Cold Case Files - I SURVIVED: I Just Kept Screaming and Kicking

Episode Date: May 25, 2024

Frankin and his wife are aboard an aircraft that gets hijacked and rerouted towards Australia. After running out of fuel the plane attempts an emergency water landing that sends it tumbling. Jeff and Frank are firefighters sent out to rescue a group of fishermen stranded on an ice sheet on Lake St. Clair. After the ice breaks apart the men all go into the water, risking not only hypothermia but pulverization from the massive blocks of ice crashing together. Connie lives with her husband George on a rural property in Tyler, Texas when three men invade their home. George is shot and killed before Connie is assaulted and beaten multiple times. Huggies: Head to Huggies.com to learn more! Progressive: Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Rosetta Stone: Don’t put off learning that language - there’s no better time than RIGHT NOW to get started! For a very limited time, I Survived listeners can get Rosetta Stone’s Lifetime Membership for 50% off! Visit rosettastone.com/survived  

This episode of I Survived is brought to you by Huggies. Baby butts rejoice. New Huggies skin essentials are here. A brand new dermatologist approved line of diapers, wipes, and pull-ups training pants, all designed with baby's sensitive skin in mind. This program contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners.

Listener discretion is advised. We were flying down without any fuel from about 25,000 feet. Real people. The cold starts to creep in and you start thinking, well, okay, am I going to get out of this? Am I going to survive this? Who faced death. I was looking down the barrel of a shotgun

and I was told that I better shut my damn mouth or I'd be killed too. And lived to tell how. These people were psychologically fragile, and if they had a bomb, we didn't want them, you know, pulling the plug prematurely because they got rattled. This is I Survived. It's November 1996 in Ethiopia, Africa.

Franklin and his wife are on vacation in Africa, and they upgrade their tickets to business class at the last minute. This plane that we were on was going to fly from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, an hour and 40 minutes. And we saddled in. The plane was new. It's a 767. It was comfortable. The plane took off and reached its cruising altitude of 31,000 feet. And then I saw this guy come down the right aisle, and he's sort of waving his arms. He almost looks like he's a bit crazy, kind of a tall, thin guy. And he's got a shoebox-looking thing in his hands with some wires sticking out of it.

To be honest with you, it looked like a teenage high school workshop idea of a fake bomb for a high school play or something like that. Then within a few seconds later, on the left-hand side, a guy, tall, thin, comes flitting down, almost gliding down noiselessly, absolutely noiselessly, a total contrast to the other guy. They disappeared up in the front,

and we're in the back of business class. You can't really see, and, you know, you're nervous. You're wondering what's going on. About 20 minutes later, so that would make it about 11.30, and they came on the intercom. Then they spoke in French, which I don't understand very well, but I could pick up a little gist of it, that they were hijackers and they wanted to go to Australia.

I immediately got real nervous because flying to Australia is 5,300 miles away. And I had flown small planes many, many years ago, so I'm sort of interested in aviation. And in the back of my mind, I'm saying to myself, wait a minute, we don't have enough fuel for this. Initially, I hid my diplomatic passport, my black diplomatic passport, thinking to myself, well, I think this is the time to become a private citizen. Franklin was the US Consul General in Mumbai, India. The initial reaction of the passengers

was fairly blase. And to be honest with you, fairly early on, I sort of tried to engage a couple of people near me. And it was like they didn't want to be bothered. I think we all did realize, maybe instinctually, that these people were psychologically fragile. They were on edge. And if they had a bomb, we didn't want them, you know,

pulling the plug prematurely because they got rattled. The hijackers forced the pilot to fly out over the Indian Ocean towards Australia. After we were hijacked at about 1110, there was hours, just seemingly hours, of just sitting there as we were heading vaguely south, didn't really know where we were going. Couldn't see outside the plane, so we couldn't see what kind of visual things. And my wife and I are talking, and she's calm under fire. She's a psychiatric nurse. She's very good in these kinds of situations. And there's, in general, an uneasy, eerie, edgy sort of calm in the plane.

And we kept flying and flying and flying. You could hear sort of a change in the pitch of the engines. And I said, something's happening. Within a few minutes thereafter, the pilot came on. And he said, we've lost fuel in one engine. They won't let us refuel. We're running out of fuel. We're going to run out of fuel in the other engine very soon.

