Cold Case Files - I SURVIVED: The Same Smell, The Same Burn

Episode Date: October 21, 2023

When Karli starts a new relationship with a man from her past, she has no idea that he has some violent enemies. Karli survives not one, but two acid attacks at the hands of complete strangers, and must find a way to rebuild her will to go on. Sponsors: Babbel: Here's a special, (limited time) deal for our listeners to get you started RIGHT NOW - get 55% off your Babbel subscription - but only for our listeners - at Babbel.com/survive . Rules and restrictions may apply. PDS DEBT is offering free debt analysis to our listeners just for completing the quick and easy debt assessment at www.PDSDebt.com/survived  AMCN: Visit airmedcarenetwork.com and use offer CODE: ISURVIVED when you join. Apartments: Visit Apartments.com , the place to find a place  Progressive: Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. 

This episode contains descriptions of violence. Listener discretion is advised. Also, just to note about this episode, we interviewed Carly over Skype, so the quality isn't as good in some places as it is in others. My mom was a policewoman, so growing up, she always told us to be aware of our surroundings, you know, pay attention to clues, fight back. She told me when I was a little girl, me and my sister, if anyone ever tries to kidnap you or take you to another location, you fight. Even if they

threaten to shoot you, tell them to shoot you right there, because nine times out of 10, if you go with them, you're never going to come back. In 2006, 23-year-old Carly was working as an executive assistant at a pediatric therapy clinic. I had just started graduate school at DePaul University, so I really felt like the world was at my fingertips, and I was really excited about life. And I'd just moved from a smaller neighborhood to the South Loop, which was an up-and-coming neighborhood downtown. So I felt very much like a big girl, an adult. Around this time, Carly started a new relationship. I met him once when I was a teenager,

and then he called me out of the blue while I was in college. So we kind of reunited as friends, and I didn't really like him. I was like, what does this guy want? Ew. But he was very persistent, and he was really nice. And we ended up just having a good time together. So he was the CEO of a rap group or rap label. So it felt legit, but I didn't know that the things that they were rapping about would become my life. You know, I was just rapping the songs, not knowing that that was really his lifestyle for real. But on March 15th, 2006, as she was leaving for work in the morning, Carly found out how real it was. This is I Survived, the podcast where we talk to women who've lived through the worst things imaginable

and all the tragic, messy, and wonderful things that can happen after survival. I'm Caitlin VanMol. I just went down to the parking garage. It was some levels down. And as soon as I got through the door, I noticed that there was a car full of guys. They looked like hulums and they looked like they didn't belong there. I was scared. I was really afraid because as soon as I looked at them, they looked at me and I knew that I was suddenly the center of their attention and there was no one else around. So I was trying to think of how I could escape. As I started running towards my car, they started running towards me and there was one

big guy and he just ran up and just punched me in the face. So I had my hands up. I said, what, what, what do you want? I was trying to give them my car keys and my purse. He punched me so hard I fell backwards and then I just felt blood gushing everywhere. I was panicking, jumped up and that's when they started to pick me up. Each one of them had a limb and they were carrying me over towards my car. So I was kicking them, scratching them, punching, doing everything that I could. I was wiggling around. I was just doing everything that my mom had taught me to do if anyone ever tried to kidnap me. I thought they were going to kill me because they kept saying that. They kept saying, shut up, bitch, before we kill you, and just punching me. So I thought that it was over for me. They carried me to my car and popped the trunk.

So I was, you know, trying to grab onto the bumper, anything that I could to not get my body entirely into the trunk. And eventually they pushed me in and he closed it. A moment of panic, but I realized I still had my phone, and it happened to flip open. And when it did that, the light automatically came on, and it was able to kind of illuminate my trunk. And I realized that most new cars have a trunk release button. So I popped it, tried to hop out. They all came rushing back, punched me in the face, and I felt a splash in my face. It smelled kind of like ammonia, and it was burning really badly. So I was panicking, like, oh, my goodness, I can't see, I'm blind.

