Cold Case Files - I SURVIVED: I Was Pretty Sure We Weren't Making It Out Of This One Alive

Episode Date: November 2, 2024

Kirsty is a mother of three looking to sell her house when a man asking to see the home sexually assaults her, sets her house on fire and takes the lives of her children. Jamison is giving a coworker a ride home after a holiday party when they are attacked by three men.

Hi, I Survived listeners. I'm Marissa Pinson, and if you're enjoying this show, 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. The following episode contains scenes and descriptions of sexual violence that could be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. He started strangling me and wouldn't let go.

Real people. And he just kept spitting on me and just kept saying, say Obama, say Obama. Who faced death. He had the gun pointed right at my face through the window. And lived to tell how. And Ethan said, why are you doing this to my mommy? I love my mommy. This is I Survived. It's October 2008 in Roaring Springs, Kentucky. Christy was a 36-year-old single mom of three children. I was just one of those type of people that loved having children. I loved being with my children. They meant the world to me. Kayla was 17, and she played the guitar.

Courtney was 14, and she liked to talk on the phone a lot. She was everybody's friend. Ethan was 5, and he liked to dig for worms and hunt for frogs and anything to do without being outside. Christy's house is being advertised for sale. It was a nice suburban neighborhood. No one locked their doors. Everyone was friendly.

The kids and I wanted to move closer to town because where we lived in Roaring Springs was about a 20-minute drive to anywhere. The family is tidying up the property when a man approaches them. He was looking for someone, a particular person who lived in our neighborhood. We didn't know who he was, so the man left. I didn't really think that much about it at the time. A week later, while the children are at school, the man comes back.

And I recognized him to be the man who had been to my house previously. We had our house up for sale with a realtor, and he told me that he was interested in looking at my house. I hesitated, but I thought to myself, he is wearing this satellite TV work shirt and, you know, he's probably just in the area working and he'd probably stop by real quick just to, you know, take a look at the house. Christy agrees to show the man through the house. His hair was really cut short and salt and pepper gray. He looked to me to be about 40 something years old. Showed him the living room first. I showed him the laundry room,

which was off the living room. He just kind of stood behind me the whole time. He didn't ask any questions, which I thought was kind of weird. I showed him the bathroom. The next thing I know, he grabbed me around my neck, held a gun to my head, and told me to do what he said and no one would get hurt. I was shocked. I was scared. I didn't know what was going to happen. I didn't know what he was there for. Then he took me into my bedroom,

threw me on the bed, told me to sit up, and zip-tied my hands behind my back. Then he tied my ankles together with the zip ties. He was being quiet the whole time. He was just calm. Then he started asking me questions. He wanted to know who lived in the house with me, and I told him just me and my three children. He asked how old they were,

and I said they were 17, 14, and 5. And he wanted to know if anyone else lived in the house with me. And I told him, no, it was just us. He asked if I was divorced and I said, yes. And he said, are you sure no one else lives in the house with you? And I said, no.

Then he just started pacing the floor, walking back and forth through the house, opening and closing my windows, looking out my window that looked out into my backyard. I don't know what he was doing. I was just hoping that he would hurry up and leave and take or do whatever he was there to do. And then he wanted to know what time my kids got home from school.

And I told him 3.45, but really it was more like 3.50. He went across the hallway to Kayla's bedroom and started rummaging through her drawers and found a pair of pantyhose and cut them up and stuck them in his pocket. It was about 3.45, and he said, I guess your kids are late. I asked him if I could go to the door and tell the kids to go to the neighbor's house, and then I would come get them later, and he told me no to shut up. When I realized that he wasn't going to leave before the kids come home, I was really scared for them because I didn't know what was going to happen.

I didn't want them to come in and see what was going on. I didn't want them to come in and see their mommy tied up. The kids all rode the school bus home together. Kayla and Courtney usually took care of Ethan, him being the youngest. Then I asked him if he could just take whatever he was there to take and go now. And he told me no to shut up. 3.50 came around and I heard the school bus coming and the man disappeared and I didn't know where he went but I was left sitting there with my hands zip tied

together a few minutes later I heard the kids coming in the house and talking and laughing about their day and Kayla was the first one down the hallway and then came Ethan and then Courtney and she Mom, what's going on? Do you want me to untie you? And he grabbed Courtney and put the gun to Courtney's head and pushed all three of them into my bedroom. He told them to get on the floor and put their hands behind their backs.

