Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Kentucky Moms' Bahama 'GIRLS TRIP,' RAPED & SODOMIZED BY STAFF, BLEED, VOMIT, Tell Their Story

Episode Date: February 15, 2024

Childhood friends, Amber Shearer and Dongayla Dobson, have carried their friendship into adulthood with children of their own. At 31 years old,  these two moms arrange a "No-Kids Trip" on the Carnival Cruise Ship Elation, where they will be on a 4-day cruise from Jacksonville Florida to the Bahamas. Arriving in the Bahamas, Shearer and Dobson go on an excursion called "Pirate's Cove Beach Getaway".  The pair want to collect some special sea shells to take home to their children. At Pirates Cove, a resort staffer offers the women a two-for-one drink deal. The women order, but say the drinks are much stronger than expected.  The moms decide to post a video to social media for friends and family, but immediately, Dongayla's mother, Frankie King,  sees the video and calls her daughter. King says the moms are not acting like themselves, giggling, laughing, all over the place. King asks how much they have had to drink and Dongayla says not much, she hasn't finished her first drink yet. After drinking the cocktails, the pair sets out to look for seashells on the beach when they say they are approached by a male resort staff member who tells them he knows a good place to find shells. The staff member allegedly leads the women to an isolated area away from the main beach area.  The next thing Shearer remembers is waking up in the middle of the alleged attack. Dobson says they were just conscious enough, or just aware enough, to know that their attackers were in uniforms.Two hours after Frankie King talks to her daughter, King receives a text message from her daughter, it says, "Call us now, we've been drugged and raped." A Pirates Cove Staff member finds Amanda Shearer and Dongayla Dobson unconscious in a bathroom at the resort. A nurse practitioner, Ladonna Batty, is on vacation on the same Carnival Cruise and is asked to assist the women. Shearer and Dobson know they have been assaulted and police are called. Joining Nancy Grace today: Amber Shearer- Victim; GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/dream-vacation-turned-nightmare?utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer Dongayla Dobson- Victim Nicholas Gerson -  Attorney for Dongayla Dobson and Amber Shearer, Partner at Gerson and Schwartz; X: @gslawusa/FB: GersonSchwartzPA   Scott A. Johnson - Forensic Psychologist (32 years specializing in addressing sexual predators)  Sadie Whitelocks - US Assistant Travel Editor for DailyMail.com; Twitter & IG: @isleofsadie  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Raped, assaulted, bloody. One of the swimsuit twisted around so much, the victim's breasts were hanging out. That's the rape nurse's words, not mine. On the floor of an office, far, far away from home two ladies beautiful ladies moms from Kentucky childhood friends they met at 4-H camp. Lifelong friends. They go, it was one of their first girls trip ever

away from their children. Their first cruise, the first time one of them had ever been on a plane. Can you identify that? Because I identify with that because I can. They go on a carnival cruise and yeah I'm putting it out there it's carnival and you know that there are port adventures right? I love taking the twins on Disney cruises and going on port adventures. It's the best part of the cruise. These two ladies go on a port adventure. They are drugged and raped in the Bahamas, and everybody acts like nothing happened. Something did happen.

I want justice in joining me today, the two ladies from Kentucky that go on their girl's trip and come home bruised, bleeding, and raped. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Crime Stories and on Sirius XM 111. I don't know why even the law did this. For years and years, decades, the law required corroboration for a rape case to go forward. Couldn't rely on just the women's account. Why? You don't need corroboration for a bank robbery or an ag assault or murder, right? But why rape? Why are rape victims doubted? But they are. There was an angel. It was a rape nurse who was there on vacation. I want you to hear what a completely impartial observer had to say when she tried to help these two ladies.

This is what she told me last night. Listen. Don Gala, which was the one in the floor closest to the door, he was in a one-piece bathing suit, but it actually appeared to look more like a two-piece bathing suit because it's one of those one-pieces that are cut out. Her clothes were very messed up. Her breast was hanging out. She was not covered. She was coming in and out of consciousness, puking, crying, screaming.

She looked in a very bad shape. I absolutely knew that they had been assaulted in some form or fashion by the way that they looked, the way they appeared to me. This is LaDonna Batty, very, very experienced nurse practitioner who happened to be on this trip and was called in to help the two ladies from Kentucky. Did you hear what she said? She doesn't have a dog in the fight, no skin in the game. And she describes him. Can you imagine your mother on the floor of some office in the Bahamas, all bloody and messed up, vomiting in the floor with the swimsuit exposing their private parts.

