Cold Case Files - I SURVIVED: I Knew He Was Going to Shoot Me

Episode Date: November 30, 2024

Bridget is abducted by a man at gunpoint. Ryan and John are on a private plane with a friend and their friend's father when they are caught up in some bad weather. Daryl is stranded alone in the wilderness when a huge snow storm rolls in. Ro - Go to Ro.co/Survived to start your health journey today! Progressive - Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive

Hi, I Survived listeners. I'm Marissa Pinson. And before we get into this week's episode, I just want to remind you that episodes of I Survived, 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 know I have like at least several seconds more to live. I mean, just who knows what you'd be thinking about, you know, and in that kind of situation. Real people. The snow kind of felt like a shark

or something that was just slowly circling me. Who faced death. Why am I on the ground amidst all this twisted metal? This is the highway patrol. Hang with me, sir, okay? And lived to tell how. I knew he was going to shoot me.

I was still planning as if I was going to survive that and what was I going to tell how. I knew he was going to shoot me. I was still planning as if I was going to survive that and what was I going to do next. This is I Survived. It's June 2002 in Killeen, Texas. Bridget has just returned home to her apartment. Just like I'd done many hundreds of times before that, I parked in my spot and went straight to my apartment, went inside, locked two deadbolts and the chain, and that means you're safe inside. That means you're safe at home. It was a gated complex. It was in kind of an older part of town.

It was like an okay neighborhood. But the gate actually was stuck in the open position. I was kind of taking my time getting ready for bed, brushing my teeth and taking out my contacts and putting on sweatpants and stuff like you do. I was just walking in like a short, a short hallway in my apartment. And then I heard this loud boom on the front wall of my apartment. And it just, I just like froze because I knew then something was very, very wrong. And then I hurried to the door and looked out the peephole and then watched as this man was running straight at my door. And I almost remember it like it was slow motion because I

didn't even have time to step back. He kicked the door and it flew in, it hit me in the face, knocked me backward, and I fell to the ground. And then this man was in my apartment, and he pointed a gun at me, and he told me that he wanted money. At this stage, it was like I entered another world. It was like this is not my reality. I felt like I had taken in this breath like you do when you think something horrible is about to happen, and you're like, and you go to this other place for just a few seconds, and then you come down, except I didn't ever come down.

I was just like, he was like a tall, skinny, young guy. But the only thing I was paying attention to was the gun. So I got my purse. I had $40 cash. I gave it to him, and he said, well, he said, let's go get your keys. We're going to get more money. He took my keys then and walked ahead of me to my car, so I knew then that he'd seen me park and go in alone

and that he'd been kind of waiting for his opportunity. And again, I'm, like, looking all around, like, totally, like, looking for anybody to go to for help, but there was no one, and he had a gun, and I just had a feeling even then that he wasn't bluffing, that he would shoot me. And I was like, oh, my gosh, what am I going to do? I need time, like, I'm going to this dangerous place,

and I need to figure something out. He drove out of the complex, and that is when I started to, like, pray out loud, kind of like I didn't know what else to do, and I knew that I needed help. So I was praying Hail Mary, full of grace. And also, I think I was at that point already beginning to try to get him to see me as a human being. I said, I'm a teacher. I teach first grade at Fort Hood, which is right nearby. And I love teaching children to read. And I said, do you remember any teachers that were special to you as a child?

And he's just ignoring me. And then I said, I said, I said, well, I always liked Peter Rabbit. Do you remember that story? And even in my head, I was like, what am I doing? I felt like I sounded very desperate. He was not affected by that. He didn't act like he was affected by that. So then he drove across the street, and there was,

it was like a big, empty parking lot, dark, and there was like a freestanding ATM in the middle. So I went up to the machine, and I took out $200. He had told me to take out as much as you can, and that was the maximum, so I took out $200. And this was kind of a strange moment because I was physically separated from him. He stayed in the car, but there was no one around,

so I still felt totally under his control. Drove out of the parking lot then and drove in a direction away from my apartment. So I was becoming, like, more and more terrified inside. I was really scared. I was thinking that maybe he was going to take me back to where there was like a gang and I would be raped and tortured by lots of people. I didn't know I had all of these things going through my head. He kept driving and finally he did find what he was looking for. And it was this like kind of like empty undeveloped field

a very large field he just like drove into this darkness and I felt like I felt like he drove a very long time but it must have just been a minute or a couple of minutes but I felt like I felt like we were leaving humanity behind.

