Cold Case Files - I SURVIVED: I Just Saw Evil

Episode Date: September 23, 2023

Maggie is just 15 years old when an attacker snatches her off the street during her early morning run. When police close in on him, the attacker gets desperate, and Maggie clings to life.  Sponsors: PDS DEBT: PDS Debt is offering free debt analysis to our listeners just for completing the quick and easy debt assessment at www.PDSDebt.com/survived  Angi: Download the free Angi mobile app today or visit Angi.com  Progressive: Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 29 million drivers who trust Progressive. Apartments: Visit Apartments.com , the place to find a place  AMCN: Visit airmedcarenetwork.com and use offer CODE: ISURVIVED when you join

Hi, I'm Caitlin VanMol, host of I Survived. We're re-releasing Season 1 to hopefully reach new listeners, because we think as many people as possible should hear these stories. This episode is Maggie, and as you'll hear, life has knocked Maggie down so many times. But when I talked to her, I was struck by her hopefulness and her positivity. Maggie ran cross-country in high school and college, so maybe that's where she learned to just keep going, or maybe it's her faith, or some combination of the two. But when we were talking about the bad things that happened to her,

she just described it as, yeah, that really sucked, but you just get up and you keep going. And you'll hear Maggie in episode six, I Just Saw Evil. This episode contains descriptions of sexual assault and violence. Listener discretion is advised. I'll be 40 this month, December 18th, the same day as Brad Pitt. He never writes, he never calls, he never sends any love, but that's all right. Maggie Malloy was born the youngest of three in a small Ohio town. I'm the youngest, and then Michael is the middle.

He was two years older, so when I was a sophomore, he was a senior. And then Keith, the oldest, he's nine years older. Really, I was just your happy-go-lucky kid raised by a single mom, and mom was always my inspiration. Mom was my world, my rock, my everything. I did my best to, you know, please her. During her freshman year of high school, Maggie found that things had changed. They weren't as easy as the previous year.

Had a tough freshman year. I guess kind of your typical depression. Freshman year, I had some falling out with some girls, you know, so I clawed my way through freshman year, failed a class and had to make it up over the summer. So by my sophomore year, I was ready for a fresh start. I'd had some wonderful counseling at Ohio State University. For a year prior, mom would pick me up right after school and we'd drive an hour. You know, she'd been working all day.

I'd been at school and she'd pick me up and drive an hour. I'd sit in my session for an hour with my wonderful therapist, and then we'd drive home. So that's a true mom for you. Her sophomore year, Maggie found running, and this helped her, pun intended, find her stride. I actually took up cross-country to get out of doing marching band. I was told that if you weren't in a fall sport

and you were in concert band, which I was, I played clarinet, you had to do marching band. No offense to marching band. It's wonderful, but it just wasn't going to be for me. So I thought, well, my oldest brother did cross country and I had no idea what a 5K was, but I went out for cross country my sophomore year. Just something how running just it just fit me to form. I just knew I'd found my niche. On September 16th, 1994, at 6.30 in the morning, Maggie was on a run with her team before school.

They were supposed to go four miles, but Maggie decided to head back before the rest of the girls. This thing that helped her find her place would ultimately lead to tragedy. This is I Survived, the podcast where we talk to women who've lived through the worst things imaginable and all the tragic, messy, and wonderful things that happen after survival. I'm Caitlin VanMol. I wanted to get back to the school. I don't remember if I really had a leg cramp or, you know, I just had enough. And I wanted to get back to the school. I had my headphones on.

I was in my jolly jogger mode listening to Paul Abdul's The Promise of a New Day. I was up on the sidewalk, and again, I'm within the city limits, so there's light overhead. And it's September, so it's September so it's pitch black out all of a sudden it was like I was just clothesline you know I just grabbed from behind I was being pulled back off the sidewalk I could see enough of him to realize I don't know who this is and he's not stopping you know He's pulling me back off the sidewalk down this alley between these two houses where the area YMCA was. The man had a gun and shoved it into her side

as he moved her behind the YMCA. There was a baseball diamond dugout pipe area, laid me on my stomach and pulled one of my shoelaces, held me down and pulled one of my shoelaces out of my shoe and found my hands behind my back. Then I heard this dull tear up my back, and it was a knife that he had, and he was cutting my clothes off. All I had on was T-shirt shorts and my shoes and socks.

Well, now I'm down to just my shoes and socks. I wasn't screaming. I remember just kind of whimpering, don't do this, don't do that, don't rape me, don't shoot me. I was not a sexually active person, never have been, so to suddenly be raped was so painful physically and mentally and spiritually.