Yet, apparently, officials there didn't believe them. Listen to more of what the nurse practitioner told us last night. I was trying to get her to focus on me and stay with me. So I was asking her questions, what her name was, how old she was, give me your birthday, where are you from? In and out, she was, and then she would repeat herself. And then she would scream out that she'd been raped, that she'd been assaulted. You know, please help me, please help me, don't leave me, please help me. You know, those kind of things. And I'm trying to keep her calmed down, trying to get her to focus, to give me some details.

This is really bringing me flashbacks of all the rape victims that I have dealt with over the years of investigating and prosecuting rapists. As I mentioned earlier, very often the law will require, in some jurisdictions, still corroboration to the woman's account? Well, there's corroboration. They were bruised and bleeding, according to this witness. Listen. Yes, kneecaps, their knees and their shins looked the worst. There was bruises on their knees, down their little shins, you know, little scrapes and abrasions on both of their knees and stuff like that. I was doing my best to try to assess them. I just felt like this was going to be a bad situation that wasn't going to be taking care of proper. Now, that's from an experienced nurse practitioner.

Joining me right now are the two Kentucky ladies to whom I've been referring, Amber Shearer and Dongela Dobson, lifelong friends since 4-H camp. Ladies, thank you for being with us. Thank you for having us. For sure. For sharing our story. For believing us. I do.

In this culture, nobody seems to believe when you say something like that happens. So thank you. I believe you. I believe you, and I want justice for you. Because I know right now your heads are spinning. But in the years to come, you're going to look back, and you're going to want to know that the rapists are in jail and not only that they are being punished, but that other women like you are not being raped and vomiting with your breasts

exposed on some floor of some office in the Bahamas. Because really, Amber, you really think this was their first time doing this? No way. I don't believe it was their first time because when they came in the office and we were forced to identify them, they walked in as if nothing was wrong. And we freaked out, screaming, asking them, begging them to get them out. And they just, they acted like nothing was wrong and that they'd done anything. So, you know, think about what you're saying, Amber. If you were charged with a felony and you were brought in and somebody said, oh, yeah, she's the one that shot me, you'd freak out, right? These guys were like, hmm. They even smiled when they came in the room.

They did. Let me start at the beginning. Yes, ma'am. Because there are so many advisories. Don't travel to Syria. Let's don't go to Syria, okay? Let's don't go to Gaza just right now. Let's don't travel to Kazakhstan.

Why? Let's don't travel to Kazakhstan. Why? Let's don't go to Iran. There are reasons that there are U.S. Department of Justice advisories not to go to certain parts of the world. And there is an alert regarding the Bahamas. I know everybody goes to the Bahamas for reasons just like this. Let me start at the beginning. I'm putting the cart before the horse. With me are two beautiful ladies. They're beautiful, not on the outside only, but on the inside too. And I want you to get to know them and hear their story. Dagella Dobson, how did the whole thing start?

The beginning of our vacation was an absolute dream come true. It was something we couldn't even begin to imagine. The waters were crystal clear. We were having the best time of our lives. We were checking in on our kids but at the same time we weren't fully responsible for them for just a few days it was great we we went and we did a dolphin excursion where we got the dolphins and they gave us a kiss and we got pictures, hugged them. And we played, we hung out on the beach there.

This was in Nassau. The last day, day four, we were supposed to stop in Freeport. So when we stop in Freeport, we are assuming that we are safe. Like we tell them we want to go to the beach carnival step as well as all kinds of like people at the dock like staff members at the dock and they were telling us okay if you want to go to the beach this is the table you need to go to this is pirates cove and there were pamphlets on the carnival proof for pirates for Pirate Poets. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. You're hearing Dongayla Dobson

and Amber Shearer. These are the two Kentucky ladies that were brutally assaulted on a Carnival cruise land excursion. So you're telling me that, first of all, which one of the Carnival cruise ships was it? Carnival Elation. Right. Carn carnival elation that's a huge ship and was this you're saying that there were pamphlets on the elation about where you went it was pirates cove correct yeah there's a whole guest services desk that has pamphlets and excursions and things that you can do while you're down there and then when when you get off the boat, you've cruised before.

You know, they have all the little tables and all the little lines, and you just tell them where you're trying to go, and they point you to the line. And you're on this shuttle with other people from your boat that want to go to the same place. Exactly. And I've always felt so safe doing that with David and the twins. We've been to a coffee plantation and an orange plantation tiki bar, there's a zip line, there's a beautiful beach. Really looks fun. And so you get on, I guess, a bus. It was a bus taxi. And it takes you to Freeport? Well, we were already in Freeport. It took us from where we docked in Freeport to the beach. It was like maybe a 15, 20 minute ride to Pirate's Cove.