I said to him, a lot of people love me. And this moment when I knew that potentially I was about to be killed, that's all that mattered, that I'd been loved. So then he stopped the car and told me to get out. And he walked around to where I was, and he told me to take off my clothes. And I just, I said, God doesn't want you to do this. God doesn't want you to do this. And I did take off my clothes, and, like, I remember that the ATM card fell to the ground, like, in the darkness.

And I just thought for, like, a split second that that's how they'll identify my body. That's how they'll know who I was. I didn't want to be raped. And so right then I just, like, bolted and ran. But he really easily caught up with me and grabbed me, and I could, like, feel the gun, like, pressed against my arm. He was, like, behind me. I think it was right then that I knew, like, I the gun, like, pressed against my arm. He was, like, behind me. I think it was right then that I knew, like, I'm going to be raped.

I just want to survive. He walked around to where I was, and he told me to take off my clothes. He started to then, like, take off some of his clothes. And just, like, in that second, I thought, like, if I survive this, I'm going to be a rape victim. He told me right then, he told me to get down on the ground. And as I was doing that, I was still just, like, trying to keep my head together so that I could think.

I felt like my only chance for survival was, like, to keep my head together. So I got down on the ground, and he raped me. And even during the rape, I just, as much as was possible, tried to mentally disconnect to, like, be someplace else. Like, even, like, as he was on top of me, I was thinking, like, I know I have, like, at least several seconds more to live. I mean, just... Who knows what you would be thinking about, you know,

in that kind of situation, but that's what I was thinking, like, I just want to survive. I just want to survive. And he said that he wanted me to stand with my back to him. I knew what he was going to do. I knew what was coming. And even though I knew, I knew he was going to shoot me, I was still planning as if I was going to survive that

and thinking that I just need to fall and play dead. That was in my head the instant right before it happened. He shot the gun. It went through me, hit me in the back, went through me. I fell to the ground and just played dead, stayed still, didn't make a sound. He walked closer and stood over me and shot a second time, and I just didn't make a sound. I just kind of let my body roll with the force of the bullet a little bit and back.

The second bullet is the one that did the most damage. That bullet went through my lower back. And I knew where it was. I could feel the pressure. It hit my colon, my stomach, my diaphragm, liver, and spleen. But thank God it missed my spine and nothing hit my heart. So I heard him start to walk away, but still I was like facing away from him.

And then I think that it was like just to make sure. He turned and shot me one more time. And then he got in the car and drove away, believing that I was dead. I know he thought I was dead. And so then the second that I couldn't hear the car anymore, I was up on my hands and knees,

just, like, trying to get a breath at first, just trying to get a breath. Like, it was to get a breath. Like I, it was really hard to breathe. I couldn't get a full breath. I was saying, please God, help me, please God, help me. And I just, I got, tried to like stand up. I knew I was bleeding. I couldn't tell how bad it was. I just knew I'd been shot and I was bleeding. I was thinking about my family and how they were sleeping in their beds 1,000 miles away and had no idea what was happening to me. And I was thinking of my baby niece, Jenna,

who was 3 months old at the time, and I was thinking, if I die, she's not going to have any memory of me. And I was thinking, I'm 24. This is not supposed to be the end of my life right now by myself in this place. And then I, focused. Like your brain takes over in this different kind of way in a crisis situation. And it was just like, what do I need to do? I'm bleeding. I need an ambulance. I need to get to a hospital. I was naked and bloody and kind of scratched up. I just was completely focused on getting to to getting back to humanity.

I was so afraid that this guy who'd done this to me was just going to like drive by and see me there and finish me off. I just wanted to like get to a safe place. So I stood up and took like a few steps and just fell. And then I had this, like, feeling, like, this feeling of being overcome with this, like, get to those houses, get up. And I just stood up. And I feel like somebody shoved me in the exact right direction. I feel like God was saying, go now and run. And I did. I, like, ran out of that field.