And he took my phone away and stuffed me back into the trunk. It turns out that it was acid. It had burned through my winter coat, my pants, everything in my trunk was burned. And I started to cry, but I think my tears ended up helping me because it ended up flushing the acid out of my eyes. My mom passed away in February of 2005, and she was a Chicago police officer for about 14 years. And I honestly, I heard her voice. In that moment when I was in the trunk, I heard, car, you better fight,

and you better get out of here. And that was enough for me to just say, okay, I have to get, I have to go, or else I'm going to die. I heard one of the guys jump into my car, and I had actually tried to pull the centerpiece down, and I was able to see him in my driver's seat. So I couldn't figure out if I was going to try and push through the middle part

and climb through or if I was going to jump out of the trunk again. I decided to pop the trunk again, but I kept it closed as tightly as I could because the other guys had jumped into a car that was trailing my car. So I kept it closed, and I knew it took exactly four revolutions down the ramp. I just held tight, and I knew that every time we were going around, I kind of went to the right. So I just counted and waited. And as soon as I saw the light, I jumped out of the trunk. I actually rolled into the other car and the other car immediately pumped the brakes and stopped. So I could hear it go. that's when I knew I wasn't hit because the bumper was

like right above my head. I jumped up and I realized that one of my neighbors happened to be walking either in or out of the building and I screamed and asked him for help. The cars just took off and I ran inside and I explained to them, I'm like, please call 911. Some men just tried to kill me and kidnap me, help me. The police came almost immediately. I was a mess. The jacket that I had on was eaten away by acid. There was blood everywhere. And that's how they knew that something is really wrong here. It was clear something had happened. But Carly felt the officers on the scene were trying to make it seem less serious than it was. When the police came, I was trying to explain to them. I was trying to tell them what they looked like. I was trying to tell them where my, the

direction my car went in, my license plate number. And I didn't feel like they were listening to me because they felt like I was so emotional, which I was, but I was trying to calm myself enough to say, this happened, this is what they looked like, to give them the answers, and the guy there wasn't listening. He was telling me, calm down, they weren't trying to kill you. I'm like, how do you know, sir? They beat me up and put me in the trunk of a car. How do you know? So that really upset me, but I also felt really scared. So when it happened, I had hardly any burns. They were all very surface and mostly burned my clothes. But that was scary to me because I thought, oh my God,

someone's trying to burn me with acid. That doesn't happen here. Police were unable to find her car and the parking garage didn't have working surveillance cameras. They didn't have much to go on, but during the investigation, Carly learned her boyfriend had a criminal record. So the police, you know, they started looking at all the people in my life and when they got his rap sheet and brought it to me, I was like, wow, okay. And every time I asked him questions, he would get defensive. He would get really upset. Like, no, it could have been this, or it could have been that. I'm like, hold on a second. Wait a second. I have no problems with

anyone. I don't even like to get speeding tickets. Okay. How could something like this happen to me? But because I was so scared too, I turned back to my boyfriend because I didn't know that in that moment that he was the cause of it. She moved home for a while, and about a month after the attack, she returned to her apartment with her sister to get some clothes. We were scared out of our minds, so we brought our suitcases, we brought weapons. We were going to run in the building, get clothes and stuff that we needed and leave. So I promise the universe works in crazy ways. As we were leaving the building, there were two women and a guy who came in. And one of them said something to my sister, like, ain't this some shit? And my sister had no idea what was going on. But when I saw the guy who attacked me, I like fell apart. I was like shaking. I almost peed my

pants. I was like, oh my God, oh my God. So I ran straight to the desk man and I said, oh my God, that's the man who attacked me. Please help me. Please help me pretend you're talking to me. So with him were two women. I happened to see those two women, okay? That was a one-time occasion, and then they left. I called the detectives. I'm like, I saw the man who attacked me. Police identified him as Gabriel Morton. When the police went to serve him his warrant and arrest him,