The plane broke into total chaos. People were crying. People were thinking, we're not going to make this one necessarily. He came on a second time somewhat later and told us he was going to have to ditch that he had lost fuel in the second engine. So we were flying down without any fuel from about 25,000 feet. I immediately realized, well, this is a water landing. He also had told us to put on the life jackets,

but not inflate them. We got them in the back. We could hear a pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, as they all panicked and inflated them prematurely. And at that point, I actually stood up in the seat. I remember telling people, don't inflate your life jackets. You're supposed to, because once you inflate it, you're real floaty. You're like a balloon man walking around, and it's hard to get around and hard to get out the door.

Franklin and his wife prepared for impact. I'm trying to say, dear, I love you. It's been a good ride. Thanks a lot for all the good times and so on and so forth. And she's, you're not going to die. You know, get your glasses and put them in a hard case. Go up there above to the, and pull it open. I said, I'm not sure I want to leave the seat. She said, get up and get those hard glass case

and your glasses and get some food while you're there. There's not going to be any meal service once we hit the water. And the plane's coming down fast. We could see water off to the side as we rolled the plane. That was the first time we could see the water. You had no sense of time at all. It was eerie how much you had.

It could be 10 hours or two hours. You really didn't have a feel for it. I remember a big Nigerian guy, looked like a middle linebacker for the Oakland Raiders, said, hey, let's take on these guys, come on. And he looked at me and a couple of other men in the business class who were near him. And I said, hey, I agree with you,

but let's sort it out once we hit the water. There's nothing we can do. The fact that we're in control of the plane as it hits the water, or they're still standing up behind the water. There's nothing we can do. The fact that we're in control of the plane as it hits the water, or they're still standing up behind the pilot, it's gonna make no difference. We were swinging wildly in the plane. I got down a blanket and a pillow

and gave the pillow to my wife to protect her head with. I took the blanket and sort of put it over my head. We're sitting in our seats, and you can see outside the plane's gonna hit the water within a minute or so because we're just above the water, we're skimming along. We're bending forward so we can't really see anything in the last 20 seconds or so.

And then we just sort of relax and wait for the moment of impact, just a few seconds. And we hit the water, and it was like a 100-mile-an-hour washing machine accident. And the tumbling was when the plane pinwheeled, and the whole plane pinwheeled into the air and then broke apart in three parts. And I said, uh-oh, I'm dead. And I blacked out.

As the plane broke apart, Franklin was one of several passengers thrown clear of the wreckage. I woke up and I said, hey, I'm alive. Literally talking to myself. And then I opened my eyes, looked out on the water. I thought, wow, Lake Victoria, is it a lake? What is it? And the water is reasonably gentle. And 500 yards or so away, I could see in the distance a very green cliff.

The plane had crashed 500 yards off a beach in the Comoros Islands between Africa and Madagascar. With many passengers still trapped inside, the wreckage began to fill with water. There are a handful of passengers bobbing around in the sea. There's luggage scattered, broken around. I looked for my wife, who had been sitting to my right, and she was gone. And my heart went right into my throat, and I went, oh, my God, and just total panic, total fear.

Then I quickly looked to my left, and she was there on the left. As we were thrown out 150 yards or whatever from the plane, she was bobbing in the water. She had her eyes closed. Her face wasn't even wet. And we were both still belted into our seats, and I said, are you all right? She said, I'm okay. Franklin unbuckled himself and went to assist his wife.

Are there saltwater crocodiles? Are there freshwater crocodiles? Are there sharks? We're bleeding like crazy. And I started swimming, pushing her in front of me. I kicked off my shoes to swim better, and it was bleeding. I was going to die if I didn't get treated fairly quickly.

Then I looked around directly behind me and saw what was left of the aircraft flipped over like this, looked like sort of a submarine sandwich, cut open like this with a handful of people standing up where it was open and the open part, and one of the pilots, because it was in uniform, up on the top of the plane. The hijackers had all been killed in the crash. Eventually, I looked around just to the right and saw a bunch of watercraft.

I saw a windsurfer. I saw some small, like, Zodiac boats. My wife, this time, looks like a bad, you know, grade B movie. She's yelling at the third time, hey, come back, pick us up, as they come by the third time. And they did pick us up in some sort of slow-moving craft, and they could see I was bleeding, so they transferred me to a faster-moving zodiac

to get me to shore faster. So I'd survived a plane crash. My wife had survived a plane crash. My wife had survived a plane crash, more importantly. You know, all the planes have been hijacked. Only one or two have come to a bad end. Little did I know that this was going to be actually the deadliest hijacking in history in terms of the number of passengers on a plane that wouldn't make it. 125 people died in the crash of Flight 961. Many of them drowned as a result of inflating their life jackets while still in the plane.