I just ran all the way. I was on my knees, and I was, like, reaching up and ringing this doorbell and, like, banging on the door. And the door opened, and this man saw me, and he said, oh, my God, get a blanket. And I was just saying, I was yelling. I was just saying, I was like, no, just call 911. Like, it was almost like, I don't even care that I'm naked was kind of what I was saying. Like, that is so, I don't care. Just call 911. All I

was thinking was I have to get to a hospital. He knew that those were bullet holes instantly because he just, he knew bullet holes. He was a 20-year army veteran of Somalia and the first Gulf War, and this was a soldier who found me on his doorstep, and I have often thought, like, that's exactly who I needed. I needed a soldier right then. When you're in a situation where you know that your life is really in danger, you almost tune out the sensory experiences that don't matter. And your mind somehow just takes you through it. You say what you have to say, you do what you have to do, and you don't panic. Bridget's attacker, Jamal Turner, was caught when he returned to the scene to show her dead body off to friends. He was convicted of rape, kidnapping, and attempted murder, and sentenced to life plus 40 years.

I survived because of the love of family, because of not giving up, because of fighting back. After two major surgeries and three months recovery, Bridget was finally able to return to work. All of us, we human beings, are capable of so much more than we know. And I have to remind myself of that still when I am being challenged by a six-year-old in my classroom who's being very defiant and I'm feeling very frustrated. I always think, okay, I have survived worse before this day. And I draw on that experience for strength all the time. Like, I could get through that. I can get through a hard day at work. What are GLP-1s? You've no doubt heard them

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no commute to the doctor's office, and no waiting rooms. Join the over 250,000 people who have already chosen RHO to access GLP-1s. Go to roe.co slash survived to find out if you're covered for free. That's roe.co slash survived. For boxed warning and full safety information, go to roe.co slash safety. Prescription only. It's November 2006 in Wichita, Kansas. Teenagers Ryan B., John, and Ryan S. planned to fly to a concert in Tulsa. The concert was at 8 and it's a three-hour drive and we wanted to get there before 7 o'clock because that's when the doors open.

Ryan S. had recently earned his pilot's license. So we thought, well, you know, Ryan can fly. So he just got his flight license. He needs some cross-country hours anyway. It was kind of a cool idea, you know, at the time. Like, oh, here's a chance for him to try out his pilot's license. Now that he's licensed, he can legally do it. So we thought, okay, that'll be much faster. It's only an hour flight. We knew how good of a pilot Ryan was.

He got a scholarship for his academic records and things like that, and he was an excellent pilot. Ryan S.'s dad, Mark, was also along for the ride. Mark, Ryan's dad, was a pilot, and Mark probably could care less about the concert, but he came along as just a safety precaution, really. We left at 4 o'clock from the airport, and it was me, John, Mark, and Ryan, the four of us.

The concert finished. We were all on definitely a big high because it was probably one of the greatest concerts I had been to, at least. I remember Ryan Seggetts just saying something about, you know, there's some weather we've got to beat. You know, there's a chance of some weather that might be getting in our way. Mark and Ryan, they were on the computer for a while, checking, you know, different routes, the weather, just seeing if it was all right to go.

We took off, and, you know, I thought, I remember thinking, you know, it's just going to be like the ride here. Then things started to get a little rough, and I was a bit scared. The clouds just rushing past us, just these puffs of white just rushing past us, and it got really rough and really loud, and I was just kind of sitting there like, okay. It's unreal, because you're up in the air. You know, what are you going to do?

You're stuck in that little compartment. It's very, it's almost claustrophobic. And I could hear Mark and Ryan talking that, you know, Mark was saying encouraging stuff to Ryan. You could tell in their voices it was very tense. We were flying very low. We were flying at 2,000 or less feet, I think like 1,700. What I remembered was John saying he was going to go to sleep or take a nap.

Just instantly, I went to sleep, which is now kind of shocking. Now, this is where the story gets weird, because what I remember is I just... I was playing my Nintendo, and I just kind of dozed off. Like, my eyes closed, I just went unconscious. I was in the middle of playing a Nintendo game. You know, I would have been...

You just don't fall asleep in the middle of that. It could have been carbon monoxide poisoning, or they filled the cabin, because nothing else would explain why me and John both were unconscious at the time. The plane had hit a tree, and I think that sent us into a spin or a tumble of some kind, and I think that caused the roof of the plane to rip off.

The whole front had just been taken off. You know, there was no more ceiling or floor. I ended up upside down, or the plane ended up upside down on top of me. And something in front of me was on top of my leg. I looked out to the sides, and I could see, like, the wings were, or I don't know if it was the wings, but I saw something was just, like, just bent. And I looked behind me, and I could see the tail was just twisted.

