Cold Case Files - I SURVIVED: I'm Gonna Risk My Life

Episode Date: February 1, 2025

A convenience store worker plays dead to escape her abductor. An endurance athlete faces her greatest challenge ever after falling 60 feet in a remote canyon. A couple put their lives on the line to protect their children in a home invasion. Cook Unity: - Go to cookunity.com/ISURVIVED or enter code ISURVIVED before checkout for 50% off your first week! Upside - Download the FREE Upside app and use promo code isurvived to get an extra $.25 back for every gallon on your first tank of gas! 

Hi, iSurvived listeners. I'm Marissa Pinson. And if you're enjoying this show, I just want to remind you that episodes of iSurvived, as well as the A&E Classic podcast, Cold Case Files, City Confidential, and American Justice are all available ad free on the new A&E Crime and Investigation channel on Apple Podcasts and Apple Plus for just $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. And now onto the show. This episode contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. He just had the gun in our faces.

Is this guy going to kill us? Are my children going to find us with our heads blown off? Real people. He literally became a madman. I don't know what I was to him that night, but I wasn't a human being. I wasn't a person. Who faced death.

After 60 feet of falling, I had gained pretty much full velocity at that point, and I just hit so hard. And lived to tell how. I told her, I'm gonna risk my life. I want you to run. I want you to go for help. I want you to get to a safe place. Don't look back. This is I Survived. It's August 1979 in Pasadena, Maryland. 24-year-old Donna is working the night shift at a highway convenience store.

At 3.30 a.m., a man enters the empty store. He was about 5'8". You know, I could smell alcohol on him, and I could smell a very light odor of B.O. He had, like, curly hair. He hadn't shaved in a couple days. So, you know, he looked a little bit rugged, but it wasn't anything that bothered me. He put the change on the counter, and I said, thank you, and he left.

As he was on his way out the door, he turned around to me and said, aren't you Debbie's sister? And I said, yeah, I'm Debbie's sister. The man told Donna that he knew her sister. So then I proceeded to go back to finish what I was doing. And when I did, I heard the doorbell go off again. And it was him again. And he said that he was having car trouble.

He told me what the problem that he was having with his car. And I knew that that problem took two people to do. What he needed me to do was to jolt the ignition while he adjusted something under the hood. So I go out to the car, and I'm sitting in his car, and I'm kind of tapping my foot thinking, come on, come on, I don't have all night. He's got to hurry up.

So I just kind of peeked out the side of the door to see what was taking him so long. And when I did, I noticed that he wasn't looking inside the car at all. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I knew that I was in really trouble. I jumped out of the car and headed right for that front door. And that's when I was probably maybe two or three feet

from that front door, and then he grabbed me. He caught me right as I was about to grab the doors and put a knife to my throat. He lifted me up off the ground with that knife against my throat, and I was hitting his thighs and his groin as hard as I could with my heels. But it was like, you couldn't hurt this guy. You couldn't hurt him. He then carried me to the car.

He sped out of the parking lot. He was speeding really fast. And all the windows were up, so even though I would try or attempt to scream, he had a hold on me so tight that I couldn't let out anything. It couldn't have been longer than, I don't know, a minute and a half that he had made a very sharp turn and I could feel gravel under the tires. And all of a sudden the car stopped real fast.

Donna's attacker had driven her to a wooded area not far from the store. He opened his door and immediately took my glasses off my face, broke them in half, and just kind of casually threw them in the back seat. Then he pulled me out of the car by my neck, and when he pulled me out of the car by my neck. And when he pulled me out of the car, he threw me down on the ground. So I started screaming as loud as I could, screaming my head off.

And that's when he started talking. Shut up. Shut the fuck up. Shut up. Shut the fuck up. Louder and louder and louder and more aggressive and more violent. I could just feel a presence that I hadn't really felt when he was in the store.

I mean, it was very close to being a monster. He ripped my pants off and pulled them off of me over my shoes. And when he pulled my pants off and my underwear off, the pants came completely off, but the underwear dangled on my ankle. Then he took his knife and he ripped my shirt and my smock right up the middle. And then he began to rape me.

