Cold Case Files - I SURVIVED: I Just Got Shot, and Boy Does It Hurt
Episode Date: June 21, 2025At 11 years old, Tere survives on a raft after her family is murdered and the yacht they were on sinks. Christa is doing volunteer work in Haiti when a 7.0 earthquake hits collapsing the hous...e around her. Brian is a truck driver at a rest stop for then night when his truck is broken into and he is shot.Pretty Litter - Go to PrettyLitter.com/Survived to save 20% on your first order AND get a free cat toy!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.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Hi, iSurvived listeners. I'm Marisa Pinson. And if you're enjoying this show, 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. I was awakened by my brother screaming
and it was the type of a scream that it set me on edge. I knew something terrible had happened.
Real people. The earthquake hit when I was right at the top of the stairs
and I was able to run all the way down to the landing before the house collapsed. Who faced death. He put the gun to the back of my head and next thing
this man says is I'm gonna kill you. And lived to tell how. My mother and brother
were lying on the floor and they looked dead to me. There was a pool of blood
next to them. This is I survived.
It's November 1961 in the Bahamas. Eleven-year-old Terri and her family are cruising the Bahamas
on a charter yacht called the Blue Bell.
On board are her parents, 14-year-old brother and 7-year-old sister.
The trip was just wonderful.
My brother and I were just free to run on the boat and watch the dolphins, stand on
the bowsprit.
Each day we would lift anchor and we would go to another island and more out and then
we would take a dinghy into the beaches and either swim, fish, walk the beaches.
And it was just, it was like a dream.
It was just beautiful.
It was paradise.
The Bluebell was crewed by Captain Julian Harvey and his wife Mary.
Captain Harvey was very, very handsome.
He was tanned, he was very muscular.
He was very shy, sort of standoffish almost, but always very pleasant.
And his wife Mary Dean was very bubbly and very gracious.
She did the cooking and just a really, really nice young lady.
On their fifth night at sea,
Terry was the first to go to bed.
I was awakened by my brother screaming,
help daddy help.
And it was the type of a scream that it set me on edge.
I knew something terrible had happened.
And so I just lay in there and lay in there,
and it was probably five or 10 minutes,
and I decided, well, I would leave my bunk and go out the door,
and as I went out of my cabin, you went into the main cabin,
which was the dining room and the galley,
and my mother and brother were lying on the floor.
My brother was dressed in his pajamas.
My mother was in her regular clothing,
and they looked dead to me.
There was a pool of blood next to them.
I think I went into shock because I didn't go and touch
them, and I think I knew they were dead.
I mean, I saw the blood, and they were in such a position
that they just, there was no movement.
So I went past them, and I continued up the stairway to the top of the deck.
And as I went up I saw, I was facing the rear and I saw blood on one of the cockpit seats
and I thought what was a knife in the shadows.
And then I turned around and I looked forward and I saw the captain up in the bow and he was coming towards me and he was sort of crouched and it looked like he had a bucket or something in his hand and I asked, I said, what is going on, what's happening?
And he gruffly said, get down there and push me down below into the cabin again.
I was very trusting and I thought that something bad had happened,
and that he didn't want me to see what had happened.
And I was trying to, you know, think, where's my dad?
Was he helping?
You know, where's my sister?
Seeing the captain, I trust and believe that everything was under control.
So I went down and went back into my bunk and I remained there and I was listening and listening.
And it was very, very quiet.
And he came into my cabin, opened the door, and he had a rifle in his hand and he just stared at me.
He didn't say anything.
We just had eye contact.
And then he backed out.
As Terri huddled on the bunk, her cabin began filling with water.
And then
the water started sloshing my mattress and it began to float and so I decided
well the boat is sinking I need to get out of here. I was rather queasy because
the water was not clear and I was really horrified that I was gonna bump into my
mother and brother because I knew that I had to wade through the area where they were. And so I did it.
I got out and I just stood there and Captain Harvey threw a line to me which was for the
dinghy which was over the side of the boat.