My mind was swimming. It was very surreal, you know, as what has happened. You know, why am I here? Why am I on the ground amidst all this twisted metal? Ryan had a punctured lung, severed thumb, and facial lacerations. I was so out of it that I couldn't feel any pain. I guess my body was so in shock. I couldn't feel anything. It just felt like I was moving

through a dream. So I crawled out onto the ground next to Ryan because Ryan was out there. He was lying on the ground. I remember John saying he called for help to get whatever was pinning his legs off of him. John's leg had been crushed and he also had a broken jaw. I reached down and I could, on my right leg, which I couldn't move, I reached down and I felt around to try and see what may have been pinning it and my hand came up wet. And that's, you know, I just thought, oh gosh. Just so many thoughts come to mind. It's like, I might not even be able to walk again. I might, my leg might not even be there anymore. I don't know.

Ryan S., the pilot, has been thrown from the plane. Ryan, he was laying on the ground, and he was in pain. I think he might have passed out or been going in and out of consciousness. I think that's when I was most concerned about, you know, where's Mark? Has anybody seen Mark? And nobody knew. Nobody knew where he was.

He wasn't responding. The whole duration, I never heard anything from Mark. First instinct was to call 911. Sheriff's office. Sheriff, we're a point and we're crashed in a field somewhere. This is not a joke. And you have no idea where you crashed?

We left I can't remember. It's okay. Hang with me, sir. Just hang with me. To be able to be talking with somebody at the time really gave me a sense of hope,

knowing that we were in connection with somebody that could help us. Mr. Beedron? Yes? This is the highway patrol. Can you see any lights around you? Oh, I'm laying on the ground right now. Oh, oh, no! Ryan? Yes? Stay with me, oh, no, ah! Ryan?

Yes? Stay with me, hon, okay? Okay. Somebody's going to find you, I promise. Oh, bless his heart. Ryan? Don't lose it, sweetheart. Breathe.

I won't. Breathe, babe, breathe, okay? Okay. She kept telling me about how all these crews were going out, and they were going to start searching for us. And since we were in the middle of nowhere, they were going to use the horns, the sirens, to know they would sound him,

and that if we ever heard any of them, that we were to tell her right away, you know. Ryan S., the pilot, was falling in and out of consciousness. About this time, this was when Ryan, he said to me that he was cold. His body was very cold. And that he was going to kind of crawl on top of me to share bodily warmth. It's where I just, you know, I felt I could feel his body, you know, go cold.

I still tried, you know, to wake him up or to get him to speak again. But that's where... That's where, you know, Dre passed away. You know, he... You know, he died on top of me. And... It's... I mean, everything we had been through, you know, me and Ryan,

we were the Ryans, you know, we were so close together. And... Ryan's, you know, we were the, we were so close together. And it is almost, it just seems so, so appropriate that, you know, we'd be together till the very end like that. Just not, you know, just not so soon. Now it's just me and John out there. We were at least the ones that could help, you know, with the rescue. Ryan? Yeah?

Can John see anything? Can you see anything? I can't see anything. Any light or anything? It took a while for us to finally collaborate. The whole time, my mindset was, you know, if I could just get my leg free, somehow that's going to help. Eventually, I did understand that, you know, I'm not going to be able to move myself. I got to look around and just do what I can from sitting here.

John really was the one that was more able to see. He was, I guess you could say he was my eyes. He's like, you know, look around, listen and look around for lights, listen for sirens. So then it's like, okay, now we've got a little system here. Ryan, are you sleepy? You need to stay awake, hon. No. You need to stay awake, think good thoughts. Uh-oh. I know it's tough, but you got to, okay? Oh, I can't be fine, does. Honey, because we don't know exactly where you're at, okay?

The longer I can get you to stay on the phone with me, the more success we're going to have by finding out where you're bouncing off of the nearest tower. But you got to stay on the phone with me, okay? Okay, I'll try. Okay. The cell phone is almost dead. Ryan? Yeah?

They know where you're at, okay? Yeah? You're on the right track now. I heard a siren first, and that was probably, you know, that's the greatest, the greatest feeling ever. Somebody is out there. There's a siren. There's a siren?