When the cabin filled with water, they floated to the ceiling and were unable to escape. I survived because I had a wife that was competent in giving instructions on how to prepare for a plane crash. I survived because I got a free upgrade after I had boarded the plane, the only time in my life that's ever happened where I went back out and was given an upgrade

from a row in which everybody was killed to a row in which everybody lived. We were unbelievably lucky. We got a lucky break from those above. I've just come back from vacation with my family, and before we left, I wanted to brush up on my Spanish to help us get around. Using Rosetta Stone, it didn't take long for me to feel comfortable

with a few helpful words and phrases for the trip. Rosetta Stone is the most trusted language learning program available on desktop or as an app that truly immerses you in the language you want to learn. It has been a trusted expert for 30 years with millions of users and 25 languages offered. The immersion helps you pick up the language quickly and the process is so intuitive. It helps you pick up a language naturally, first with words, then phrases, then sentences, and is designed for long-term retention. I love that the lessons fit my language level so it never feels like I'm too far ahead or behind on what I'm being taught. As you're learning and practicing, the built-in true accent feature gives you feedback on your

pronunciation. It's like having a personal trainer for your accent. And it's convenient. There are desktop and app options with an audio companion and even the ability to download lessons offline so you can practice anywhere. On top of all that, the Lifetime membership has all 25 languages for any and all trips and language needs you may have throughout your life. That's Lifetime access to all 25 language courses Rosetta Stone offers for 50% off a steal. Don't put off learning that language. There's no better time than right now to get started. For a very limited time,

I Survived listeners can get Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership for 50% off. Visit www.rosettastone.com slash survived. That's 50% off unlimited access to 25 language courses for the rest of your life. Redeem your 50% off at www.rosettastone.com slash survived today. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Hey, Cold Case Files listeners, whether you love true crime or comedies, celebrity interviews, news, or even motivational speakers, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue, right? And guess what? Now you can call the shots on your auto

insurance too. Enter the Name Your Price tool from Progressive. The Name Your Price tool puts you in charge of your auto insurance by working just the way it sounds. You tell Progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance. Then they'll show you a variety of coverages that fit within your budget, giving you options. Now that's something you'll want to press play on. It's easy to start a quote, and you'll be able to choose the best option for you, fast. It's just one of the many ways you can save with Progressive Insurance. Quote today at Progressive.com to try the Name Your Price tool for yourself and join the over 28 million drivers who at Progressive.com to try the Name Your Price tool for yourself and join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company & Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. It's December 1998 in Lake St. Clair, Michigan. Frank and Jeff are firefighters, and their job often involves rescuing fishermen off frozen Lake St. Clair. Ice fishing season generally starts up around mid to late December. The best fishing of the season is generally first ice and last ice, when it's usually the least safe. We typically do 10 to 12 ice rescues a year, or calls for ice rescues a year, and it has been high as 20 in a season. Frank and Jeff were on duty when a storm blew in. The wind separated an ice sheet from shore, with 18 fishermen still standing on it.

As soon as we received the call, we called Coast Guard Air Station Detroit. They were going to put the helicopters in the air. The Coast Guard also had a ground crew coming to assist us. At this point, the weather is increasing in intensity. The snow is starting to come down. We begin to have whiteout and blizzard conditions. The Coast Guard boat took Frank out to the ice flow. The piece of ice they were on was about a quarter mile long by a quarter mile wide. Once we got out to the ice flow, I started assessing the victims.

Some of them were dressed for the weather. They had Carhartts on or Columbia gear, very heavy bibs, very heavy coats. Some of the other fishermen came out and they have fish shanties or ice huts that they're staying in that actually have heaters. Some of those weren't really dressed for the weather. They just had a pair of blue jeans on, sweatshirt, you know, light jacket. So those are some of the people we really needed to look at getting off first also. The Coast Guard helicopter arrived and started lifting fishermen off the ice flow.

A fire department hovercraft also arrived and took Jeff out to assist Frank. It was a four-person craft, so we were able to ferry back two people at a time. They had a pilot and a co-pilot in there. They took a load of people and the Coast Guard helicopter sent their swimmer down and hauled up a few victims.