I remember just closing my eyes and I turned my head over towards my left and we were like pretty much right under there was like a light over us like from the baseball field and I just remember seeing my silhouette with my legs up in the air like that and you know it's something that will never leave me. The man made her get up and walk towards a nearby ravine. Of course I don't have any clothes on so I'm my legs are getting all made her get up and walk towards a nearby ravine. Of course, I don't have any clothes on, so my legs are getting all gouged up and cut up by the brush because I'm blazing the trail for

us because he's behind me with a dime. Inside, I was terrified. My heart was jumping out of my chest. I wasn't crying. Amazingly, I wasn't crying. My whole goal was, he's a person, he's treating you like an object, but do everything you can to stall. Let the daylight come, because I knew people would be looking for me, because it was completely out of character for me not to be where I'm supposed to be. I asked him to untie my hands. I couldn't get away from him. There was no way I could have gotten out of that area. And he felt comfortable enough. He untied my hands. But eventually, as it got lighter out, I got a real good look at his face. He had long, stringy red hair. He had glasses on. He wore a black shirt and no sleeves, blue jeans.

Skinny. I really didn't know who he was. I had no idea where he was from. I didn't know his name. He wore a black shirt and no sleeves, blue jeans, skinny. I really didn't know who he was. I had no idea where he was from. I didn't know his name. I didn't want to know anything about him. The more I knew, the more trouble, you know, I could be in. They walked for about 10 minutes in the woods, and the man ordered Maggie to lie down. So he sat down, my perpetrator, and just started talking to me,

just like we were two people sitting in the woods, you know, after school. So he's trying to clean off my face and, you know, just telling me how, you know, how gorgeous I was and what a knockout I would have been. And I remember, you know, thinking, well, he's talking past tense. You know, he has intentions of shooting me, but it hasn't happened yet. He then threatened her with his knife. 12-inch, real shiny blade. It wasn't a little pocket knife. My heart's jumping out of my chest because it's trauma. And he put the tip of the blade right over my heart, and he just watched the handle vibrate. He was basically kind of tormenting me. You know, they say the eyes

are the windows of the soul. And, you know, when I looked in his eyes, you know, I just saw evil. Do you fantasize about who you'd be if you lived somewhere different? Maybe you'd surf if you lived by the ocean. Or if you lived above a coffee shop, maybe you'd finally write that novel. If you had a dishwasher, maybe you would actually cook a proper dinner at home. With over 1 million available units for rent on Apartments.com, the you abilities are endless. And with instant alerts, you'll never miss out on seeing what could be your new perfect place. Visit Apartments.com, the place to find a place. I think we've all noticed that the cost of living

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He put the knife away eventually, and he made some comment about, you know, if you bite it, I'll shoot you. I don't know what he meant, but okay. Then that's when he proceeded to rape me orally. So I understood right away what he meant. You know, I wanted to vomit. As soon as he was done, I rolled over to vomit, but it didn't happen. Eventually after that, he said, I'm going to put you to sleep and then I'm going to leave. He had me on my stomach. And again, he took me from behind and tried to strangle me. I almost passed out. I could feel my legs kicking, you know, rubbing in the grass. You know, it's a feeling I'll never forget. It's that roughness of my legs just rapidly rubbing in the grass like that. But I didn't pass out, and it didn't work. And

he eventually stopped, and I was, you know, coughing and gagging. And so he turned me back over on my back, and he buried me under the brush. I couldn't see my perpetrator, so all I heard was the crunch of him walking away. Eventually, I mean, it was only a few minutes, but it seemed like an eternity. I called out to see if my perpetrator was still around. He had climbed a tree, trying to see if anyone was looking for Maggie. And I heard this loud crunch, and I thought, oh, he's still around. And sure enough, I mean, he walked over and he's like, what? Nothing.

You know, it just confirmed to me, okay, he's still here, so he can't just leave me. For whatever reason, he thinks he can't just leave me here. He's going to do something. He has to finish me off or whatever. I didn't know. So he unburied me and said, come on, we have to move. Of course, this is bad news because that means the further back in that ravine he took me,

the less likely it was I was going to come out of there alive. He was in complete control. He had that gun. And again, you know, he could rape me as many times as he wanted to. Just don't let that gun go off. At this point, the police were out looking for her. When she didn't arrive back at the school, her coach immediately rang the alarm. They were phenomenal. We didn't have Amber Alerts back then or any of the technology that we have today to locate missing children. And here's Little Galleon, the Little Galleon Police Department.