he was caught throwing drugs over his balcony window. There was no physical evidence to convict any of them on the kidnapping and the auto theft, the assault, all of these things that they did to me. Morton was convicted on drug charges and sentenced to eight years in prison. No one was ever charged with her assault. Emotionally, I mean, I saw some things that, you know, it took me years to heal from. Physically, I was like physically okay relatively soon after. I had a contusion to my hip, you know, busted lip, bruises, but I was mostly emotionally terrorized. I was having

nightmares. I was looking over my shoulder. To this day, my family knows not to sneak up on me and play those kinds of pranks because my reaction will be so strong you might get knocked out. But I mean, they tried to support me as best they could, but everybody had all these questions that I didn't have answers to. And I feel like people thought I knew more than I actually did. About two months after the attack, on May 25, 2006, Carly was visiting her cousin's apartment in the same suburb she now lived in. As I left her apartment, I started walking towards my car. I think it was like 10 o'clock at night, so there was no one else on this residential street.

Then I noticed, just like a few cars away from mine, there were two women standing outside. And again, they just didn't look like they belonged there. And the two women started walking towards me. And one of them said, Hey, can you give my sister directions to Dempster? And I was like, well, if you're in this small town and you don't know where Dempster is, you aren't from here, or you don't belong here. So again, I started running towards my car. They started running towards me. I had on flip-flops that day, unfortunately.

I made it to my car, and I had gotten in, but one of the women, she pulled out a gun. So she's trying to get her hand with the gun into my car, and I'm using one hand to try and figure out how to, you know, start my car, and the other to slam her hand with the gun in my car door. Eventually, she got the gun all the way in. She said, you do it again, bitch, and I'll shoot you. Yeah, we've all heard the joke. What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual. What do you call someone who speaks one language? American. Only 22% of Americans

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And then that's when suddenly I felt a huge splash into my face. Same smell, same burn. It had happened all over again. Only this time, it was way more powerful. So I had my hands in the air. I was in a surrender position, jumped out of the car screaming for my life. And my clothes were just melting off of my body. So I'm screaming and I see them looking at me, just looking at me. I didn't know if they were just waiting for me to die or, you know, they were that sadistic or they didn't realize the power of what they'd done to me.

So I ran quickly up the stairs into my cousin's house. I kept feeling like I was going blind almost. But what happened was the acid got into my eyes again, and my contact had almost melted onto my eye. I remember my cousin calling 911, and I kept saying, those girls, those girls. These were the same two women who were in the apartment building walking into the lobby with that guy. Her first attacker, Gabriel Morton, and the woman she recognized, later identified as Nicole Baker, never admitted to knowing each other. Baker also never named the other woman that attacked Carly, so of all the people that attacked her, only one was actually charged for it. Investigators never found out if her boyfriend was involved in any of this,

or what motive Morton or Baker would have to attack her. Baker's trial wouldn't start until the following summer, and Carly had a lot of healing to do in the meantime. It was awful. It was the worst time of my life. It was just depressing. You know, I had never spent a single night in the hospital before ever in my life.

So I kept asking them, when can I go home? When will I be fixed? And they kept lying to me so that I could be okay and stabilize. So they were like, oh, two weeks. And I ended up being there six and a half weeks. And during that time, I didn't know what surgery was like. I didn't know the pain that I was going to experience. Like, I kept thinking, like, they can fix me. They can fix me. So, like, what are you going to pain that I was going to experience. Like I kept thinking like they can

fix me, they can fix me. So like, what are you going to do next doctor to fix me? And he's like, I'm going to do my best. You know, we just want you to get healthy again. So I had to stop thinking about that vanity and think about like really getting healing because I've had raw skin and meat everywhere. And it's actually, I mean, I can laugh about it now, but it was really traumatizing. It takes a year for a burn to heal. So even though I was like getting better and healing, there's still some things that happen with your nerves that feels like pricklies all over. You know, I had to go to day rehab. I had to wear a face mask. I had to wear these things, they're called Job's.