Yeah. Okay. Tell John to watch the light. Watch the light, John. And I look back, and sure enough, there was a light, and it was just kind of panning the area. When it finally did shine on us, it was a huge relief. Are the headlights headed towards you? Are the headlights headed towards us, John? Hey, Ryan.

Yeah? They see you, baby. What? They can see you. The helicopter can see you. They can? Yes. Okay.

Okay? John, they can see us. I just need you to tell me when it's right on top of you. Very close. It's very close. Once the helicopter was above us, that feeling right there, then you know it's pretty much you're saved. One thing about the area, as we now know, is that the cell phone reception is terrible, where the plane crashed. To this day, there is no explanation for why the cell phone signal lasted. Just the fact that we both survived the initial impact is a miracle in itself.

The pilot, Ryan S., and his father, Mark S., were both killed in the plane crash. I can never remember thinking, maybe I'm going to die. The whole time, it was always, what can I do to get myself out of this? What can I do to help people? Ryan B. and John have both made a full recovery from their injuries. We cooperated as a team and that's how we survived. I Survived is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also

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Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states or situations. It's November 2006 in Mount Adams, Washington. Daryl was driving along a remote forest road on his way to an overnight camping trip. I was going down the road, and I think I'd got maybe 15 miles or so, and I started to see a little bit of snow. The first thing in my mind was, oh, that's kind of fun. How interesting. I get to see a little bit of snow. I came around a corner, and all of a sudden the snow was about five, six, seven inches deep in areas, and it was on the road now. I didn't want to take any chances because I didn't have any snow chains.

I didn't have snow tires. Tried to go into reverse, but that was it. My tires started spinning. So I got out, tried to dig my tires out, tried to unbury the snow, put some branches underneath, tried to let air out of the tires, tried everything, and I couldn't do it. Couldn't get unstuck. At this point, it was about 4 o'clock, and it was starting to get dark. Daryl only had enough food for an overnight stay. I didn't want to be trapped out in the wilderness at night. It was really cold out.

I didn't have warm enough clothes, and I was really 30 miles from one town and about 25 from another. And from what I've read and seen, it's always smartest when you're stuck to stay with your vehicle, especially when you're in the middle of nowhere. He tried his cell phone but could not get a signal. I got in my sleeping bag and it was pretty cold. Went to sleep that night thinking that, you know, first thing in the morning or in that next afternoon, somebody would come driving up and, you know, pull me out, make fun of me, and I'd be home. And it would just be, you know, a little bit of an embarrassing story. Woke up on Sunday morning, and it was a nice day. You know, I had a little something to eat, got out. There still was no

clouds. It was a blue sky. It was nice out. And probably waited till about noon, one o'clock, and then started to get worried, you know, why somebody wasn't nice out. And probably waited until about noon, 1 o'clock, and then started to get worried why somebody wasn't coming out. I had talked to my cousin just before Saturday about 1 o'clock. I talked to him on the phone, and we had firm plans, definite plans on being back Sunday night. And I'm thinking, you know, they're panicked. They've called the police. They've done a search, you know.

They're searching for me. With the snow, I could be out here for several days, so I need to conserve my water, for sure, and my food. So I went through an inventory of what I had with me. And I remember hearing that you don't need a lot of food. You can go without food for several weeks. But water, you need, after a couple of days, you're in big trouble with no water. Daryl had some rice cakes, banana chips, bread, cheese, and a gallon of water. So Monday, I started to get a little worried around 11, 12 o'clock, thinking, why isn't anybody coming up here?

You know, I saw some pretty big cat tracks. And, you know, I know that there's cougars and stuff around these mountains. So just everything pointed to not walking out there for me. Daryl did not realize one of the worst storms of the decade was rolling in. And that's when it started to get cloudy. It was Monday afternoon. Storms started slowly moving in. Six, seven o'clock is when it started to snow. And then things changed. I couldn't believe how much it was snowing. And at this point, it still didn't stop. I didn't have any break in the snow, which was really unusual to me. It seemed like every time I'd get out in the morning,

there'd be close to a foot of snow on the hood and on the roof. So my routine would be to sweep off the Jeep, get back in, and then start warming my toes, warming my fingers up so that I wouldn't have any chance of frostbite. Wednesday mornings when I started with my car engine, so what I would do is I'd start the engine up, let it run for about 10 minutes, and then I'd kick the defrost on for about 7 or 8 minutes.