He was very, very strong. And when he laid on top of me, it was like bricks. I could not move him one way or another. He attempted to kiss me, and I just remember holding my lips closed so tight because it was so disgusting. His body lifted off of me just for a second, and I took that opportunity to squeeze out from under him and run.

He knew the area, he knew where he was. I didn't, and I couldn't see. I was dark, I didn't have my glasses on. He grabbed me, and then he started punching me in the face, and punching me in the face. And that's when he put me back in a headlock with his arm and carried me to the car. He opened the trunk of the car,

and for the first time, I felt like I was gonna die. He carried me in a headlock to his trunk. When he opened the trunk, I'm thinking, you know, I'm going in that trunk and I'm gonna die. When in fact, he reached in the car and pulled out an old, mildewy, filthy, dirty army blanket and laid it down on the ground, and then proceeded to brutally rape me again.

I don't know what I was to him that night, but I wasn't a human being. I wasn't a person. He picked me up off the ground and threw me back in the car. And as he was doing that, I took the underwear that was still dangling on my ankle and I put them on me because I'm not the kind of a girl that wants something that I had to

do that was important to me. We drove out of that little area and it was still dark out and he all of a sudden stopped the car. Donna's attacker had driven to an abandoned sand and gravel pit in a forest. As soon as he opened the door, I remember saying to myself, uh-uh, no, no, I'm not getting out. No. And he said, you walk in front of me. I have a shed back here. I'm going to lock you up in there

till I decide what I'm going to do with you. So I'm walking in front of him. We probably walked a good, I don't know, 15 feet, 20 feet. And then all of a sudden, I felt this punch to my chest like I couldn't believe. And then I felt something dripping down my stomach and I knew that I had been stabbed. I didn't feel the knife go in, but it didn't hurt. It felt like a punch. And that's when I decided that I was going to play dead. I laid there with my eyes open because I remember thinking this, that he will see that my eyes are open and I'm dead. And I felt that that would convince him more than if my eyes

were closed. And I don't know where I got that feeling. He came face to face with me. And he didn't realize that I was looking right at him. And he was looking right at me. And I don't know how long he stayed, but I didn't flinch, not one bit. I didn't blink. I didn't breathe. And I don't know how long he was there, but I could have stayed there for hours if I had to, because I was going to play dead.

I never saw this, but he picked up something and he started hitting me over the head with it. It felt like a board to me. And then he started to use the board as a shovel and started shoveling sand over me. I could just feel the burning sensation of this sand going into my open wounds. I could hear him walking toward me

and then walking away, walking toward me, walking away. So I laid there, literally waiting to die. I heard a dog bark. waiting to die. I heard a dog bark and I'm like, okay, okay, right? And I remember saying, okay, this is gonna be the plan now. Somebody has sent that dog to you, Donna. Somebody is going to help you leave this area and get help for yourself. Follow the sound of the dog. Follow the sound of the dog. When I stood up, obviously I was still having a hard time seeing. So I wasn't sure if he was there or not. And I'm ready for round two. If he's there, we'll fight it out. If he's not there, God bless me. I was approaching the wooded

area that I heard the dog barking from, that area, I noticed that I started walking on dry leaves. And every time I started walking on dry leaves, I could hear or feel him behind me, so I would quickly just keep turning around to see if he's there. And there was a little area of woods that I needed to go through. Unfortunately, it wasn't normal woods. It was all thorn bushes, and I couldn't get through. I couldn't pull them apart with my hands. I couldn't go under them.

I couldn't go under them, I couldn't go over them, so I literally had to take my body and push my way through 20 to 30 feet of thorn bushes. And they were ripping my skin, my face, my whole body had lacerations. And once I got outside of the woods, I didn't hear the dog bark it anymore. And I said, thank you, friend. Thank you.

And then I just ran to the nearest house and I'm like, oh my God, I'm almost here. I'm almost here. And I'm banging on the door, banging on the door. And I see lights on the house go on and I'm like, oh god, oh god, please hurry up, hurry up. And they come down and they look out the side window and I just put my hands up and I said, I've been stabbed, could you please call me an

ambulance? And that's all I said. But I must have looked afraid. I mean, I must still look like a monster. Well, they closed the curtain, turned off the lights in the house, and everything went dark again. And then I said to them, I don't think I'm going to make it off your porch. Would you call my mother and tell her I love her? And I gave them her phone number. I just wanted my mother. I just wanted my mother. And then I heard the sirens and I'm like, oh my God.