Imagine pantyhose that are about five times too tight, too little, and I had to wear them over my whole body. They're compression garments. They're to make sure your scars don't raise. So it's like constantly suppressing your pain emotionally, physically, and just trying to fight through it and just survive. So I was on lots of pain medication. I was on medication to sleep, medication to manage my nerves. I took methadone. When I think back, I'm like, I was that desperate to feel better that I was like, just help me to feel better and fix me, not knowing that when I

signed the paper, I was signing up to take man-made heroin, you know, heroin. And that was really hard for me because I didn't like the way it made me feel. I didn't like the way it changed my personality. And I tried to quit cold turkey, which was not a good idea. She also had to figure out a way to manage the emotional pain of what happened as well. I was having nightmares every night of people trying to kill me. I was bedridden. It was just, I thought my life was over. Do you fantasize about who you'd be if you lived somewhere different? Maybe you'd surf if you lived by the ocean.

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Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Comparison rates not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy. I had to go get serious therapy for the trauma that I experienced and the PTSD, grieving the loss of my identity, thinking about my future and how my life would change. You know, I had to take time off from work. So thinking about how I was going to survive and what my life was going to look like going forward, all these things during this time, I had to try to figure out. And I felt like I wasn't sure I wanted to be here anymore. I instantly, I immediately thought of my own mother, right? My mom committed suicide and that prompted me to be like, oh man, I need, I need to talk to somebody. I need to get up out of this space. I don't ever want to be in that space again.

But what happened to me was so traumatic. I didn't know, I like couldn't see it tomorrow. So before this happened to me, I was seeing a therapist for the loss of my mom. Fortunately, she was able to come back into the fold and support me through that. I also had an amazing social worker at the hospital I was at who managed, you know, all these different things for me and was able to help me come up with a plan where I would feel supported. And I can't forget to mention my family. I was very fortunate in that I never spent a single night alone in the hospital. My family really rallied around me.

I don't know how I would have fared without them. Carly began to see that what happened didn't just happen to her. It happened to everyone who loved her. Seeing my dad cry, seeing my sister terrified, and my baby sister, she didn't want to come near me in the hospital because she couldn't recognize me. My family thinking somebody was going to come back and do something to them. I had to be respectful of where they were on their journey of healing.

So I am a huge advocate for mental health services. Like, I could not encourage it more. I know in the Black community, there's like this stigma that if you go get help, like there's something wrong with you, or you don't talk about your problems with other people. Talk to somebody, see somebody, get help. Don't feel ashamed about it. Everybody's healing from something. Carly had 15 surgeries in the two years after the attack. She had scarring on 70% of her body, and she was still healing

when the trial started in the summer of 2007. Nicole Baker had pled not guilty. And that was a hot mess experience. I mean, just really stressful. So first I was fortunate that even though I couldn't be in court because I was injured, I had family members go to every single one. And that makes a huge difference because then you find out what's happening. Representation matters. But I had to spend a lot of time with the state's attorneys. They asked me questions. They were filling me in on what to expect. It was a lot. And they told me that the other team would say things that would upset me or would accuse me of things or, you know, try to paint me as this bad person. And they did. And that was really hurtful to me because I

knew the truth. I know what happened to me. And when she had an opportunity to talk, she's like, oh, I'm really sorry this happened to Ms. Butler, but I didn't do it. You know, I'm sure if you've ever had somebody lie to your face and you just are like, really? Like, oh, wow. It's like you almost even don't even know what to say. You tried to kill me and ruin my life, and now you're going to sit here and lie about it. Okay. So then I had to rely on my faith then. I know God, the universe, somebody knows that this happened and the way it happened.