And he said, hold this.
Well as he threw it at me, I missed it.
And he saw that I didn't have the line in my hand, so he dove over the boat.
As I was standing on the deck and the captain dove overboard for the dinghy, it was obvious to me
that the ship was going down. Captain Harvey rode away and left the 11-year-old girl to her fate.
Although in shock, Terry knew there was a cork raft lashed to the cabin roof.
I remembered where the cork float was.
I had to carry it over the sails, which were all billowing
on deck and in the water floating.
And I lifted it over the stanchions, put it in the water,
and it was on top of the sail, got into it.
And then the blue bell was gone, but the rope
was still connected to the
raft and I was just horrified that it was going to pull me under and I was
scrambling and scrambling to untie it and eventually it let loose and at that
point the boat was gone. I huddled in this raft and it was very dark and I was
motionless and silent and I just stayed that way and stayed that way.
It finally dawned on me that there was something evil
about Captain Harvey, and I was very fearful
that he would find me.
And I just waited and waited for morning to come,
and that's when I was relieved I could see then.
It was a clear morning, and I looked around,
and I couldn't see Harvey.
I couldn't see anything but water.
I was sitting in this cork raft and the bottom was interlaced rope.
I was always sitting in the water.
I was always wet.
And the only position I could be in was sitting.
It was very uncomfortable. And the parrotfish started picking at me through the rope.
Terry did not know Captain Harvey had been rescued earlier, saying he was the only survivor.
Despite his claims, the Coast Guard began an air and sea search for other survivors.
As I was floating on the ocean in a white raft, in white clothing, I blended in with the white caps,
which really prohibited the search planes from spotting me.
It was very discouraging because there was a red search plane that came so close to me,
I could almost reach up and grab it.
I took my blouse off and I waved it thinking and I was screaming and thinking that you know,
I'm here, I'm here, don't you see me? And I thought for sure it was so close to me that
they spotted me but they flew off and it was very disheartening. I saw numerous ships on
the horizon and I would try to use my hands to paddle toward them. After one or two
times I realized that they were so far in the distance that it was absolutely
impossible that I would you know get to them and I gave up hope that they
wouldn't even see me. Then the night came and the night before it was very very
cold and I was dreading it because it was very uncomfortable sitting.
And in the sitting position I couldn't really fall asleep, yet I did.
I kept dozing.
And I had a dream that I could see the blue lights of an airport, the landing strip.
And I could see that my parents were waiting for me
at the end of the landing strip.
And so I was going to meet them.
I jumped out of the raft,
and jumping out of the raft awakened me.
And fortunately, I hadn't let go,
so I was still holding on to the cork,
and I scrambled back in.
I realized then that it was very dangerous to sleep because if I lost that raft, I was
a goner.
Terry has now endured two nights adrift without food or water.
The second day, when it was dawn, it was cloudy.
And I was very disappointed and I was very disappointed.
It was very rough.
I was very discouraged.
It was uncomfortable.
I was cold.
And then I looked to my right, and there was a pod of pilot whales swimming next to me.
And it was, it brightened my day.
It helped me get through the day.
They were there and I thought they were there to protect me and keep me company.
As the sun set, Terry prepared for a third sleepless night.
On the third night I was very exhausted. I was afraid to sleep because I didn't want to jump out of the raft or lose control of the raft.
It was very, very dark. I did not think about my family and what had happened. because I didn't want to jump out of the raft or lose control of the raft.
It was very, very dark.
I did not think about my family and what had happened.
And the reason I didn't think about them was
I was having to deal with surviving on the raft.
I wasn't thinking about how long it's been
or am I thirsty or am I hungry.
I just went and existed with what I had.
The sun rose the next day and thank goodness it was there
because I was very chilled and pretty much falling in
and out of consciousness, just on and off most of the time.
And I just sat there and just stared at the horizon
and I did see a ship again. I sat there and just stared at the horizon,
and I did see a ship again.
And I thought, well, this one's going to pass right by.