They did what he told them to do while they were all laying there face down on the ground. He started to put zip ties on Kayla's hands. Ethan started crying and he said, what are you doing? Why are you doing this to my mommy? Ethan says, I want to hug my mommy. So he said, fine, go hug your mommies. So Ethan held on to me the whole time. The gunman zip ties Courtney's hands together behind her back. And then he told Ethan to get up. And Ethan said, are you going to put handcuffs on me too?

He put the pantyhose that he had gotten out of Kayla's drawer on Ethan's hands and tied Ethan's hands behind his back. He took Courtney out of the room first. Courtney was crying. There were tears on the hardwood floor. And then he took Kayla out and shut the door behind him again. And then he went to take Ethan out. And Ethan said, why are you doing this to my mommy?

I love my mommy. And I said, I know you do, baby. And he took Ethan out, and he shut the bedroom door. And I don't know where he took any of them. I was so worried about them. He came back in the room. He was still very calm. His demeanor didn't change.

He sat on the bed, and he sighed, and he leaned up against me, and he said, OK, it's either going to be you or your daughter. I realized what was going to happen. He was going to rape me or my daughter. And I immediately said, please let it be me. He started kissing me. He told me to use my tongue or I'd be sorry.

And then he cut the zip ties off my ankles with a knife and then pulled my shorts all the way off. Then he got on top of me and began to rape me. Afterwards, the man takes Christy to the bathroom to wash away the evidence. Then he led me back down the hallway to my bedroom. Then he sat there on the bed for a few minutes and didn't say a word. And then he said, I'm going to have to put you out

so that you don't see me leave. He grabbed me around my neck and started to strangle me. It's like he just snapped. I don't know what happened. He was calm and collected before, but now all of a sudden, he's a monster. He started strangling me and wouldn't let go. I was fighting him, and so strangling me didn't work and he tried to break my neck.

That didn't work so he got out his knife and he started cutting my neck. And he cut my neck four times across my neck. Once across this way, he did it across this way, and he did it twice across the back of my neck too. He left my room. I don't know what he did, where he went, but he came back in my room and he started stabbing me again. And this time he stabbed me in my left ear and he stabbed me twice in my lower back. I didn't know if he was going to stab me anymore. I didn't know know if he was going to stab me anymore. I didn't know what else he was going to do to me.

So I laid there and I pretended to be dead. And that's when he covered my body up with a blanket. So I waited for a few minutes, waited for the guy to leave. I didn't know if he was gone or not. He had stabbed my left ear and I was facing to the left. And I had, my right ear was in a pool of blood, so I couldn't hear anything. I could see out my blanket that he put over top of me.

I could see Ethan laying in the room across from mine. He was just laying there on a pile of pillows. It just looked like he was laying there peacefully sleeping, like a tired kindergartner home from school. I thought to myself, you know, what do I do? I'm going to wrap this blanket around me and I'm going to scoop Ethan up and you know we got to get out of here. Then I realized I wasn't gonna be able to do that because my hands were still tied behind my back. I couldn't wrap the blanket around me. The next thing I remember, he was pouring something

on my floor and he lit the bedroom on fire. The fire came onto my bed. I lay there as long as I could lay. I was so worried about my children. I was hoping that he was gone. And my foot, my right foot actually caught on fire. When I tried to move, my right leg wouldn't move. Christy's leg is paralyzed from the deep stab wounds in her back. I just rolled myself off the bed over by the French doors, and I had those louvered doorknobs on my French doors.

I reached up with my left foot, and I pulled down the louvered doorknobs on my French doors. I reached up with my left foot and I pulled down the louvered door and the one side of my French door flung open. My hair kept catching on fire. Things kept burning my body. The only thing I could do was roll. Christy and her three children have been attacked by a gunman, who then sets the house on fire. Badly injured, Christy has rolled off her bed and out the French doors. And I just kind of rolled myself out onto the deck.