Donna was rushed to intensive care. Donna was rushed to intensive care. He had stabbed me in my chest and stomach, just missing my aorta. Again, guardian angel's looking out for me. And twice in the back, just missing my spinal cord, but he did happen to sever my ureter and cut through one of my kidneys. Police were still searching for her attacker. They sent my mother and sister in, cut through one of my kidneys. Police were still searching for her attacker. They sent my mother and sister in,

and then my sister Debbie came up to me, and she said she wanted to ask me some questions, but I knew I couldn't answer them because I was on a ventilator. So she said, Don, I need you to blink your eyes once for yes and twice for no. And she says, did I know him? Well, now

that opened a big door and I blinked yes. Did he go to school with me? And I blinked yes. I don't know if it was because it was mental telepathy or something, but I don't know how she knew, but she just connected. And she yelled out, crazy Kenny. And it was about the same time that my sister was relaying that information to the detectives is when he had made his call to confess. Kenneth Morgan was sentenced to two life terms plus 30 years. I've endured seven major surgeries, a lot of post-traumatic stress, and a lot of guilt and shame on my part. I say guilt and shame because I felt somewhat responsible for what happened to me that night. It wasn't until I attended his

parole hearing and he said, I set out to kill a girl that night because of opportunity is when I released myself from that guilt and shame. The most valuable app that you can have on your phone in 2025 is Upside. No other app out there gives you the power to earn more like Upside does. Upside transforms your everyday purchases into opportunities for substantial cash back. Whether you're fueling up, dining out, or stocking up on groceries, Upside rewards you for the essential spending you do anyway. It's not uncommon for dedicated users to see their cash back earnings soar to $300

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to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas. That's an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas using promo code ISurvived. It's December 2006 in Moab, Utah. Danel is an endurance sport athlete. At 11 a.m., Danelle drives to a desert canyon for a two-hour run with her dog, Taz. She had rescued the three-year-old from a shelter when he was a puppy.

He's in great shape. He's a very athletic dog. He loves to run. That's his passion, just like it is mine. I started off on a real rugged jeep trail, and then there was a fork off of that trail that not too many people know about. And so I forked off to the left and headed up into this canyon.

I was walking across a slick rock shelf, and I took a step with my foot. And before I had a chance to even think about it or even know what was going on, my foot had slipped off the shelf and I was on my butt and I was sliding. It was almost a vertical rock face. And then I slid probably about 40 feet down the rock face

and my whole life was spinning in front of me. After about 40 feet, the rock face curved under itself and it became a free fall. And so at that point I was just sailing free fall the last 20 feet. And then I looked down and I could see that I was going to land. After 60 feet of falling, I had gained pretty much full velocity at that point. I landed hard on both feet and then immediately fell to the ground. And I just hit so hard. I couldn't believe I was alive.

I mean, this was a 60-foot fall. I had air time there. I just sat there for a minute in shock. I knew I had hurt myself. So I got up to walk out of the canyon, and that's when I realized something was wrong. I couldn't stand up. I couldn't put any weight on my legs.

I would just crumble down. The fall had shattered Danel's pelvis and broken it into four pieces. I was in shock. And I think I had endorphins running through me. So right after I fell, I didn't actually have that much pain. I was just working on instinct, just trying to get out of the canyon as fast as I could.

And dragging myself was the only way I could do it. Her dog, Taz, had circled around and run up to Danel from the bottom of the canyon. So I used him as a guide to sort of find my way back down to the base of the canyon. And when I was dragging myself, I didn't have use of my lower body, of my legs, from my hips down.

So all the effort was coming from my upper body, from my arms and my hands. And I would sort of just move one arm forward and sort of drag my body forward. And then I would go to the other arm. It was a really slow process. It was noon when I fell. And so I dragged myself until 5 PM.