I didn't get my hopes up because I had seen so many ships previously.
You know, I was pretty weak at that point,
so it was like I wasn't really excited or I wasn't,
I didn't have the energy to start
paddling or anything or waving.
I just sat there.
The man in the lookout spotted me with his binoculars and at first thought that I was
a fisherman and then realized that a fisherman wouldn't be out in such a little boat and
then looked closer and decided that it was some kind of a person in a raft.
The boat that rescued me was a Greek oil tanker
named the Captain Theo, which is God in Greek.
And I awakened in a cabin and I had dry clothing on
and I was in a warm bunk. It felt wonderful.
The next thing I remember was that I was being carried on deck,
wrapped in a blanket, and put in a basket that was lowered from a helicopter.
A Coast Guard helicopter rushed the gravely ill 11-year-old to a Miami hospital.
I was almost dead from exposure and dehydration. My heart rate was irregular. My kidneys weren't working. So I was near death.
It was four or five days until I was stabilized. And so the Coast Guard came into my room and they asked me questions. Captain Harvey, rescued within hours of the sinking, said he was the sole survivor.
Terry's evidence would reveal the truth about how her family had died.
Captain Harvey's story was that there was a terrible storm.
The mast, the main mast, snapped in half and pierced the cabin deck.
There was an explosion and everything was on fire
and that everybody jumped over the boat
because the boat was on fire
and that he couldn't get to anybody
and people were screaming and hollering
and there was blood all over the place.
He told them that he didn't believe
there were any survivors,
that he saw everybody go overboard.
That was the story that Captain Harvey told,
and it was totally different than my story.
There were people who doubted him in the beginning,
but how could they when he was the only survivor,
until my story came about.
After I was found, Captain Harvey checked into a motel
and committed suicide.
Harvey killed himself before murder charges could be laid against him.
The Coast Guard's report determined that Captain Julian Harvey probably was in the
act of murdering his wife, Mary, for insurance money.
It was found out that he was very poor and owed money to many people, and that probably
my father or my mother caught him in the act.
And then he had to dispose of everyone else.
Terry's survival was one of the biggest news stories of 1961.
After being released from the hospital, Terry was adopted by relatives.
Everyone was told, don't talk to Terry about this, just pretend like it didn't happen.
She's just supposed to be a normal child.
Just go on with your life and just don't mention anything to her.
So everyone did that.
And it was very hard for me.
I was known as brave little Terry Jo, and so I had to live that.
I struggled most of my life.
I had ups and downs, and it was a result of holding in
a lot of the trauma I experienced as a young child.
So I made wrong decisions, I made mistakes,
but I moved on, and now I'm at the point in my life
where I should be.
I'm at a good point, and so I'm willing to share this
with people so that they can realize that you can go on.
I survived because I was put in a situation that I dealt with.
If you're put in a situation that is challenging, you need to go with it.
If you fight it, you're not going to make it,
and so you have to adapt to whatever the circumstances are
and go with the flow.
And I think that anybody that does this can survive.
I love my two cats and I do everything I can
to keep them healthy.
The best treats, the best food, the best toys.
But one thing I wasn't thinking about is their kitty litter.
That's why I'm so excited about pretty litter.
It's not just any cat litter,
it actually helps me monitor my cat's health every day.
Pretty litter changes color based on your cat's urine,
detecting abnormalities by testing acidity
and alkalinity levels and even showing the presence of blood.
It's like having a little health check built right into the litter box.
That peace of mind is priceless. I know if something's off before it becomes a bigger problem.
Plus, Pretty Litter ships free right to my door, which is so convenient.
It's non-toxic, pet safe, and household friendly.
I love that it's low dust, controls odors, and lasts for up to a whole month.
And my cats like it too. no complaints, just happy paws.
If you wanna keep your cats healthy
and save yourself the worry, Pretty Litter is the way to go.
It's made a huge difference for us
and I'm sure it will for you too.
Right now, save 20% on your first order
and get a free cat toy at prettylitter.com slash survived.