So they eliminated pretty much the rest of the victims other than three gentlemen. The weather had just turned so bad that the Coast Guard made a decision to call off their ground crew. So that meant that we had no Coast Guard boat going back and forth. As we got further offshore, the wind was picking up, the waves were picking up, and that piece of ice actually acts like a giant sail as it starts catching the wind.

And the further out you get, the faster you start moving. It had been about 45 minutes since they had broken off. We were approximately two, three miles offshore at this point. We were starting getting waves three, four foot high, and the solid six to eight inch ice flow that we were on began to flex like it was a rubber band. The wave action was just tearing the ice up. It starts breaking it up into big, big hunks. flex like it was a rubber band. The wave action was just tearing the ice up.

It starts breaking it up into big, big hunks. Our quarter mile by quarter mile piece ice that we started off with was down to about 100 yards by 150 yards. It was inevitable that we were going to go into the water. I told Jeff we knew how long it was going to take the helicopter to get back and the hovercraft to get back and there was no way the ice was going to last that long so I pulled him off to the side and I told him we're going to get wet. We're going in the water and

we need to stay together. We had the three victims lie down. We had them face us, which was away from the wind, so they couldn't see the ice breaking up behind them. We just did not want anybody to panic. We started having them move back so that they weren't caught into the breakage of this ice, and we can only move them back so far. And at that point, Frank said, here we go. And one of the victims said, here we go what?

And the ice broke from underneath us. All five men were plunged into the freezing water. The radios we had are not waterproof. So we knew we lost communications with shore. We wear what's called a Mustang survival suit. They have a thin layer of closed cell foam inside the suit for flotation and a Kevlar outer. It was the first time we'd ever tested them. The three fishermen wore outdoor clothing which quickly became waterlogged. Well, we had two guys in life jackets, life vests, that were brought out to them.

One person did not get one, and this person was the most hypothermic out of the three. He was getting very panicky. He started to submerge, and when I saw that, I had to take him by the jacket and lift him up. When you start getting the ice flow to break up like that with such big, thick pieces,

it starts to be a meat grinder. And if you get a limb or a finger or a head caught in between any of these, they will sever it off. You were trying to watch out for the big chunks ice and not get caught in between any of these, they will sever it off. You were trying to watch out for the big chunks ice and not get caught in between them. It was absolutely pitch black. The snow was coming down sideways. The wind was blowing 50 to 60 miles an hour. The spray coming off the top of the waves was obscuring your vision. It was a very difficult situation. It was extremely cold out there.

Winds were sustained at 40 miles an hour, gusting up around 50 or 60. Just the wind, the waves, and the current kept separating everybody. And it was real important to maintain that group and keep everybody in one spot. We had already been in the water now for approximately an hour,

and the person that I had was slipping into unconsciousness. Frank and Jeff wore survival suits, but the fishermen wore only regular outdoor clothing. In the 33 degrees Fahrenheit water, they would be dead within 90 minutes. Jeff did a very good job. He would keep putting the victim up on a piece of ice. He would get up there himself. He would last for three, four, five minutes, get washed off of that one, get back up.

And I spent the rest of the time swimming between the ice flows, grabbing one guy, bringing him back to Jeff. Then I'd have to go get the other guy. The Coast Guard helicopter came back. The hovercraft came in underneath them as they marked the spot. The helicopter picked up the two most hypothermic fishermen. The operators of the hovercraft pulled Frank, Jeff, and the last fisherman out of the water. Once we got the last fisherman out of the water. Once we got the last victim out of the water, there was really a sense of relief that all these people are going to make it.

We got everybody out. We've rescued everybody. We're not going to lose anybody. And we're heading back home. The helicopter left once they saw us all on the hovercraft. The last victim that we had that we kept in the hovercraft, who would not fit in the helicopter, was actually an off-duty firefighter.

He was the one least likely to panic and in the best shape of all of them. He was properly dressed. He was very fit. I knew that his chances of surviving in that type of cold water were going to be better than the other two victims. We placed him in the floor of the hovercraft.

Then I ended up staying on top of him, huddling over top of him to try to keep him warm until we got to shore. We had it full throttle. We're going into the wind. We're going into four-foot waves. And for 15 minutes, we were making no progress. And actually, we were going backwards.