So karma will play out in some way. And that's when you have to kind of let go of things. Nicole Baker was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Back then, immediately, I was upset. I mean, I was really just thankful that she was going to jail. I really wanted her to have the most harsh punishment ever. I wanted to beat her up, you know, like do all these things to punish her. But now I realize, you know, prison isn't

rehabilitative at all. So whatever was going on with her to commit a, something happened for her to commit a crime like that. So I don't know if those things have been addressed in the time that she's been in prison. I don't know what her mental health status is. So I don't know if it's really made a difference other than to get her off the streets. People ask me all the time, like, do you feel you've got justice? And I'm like, well, what is justice? Like, I don't know. She still has to live with scarring on a large part of her body, including her face. And it's not always easy telling people the truth about what happened. Depending on my mood, I would say, oh, I was in a house fire.

They're like, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry that happened. Or I was in a car accident. They're like, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry that happened. Or I was in a car accident. They're like, wow, man. But when I'd say, oh, I was assaulted with acid, they're like, but why? Like, what do you mean, but why? There's nothing that I could have done to provoke something like that. It's a, it's a heinous, malicious, evil thing to do. And then there have been people who are like, oh, I know some cream that can help fix that, or I know a surgeon. I'm like, really? You don't think that I've done all of my research and explored all of, I've had the best surgeons? Thanks, but no thanks. Carly now has a six-year-old son, and talking to him about her scars has been difficult to navigate.

I'm so fortunate to have my active, curious, wild little six-year-old son. He's amazing. He reminds me that, you know, goodness came from this situation. I had something to look forward to that I didn't even know was there, but I'm so glad that I kept convincing myself that things would get better because now I have him in this life. We have this rule where we don't keep secrets. We do not keep secrets in our house. That's mainly for safety, you know, and for our relationship and trust. But he, when he was younger, he'd heard me tell kids at the park that I was in a car accident because he told me, he's like, you told me a lie. You kept a secret. I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, you said you were in a car accident, but you were burned with acid. And I was like, oh man. Okay. I wasn't ready to have this conversation. And this is when he was

four. I think that him seeing other people ask me about myself and when he notices differences in other people, he can point them out, but in a really respectful and nice way, you know? And then I also want him to be kind and compassionate to people who look different. So any physical, even cognitive differences, just know that people are different and that's okay. They're people. So he's always educating people. But I haven't figured out, like, now that he knows the truth, he'll say, oh, she was burned with acid. And other kids will be like, what?

Like, Salem, we've got to figure this out because not everybody is equipped to hear that. You know, it might sound really scary to them. So we're working on that. Part of her emotional healing has been changing the way she sees Nicole Baker. When I saw her and her teenage daughter in court, I thought, oh my God, like, why would you put yourself in a situation to keep yourself away from your kids i was more upset with her about that like being motherless is really shitty like your daughter is going to be out here in the world without you because of your poor choices that was really hard but there was a huge there was a connection there like okay i saw her humanity and i just felt

compelled to look at the person like what, what happened there? You don't just wake up and hold somebody at gunpoint and throw acid on them. Something happened that we're not addressing or talking about. And for me, that was, that was like, there was a connection there. Carly had forgiven her attackers for what they did. But in 2015, she received a copy of Change of Heart by Jean Bishop. Reading the book led her to a big realization. Her pregnant sister and her sister's husband were executed by a young man from their community. And she wrote this story about the journey that she went on, about how hurt she was to then writing him and to forgiving him. Underlining, highlighting, like, oh my goodness, I have to meet her.

So I called her. I found a phone number online and I called her. And she surprisingly called me back. She'd heard of my story when we met. And she really confirmed for me that what I was doing was right for me. She decided to write Nicole Baker a letter and send her a copy of the book. She recorded herself from the post office. So I'm getting ready to go into the post office and mail my letter to Nicole, along with Jean Bishop's change of heart. I'm extremely nervous, but I'm also really excited. I also feel a deep sense of relief that now I'm just putting it out there.

I don't know how I should react. I don't know what's going to come of this, but I'm happy that I feel like I'm doing my part. It's hard to explain the journey of forgiveness or, you know, my level of forgiveness to people who just aren't open to the idea or who don't understand it. A lot of people say that, you know, I've done my part. I've forgiven her. And that's enough. But I disagree. I haven't told her that I forgive her.