She does not know if her children are still in the house. By the time I got out there, the whole house was just, the side of the house that I was at, was just totally engulfed in flames. There were, you could just hear things popping and cracking and breaking. And the fire just got hotter and hotter. And I rolled down three steps into my pool. It was so hot, I had to get to the far side of the pool and I balanced myself on one foot on my left foot and I just got myself to the far side of the pool.

While I was in the pool I was thinking I just can't believe I can't believe this just happened. The flames have been seen by the neighbors who call 911. I could hear voices on the other side of the house, the side where my kids' rooms were. I was hoping that they had gotten my kids out. I was so worried about them. I tried yelling for help and nothing came out of my voice. Someone finally came around and said, we've got another one. That's when I knew that we were going to be saved.

My friend, who's a police officer, came running around. And the next day, I know he's in my face. And he says, Christy, who did this to you? Who did you know him? And I said no. And it was someone from the satellite company. They finally got me out of the pool and onto the gurney. My friend, who was the police officer, rode with me in the ambulance, and he held my head and my hand the whole way. At the hospital, Christy undergoes extensive surgery.

They ended up putting me into a medically induced coma. Christy had life-threatening stab wounds, a fractured skull, and her ear canal and vocal cords had been severed. I kept waking up and asking for my children. They told me that they were in good hands. I believe it was the third day that they woke me up, and everyone was in the room with me. The family, the detectives, police officers. The coroner, who was also my friend, told me that, he said, Christy, we've been telling you that your children are in good

hands because they are, but they didn't make it. And I said, what do you mean they didn't make it? And he said, the man murdered all three of them. And of course I was devastated and started crying, and everyone in the room cried and started hugging me. Three days after the brutal murder of Christy's three children, Kevin Wayne Dunlap was arrested and charged. 17-year-old Kayla, 14-year-old Courtney, and 5-year-old Ethan had been stabbed to death. I was in the hospital for a total of 11 days before I was finally released to attend my children's funerals. It was really hard to face him in court again.

When I had to walk up there, I had to pass him and walk onto the stand, and that was really hard. He was convicted on all counts of capital murder and is currently on death row in Eddyville, Kentucky. After leaving the hospital, Christy began a process of healing, physically and emotionally. When you lose your kids, I don't think you ever heal emotionally. I just, it's something you never get over. Despite her grief, Christy wanted to tell her story. I hope that this would help others who may have gone through something like what I've been through.

Maybe someone else has lost a child or children, and this could probably maybe help them. My love and faith in God is what keeps me going every day. Without God, I'd still be struggling and hurting beyond what I could handle by myself. My story has a sad ending, but I survived because I loved my children and I wanted to stay alive for them. It's December 2008 in Memphis, Tennessee.

At his firm's Christmas party, Jameson struck up a conversation with one of his co-workers. Katie was a co-worker that I had worked with briefly before, like one time, I think, so I didn't really know her too well. So that was the first night I kind of got to get to know her. At the end of the party, she came up to me and needed a ride home because her friends had left early and took her car. So I said, yeah, I'll give you a ride home, no problem. She lived a little ways away. I wasn't real familiar with that area at that point, but she lived a little ways away.

And so it took us about 30 minutes to get there. We pulled up and pulled into the parking garage that was underneath her apartments there. And as soon as we pulled up and pulled into the spot, two guys came running up with guns and put to our window, tell us, get out of the car, laid us down next to the car, kept yelling at us, stay down, stay down, and don't look up. When I'm on the ground, they take my wallet out of my back pocket.

And so I'm just thinking, you know, we're just getting robbed at this point. There was no time to do anything or think through anything. When guys have guns at your head, you do what they say. They start going through the car, trying to find whatever they could in the car. When they were done going through the car, he brought her around on my side of the car and told her to lay on top of me. And they said, don't look up. And we hear them run off at that point.

I think they had her lay on top of me just to make sure I wouldn't run after them or I'm not real sure. I don't even know if they had any logic to this night at all. As soon as we got up before we even talked to each other, these two guys came running back, yelling, get back in the car, get back in the car. I just remember feeling it was just all happening so fast

and it was like it didn't make any sense. The guy grabbed me and put me next to him, grabbed her and put her in the front passenger seat. At that point, told us to put our heads between our legs and don't look up. And when he goes, he turns and hits one of the concrete pillars that was next to us there. And I remember at that point looking up saying, come on, man, that's my brother's car. He's going to kill me. I thought he just said, shut up and put your head back down. The guy in the back seat has a gun on my side.