We took a big wave over the front. It pushed the bow of the boat up. The wind caught the bow of the boat. It flipped over front to back, trapping the victim underneath the hovercraft at this point. And I was actually underneath the hovercraft with the victim, with their flotation on. So it was a little bit of a struggle. It was definitely where I did not want to end up. the hovercraft with the victim with their flotation on.

So it was a little bit of a struggle. It was definitely where I did not want to end up. I had to shove the victim out first and get him out using my arms and my feet. And then I crawled my way out from underneath and surfaced on the outside of the boat. We both got on top of the boat, as well as the operators of the hovercraft.

Frank and I looked at each other and didn't say it, but we could, you know, non-verbally communicate, now what? Now what are we going to do? The men were four miles from shore, and darkness had fallen. We have no way to signal. We have no way to communicate. The Coast Guard figured their job was done. They were taking those victims in to be transported to the hospital and I knew it was going to be a while before they figured out something was wrong and our bigger problem is because we traveled from the last known point that the Coast Guard helicopter saw us. They were going to have a difficult time setting up their search pattern. Now they were going to have to look for a needle, literally,

in a haystack out there. We had no radio communications at that point. It happened so fast. There was no way to put out a mayday, no way to let them know we weren't coming. They had zero visibility at shore, so they had no idea where we were. We had two guys on one side of the hovercraft,

two guys on the other side of the hovercraft, and we laid the victim over the top. The wind was actually blowing the top of the waves off. It was blowing so hard, and the waves would crash down on top of the hovercraft and wash everybody off the top of it. Frank and Jeff wore survival suits, but they had now been in the water for almost two hours. Your senses start dulling because you're becoming cold,

you're not moving, the cold starts to creep in, and you start thinking, well, okay, am I going to get out of this? Am I going to survive this? I have a three-month-old at home, a brand new bride, and I have to get back to them. The victim still was conscious at this point. As he was starting to lose consciousness,

his hypothermia started to increase. Frank had a hold of him. And he looked at Frank and said, tell my wife that I love her, that I can't hold on. At that point, our victim ended up going unconscious due to hypothermia. We were able to discuss freely between the rescuers at that point and I pretty much let the guys know where we stood. I grew up on Lake St. Clair. I've spent my entire life out there. I knew approximately where we were going to end up.

As we got closer and closer to the south shore of the lake, I could begin to start picking out between the snow squalls the lights at Bell River, Canada. The main concern was all the ice that was out in the lake was also blowing up onto that shoreline. We weren't just going to have a nice roll up onto the shore of Canada and say hey guys we're here, take us home. The wind blows the ice packs into the land and it has taken out docks and sea walls and fronts of houses. These ice packs can reach 20 feet. All of this weight, all this ice, you know, it becomes a meat grinder.

You can imagine what happens if a person were to get into a situation like that. There's no way to survive that. The weather just gotten continuously worse the entire time. It was snowing heavier at this point. Visibility was cut down to approximately 75 to 100 yards at best in between the squalls. When some of the squalls would hit, your visibility was no more than 15 to 20 feet. We knew that we had to get off this boat before we hit that ice pack. It was one of my fears if they didn't find us,

once we got to shore that we were going to get ground up in the ice pack. Once we got there, we knew it would end up being every man for himself. A Coast Guard helicopter took off to look for the missing men. At this point, we can see the helicopter starting its search pattern. I really knew that there was no way that they would be able to see us out there in those weather conditions. We had asked the pilot of the hovercraft, is there any signaling device, do you have any flashlight, is there any light that is located in the boat?

And he said, yeah, there was a spotlight underneath that was hardwired into the dashboard. So there's a chance that it could be hanging down. He said, well, you never know. There wasn't really any time to draw straws. Jeff was the tallest out of the four of us, and we needed somebody with long legs. And with Frank's assistance, I was able to submerge myself underneath to try and hook the cord around my leg. I'd actually have to put his head completely under the water to get him down in there, and you had to do it with some force

because of the buoyancy of the suit. About the 4th or 5th sweep, when I pulled him back up, he came up, and he actually had the spotlight that was hanging underneath the boat. As the Coast Guard helicopter got as close as I thought they were gonna get I told him all right Jeff go ahead and turn it on. I held it up and hit the switch and it didn't work. And your heart kind of sank and he hit the button again and the spotlight actually came on with the snow, it really lit up the sky, it lit up the entire helicopter. I know it lit up the cockpit, but it sure was a good sight to

see that helicopter lit up in the sky. It was over. We were good. They knew where we were at and we knew at that point we were going home. The Coast Guard pulled our victim up. They transported him back to the Selfridge Air National Guard Base where our guys transported him to the hospital for severe hypothermia. They brought their helicopter back out and they dropped the sling down and they were able to actually pull all four of us off there. Due to the bravery of Frank, Jeff, and the other rescuers, all 18 ice fishermen survived the ordeal.