That's prettylitter.com slash survived
to save 20% off your first order and get a free cat toy.
Prettylitter.com slash survived.
Pretty Litter cannot detect every feline health issue
or prevent or diagnose diseases.
A diagnosis can only come from a licensed veterinarian.
Terms and conditions apply, see site for details.
It's January, 2010 in Haiti.
Krista, a PhD student, is in Haiti
as a voluntary aid worker. She and
her brother Julian are spending two weeks with a local community group.
Julian and I flew down right after a New Year's Eve party in Philadelphia. We got to Port-au-Prince
about 8 in the morning on January 3rd. We were met by Jeral, who's one of the leaders
of this organization and some friends of his. We were living with Jiral, who's one of the leaders of this organization and some friends of his.
We were living with Jiral and his family.
On the morning of January 12th,
Krista and Julien assisted at an adult literacy class.
After the adult literacy class was over,
Julien and Jiral and I went to our friend Framie's house
to connect to the internet and send some emails
to our parents and everyone saying we're doing okay.
We just sat down. There were five of us in the house, Julian and I and
Jeral and then two other Haitian men. We'd sat down to connect to the internet
when the earthquake hit. When I first felt the earthquake it was a really
distinct vertical shock so basically the house jumped. It was and it was so
distinct that I didn't think it was an earthquake. I'd been in a number of earthquakes before and this was different than what I'd ever felt before.
It was basically a single shockwave, so I thought that a truck had hit the building
because I thought that Haiti wasn't an earthquake zone.
The second shockwave was actually a horizontal shift.
It slipped us backwards quickly, distinctly, and then just sort of like a spring, a bang backwards.
I looked up, saw Julian was already running towards the stairs and quickly decided to
follow.
We were in the second story of the house, so there was one round of stairs that went
straight down and then there was a landing and then there was another four or five stairs
before you got to the ground floor.
The third shockwave, when the house really started shaking
and started to collapse,
hit when I was about at the top of the stairs.
And I made it to the landing before the house collapsed.
I slipped and fell on the landing, I think.
At least that's where I dropped the book
that was in my hands and my sandals fell off.
And then ended up face down on the lower part of the staircase.
It was pretty incoherent shaking and chaos.
The house was coming down around us.
The roof fell backwards.
The walls fell in.
The railing from the top part of the staircase fell over me.
It was a steel railing and when the roof fell on top of it, it was strong enough to keep
the cement roof off of my head. My entire world was white. There was so
much concrete and cement dust in the air that I couldn't see my hand five inches
in front of my face. I was continuing to yell to Julian that I'm here, I'm stuck,
I'm okay, I'm alive. I was face down on the stairs. They had white ceramic tiles
on them that I was busy pulling off and trying to dig myself free because
they were sharper, they were stronger than the cement. I was trapped basically
from the waist down. There were there were big heavy slabs of concrete on my
legs. I didn't I didn't see any injuries. I thought that I was worried about
losing circulation because I knew that having a house squashing your legs is
pretty heavy. This was a big enough earthquake
that there were a lot of other people trapped in houses too.
I had to figure out how I could get myself out
because help wasn't coming.
Some of the bigger slabs of concrete that had fallen on me
were supporting the rest of the house.
So if they disturbed those,
then the house would collapse on me.
I sort of went into my engineering mindset of,
this is the problem, these are the steps
I need to take to solve it.
These are the resources I have,
this is the way that I can move forward.
I need to get out of the building
before it collapses on me.
The plan to get me out basically evolved.
Julian and Jeral picked up the smaller pieces
that they could by hand as quickly as they could.
It took them about half an hour to get my first, to get my right leg free.
That was the one that was a little higher on the stairs.
I could feel that the weight was getting less on my legs, so I was excited about it.
I was trying to pull myself forward into the little nook in front of me where there was
more space and I thought it would be safer if the house collapsed while they were
moving pieces around.
When they finally got my right leg free,
they'd been speaking in Creole
and the other two men who were there were also chattering.