And that's when it got dark. So I'd sort of dragged myself to a small ledge. And there happened to be a small puddle of water there that had some snow melt in it. And I was able to break through the ice and get a little drink of water. The temperatures were so cold, so I was trying to drink the right amount of water

in order to keep hydrated enough to stay alive, but I didn't wanna drink so much water that I would pee on myself, knowing that the cold could cause hypothermia and kill me. The temperature had dropped to 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and Danelle was only wearing lightweight running clothes. I knew if I fell asleep that it was so cold that I would have died of hypothermia. So I knew I had to stay awake the whole night.

I don't think he slept much that night either because I think he was wondering why I was staying on this cold rock. And I was just sort of waiting for the sun to come up again. And so I knew that I had to keep moving to keep the blood flowing, to keep me warm, and to keep me alive. Dinell had no movement from her hips down, but was able to move her upper body. So I was able to do small crunches.

Eventually I got into a rhythm where I was able to do one little crunch, sit up, about every three to five seconds. And I did that the whole night. Eventually I got into a rhythm where I was able to do one little crunch, sit up, about every three to five seconds. I did that the whole night. At the first light, that's when I decided that I was going to start dragging myself out again. And that's when I realized I couldn't move at all.

Any movement was just excruciating pain. And I was pretty much stuck there. I kept shouting and I kept listening for any sounds and I would just scream as loud as I could, help, I need help. And as I lost more and more daylight, I knew I was losing the time that I needed to drag myself out of there.

Taz was exploring the deserted canyon. I think it was probably halfway through that day that he started to wonder, what's going on? Why are we still here in the same place? And he'd come back and check on me. And he'd kind of look at me funny, like, why are you still here? It's time to go. Let's go home.

Let's go get some dog food. And then I started to think, I can't leave this little puddle of water. Because if I leave this puddle of water, then I've lost a drinking source, which could make things worse. And I still kind of stayed hopeful, but then all of a sudden it became a reality to me that, gosh, this is hopeless. I'm stuck here. I've got to stay here. I had to keep myself awake. I could not fall asleep.

I'd already been awake for over 24 hours, and I knew I'd have to face another 24 hours of staying awake. I also knew I had to keep myself warm, because with temperatures in the 2020s, I could easily get hypothermia. So I continued to do the crunches. I did crunches for over 50 hours, and it was still cold. And I wanted more than anything right then,

I wanted to be able to tell my family and my friends how much I love them. And most of all, I wanted to tell my parents how much I love them and how special they are. And I wanted to have another day. It didn't matter if it was gonna be good or bad. I just knew I wanted more life. The one thing that I didn't matter if it was going to be good or bad. I just knew I wanted more life. The one thing that I didn't know was that I was bleeding profusely internally.

And I had lost over a third of my blood. And I could feel it around my midsection. It felt kind of lumpy, like a jelly roll or something in there. And I knew it was swelling. But what I didn't know is that I was losing blood at a rate that most people don't live. When the sun came up, I kind of got hope that maybe I could drag myself out of there again.

Unfortunately, no matter how much energy I put into trying to move or trying to drag myself, I couldn't do it. And so any type of movement just costs terrible, terrible pain. I mean, I just screamed. And you just hear these echoes of screamings through the canyon. I think Taz realized that something was really wrong then. As a last ditch effort, basically, I

started talking to Taz. And I told him I was hurt. And I asked him to go get help. And he just looked at me straight in the eyes. Just straight in the eyes. My eyes and his eyes were latched. And then he just turned around and started running down the canyon. And I thought, maybe he understood me.

I hoped that he understood me because I needed him to help me out. He was all I had. After Taz took off, that's when I probably hit the lowest point in my life ever. Thought about family and how I wanted to raise my own family. And I thought about how I wanted to run with Taz again. Suddenly, Taz appeared at Danel's side. He came back and he started drinking from my puddle.

And that puddle was sort of my lifeline. That was the only water I had. And all of a sudden, it became even more depressing and more of a reality that I was dying. He started licking the tears from my eyes. And I think he was just trying to comfort me. And he knew how sad I was. And all of a sudden, I heard this sound of a vehicle.

It sounded like an engine or something. And I thought, OK, I got to keep fighting here. And I somehow conjured up the energy to keep fighting and to keep staying alive. And the sound got closer. And I had lost so much blood that I was delirious. And then the sound cut out right close to me, and I just started desperate, desperately begging for help.