Unlike most people that work a regular job, when their job comes to an end, they go home, they're able to have a beer and relax and spend time with their family, which would have been a nice thing. But as a fireman, we work a 24-hour shift, and we were still on duty. At about 1230 that night, we had a person who had wrapped his car around a telephone pole, and we had to extricate his body out of there.

So we finished out our shift till late in the morning and actually ended up going on a few more calls that day. It's not until afterwards, once your shift is over, once your day is done, you go home, you get a chance to relax, you're back home, you're with your family when a lot of the emotions come rushing in, and you have a chance to reflect on what actually happened.

And at that point, you realize the situation that you were actually in and you know that you weren't scared then but you really should have been well I survived due to the thought of my wife and my brand new baby at home and knew that I had to get out of this situation. I survived this ordeal because of the great work and the teamwork of all the crews on the ground, the Coast Guard crews in the air. Everybody's training came into play. Great training at our fire department and the experience of spending my entire life out on Lake St. Clair and being very familiar with it.

This episode of I Survived is brought to you by Huggies Skin Essentials. Having a baby comes with so many unexpected challenges, but diaper rash shouldn't be one of them. For me, there was nothing worse than seeing my little one with an uncomfortable diaper rash. It makes everything harder, from bath time to to diaper changes and left me feeling totally helpless. But now baby butts can rejoice because new Huggies Skin Essentials are here. A brand new dermatologist approved line of diapers, wipes, and pull-ups training pants, all designed with baby sensitive skin in mind. The Skin Essentials diapers features the Skin Protect liner and help protect against the top two causes of rash by managing moisture and runny mess. The wipes are thick and have zero

harsh ingredients for a great gentle clean. And Pull Up Skin Essentials have got your big kid covered too, with a training pant that is ultra soft and breathable to help protect sensitive skin throughout potty training. So if you want the best for your baby's bottom, learn more at Huggies.com. Once again, head to Huggies.com to learn more. Let me ask you a question. Do you have a best friend? How big would it shock you if somebody told you that your best friend just killed somebody?

Not a lawless emergency. Someone on the other line said they kidnapped my son and they're demanding $500,000. On September 12th, 1995, 12-year-old McKay Everett disappeared from his home in Conroe, Texas. It was a crime that shocked the community because the suspect was so unlikely, so unexpected. Former high-ranking police official, he'd run for sheriff at one point. Law enforcement personnel were pretty much split down the middle over whether or not he actually did this. And to this day, McKay's mother, Paulette, still feels that justice was never truly served. I've asked myself so many times, what in the world happened? Ransom is available now. Listen at RansomPodcast.com

or wherever you get your podcasts. September 1990 in Tyler, Texas. Connie and her husband George live on a rural property. George and I had only been married a little over a year, but he and I had been bed about 1130 p.m. wasn't anybody close to us. It was very quiet, very peaceful. Connie and George went to bed about 1130 p.m. on a Sunday evening. At 1 45 I got up to go to the bathroom and I went down the hallway and I

noticed that the dogs were barking. I was half asleep, half awake. And as I walked into the bathroom, I realized that there was definitely something wrong. I knew that it was that bark, that something was going on that shouldn't have been. And as I turned around to go check on them, I saw a man in the hallway with a shotgun. The only thing that I could do was immediately start screaming. And that's what I did.

It was like everything shut down. George came running out of the bedroom into the hallway. And as soon as I started screaming, just within a few seconds, I heard a shotgun go off. I didn't know for sure whether or not George had been shot, but my instincts told me that he was because I was screaming. And the way the man was headed down the hallway toward our bedroom, I knew that George had been coming out of the bedroom.