Okay. Then what happened? So we paid our taxi fees. Then we paid to get into Pirate's Cove. And then immediately, Don Gala and I just kind of went off to the left we were away from everybody we wanted to take you know cute pictures we're on vacation we were both gastric sleeve patients we've reached our goal weight we wanted to look sexy for our boyfriends for our husbands we you know we we wanted to feel like sexy women i just lost this is don gala i just lost 135 pounds i just met my goal the week before we went wait is this don gala yeah you lost 135 pounds holy moly okay i gotta write that down on my fact sheet you need to celebrate woman and this was that. Have you guys, is it Amber's? Is this your, whose first girls trip is this?

It was Amber. This is me. It was my first girls trip. And I'm actually the one who encouraged Angela to get the gastric sleeve because I started, I was working in the operating room and Dr. Tran, a wonderful friend of mine, did my gastric sleeve. I started out at 400 pounds and I now weigh 150 pounds. And Nancy, this is Nick Gerson. And one thing I want to add or comment. Guys, you're hearing Nicholas Gerson is a high profile lawyer for these ladies

practicing out of Miami. And you can find him at injuryattorneyflaforflorida.com. Go ahead, Nicholas. Sure. I just wanted to add to what my clients were telling you about how they learned about this excursion in the first place. And not only did they learn about it on Carnival's ship, not only were they taken away on a shuttle at the pier, not only did they see the pamphlets, but Carnival actually markets this specific excursion on their website. They published it, and you can purchase it on their website. There were even reviews about the exc to, as Carnival said in a statement, independently went on an excursion as if they just kicked this excursion out of a hat is not well taken. Hey, Nicholas, I hear you.

Every time I've taken the twins on Disney cruises. By the way, they're 16. I still haven't had a girl's trip. FYI. That said, Nicholas, every time I've taken them on a Disney cruise, I go online just like you're saying, and I can see Amber and Don Gila doing this because you're looking forward to the trip. You know, it's kind of like a mental escape from all the work and everything you do every day. And so you look at what you're planning your trip and they have these beautiful excursions, port adventures, and they encourage you to book them online ahead of time. So you're not shut out of it because they're very sought after. So this was

an official trip offered by Carnival Cruise. It was one of their port adventures that they advertise for you on which you can go. So I think, was I talking to Don Gila? Amber, what happens is, so you guys get there. You've lost all this amazing weight. It's amazing. And you want to take pictures of you at the beach in your swimsuits. And then what happens?

We were taking these photos and then we decided to change bathing suits. So the bathing suits that you've seen that we were raped in, the black bathing suit Dawn Gaylor was in, the orange one that I was in, those were bathing suits that I got for my bourgeois shoot for my 30th birthday for reaching my goal weight. So we thought we wanted really sexy bathing suits to send back home, like pictures, you know, in the Caribbean. Valentine's Day for my husband. Like we were going to put these up. These were going to be like.

What did you say? Oh, I said I really wanted these for Valentine's Day for my husband, but now I can't even bear to look at them. Okay. Wait a minute. Okay. I'm just having a moment here. Let me bring in our shrink. Sadie Whitelocks, I'm getting to you.

We have an incredible travel editor for DailyMail.com who had her own personal experience of danger in the Bahamas. Scott Johnson, forensic psychologist, joining us out of Minnesota. 32 years dealing with sex predators and their victims. Scott, I don't know if you can relate to this, but if you can't, you need to get plugged into this. You get, you know, I have hair and makeup before I go on camera and you get all fixed up and what you think you know hey this is as good as it's going to get and you take the photo right that's very important to ladies you know that they look good in those pictures because you want to I like showing pictures to my twins right and just thinking of these two ladies,

they lose all this weight and they get to the Bahamas and then they want to put on the perfect swimsuit, the orange and the black for the photo. And this happens. Did you hear her say she can't even look at the picture anymore? And did you hear what she said? Hers was orange and mine was black. You know what I remember right now? I remember what I wore to my fiance's funeral. I've never worn it again. I can't stand to even look at it, but yet I can't throw it away. They remember I had on the orange one. She had on the black one. How do those things, those details stick in your head at a moment when you get raped,

but you remember that detail. It's the tiniest detail that we remember. What is that, Scott Johnson? What is that phenomenon? I mean, it just gets etched in your brain. It's a very, very important memory, and it just is etched in the brain. You can't not think of it. And even though you'd like to sometimes forget forget it it's it's there in

