand in the canoe, Nealyann had to swim behind it. We started going towards the end of the street and it was so amazing how strong it was. I mean, I've been in the ocean so many times
Starting point is 00:33:29 and I've never felt anything like that. But the weirdest thing is we got to the end of the street and then we took a left and it was maybe three houses down. Then it starts an incline on the street. There are all these people standing there to see if we make it to safety. We go past, you know, maybe two or three houses and because the street is on an incline,
Starting point is 00:33:50 we literally paddled and you can hear the concrete on the bottom of the canoe and we got out. At that point, like it sets in like, we're both just shaking like uncontrollably because I didn't even really think about like how cold the water was. And of course then I'm sure the shock setting in of like, okay, we're alive and we're safe and it's going to be okay.
Starting point is 00:34:09 The May 2010 Tennessee flood is considered a once-in-1,000-year event. In some areas, more than 19 inches of rain fell in two days. 21 people died in Tennessee. If one of us had panicked, if Lowell Ann had gotten upset or I had allowed fear to take over, you know, we would not have been able to all get out safely. I mean, the water was that strong. I wasn't thinking about it at the time, but like for days my body, I couldn't even hardly move, you know, from trying to hold the ottoman still and kicking and trying to stay with
Starting point is 00:34:44 the current. And if at any point one of us had not been on that ottoman and had not been able to hold on or if she had fallen off, it would not have ended the same. It wouldn't have. You don't ever really think you're going to be praying, like, let my kid be okay or let me be okay. But at that point, obviously it was very real. So, but we are okay. So that's what matters.
Starting point is 00:35:12 I survived because I'm a mom and I wanted to take care of my kid. You know, I was just able to stay focused, just focused on my daughter and, you know, that we were gonna be okay. Glass half full, not half empty. This summer, Pluto TV is exploding with thousands of free movies. Summer of cinema is here.
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