And then all of a sudden all of them were real quiet.
And then Jeral reached through the cement blocks
and felt my left leg in order.
What he was doing was he was checking to see if that one was okay,
because they'd seen that my right leg was cut in half.
It was basically like my leg was guillotined.
The bones were cut clean through, the muscle was cut clean through.
There was only about, say, a quarter worth of tissue still holding my right foot onto my right leg.
After Julian and Jiral got my right leg free, they decided that my left leg was too deeply buried to get it out without tools. The slabs of cement were too heavy to lift by hand.
So Jiral went back home where he knew he had a pickaxe.
With the pickaxe, they were able to break up the slab pinning Krista's left leg.
After a couple seconds, they said, okay,, well can you move your right leg back,
basically crawl backwards up the stairs
out of a fairly small little hole.
And eventually, well, real quickly they got me out.
Krista's injury was so traumatic
that the blood vessels had partially sealed,
preventing her from bleeding to death.
I started to faint, you know,
how your vision sort of gets dark and you get tunnel vision.
But then when Jeral and Wenson were telling me that I had to get on the motorcycle, they
were going to bring me to a hospital, I realized that if I fainted, I wouldn't be able to
sit up on a motorcycle.
So I had to sort of hold on and stay conscious.
This was probably the scariest part of the whole experience for me
because I could really see how the breadth of the devastation,
basically every house I saw had collapsed.
There were a lot of people out really scared in the streets trying to figure out
what had just happened, what was going on.
Krista was taken to a nearby UN peacekeeping mission run by Sri Lankan soldiers.
When I first got there, there were maybe a hundred other Haitians,
all as badly injured as me, scared, milling around,
not knowing what to do, hoping to get some medical care and some help.
The Sri Lankan guys, they really did everything they could.
They had some basic medical supplies.
They poured some disinfectant all over my leg
and sent somebody off to get a fence post
where once the wet, dirty, gross-looking fence post returned,
they strapped my leg to it in order to brace it
and keep me from further injuring it.
Dealing with the level of pain I was in at this point
was the way I managed
was really by trying to focus on anything else. I talked to really
anybody who'd listened to me to try and keep my mind off what was happening to
me. At one point I asked for pain medication and the guys just sort of
chuckled. Half an hour later he came back and offered me one of those little
single shot servings of alcohol of some variety.
I didn't quite catch what it was.
I figured alcohol is a blood thinner so it probably wasn't a good idea for me.
The first night was pretty long.
Most of the time I remember laying on my back and looking up at the stars.
I could see Orion right above my head and I watched him move from straight overhead
to about that far.
There were a lot of people by the end of the night.
The whole courtyard was full, maybe 600 people.
There were also a number of priests
who were praying and leading people in song.
Basically, we did all feel like the only way
to get through that night was pulling together,
that there wasn't help coming.
A number of the soldiers kept asking me if I was Heidi.
They'd say, are you Heidi?
Are you Heidi?
No, no, I'm not Heidi.
But who is she?
Can I go home with her?
It turns out that they were asking if I was Haitian.
I just wasn't listening for the right accent.
I was expecting a Creole accent.
And so once they established I was American,
a major in the Sri Lankan army, Major Shujith,
had me write down my email address and my phone number.
And he was going to try and call my parents.
He thought that if he could get a hold of anybody, somebody would come and get me.
But he couldn't get through anywhere. There was no communications of any variety.
So eventually, he gave up on that and decided that the only way he was going to get care for me
was to go to Port-au-Prince himself and find somebody to take care of me.
I don't really understand why.
I mean, I was a stranger.
He'd never met me before.
I was just a little white girl.
And he took it upon himself to go 10 miles all the way
to Port-au-Prince to find an ambulance for me.
I was pretty scared that I would have to stay another night.
I wasn't quite sure how long my blood
pressure would stay high enough that I would be conscious because I was losing so much blood.