So wish me luck. Pray for me, please. So I did it. I sent it. And I can't breathe. I'm shaking. I double-checked everything just to make sure.

Oh, my gosh. Wow. I'm surprising myself right now, y'all, but I'm really happy that I did it. So, okay, now we wait. Harley never heard back from Nicole. So part of me writing her was kind of to extend an olive branch so that we can respectfully coexist.

And by not getting a response, I don't know, it's like that not knowing where I've been okay with it for a long time is now kind of like, wow, I just have to live life not knowing, but kind of on the defense. And I don't want to live like that. I mean, it felt better 10 years ago when I just knew that I had all this time to live my life. And now I have to think about again, how am I going to keep myself safe from this person who harmed me in such a huge way? Nicole Baker was released from prison in February of 2019. So to think that we would be sharing the same airspace suddenly became scary to me.

And so, I mean, I think that happens when you're a survivor of violence, like it kind of comes in waves and, you know, different things kind of trigger you and it was triggering for me. And so I thought like, oh no, like I, maybe, maybe I just need to prepare me and my family for the absolute worst, just in case, just to set some boundaries. And, you know, it was just an anxious, anxiety-ridden time for me. I went to my local police department and I just let them know that they're very familiar with my story. I let them know what was happening. And they just patrolled our block and our neighborhood for a little while in my son's school. And I worked in a public place. I worked at the time in a public place. So they just kept an eye out. And, you know, I think they did that for like three months.

But fortunately, things have been calm. You know, nothing has happened. I've been able to continue living my life. And I've had to really believe that nothing is going to happen in order to just live comfortably. Today, Carly is raising her son and works at a foundation that invests in the same community she grew up in. And after everything she's been through, she still stays positive. Know that storms don't last forever. So really believe that things are going to get better. Create a plan for yourself. Create some goals so that you have some things to work on and look forward to. Grieve. Feel everything. Just get through it so that you can move on to feel something else.

Feel sad when you want. Cry when you want. be down when you want, but try to manage that as best you can so that you can actually find the joy in being alive. And that came from my practicing my attitude of gratitude, like being thankful for everything. I was like, oh my God, I have another chance here. Let me make it, let me make the best of this little one shot. But I was just doing things that made me happy. Find things that you really love to do and fill up your time and your space with that. Just like finding people you enjoy being around who fill you up. That will take you to a whole new space. Keep your faith, whatever it is,

and knowing that you're here for a purpose. If you've made it, sometimes figuring out that purpose is complicated and messy, but you're here for a reason. To talk to someone at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, call 1-800-273-8255. They're available 24 hours a day, and their service is free. You can also live chat with someone at suicidepreventionlifeline.org. I'm Caitlin VanMol, host and senior producer. Our audio engineer is Kelly Cromerick.

Our producer is Scott Brody, and our executive producer is Ted Butler. I Survived was originally produced by NHNZ. To hear more I Survived, please subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen to podcasts. Two sisters, one a respected TV producer, Jill Blackstone, and the other, Wendy. She was disabled, nearly blind and deaf, and Jill had devoted herself to taking care of Wendy. Jill was her best friend, her sister, her everything. But the sister bond was shattered when Wendy and some of the sister's rescue dogs were found dead in a garage next to a top-lover barbecue grill. Jill says accidental carbon monoxide poisoning killed everyone.

Police do not believe her. Police arrested Jill Blackstone for the murder of her sister. Investigators think it was staged to look like an accident. Who will you believe, especially now that a secret source has come forward with evidence never made public before? Jill was a good producer. There's no doubt about that. But would she produce murder is the question. Season two of Bad, Bad Thing, The Blackstone Sisters, available now wherever you get your podcasts. I always say, show me a perfect family. I'll show you a family with secrets. Dive into true crime on Pluto TV.

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