I knew instinct that George was dead. Briefly, I just assumed I'd be next. I just started screaming, and I'm not even sure what I was screaming. It was something I really can't explain. It was like everything shut down except my mouth. I was looking down the barrel of a shotgun, and I was told that I better shut my damn mouth

or I'd be killed too. I couldn't shut my mouth. I just kept screaming and kicking. I remember being hit on my arm, and as I was being beaten, I could feel the nails going in my back from a magazine rack that a friend of mine had made for me. And the last blow to the back of my head, that's when I heard an ex, it was like an explosion.

And I saw the little white stars that I've heard men talk about, but I really never understood until that night. I saw another man standing there. But now it was dark. It was, you know, around two o'clock in the morning, and we had an outside light. That was the only light that was on. So basically what I was seeing were outlines. Unknown to Connie, there were three men in the house. The man with the shotgun took Connie outside. He kept telling me to tell the dogs to be quiet, but I couldn't do that because I knew that the dogs were not going to do what I said because they knew the danger that we

were in. And the one had a hold of my hair and took me outside and shoved me on the ground and shot one of the black labs because it wouldn't stop barking. The half collie, half German Shepherd immediately stopped barking. And the other pepper, I didn't hear another word out of her either. When the dog was killed, when Magnum was killed,

there really wasn't an emotion. It was more of assuming that was part of what was going to happen the rest of the night. There was not any conversation that night. The only thing that was being said was him telling me what to do and him telling me that he was going to kill me too. I was taken into the living room.

He pulled up my shirt. And just very briefly, I thought he's going to shoot me now. But then he dropped my shirt back down. And then he began to rape me. As Connie was being raped, the two other men began ransacking the house. I could hear the two men to my left because they were pulling. That's where our TV and VCR were, and I could hear them pulling the plugs out of the wall and I could hear the tapes

falling over. When he finished he pulled me up off of the couch and took me into the kitchen and shoved me on the floor and tied my arms and legs behind me. And I laid there and I listened. My hearing was all I had. My head was split open. My back was split open. He had bitten me on both arms. That was bleeding. It was dark. I was on both arms. That was bleeding.

It was dark. I was on the floor. They took all of the guns out of our gun cabinet. They took a lot of my jewelry. They emptied the freezers. There were fishing poles, tools, knives that George had collected, just all kinds of things.

Two of the men left in the truck they had arrived in. The other man stayed behind. And I knew it was the same man that I saw at the end of the shotgun. I knew it was the same man that I saw at the end of the shotgun. I knew it was the same man that took me outside, because he was constantly talking, and I recognized his voice. And when he came back in, he assaulted me again,

and then said, somebody will find y'all in the morning. And then I heard my truck leave. I was covered with blood. And I felt like they felt like I'd be dead in the morning. I started to pull on the whatever they had me tied up with. And I didn't realize until later I had cut my hands and my legs where I was pulling on it.

But at the time, I wasn't thinking about that. I didn't care about that. I love it. I could have ripped my skin off, and it wouldn't have mattered. I had to get to George. And I went to where George was, and he was in the hallway. He was on the floor. I couldn't pick him up.

And I just went on out our bedroom window. And the next thing I knew, I was standing in a truck that we had parked in the back. And I got in the truck and started it. But I didn't turn lights on. I ran into a couple of trees. I ran into a small utility trailer that we had back there. Truck died on me twice.

But it started again. Connie headed for a local store several miles away. From that point until I got to the store parking lot, I don't remember. God got me there. Guardian Angel got me there. I ran in screaming that my husband had been killed, I'd been raped, and I need help. And I ran to the far corner, and he called 911.

Ricky Lynn Lewis was arrested three days later. He was convicted of capital murder and is on death row. His two accomplices are still at large. My mind was taken from me. You know, the physical injuries are, you can number them, but the emotional injuries can't be numbered and they don't ever heal. I don't think I did anything to deserve, and George certainly didn't do anything to deserve what he got. He was my best friend. It, you know, things like that, the feelings don't ever go away.

Connie now runs a victim support group and ministers to prisoners. I survive to speak up for other victims and to let them know that, hey, we can get back up. We can stop being a victim and become a victor. And we can be a winner again. Stream your favorite drama movies and TV shows on Pluto TV, all for free. Watch all your favorite crime dramas

like CSI and Blue Bloods, or your favorite action dramas like Breaking Bad on Stories by AMC or The Walking Dead Universe. Plus, Pluto TV has hundreds of drama movies and TV shows. Download Pluto TV on all your favorite devices for free. Pluto TV. Stream now. Pay never.