I don't know how he did it, but Major Shujie somehow sent a message that he was on his way back
with an ambulance and that he'd be there in an hour. And sure enough, an hour later, he shows
up with an ambulance and two stretchers. Krista and others seriously wounded were rushed to the airport and evacuated to Florida.
We flew into the Fort Lauderdale airport and they had a train of ambulances and a couple
of police cars waiting to give us an escort for the 45-minute drive back to Jackson Memorial.
It was about 30 hours, I think, between when the earthquake happened and when I finally
got painkillers.
I know the earthquake was at 4.53 p.m. Tuesday, and I got to the air...
Our plane landed at 8.11 p.m. Wednesday, and then it was probably another hour
before I actually got painkillers.
Eventually, the lead doctor came up to me and told me that he wasn't going to be able to save my foot.
It was pretty obvious where they were going to take my leg.
The bones were cut clean through.
It really would only have taken a pair of scissors in a minute or two to take the rest
of my foot off.
More than a day after the Haiti earthquake, Christa's right leg was amputated below the
knee.
Losing my foot seemed pretty minor compared to being alive.
There are a lot of ways I could have died in those two days and there are a lot
of ways that the stars aligned for me that I got out.
A lot of people stepped forward and did really good things to save my life.
The magnitude 7 earthquake that devastated Haiti left a million people homeless.
As many as 230,000 people died in the disaster.
It's been really important to me to figure out a way to really turn bad into good,
to make a difference in the lives of the people who saved mine.
So what my family and I did was we started a foundation called Christus Angels.
The aim of this is to really help the guys who saved my life rebuild theirs,
where we've raised enough money to rebuild the school that Julian and I were working in. So it's a slow process but but I think it's really
important that these are family now. These are guys who saved my life so we
need to provide for them. I survived because people stepped forward and
did the right thing. I'm really impressed at how how good how kind people were in
such a terrible situation.
I Survived is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart choice. Progressive loves to help people make smart choices. That's why they offer
a tool called AutoQuote Explorer that allows you to compare your Progressive car insurance quote
with rates from other companies. So you save time on the research and can enjoy savings when you choose the best rate for you.
Give it a try after this episode at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and
affiliates not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy.
It's February 2008 in Jackson, Mississippi. Brian, a truck driver, has been on the road since early morning.
The way the federal regulations work is you have a 14-hour workday.
11 hours of that 14 hours can be driving.
And after your 11 hours of driving, you have to take a 10-hour break.
Park the truck, you can't move it.
And that's where you stay inside, in the cab of the truck.
You have a bed behind the driver and passenger seat
and that's your home.
I mean, it's just really no different
than your master bedroom at your house.
It's just in a smaller compartment.
Parking his truck at a truck stop,
Brian prepared to go to bed.
You know, I had washed my clothes, took my shower, ate,
you know, called home and talked there for about 45 minutes.
And you know, and I was tired and had basically
taken some sinus pills and said, I'm going to bed.
And I hear a crash set up in the bed.
It startles me.
All groggy out, I'm looking out the front window thinking,
who just hit my truck? I got up on my knees to further investigate It's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just,
it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just,
it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just,
it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just,
it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's oh, he's got a gun. At the same time that I backed away from him,
he fired the gun.
He just shot me.
This man just shot me.
That was the biggest thought that went through my head
when the bullet hit me was, I just got shot.
And boy, does it hurt.
The next thing this man says is, I'm going to kill you.
My feeling was just, don't.
I have two kids.
I have a family.
At this point, I'm still on my knees, begging for my life.
He just looked at me with that little grimace he had and says, lay down and cooperate.
If I didn't cooperate, I would die and then who would find me?
That's the thought that ran through my head this whole time is if I die how my
family find me? Will they know? I feel helpless. Never been helpless before but
feel helpless at this point. Heart racing of course. He climbs the rest of the way in the truck.
I'm laying on my stomach,
and he calls his buddy inside the truck
to sit in the driver's seat.
He put the gun to the back of my head,
and I'm feeling, oh crap, you know, am I gonna die?