live vivid color and it's simply a part of a part of the brain that it's going to stay alive forever forever i wish i could forget some of those details can i add a comment here yeah please jump in so i just want to say like it i think more time around Amber's rapist because he was the resort worker who kind of pokes this into everything. And yet I only remember the face of my rapist that I barely seen drugged. Yet I was able to identify both rapists. You know what's interesting about rape victims making identifications and drawing composites? You are also seeing them at a different angle. I was just talking to a sketch artist about this yesterday and another rape that turned into a

murder where the victim is very often looking up at the rapist, and it distorts the way their face really is because of your angle. And I'm just very grateful that there were two of you together to make an accurate ID. Let's see what they're going to do about it down the problems. Brace yourself. I doubt very much okay so you're taking the pictures let me get back to the beach you're taking the cute photos god bless you losing 135 pounds yes so then what happened we were taking these photos

we had so we had our phones out we were photos, and we noticed one of the resort workers was avidly staring at us. And we were like, okay, well, we're getting attention because we're wearing these sexy bathing suits. That's, you know, we've been wearing cheeky suits the whole time we were out because it was our momcation. We look good. It's the first time we've ever felt confident. It's the first time we've ever felt sexy or confident in our own body. Well, I mean, you keep saying sexy swimsuits like you were doing something wrong. I mean, you had all your body parts covered up.

The other day, my daughter said, Mom, is this dress too short? I'm like, no, there's nothing wrong with wearing. I mean, I hear this in every rape case. Why was she out jogging in a sports bra? Why did she have on a short skirt? It's the same thing. Yes, you had on sexy swimsuits. It doesn't.

This is not your fault. The hate comments we get often say, well, if they look that good, we would rape them, too. We would get them like savage animals. Those are the things that people are saying to us over and over that we were asking for okay first of all you got to quit looking at social media if i read everything on twitter i would be hiding under the bed right now true some of it is completely accurate but on social media i mean it's not just on our feed it's people private messaging us. Right. And there's

people out there that, you know, the power assertive rapist who are these two rapists believe that they have a prerogative to do what they do and that the victims in the sick, perverted way that the offender's thinking, the victims provoked or asked for this. And yet there's no truth to that. And yet you've got a whole society who want to continue to blame the men who do this and blame the victim who, if you personalize it, if it's your wife, your family member, your daughter that's a victim, you certainly see what we're saying here about how wrong it is. But if you're not relating to it, you continue to defend the rapist for their justification for how they felt they were needing to or had the right to do a rape. Everybody has a right to look good. We all have a right to show off our bodies when we've worked damn hard to get them to a place we want them.

But that's not asking for a damn thing. But the rapist believes this is a provocation. This is justification. And they'll always be the sick bastards out there who support that side. Don Gala and Amber, so you're out there taking photos. What happens then? So next, we were approached by a resort worker who actually ended up being Amber's rapist.

How did you know they were a resort worker? They were wearing resort clothing uniforms. And this was Pirate's Cove, correct? Yeah. They all had green t-shirts, green polos on.

So one of the pictures that I took of my rapist when we thought he was just a friendly staff member, it looks different because I used the tan filter on Snapchat. But it's actually a bright green shirt. So the man approached us and asked us to do promotional photos because we would make great promotional photos for Pirate's Cove. We were like, no. It was some new something that they was doing, some 360. We politely declined. We were like, no, that's okay. Maybe later, you know, just pushed them off. But the same worker just continues to hang around and he's chatting and we think he's kind of you know like concierge making sure we're having a good

time making sure that we don't need anything he offered to take one of the pictures of us he took a couple pictures of us um in the water and then his friend comes up and offers us a drink and she's like okay so this drink is like 30 and we're like oh yeah no thanks we're not drinkers anyway we're not drink and then she's like i'll give you the drink for 20 and we're still like yeah no thanks and she's like tell you this buy one give one free and we were like okay I'll tell you this, buy one, give one free. And we were like, okay, you got us. It'll make a cute picture. We're here for a few hours. And so you take the pictures holding the drinks up, right?

Let me guess. Yes. I had a coconut. Don Gala had a pineapple. The friend that came up with the drinks, was it a man or a woman? It was a woman. And she later messaged out to me telling me that we hurt her business i won't say her name publicly i don't know if i'm allowed to um but she reached out to us both

telling us that we needed to take our post down we were hurting her business and hurting her coconut pineapple drink business are you kidding me well did she work at Pirate's Cove also? Yeah, she did. Oh, man. Nicholas Gershon, you better be cooking up a big fat lawsuit right now. Back to the ladies. So she's obviously working with the man. Then what happened? So you're out in the water. One's got a pineapple.