And I'd put my gloves, I had the leather gloves, I'd put the gloves up on the windshield, put my pant legs, you know, up on the dash to get them warmed up. The most important thing in my mind was to stay warm because it was so cold out there, stay in my sleeping bag, and to conserve my water as much as I could. Surprisingly, I wasn't feeling hungry. I think I was so concerned with water at that point. I remember just really being really, really thirsty, and so I would take a swallow or two or three, you know, just trying

to drink only when I absolutely have to. You know, I've heard stories of people freezing to death or who've gotten close to hypothermia freezing, and it doesn't sound that bad. You know, you get really, really cold, and then all of a sudden you have this warm feeling come over you, and, you know, you sort of drift off to sleep, and you don't wake up. You know, that doesn't sound terrible of a way to go. So in my mind, that was much better than what I was feeling,

which was my throat really swelled up. It was really, really hard to even just swallow a little bit, not to mention headaches and just general aches from a dehydrating feeling. It was bad, and it would never go away. So the sun's going down Friday, and this is the point where I'm pretty much out of water. I've got a couple swallows left,

and I decided that I'm going to try to melt some snow or break some ice off, and then I put that into my mouth and I chew it up, get into a liquid form, and then swallow it. And it helped to relieve some pain in my throat, you know, this liquid, you know, a little bit of liquid down my throat, on my tongue, in my mouth, you know,

it felt good to have that moisture. But the problem was that night, I got really sharp headaches, and my stomach turned, it went to knots, and I felt my muscles in my arms and my legs sort of cramp up. Eating snow lowers the body's core temperature and increases the risk of hypothermia. I wasn't going to be able to survive, you know, eating the snow. So I knew that that next morning, which was Saturday, I would have been out there for one week. I knew that at that point I had to either be rescued or find water,

or I had, you know, several hours left. Daryl wrote a farewell note to his family. I just decided that I wanted to write a note, let them know what I did to keep myself alive for those, that first week, and that I was going to have to go out and look for water. I'd considered writing it a few days before, you know, and that maybe it would be, you know, the right thing to do to leave a goodbye note. But I didn't want to because I felt like that might be giving up hope for myself. So I put it off as long as I could. So I got out of the Jeep, and at this point the snow was pretty high.

It was about 5 feet. Crawled up onto the bank, and I got onto my hands and knees because I wanted to disperse my weight. I didn't want to sink deep down into the snow. Daryl was wearing light clothing and tennis shoes. And I started crawling on my hands and knees toward the side of the snow. Daryl was wearing light clothing and tennis shoes. And I started crawling on my hands and knees toward the side of the mountain. And I got to the side of the mountain and I looked to my left and it was just a blanket of snow to the left. Looked to my right and the same thing, a blanket

of snow, but from where the mountain meets the road, I saw what looked like a hole or something. And as I get closer, I think I'm hearing a little trickle of water. And then I look down, and sure enough, there's a little puddle of water at the base of this mountain. I mean, my eye was just shaking. I was nervous that I was going to freak out so much, I wouldn't be able to get the water.

So I just tried to keep myself calm. And it took me about five or 10 minutes to get the jug completely filled up with water. Got the lid back on, and at that point I knew, if I just can make it back to the Jeep, I've got a lot of more days in me with this water. Still wasn't feeling too much pain from hunger, so I wasn't too worried about the food. And now that I had the water, I could actually start eating the rice cakes and the banana chips. I would have, you know, I eat one of the rice cakes and some of the banana I would have, you know, I eat one of the rice cakes and some of the banana chips, you know, that would be a meal. And thinking, you know, if I have to be

out there another week or whatnot, you know, try to conserve as much as I could and just eat enough to make me feel comfortable. By the ninth day, the snow had piled up to eight feet high. It was midnight, one o'clock, something like that. And I remember sort of waking up and I must've drifted off to sleep a little bit. I remember feeling really good and comfortable and I felt kind of warm and I felt pretty good. And that a red flag went up. I said, oh, why am I feeling like this? I should be a lot more cold and uncomfortable. And, you know, so I just sat up instinctively. And so I reached over and I couldn't get the door open. And I thought, oh no, you know, it snowed so much and it's been so long that this door is sealed

shut and I'm sealed in here now. I realized that my oxygen had gone away, you know, because the seals were all encased in snow. And so I tried for a little bit longer and I finally was able to hit my shoulder and get the door open. From that point, I had just, I had to keep opening the door and clearing the snow away every couple of hours. Otherwise it would seal me closed. I was feeling angry at the storm. I remember, you I remember shouting out into the sky many times to just give me a chance by cutting the storm, make it a normal storm, give me a chance. I just wanted a fighting chance.