They pulled together right away and mobilized every little resource, every last resource they could think of. And they didn't have a lot to go on. There were no eyewitnesses. There was no trail. There was no suspicious vehicle, no suspicious person in the area. They really had very little to work with, but they made it everything they needed to reach their goal, which was to find me. They even had a police officer up in a plane looking for her. As we're walking, painstakingly slow back in this ravine, I remember hearing this, like a plane overhead. I could tell the pilot wasn't circling right over our heads to be obvious, but he'd go back and forth, and then the while back and forth.

I, of course, can't see anything because I'm focused on trying to walk and, you know, what's my perpetrator doing? Where's that gun? What's happening? Stay calm. He's, of course, what's my perpetrator doing? Where's that gun? What's happening? Stay calm. He's, of course, getting more nervous, a little more forceful, you know, walk, walk, walk. As we're walking, I remember hearing a female voice yell, Maggie, you know, Maggie, twice.

And it rippled out to me out in this big ocean of brush. And it was my mom. I knew it was her. I knew she couldn't see me. And she was quite a ways away from me,. I knew it was her. I knew she couldn't see me and she was quite a ways away from me, but I knew it was her. I didn't answer her though, because one, I didn't want my perpetrator to know my name was, but most importantly, I want to protect her because I knew if she got close to us, he would have shot her. He could see more people, so of course he's getting all nervous. There's this plane, people are calling, the net's closing in on him too. So he says, you know, lay down on your stomach, you know, I have to shoot you. Why? Stall, you know, stall, stall, stall, they got to be close. Don't let that gun go off, right? So why do you have to shoot me?

He kind of sat down beside me he said I have to shoot you because you know you can identify me and if I get caught for this you know I'll go to prison for the rest of my life he he was crying he was swearing a little bit just kind of poor me I'm of course about to crack but but I still, I wasn't crying. I wasn't screaming. I was really trying to reason with him. I took his hand in mine and I said, look, what you've done is awful, but I can walk away from this. Just get out of here. And he said, no, I have, I have to shoot you, but don't worry. I'm going to write a letter to your parents and tell them how wonderful you were and how calm you were. I tried to imagine them getting that letter from him. I thought, well,

if that's how it comes to be, then I hope they're know, they're proud. Because at least I kept my cool. And I heard my perpetrator at some point say, you know, I'm sorry I have to do this to you. And I glanced over my shoulder, and he was taking aim. He's taking aim, and I'm, you know, I just tensed up. I thought, whatever's going to happen now? You know, I never had control of this from the start. I never had control that day. the start. I never had control of that day.

It was always in God's hands. He then shot her five times, twice in the back, once in the arm, and twice in the head. As if that wasn't enough, he also pistol-whipped her in the head before running away. And I didn't feel anything, but I was still conscious because I felt myself jumping. And, you know, I heard myself scream a couple times, but I wasn't hurting. I was still in the same place on the ground Wow, I'm still alive. And wow, he actually shot me. He did it. It

happened. My worst fear that whole morning, don't get shot. Well, that's done. We're here. Boom. I had no idea how many times I've been shot. My right arm had gone numb and was just dangling there. I reached up with my left arm and I felt this hole in the side of my face. And I knew it was a bullet hole, but I thought, oh, you know, but my jaw was just hanging there. The police were calling for me and they were so close, but they couldn't see me. So I got to my feet and I thought, my God, they can't see me. I got to get their attention. I walked about three steps in the direction of

their voices and I just collapsed. Started to swing my legs in the air because I couldn't get up. But then that's when the police, they found me. They were right there. Maggie was in the hospital for 13 days. She needed three operations to realign her jaw. Well, I had extensive injuries. I was shot a total of five times with a.22 revolver. So I understandably was flown to Grant Medical Center in Columbus, a place, people that I can't speak highly enough of.

I still see them in my mind every day. Of the five bullets that hit my body, I had one. I was laying on my stomach with my hands over my head. One bullet ricocheted off my scalp. And my mom always joked that she always said, thank God you have your father's thick hair. Might have saved your life. One bullet went in on the side of my right cheek and shattered my jaw. That bullet is lodged in my head. And then two bullets went in my back and those are in my right lung forever. And then one bullet went in basically through my armpit and came out around my shoulder area. And then my right arm was paralyzed for a time. And so I had, all things considered, really, my injuries were, in fact, quote-unquote, very minimal. The whole town had been alerted when Maggie went missing.