And finally, I stopped desperately begging for help, and the person said, I'm here for you. And the tears just started pouring from my eyes. And all of a sudden, I had the very, very best moment of my life, the very best. And I went from the worst to the best that second. And I knew I was gonna get a second chance. I knew I was gonna live.

And then he said to me, you've got one good dog. Den-El's dog, Taz, had run the five miles back to where searchers had found her truck. Taz then led rescuers to the remote canyon where Den-El was trapped. That's why Taz's demeanor had changed, because he knew somebody was coming to help me. And that's why he was licking the tears off my eyes.

He was saying, don't cry. It's going to be OK. Den-El was airlifted to the hospital where the operation to reconstruct her shattered pelvis took six hours. I was in the hospital for about three weeks and then I was in a wheelchair for about three months. And then I got the okay to learn how to walk again,

eventually to learn how to run again. Fifteen months after the incident, Danelle and Taz returned to the canyon and completed their run. If it wasn't for Taz showing them that route, they probably would not have found me that night. It snowed that night, and I wouldn't have made it. As someone who's always juggling work,

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Reset your routine with convenient mouthwatering meals crafted with local ingredients by award-winning chefs. Go to cookunity.com slash I survived or enter code I survived before checkout for 50% off your first week. That's 50% off your first week by using code I survived or going to cookunity.com slash I survived. It's September 2007 in Pocatello, Idaho. Late Sunday evening, Anna and Robert returned home after a weekend away. We were exhausted. We came off a really busy weekend, a fun weekend at a wedding.

We didn't do what we normally do. Just close the doors, turn off the lights, went to bed. Good night kids. We didn't do our normal, is the front door locked? Did you lock the back door? We didn't do that that night. Seven-year-old Bailey and four-year-old Aiden were asleep on the other side of the house. Four-month-old Cade was sleeping in Anna and Robert's bedroom.

Well, Robert and I fell asleep probably around midnight. For some reason, I woke up. And when I opened my eyes at the foot of my bed, there was a person kind of creeping in my direction at the foot of our bed. I gasped. I couldn't believe that, is this really happening? Am I dreaming? And when I did that, he stood up and brought his finger to his face, to his mouth, as to

say, shh. At that point, I nudged Robert. He was laying in bed next to me. I woke up with a body in the room, and all I could see was a silhouette. Robert and Anna didn't know the man had been in their house for an hour. The intruder had taken Robert's shotgun from the closet. I was scared for my life. I was beyond scared. He didn't say anything. He just had the gun in our faces.

And during this whole time, I'm just playing out this scenario. What's going to happen? What if he rapes me? What if he already touched my children? What if my kids are already dead? I was just in pure panic. I was scared. I'm embarrassed to say I wasn't thinking about my wife at that point. I wasn't thinking about my children. I was trying to comprehend there's a man standing in my room with a shotgun holding it at me.

He was pacing. He started pacing back and forth, still silence. Then he started to speak to us. He asked if anyone else was in the house. My husband answered the question, no, just our children. His next question was, how much money do you have in your bank account?

And he said, don't effin' lie to me. We told him, there's about $3,500 in there. I think the guy thought we had $100,000 in our savings or something, I don't know. So he gets agitated. He starts his voice Changes he gets angry. He starts shouting and at that point the baby wakes up and the baby starts crying The couple are unaware that the intruder is high on methamphetamine He came over and pointed the gun at me. He was angry

He was agitated the baby was still crying and he said what said, what does he need? Referring to our baby. What does he need? Make him stop. The baby's continuing to cry. He's not stopping. You know, he woke up. I'm sure he could feel the tension in the room. He was screaming. Robert asked, can I grab my son? He allowed me to do that while he held the gun to my head. I got out of bed. The gun was pushed up against the side of my head.

I grabbed Cade out of his crib, handed Cade to my wife, and got back into bed. He then proceeds to tell us the game plan. Those were his words. This is the game plan. We're gonna wait till morning, and then we're going to your bank to withdraw your money. At that point I'm thinking wait till morning. It's like 3 a.m. I'm not going to wait here

till the morning with this psychopath in my bedroom. The couple had discussed what to do if their home was ever invaded. I had always told her, I said, I had always said, listen, whatever happens, if we ever come to a point where we're in a situation where our lives are in jeopardy, I told her, I'm going to risk my life. I want you to run. I want you to go for help. I want you to get to a safe place. Don't look back.