The snow kind of felt like a shark or something that was just slowly circling me. Mentally, I was frustrated and confused as to why I hadn't been found yet. But logically in my mind, I knew at that point that the storm was such a severe storm. I kept thinking each day that would be the day I'd be found. And then when it would start getting dark, I would realize it's not happening today, and tomorrow is going to be my day.

It was very difficult as time went on to just be in the car, in my sleeping bag, with nothing to do. I didn't have any books. I didn't have TV, radio. It was just alone with myself waiting, waiting and waiting. And so, to me, that was the thing I had to overcome the most. My fear was basically me doing something wrong. Daryl left the Jeep every few hours to clear away the mounting snow. One of the things that I was fearing the most is locking myself out of the Jeep. I was worried that as I got out, I would hit my elbow on the automatic door locks.

They would lock. Or because of the cold, it would just lock automatically. I'd shut the door and just be locked out. And I decided that it was better to leave the keys in the Jeep so that they wouldn't fall out of my pocket or I would lose them. I mean, I spent hours and hours contemplating what would be better, to have the keys with me or to leave them in the Jeep. I mean, that was a major decision.

It was about day 12, and I noticed the temperature was getting a lot colder. Inside of my windows of the Jeep were starting to get caked with ice, which really hadn't happened that much. I noticed that they were pretty much solid ice inside and it just had gotten markedly colder, I could tell. So the nights were marked with me having to do yoga and do some stretches to just stay awake. I mean, I felt like I couldn't even lay down and

rest. It was so cold. The temperature that November evening was 14 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. I felt like I was basically in a deep meat freezer. You know, you can see your breath and it's just really, really cold inside there. And I was feeling more frightened because there was nothing I could do. I was in my bag. I had my hat on. There was nothing else I could do to get myself warmer other than just continuing to move and, you know, just keep myself awake. I made sure that night that I didn't sleep at all or even think about sleeping because I felt like it was so cold I would have drifted off and not woken up.

Daryl has survived 13 nights trapped in his car at sub-zero temperatures. I don't know if I would have lasted another night. I had to continually move to keep from freezing to death. When the sun finally did come up, I was so exhausted, more exhausted than I had been any of the other previous days or nights. That was the point where I looked out and saw that it hadn't snowed that night. So I thought, well, this morning, you know, I don't have to get out and brush it off. I just want to stay in my sleeping bag and, you know, try to lay here. I was exhausted.

So I laid down, and the next thing I remember is hearing a high-pitched sound. And looked up, and there was this guy sitting on a snowmobile right there, ready, you know, ready to take me out of there. Daryl's family had hired five snowmobilers to search for him. He had come with four other snowmobilers, and they couldn't make it. He went the last five or six miles on his own, and he turns to me as we're driving out of there, and he says, I just, I have to tell you this. I didn't turn around because a couple of years ago, my son was killed in a car accident. I swear to you, he says, I had the spirit. The spirit of my son was on the back of the snowmobile, and he was whispering in my ear,

Dad, you've got to keep going. You've got to just keep going a few more miles, and you're going to find this guy. He's out there. Daryl survived one of the worst. You're going to find this guy. He's out there. Daryl survived one of the worst blizzards ever to hit Washington State. I survived because I didn't give up. I stayed in the present moment. I just tried to think about what I could do to keep myself going for the next couple hours.

And then maybe the next night. By staying in his car, keeping warm, and drinking water, he avoided both frostbite and dehydration. I really feel like most people would do the same thing or would try. They would fight their best. People fight for survival. Hi, I'm Stassi Schroeder. On my podcast, I share candid updates from my personal life, chat with some of my best friends about what's going on in our lives, give commentary on the latest pop culture headlines, and sometimes deep dive into random topics I'm obsessed with, like human design.

It's a bit all over the place, but that's how I like it. And you will too. Listen to my podcast, Stassi, wherever you get your podcasts.