The school was locked down, and once Maggie was rescued, a description of her attacker went out over the local radio. Everyone was on high alert. You know, I obviously was not able to go to the police department right away to give a statement, so they came down to me, and I had to pick my captor out of a photo lineup, and they took my initial statement while I was in the hospital, and I called them my gentle pit bulls. They were very gentle with me, certainly, but I could just tell they were on it. We got our guy, and we're going to make sure the best of their ability that justice was done. So I knew the case was in the right hands. And I give law enforcement all the credit

and all the glory to God that in an odd way, it's a good thing. I was the only one that was shot the day of the attack. You know, a lot of people were out with guns. One of our own's been snatched. How dare whoever did this disrupt the peace in our community? And they just wanted to help and find justice. You know, I've had all these hunters out with their shotguns and I was very much pleased, you know, no vandalism towards Charlie. That was my captor, Charlie, or his family, you know, don't cause them any harm. But the police had control of everything, and there was, quote-unquote, no unnecessary roughness, if you will. Just two months before Maggie's attack, the community had lost another student, a girl named Jenny, in a car accident. Maggie's brother was also in the car.

My poor mom almost lost two kids within two months of each other within the same year. I remember, again, we were all kind of just reeling in shock from losing Jenny, the girl that was killed, and now all of a sudden here's Maggie. She's been attacked. But everybody banded together very tightly in support of me and just wanting proper justice. But there's no denying that it certainly left some scars. I remember when I was in the hospital,

the abduction actually happened fairly close to an elementary school. And I remember getting a lot of letters from kids saying, oh, I'm so glad you're doing well. And they draw pictures. But I'm so afraid to go outside now. I'm afraid somebody will take me or I'm so afraid to go out and play or go do anything. Because, you know, how do you explain to kids that even though you live in this safe, secure, what you feel is a safe, secure little bubble? Because galleon was like my little snow globe. So all of a sudden that security is

all shattered, that snow globe shatters, and there are those pieces lying there. And how do you explain to kids or to others that you still have to pick up the pieces and still make it your own little place? They found her attacker, Charlie Vaughn, at his home the same day of the attack. The local newspaper, the Mansfield News Journal, printed her name in their coverage of the story the next day. So if anyone in the town didn't know who the missing girl was, they did now.

I was never consulted about that. I know what, probably what some legalities there. She's a minor, never should have mentioned her. But quite honestly, when the attack and everything happened, I was very vocal and very much about being up front and out in the front. I honestly did not mind that my name was out there. I mean, I wasn't ashamed. I had nothing to hide.

You know, some people might have said, oh, my gosh, I can't believe they used your name. But that didn't bother me one bit. Though Maggie wasn't in the hospital as long as they anticipated, she had to rehab and heal more at home before returning to school. Three of the five bullets are still in her body. I had to have a little fun with the bullets because as a teenager, you're dealing with, you know, pimples and things like that and accessories to go with clothing and whatnot. Well, how do you deal with, well, when a doctor comes in and says, well, here's what you've got, a bullet here and bullet there and bullet there, and those aren't going anywhere. So as a kid, I had to figure out how to make peace with that, because if I had looked on

those bullets as something negative, then they would have destroyed me. In my own way, I had to befriend them. I told them, you're going to learn how to run. You're going to see life through my eyes. You know, what lucky bullets. They weren't slugs in a crime lab. They were a part of me now. So I named them Snap, Crackle, and Pop. And it wasn't just the physical therapy that you had to take on. Well, it was very interesting. The emotional aspect of it.

I mean, I knew it actually started when I was still in the hospital. But I hadn't, you know, when you're in a hospital dealing with physical things, you're so busy doing your physical therapy and filtering cards and taking flowers and seeing visitors and seeing your face all over the television, if that's the case, that you're not really thinking about what's transpired to bring you to such a place. I mean, certainly I knew the attack had happened, but I hadn't started to really think about it and process it until a therapist came to see me one day and she was very kind, but she was very firm. And she said, now you need to face what's happened. And it flipped a switch in me that at first was very

uncomfortable. And I understood what she meant. It was, she was saying, you need to start processing what's happened to you to bring you here. And I wasn't quite ready for that. Like, lady, really? I'm in the hospital. Can I start thinking about that when I get home? But gosh, when I get home, I would have put it off and only home now. I just want to focus on getting back to school. You know, we can't bury things and bury things and bury things and never deal with them. They fester and fester and fester until they explode. So I had to start letting, now you remember what happened and just bit by bit being abducted, being sexually assaulted, being held hostage. It all just kind of started coming in bit by bit. And I made up my mind early on, again with tremendous support and push from my mom, that I needed to face it up front.