I thought about my boys,
and thought about what they would think.
I prayed, just let them know that I love them.
I looked, turned my head sideways
and actually looked down the barrel of the gun.
He put the gun to the back of my head
and he asked me, how do you drive this?
He can't drive it because of it being such an old truck,
he had to fumble with it, and he had to drive it a certain way
or he just wouldn't make the truck go.
And I had to explain with the gun to the back of my head
how to drive the truck.
Once they had actually got the truck to moving,
the man had looked at me and said,
I'm going to tie you up now.
Put your hands behind your back.
And I felt him forcefully take my left hand and my right hand
and put them together and duct tape my legs,
and then proceeded to duct tape my eyes.
I hear these two men talking back and forth, saying, well,
he's not from around here, so he doesn't know where we're at.
He doesn't know anything.
And I hear him, the man with the gun,
he's right beside my head.
And I hear him tell the guy driving,
get off of this next day.
And the guy touches me in the head again with the gun,
and he just, he says, we gotta make a stop.
We stop in here, and if you make a move, you won't live.
You be real still.
He says, this is just about business.
All we want is your load.
I'm thinking, well take it, take my truck, let me go.
I had three farm tractors on my trailer.
They actually stated, that's what we want,
we just want your load.
We don't want you, we don't what we want. We just want your load. We don't want you.
We don't want your truck.
We just want your load.
Cooperate and you'll live.
You fight, then you'll get two to the back of the head
like the last one.
I hear the guy in the driver's seat get out.
Hear the brakes set.
You know, and him get out.
And at that point, I knew exactly what they were doing.
They were dropping my trailer.
They were going to hook to it with another truck. what they were doing. They were dropping my trailer.
They were going to hook to it with another truck.
And they were going to be gone.
They both climbed back up in the truck.
And he's got the gun back on me again, saying,
don't you do nothing.
Don't you make any moves.
And the truck starts moving again.
And I can feel that the truck's not moving slow.
It's getting faster and faster. Of course, the pain in my leg, you know, I'm having to block it off,
but it's still there and every little bump hurts.
And then I hear the brakes and actually like, oh no, what's going to happen?
They said, we're getting out here to talk to this guy.
Don't make a move.
This other guy sees you moving in here.
He's gonna come up in here and he's gonna kill you.
They both climbed out of the truck.
One out the passenger side, one out the driver's side.
It was after laying there for 15 minutes or so
and actually not wanting to breathe,
not wanting to make any kind of movement,
that I actually started hearing the other things around me and realizing that, okay,
well, nobody's around but me.
I worked the duct tape off my eyes and positioned myself to where I could see out the windows.
And then I looked to my right and I see another truck. I said, Oh, I know where I'm at. I'm right back where I began.
Brian was back at the truck stop where his ordeal had begun two hours before.
I fumbled around in the front, leaned over into the front and found my cell phone and
dialed 911. And I told the operator that I had been shot and hijacked.
She stayed on the phone with me
until the ambulance actually got there.
I remember feeling scared because now I'm dealing with it.
I get the aftershock, the aftershock of,
oh no, this just happened to me.
And it's not a dream, it did happen.
As the bullet had passed straight through Brian's leg,
he was treated and discharged from the hospital that night. Within a month of the attack,
Brian was back driving his truck. The two men who shot Brian and stole his trailer have never been
caught. To this day, I have trouble sleeping in my truck. I can honestly say two years later,
I'll wake up with a pin dropping on the floor.
I don't sleep hard anymore.
I survived for my family and my kids.
That's why I believe I survived,
that I have something better and a bigger purpose
to accomplish before it's my time.
This summer, Pluto TV is exploding with thousands of free movies. Summer of cinema is here.
Feel the explosive action all summer long with movies like Gladiator, Mission Impossible,
Beverly Hills Cop, Good Burger, and Transformers Dark of the Moon. Bring the action with
you and stream for free from all your favorite devices.
Pluto TV. Stream now. Pay never.