Once the baby was in her hands, she tapped me on the leg and I felt this rush like she's on board. She knows what she knows what I'm gonna do right now. I got my leg down where one leg's laying in the bed, one leg's planted on the carpet so I could get momentum up enough to rush him. I'm at the edge of the bed now just waiting to attack him. At that point, I was holding onto the baby really tight and grabbing the blanket that was over me because I was naked under the blanket. So I thought I got to grab the blanket and the baby.

And when he gets up, I have to run. And I knew that this time I was going to rush him. I know she felt me slide away from her, to where her and I aren't resting. I'm at the edge of the bed now, just waiting to attack him. He went to the window. I flew up as fast as I could with every bit of momentum I had, and I struck him in the face.

I punched him. He went down. It gave me enough time to grab the gun. I jumped out of the bed, grabbed my son, and I ran out of our bedroom and out the front door. I screamed like I'd never screamed before. I was screaming, somebody help me. I knew when I started going at it with him

that he was on something. He wasn't normal, because you don't take a punch in your face and just it doesn't even affect you. I mean, getting caught off guard like that, I don't care who you are, that's not normal. So, and his strength of pushing me around was, it was amazing. He threw me in the wall, we knocked the dresser over.

I mean, he was very strong at that point. The intruder had been on a three week methamphetamine binge. I twisted really hard really quick and I got control of the gun and I swung it like a like a baseball bat. I swung it as hard as I could and hit him across the head. I saw him fall. I dropped the gun and I ran because I wanted help. I wanted 911. I wanted the police. I couldn't take this guy. There was nothing I could do to take this guy out. I ran out of the house like a basket case.

I ran next door and I pounded on the door. They came in and I said, call 911. I have an intruder in my house. Call 911. And I, it dawned on me right there. It like hit me. My kids are still in the house. I ran out of my house, across my driveway,

into my neighbor's house, into my neighbor's front yard. Okay, pounded on the door, told them to call 911, across my driveway into my neighbor's house, into my neighbor's front yard, okay? Pounded on the door, told Nicole 911, and I saw the intruder coming out of the laundry room door through my garage windows. And I could see down the street, I could see a neighbor yelling, what's going on? And it was Dale.

I said, Dale, I said, get down here, bring guns. I've got an intruder in my house. You go through the house and we'll corner him in the garage. And that's what we did. My other neighbor came running down. Mike, I said, Mike, go in the house and get my kids. Mike got them out of the house. Dale and I are holding the guy at gunpoint. The guy pulls out a knife and he puts it to his throat and wants to kill himself. And I was telling him, do it. And I remember my exact words. I said, kill yourself.

I said, I've got a pressure washer, I'll clean it up. And that's really, we waited till the police came. And then I went looking for Anna. It felt like forever waiting. My neighbor kept the baby and I ran out of the house trying to find Robert. I wanted to make sure he was okay. And I did see him. At the end of the street, Robert's words to me were, we're okay.

We got him. The police got him. And I asked, where are the kids? And he said, they're safe. They're at the Hatcher's house. And we just hugged and held each other. That was like the best thing in the world. That was better than getting married. That was better than everything.

Knowing that just giving her that hug, just we're back together. That was like, we made it through this thing. Dean Clay Miller, aged 39, was sentenced to 28 years in prison. People always have the mindset that they need someone else to help them. And that's not my mindset.

That's not my wife's mindset. It's your life. If you want it, you gotta do something. When he said, we're waiting till morning, I was like, no way. I got angry. I was like, no way. We're not waiting till morning.

You're not going to come into my house and say that. And I knew. I was confident in thinking that because I knew who was in bed right next to me, my husband. He wasn't going to let that happen. learning. Whether you're in the mood to solve a little crime before bedtime with NCIS or Tracker or curl up with a surefire hit like Forrest Gump, Pluto TV has thousands of movies and shows all for free. Pluto TV. Stream now, pay never.