In hindsight, I was so thankful for that woman. Her therapist from the year before also came back into the fold, at least as much as Mackie needed. That actual therapist, her name was Dr. Kitty Saldana at Ohio State. And she came to see me when I was in the hospital. And I had had the utmost respect for her. And I remember she came to see me and she said, if anybody can pull through this, it's you. And I'll always be there if you need to come see me. And I did. Actually, for a brief time after I was back in school, I went to see her, but I really, I'd been so up front in dealing with the attack and just letting things come through as they needed to.

I didn't spend a lot of time with her, which she totally understood. Six weeks after the attack, Maggie returned to school. The attack happened and I was catapulted into this other world where I was a patient. And, you know, I was in the adult world, quote unquote. It was like I had to parachute back down to my life as a teenager and had to get back to the business of becoming a teenager. And everyone was wonderful. I went back to school on Halloween and I loved Halloween. I always will. It was so ironic, you know, a day when we dress up to be somebody else. I just wanted to be myself. So I remember that day. I just went about my day and I'm sure

people were looking at me, but I was dressed just like everybody else. I didn't have any braces on or, you know, any external objects or anything. You never know that I was shot five times or that my arm was paralyzed or that anything. I mean, people knew that, but I wasn't wearing anything that drew obvious attention. You never know that my jaw was wired shut for six weeks. I went back half days for a while and everybody just took their cues from me. While awaiting trial, Vaughn wrote letters to local newspapers to try to tell his side of the story. In one, he said, quote, I am very ashamed about what happened to Maggie.

He does not say, I am very ashamed about what I did to Maggie. Vaughn pled not guilty, then changed it to not guilty by reason of insanity, then finally pled no contest, which is basically not admitting guilt, but also not denying he did it. He had several opportunities to take responsibility for what he did, but skirted them all. I believe to this day he regrets that he got caught, but he's not remorseful about what he did.

I forgave him a long time ago. I have peace with him, within myself. Now that said, I don't ever want him to be released to be able to inflict such harm on others. I will do everything in my power to keep him locked up for his own safety and certainly for the safety of the community. I don't wish there to be any more bloodshed. Mine was enough. But even at that, if he was remorseful, I just want him to get right with God. You know, if I could wave a wand over him, I would want him to get right with God and help those who are behind our prison bars to come to their need for Jesus.

And I would, I hope to see Charlie in heaven with me someday. A no contest plea meant there would be no trial. No trial meant Maggie wasn't going to have to testify. I was okay with that. I mean, I, I certainly was prepared to go to trial, but I was thankful that my family, certainly they were there, that they weren't going to have to listen to the details of what had happened. But I believe he pled not because he wanted to spare me nor my family anything, but he just didn't want me to get on the stand and reveal to the world what he had done. Maggie has told her story many times to different people, but she's never sat down with

her family and told them everything that happened. As far as details, my mom knows the most, but she doesn't know everything that happened, just like I don't know what that day was like for her, 100%. One of my brothers has come to me once or twice saying, I want to know if this is true or that is true, and my oldest brother, we've never spoken of it. I have spoken to audiences about it. I've certainly been over it with therapists. I just assume, and I'm okay with that. You know, I leave my family and certainly my friends with God. They certainly know I'm here if they need to talk about things. I mean, my dad just turned, you know, he's in his 70s. And he said to me recently, he said, I have questions about that day. And I said, well, dad,

I'm happy to talk to you. I mean, it's been all this time, but if that's what he needs, if there's something he needs to know, I'll tell him. Obviously, the attack ended her cross-country season, but she was determined to come back as soon as possible. I had no question, no doubt in my mind that I was going to go back and run. I loved cross-country. I had a mere three weeks into the season before the attack happened, so I'd had just enough of a taste of it to know that it was where I belonged, and I wanted to go on and do it at the collegiate level, and nothing was going to keep me from that. Even if they'd had to remove my right arm because I didn't regain function, I would have figured out a way to run without it.

But there was no doubt, no question in my mind, you know, two bullets in the lung, one in the head. Well, those bullets were going to learn how to run. Angie is your home for everything home, and they've made it easier than ever to connect with skilled professionals to get all your home projects done well. If you own a home, you know how much work it can take, whether it's everyday maintenance and repairs, or making dream projects a reality. It can be hard just to know where to start, but now all you need to do is Angie that, and find a skilled local pro who will deliver the quality and expertise you need. Angie has over 20 years of home service experience, and they've combined it with new tools to simplify the whole process.