And so I do what he said. I was trying to rack through my brain, like, is there something I could do? Could I at some point just deck this guy in the face? But I just remember not coming to any solutions. It was, I felt helpless. The driver really wasn't saying anything. All I remember was just sitting back there trying to talk to this guy,

trying to talk him out of doing this, talk some sense into him. And I was just pleading with him, come on, man, you know, you don't want to do this. You're young. This is not what you want to be doing. Think about this. He just kept telling me, shut up, shut up. He said, you're not going to be talking when we get there and my brother gets a hold of you. I didn't know at that point what that meant. You could tell he was scared of this guy

that he was talking about, and he looked up to him. This isn't a simple robbery anymore. You know, they're taking us somewhere. And I remember just thinking, this is probably not very, this is probably not very good. And, and it was, it got a little scarier at that point. I was thinking, you know, this is probably it. We're, we're dead. We drove for about, I'd say about 10 minutes. It felt like forever though. I had my, I had two of my legs. I didn't really know what was going on. They're up there. I mean, we were just flying around every corner. She wasn't really saying much in the front seat.

The driver really wasn't saying anything. At one point, we pulled up next to another car. I looked up and could see there was another guy in the other car. And I didn't really hear what they were saying. It was just kind of, I could just hear they were talking to each other. And the guy in the back told me to put my head back down. I had no hear what they were saying. It was just kind of, I could just hear they were talking to each other. And the guy in the back told me to put my head back down. I had no idea where we were going.

I was just praying that we'd come out of this alive. We pull up to this place, and we stop. And he, at that point, came around and opened my door and pulled me out and told me to take off my shirt and my shoes. At this point, it was probably about 2 or 3 in the morning, so it was dark, and it was in December. It was real cold. I mean, it was Christmastime, so it was like 30 degrees outside. They pulled her out and put her on the left side of the car,

and they put me on the right side of the car. I didn't know what was going on with her over there, so I was laying there. I was just kind of hoping she was okay, too, and as well as both of us, just make it out alive. Lying face down on the ground, Jameson hears another car arrive. At this point, the third guy came over, and I knew it was this guy because he had distinct voices, real raspy, real rough, and he was angry. I remember that he was just angry and evil. Before I could say rough, and he was angry. I remember that. He was just angry and evil.

Before I could say anything, before he could say anything, I just remember just feeling a big blow on the side of my head. He got the butt of the gun and just wailed on me for no reason. At that point, I started trying to plead with him. You know, just take whatever you want, man. I don't know what you want. Take the car. Take our money.

Just don't kill us. Just leave us alone. He just kept telling me, shut up, shut up, and yelling and saying all sorts of profanities and racial slurs and everything. I mean, I was pretty for sure that we were going to die. We had seen their faces, and I didn't think there was any way we were making out of this one alive. I could smell alcohol, and I could smell marijuana.

I could tell that they were loaded on a bunch of stuff. He was just acting like an animal. At one point, he started urinating on my head. And he just kept saying, say Obama, say Obama, and just kept urinating and spitting on me. He was spitting on my head throughout the whole night, and there's just no reasoning with him. He was just angry. I remember thinking, you know, I have a son here,

and here he's going to have to grow up without a father. And I remember relaying that to them, too, you know? Just take whatever you want. Don't kill us. I have a son who needs me. He just said, shut up, and just wailed on me again. Every time I would say something, he would just tell me to shut up and just nail me with the butt of the gun. Every time they hit me, it was right here on the back side, or the side of my face,

just from the right side, every time. After trying to bargain with them a bunch and just trying to plead with them, and that was getting nowhere he had no no mercy on that at all and i just remember thinking all right i just got to go along with this and sit here and pray and i remember thinking things that i thought were important at that point like going to school getting money and and trying to get a good job good career those things weren't the things that were important at that point i wish I could have been a better father to my son or a better son or a better friend. Those are the important things, and what are they going to say at my funeral? I remember thinking those kind of things.