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Seconds count. AirMed Care Network is America's largest emergency air ambulance membership network. Their providers operate aircraft equipped with the latest life-saving and life support equipment. And their specially trained medical teams Thank you. AirMedCare Network to your plans. They can help protect your family and your finances. Visit airmedcarenetwork.com and use offer code ISURVIVED when you join. That's ISURVIVED with no spaces. She also realizes that he wasn't personally targeting her. I did ask him while he was holding me hostage. I said, why did you grab me? And he

said, because you were alone. I'm not sitting here telling people you should never, ever run alone. We do. Or you should never go out alone. We do. You know, obviously be aware of your surroundings. You know, being in a group would be better, but he said he grabbed me because I was alone, but I never took it personally. I mean, I didn't know who he was. He didn't know who I was. He wasn't personally seeking me, Maggie Malloy. He was just whoever was alone. Maggie worked hard and was ready to run the next fall. After high school, she was recruited to run for Defiance College in Northwest Ohio.

Defiance College was, to me, certainly little and unknown, but the underdog by far. And that's me, little and unknown, the underdog, small but mighty. And I was thrilled to be able to compete at the collegiate level. I knew I wasn't any kind of Olympian remotely. I wasn't good enough, certainly for Division I or even division two, I thought would be still too big just to be handed an opportunity to explore athletics for four more years. What a thrill, what a kick, how awesome, how wonderful, how fun. But I went to college to pursue athletics. Certainly I knew I was going to get a degree. I studied communications, but Defiance, they were wonderful. They opened their doors to me as they do to all their students.

And we just banded together as a little community, you know, student athletes and my friends. And even when we had the loss of a student, we all banded together and didn't let each other go. He was a football player, a real popular kid. Defiance is real small. There's only a thousand students. So, you know, again, everybody knows everybody. And he actually was kind of eerie, ironic. They were all at the local Kmart. Who remembers Kmart? Take us all back. And he fell out of the back of the pickup truck. He was sitting up on the edge and the driver just took off kind of fast. And he fell out of the back of the pickup truck. He was sitting up on the edge and the driver just took off kind of fast. And the gentleman's name was Adam. He was in the back of

the truck and he fell back and hit his head. And he had a head injury and bleeding and brain pressure and things of that nature. It was the same kind of injury that Jenny had. It was real eerie, but it kind of felt like deja vu. In February of her junior year, Maggie had just won her first collegiate race during the winter indoor track season. You know, my freshman and sophomore year, I was getting my feet wet, getting my wings, if you will, about what it's really like to compete at the collegiate level. I was just learning how to really be a competitor. And so I finally, I won a race my junior year and I was just on cloud nine and it was on a Friday night at a meet and then I was in a car accident that Sunday. So I went from running, running round and round in a circle in an arena, winning a race on Friday.

And then by Sunday evening, I was laid up in the ICU with a badly broken pelvis, broken in three places. Maggie was driving to Kmart when her car slid through a stop sign and was hit by a van. It knocked me unconscious. And I came to just as they were prying my door open. And I saw my windshield was all spiderweb. And I thought, gosh, how did that happen? It wasn't like that when I left the dorm.

And I remember it was the day before Valentine's Day. And the medics put that light in my eyes, you know, what day is it? What day is it? And I said, well, I don't know, but tomorrow's Valentine's Day. Well, that doesn't count. She's got a concussion. So, but again, fortunately, especially after I saw the mangled wreck that my car had become, I was fortunate that I quote unquote walked away, though it took some time with only a broken pelvis. The other driver was fine. He was unharmed. He was the kindest gentleman. I mean, it was my fault, but he came to the hospital to see me and he was, I felt terrible, but he was very kind and just wanted to see me get well. Very nice man. Maggie had a very different reaction to the car accident than she did to her attack.

It was awful. It always kind of makes me laugh a little bit when I think about, you know, when they brought me in after the attack, I had these injuries and I'd been through this experience of, you know, being shot and, but I was so calm and had my grace and sense about me. You know, I knew I was bleeding from every orifice and they were, you know, asking me these questions. I just very calmly answered their questions. I knew I was, I knew I wasn't going to die, but after the accident and they brought me in from that, the pain I felt, I mean, grace and dignity were just out the window. I was just screaming and just in so much pain. It was so awful. I mean, I was very angry and I said things I shouldn't have to those dear nurses that were

standing around me. I was so blinded by pain. Please don't get me wrong. I'll take a broken bone over a bullet any day, but I've never felt such physical pain as that particular broken bone. And I was so angry that I was being tried again, that I was being challenged. The biggest thing, the attack or the accident reminded me is that you're still human and mainstream life still goes on and things still happen. You're not exempt just because you survived something extraordinary in your high school years doesn't mean you're exempt from other adversities and from other things happening. So buck up little camper. But I was very angry and I was angry at God. I thought, you know,

can't you just leave me alone and let me live a peaceful life? But really what it's about is finding that peace from within, no matter what's happening to us or around us. But that's easier said than done. She had to leave school and move home to heal. It was horrible. I mean, it's two hours away from my life. You know, the life I had built up there. I hated missing the outdoor season of track my junior year. But again, there was my mom. She had to quit work for a while. And I mean, I came home and I crutched upstairs and I didn't come down for two weeks. You know, I went from bounding off of a top bunk in a dorm room to I wake up in the morning and I had to, you know, learn to shift my legs very slowly over the side of my daybed in order to plant my feet on the carpet so that I could

gently stand up. So my day went from get out of the daybed, get to the bathroom, and then get into my lazy boy chair. And that's where my life was, watching the animal planet for about two months. Though her college friends would drive the two hours to visit her, Maggie felt incredibly isolated back home. The family's insurance dropped them, and seeing her mom struggle was very difficult for Maggie. That was when I saw mom at one of her lowest points, and then she got a phone call from a judge who presided over our case when I was attacked in high school. And he said, I just want you to know that you're not alone. That spurred her to rise again and come tell me you're not alone. And, you know,

we'll get through this. And again, my mom was a tremendous source of strength and my teammates and people called and came to see me. And I, you know, I was one year away from my degree. I was one year, I had one year of athletics left and my gosh, I can't let that go to waste. But slow and sure, I just had to let my body heal and I got in a swimming pool eventually and there was this wonderful woman named Mary that rehabilitated me in the pool and helped me learn to walk again and get my feet back under me, if you will.

But I was scared when I started running cross country again, because, you know, you're jumping over creeks, running over every kind of terrain and through woods and tree roots. And mom was very much against my going back to run. But you can tell me what you want, but I'm going to do what I'm going to do. But I was scared. I mean, I was scared, but once I started running and I didn't feel any pain or anything, I took off. Maggie graduated college, but wasn't sure what she wanted to do with her life. I moved back home and I worked retail. I worked in television for a while as a grip, carrying filthy cable around on Friday nights along the football field, the sidelines. That was a blast, really. It was a lot of fun. I was very fortunate to receive some national awards. So the NCAA awarded me the

Inspiration Award in 2001. So that opened up a lot of doors to start doing motivational speaking. But no, I swore I'd never be a victim advocate. I knew that. But God, once I converted to the Lord, gave him my life in my mid-20s, he said, hey, remember how you said you'd never be an advocate? Well, here's a position for you. So I started a victim advocate program for the city of Bucyrus in Bucyrus, Ohio. She worked in Bucyrus for 11 years. She had seemingly moved on from her tragedies, but she was really just coping. She says it wasn't until her 30s that she actually started healing. I was working in victim services, and I attended a seminar on healing after victimization and trauma, which I was very

intrigued by because I'd only heard of survival, survival, survival, survival. Certainly I knew there was healing, but I questioned, have I really healed from this? And it wasn't until I started learning about the healing process that I really realized how stuck I was. What I mean by that was I was 15 when I was attacked and then I stayed 15, shall we say, for about 17 years. I was in my 30s and I took a look at my life and I said, my gosh, I do live like a teenager. At that time, I was still living with my mom. Not that there's anything wrong with grown adult children living with their parents per se. I mean, we have a lot of that today, but I'm not at all knocking adult children that need to live with their parents. But for me, it was, I still live with my mom. I live in one bedroom in her house. My finances, my relationships,

my emotions, my friendships, everything that I handle in my life is funneled through the portal of a 15-year-old. You know, how do you? How do you wake up to that? How do you start to step forward from it? Maggie had met a woman at a seminar, and she invited Maggie to visit and speak in upstate New York. Beautiful, beautiful. I knew I liked it up here a seminar, and she invited Maggie to visit and speak in upstate New York. Beautiful, beautiful. I knew I liked it up here right away, and I just fell in love with it because I love to run, I love to cycle, and I love the water, and I love to kayak.