I had a check card, and they wanted the PIN number so they could go to the ATM. I didn't have a PIN number because I didn't use my card like that as an ATM card. And so I told him I didn't have a PIN number, and he just kept thinking I was lying to him and not telling the truth until eventually he put the gun up to my head and said, hey, a deserted field at gunpoint.

The ringleader has demanded the PIN number for Jameson's ATM card. I just told him I didn't have a PIN number because I didn't use my card like that. So after I told him, you know, man, I just don't have it, he put the gun up to my head and said, hey, I'm counting to three. You better give me your PIN number. He said one. I was like, five, two, three, one. Just made something up.

And then he left. I was kind of there by myself for a while and was just sitting there thinking about things. I was thinking, you know, this is probably it. We're dead. And I remember just sitting there praying that God would give us a second chance. I could sense another guy that was standing right there, but he wasn't really saying anything at that point.

He was kind of heavyset. They were both kind of heavyset guys. And I was, like, thinking, you know, I can get up and run and outrun these guys. I looked to my right, and I could see some lights off in the distance. And I was thinking maybe it was a gas station or something. Jameson can't see what has happened to Katie. I can't run off and leave her. I don't know what state she's in on the other side of the car. And so I just thought I couldn't leave her. I knew when the head guy came back that the pin number I gave him wasn't right. And I knew he wasn't going to be happy with that.

He just was yelling, are you thinking I'm playing? Are you thinking I'm playing? He was not happy. And he was looking for any reason, I think, to dehumanize both of us that night. And that was a good reason right there. I thought, you know, I'm dead.

There's no way I'm getting out of this. This is it right here. He's angry. And I'm dead. He came running up to me and saying, You thinking I'm playing? You thinking I'm playing? And put the gun to my back and said, See, I'm not playing, and pulled the trigger and shot me in my back. It wasn't loud.

It didn't even really hurt. I remember thinking it was just like a pellet gun maybe he shot me with in the back. And then he got the gun and wailed on the side of my head again. And at that point, I just blacked out. When I woke up, my head was on the dashboard of my brother's car. And I was just pouring blood off my face and still spitting out little pieces of teeth. I look over, and Katie's in the driver's seat. She was naked, blood all over her.

I could barely recognize her, and I just remember thinking, you know, these guys are just animals. We both looked up and looked at each other, and she was crying, and we just kind of looked at each other like, what just happened to us? I was thinking, we just need to get out of here as soon as we can, because, you know, we don't know if these guys are coming back.

And she grabbed the keys and put them in the ignition and started the car and goes to try to back it up to get out of there, and it wasn't going back. So I got out at that point and tried to actually push the car to try to get it out of the mud. We got stuck in the mud. She got out of the driver's seat, and I got in, put in a drive, and was able to wedge our way out of there. And there was a gate in the front. I just blew right through, and we found our way out to the main highway, and we weren't too far from the hospital. Jameson and Katie arrive at the hospital and park next to the ambulance bay. We were both just kind of in a daze, just like, you know, all over the place.

At this point, I just don't remember. I didn't remember getting shot. And I go running to the side of the emergency room and she goes running to the front and that was the last time I saw her that night the nurses came over and rushed me back and laid me on a table he started throwing up blood at that point and they're like okay is this serious and they rolled me over and saw at that point the gunshot in my back the bullet went in my right lower back here and went through my stomach, my large intestine, my small intestine, and had nicked a few other little organs. My parents made it there before I had to go into surgery, and they came and walked in. And at that point, I remember starting to cry a little bit, just feeling that relief of, you know, someone I knew and it's all over.

After the surgery and I woke up in the hospital, they came in and told me what had happened to Katie and she had been raped. It was just horrible hearing what she had to go through. The cops actually found these guys like the day after. They had taken our cell phones and they were able to actually track their cell phones to these guys' rooms. Ringleader Jermaine Owens was given 125 years in prison without parole. James Hamilton pled guilty and received 35 years without parole. Rarlo Primes pled guilty and received 30 years without parole. Me and Katie have remained friends. We actually became a lot better friends after this whole thing.

After surviving this, it just kind of gives you a whole new look on life. And you realize the things that are important and the things that are not important. And it makes you be a little more aware as well that these things can happen to you. I survived because as I was sitting there praying that God would give me a second chance at life to be a better person and a better father and a better son. And He just had mercy on me and gave me that second chance.