And so there's the canal, there's the canal path, and it was just my little piece of paradise. So Maggie started making plans and working towards moving to Fairport. She was put in touch with a therapist in nearby Webster, New York, to help her make the transition. He just started working with me to kind of bring out the toxic things of the attack and some other incidences in my life. You know, as I started to get better and come forward more within myself and the teenager started to let go of the reins more and more, I had to, okay, well, what do I need to do? Well, you need to move out. You need to get your own place. Financially, there's no reason you can't. Mentally, you're working on it. So you can, I mean, there's nothing holding you back

except for this mentality. So, I mean, I couldn't just go from my mom's house to up, you know, up to New York. I would have been eaten alive. So I had to get well enough to where I could get my own place in the town that I was living. And then when I was ready, I came to upstate New York. But I mean, it's different for everybody. But it was very, very messy in the beginning. I had, people would call it a breakdown, but I would call it a breakthrough where I just started working on quote unquote or sifting through the charred remains. You know, I've been burning up for so long in survival mode. It was almost like God turned a fire hose on me and threw me to the ground and hosed me off. And then with my therapist, Tom Porpiglia,

we started to work through the charred remains and brush everything off and clear away what wasn't needed so I could come forth stronger. But before she was able to move there, she would have to face an old demon. In 2017, her attacker, Charlie Vaughn, was up for parole for the second time. I will say this about anybody that has to go before a parole board.

I mean, I certainly wasn't looking forward to it. It's nothing, oh boy, this is going to be fun. It's certainly very stressful, but we rallied the troops and had people write letters. You know, again, just doing what I could to try and keep the community safe. I can't stop everybody like him, but I was able to help put him in prison and just when he needs to stay there. But it is a tremendous privilege to be alive. And it is a wonderful right that survivors and family members have. And you just have to look at the parole board as your peers, people that live next door to you.

They get up and go to work just as you do. You know, they have a tremendous responsibility and certainly they don't always, quote unquote, get it right. They let people out that they shouldn't. I'm grateful to the parole board. It's a very stressful job, to say the least. Somebody's got to do it. Charlie Vaughn's parole was denied, and he's not eligible again until 2027. Maggie moved to Fairport that December. I wasn't going to move anywhere without a good job in place, and the Lord knew that. I took a job in victim services in December. I moved in December of 2017, and I lost the job in January of 2018.

So life is always interesting. My first winter in the East bearing down on me, and I did not have a job. And I was very terrified and very scared and very much, what have I done with my life? Was this a mistake? But God has always prevailed and provided for me to stay here. And my friends have been wonderful in supporting me. And as I've grown and fallen apart and been put back together again, I work two jobs. I work for a family law attorney,

and I have a little job at one of the Walmarts here. So doing what I got to do to make ends meet. I think you can tell from listening this far that Maggie's faith is extremely important to her. I know God is a very good God, and he sent his son to die for us on the cross, and what can be worse than dying a death that you didn't deserve? If Jesus can go through what he went through on the cross, we can certainly handle whatever is given to us. I am no Jesus Christ. I'm no saint by any stretch of the imagination. I'm just a human being like everybody else, living one day to the next. I mean, I could

talk for hours and all the ways God was present through the attack and through the accident I went through in college and just every day of my life, God has been there and he's woven himself all through. I mean, he's my maker. I don't have to understand everything that he does. I never will. But I have the peace knowing, excuse me, that he's in control. And just as much as he loves me and he wants me, he also wants Charlie, my captor. There's a place in heaven for all of us. To speak to someone at the Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network, call 1-800-656-HOPE or 1-800-656-4673. You can also live chat with someone at rain.org. That's R-A-I-N-N.org. I'm Caitlin VanMol, host and senior producer. Our audio engineer is Kelly Kramarik. Our producer is Scott Brody and our executive producer is Ted Butler. Special thanks on this episode to McKamey Lynn.

I Survived was originally produced by NHNZ. To hear more I Survived, please subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen to podcasts. This is Below Deck's Captain Lee. Listen to my new podcast, Salty, with Captain Lee. Um, don't you mean our podcast? Uh, yeah, I guess I do.

Anyhow, listen to Salty with Captain Lee, co-hosted by my assistant, Sam. And we will be talking about the latest pop culture news and all the gossip every week. So does this mean we have to talk by ourselves, about ourselves, or can at least have some guests on? I don't know, I find myself pretty interesting. But yeah, we can have some guests on, some of our reality TV friends, and some stars. Works for me. Listen to Salty now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Dive into true crime on Pluto TV. Unravel the mysteries with forensic files and 48 hours. Investigate crimes with Dateline 24-7 and Unsolved Mysteries. With thousands of free crime

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