One's got a coconut. You're taking the cute pictures. Did you say you live chatted with your family? Let's back up. Before we finish, I would like to explain that these drinks were brought to us before we even agreed to buy them but that's what they did on carnival so we thought it was normal joining me is sadie whitelocks uh assistant travel editor dailymeal.com who had her own brush with danger in the Bahamas. You can find her at sadiewitelocks.com. Sadie, thank you so much for being with us. Is that normal? Because I've never, maybe it's because I'm on a Disney cruise. I've never had people walk up and try to give me hard

liquor already in the coconut and the pineapple. Sometimes I be if it's like a fun cup like they'll bring the cups oh yeah okay like they'll show you the cup and it'll say i was at the bahama pirate cove or something and then you say yeah i'll have it and they bring you back the drink i've never heard of them pushing alcohol i mean what if it's a person that can't have alcohol or for whatever reason exactly so that's unusual, Sadie Whitelocks. They didn't really push it. They would ask you if you want to buy it, but it was already in those pre-made carnival cups you're talking about. They had it together.

We had to show them our ID. But they came around the pool area as soon as we got on, and it could have been a lot because the bars and stuff were not yet open because the suite rooms weren't ready. I just remember Amber and I both paid $33 a piece for these drinks. Disgusting. That we poured down the sink just so we could keep the cups. So then what happens?

You get the drinks. Then what happens? So we get the drinks. The pineapple drink and the coconut drink at Pirate's Cove. Right. So this is Amber. So we get the drinks and we're taking pictures with the drinks. We take a picture with who later becomes my rapist.

And then we decide to get on Facebook Live. Yeah. So we're in the Caribbean. We're on Facebook Live. We're stumbling around. We're on Facebook Live. We're stumbling around. Like, we're showing everybody. And, you know, like we said, just 20 minutes prior, we had just talked to our family and friends. We had just FaceTimed our kids through Facebook Messenger.

I mean, you think, this is only a four-day cruise, right? Yes. You know, you think, what can go wrong in four days? Yeah, five days, four nights. Gotcha. We were on my Facebook Live, and Don Gayla and I were in the ocean, and we were, she, like, fell in the water. And I was like, oh, my gosh, she's had one too many, you know.

But you only had one. But we had only had one. But as gastric sleeve patients, when we say we've had a drink too many, we literally mean a drink too many we literally mean a drink too many not a beverage i don't know what i don't know what you're what you're what you mean by that like literally when we say a drink too many we mean one drink like we have we have to sip we can't chug we have to drink very slowly when you say you've overeaten, we say a bite too many because it's literally one bite's the difference between being okay and vomiting. Oh, my goodness.

Now I understand. So this drink really affected you. Yes. So essentially gastric sleeve is part of what saved our lives because we had to vomit so much. And my stomach only holds a cup right now. And even so, even with the gastric sleeve surgery, you still had enough in you to completely black out. Yes. That must have been a very, very powerful drink.

Okay. So let's go back to that drink. Yes, let's do. It turns out those drinks, we'll just say they contain very little, if any, alcohol. And I'll leave it at that. There must have been something very powerful in those drinks. Do you believe, Amber and Angela, that the drugs were in the drink? Most certainly.

That's the only thing that we had to eat or drink the whole entire day. It's the only besides a coffee that we got before we left. I mean, I felt fine. I agree. We had a coffee. We were fine. We took a video. We were fine. We were fine until we had those drinks within minutes of drinking. Probably 15, 20 minutes. Those drinks. We were stumbling in the ocean on Facebook Live, and our family and friends were messaging us. And calling us like, are you sure you're okay? Are you sure you're safe?

How many drinks have you really had? Like, there's no way. Let me go to your lawyer, a high-profile lawyer out of Miami, Nicholas Gerson, an injury attorney, Florida, FLA.com. Nicholas, what they're saying can easily be verified with receipts. On those cruise ships, they know what you charge to your room. They know what buffet you went to. They know everything because it's all computerized. When you get a drink or anything at those resorts, there is a digital record of everything. So if they had coffee before they went to Pirate's Cove, a Carnival-sponsored port adventure,

and they get there and all they have is a drink,'s evidence of that. If it's not destroyed, Nicholas. That's correct. Typically on a cruise ship, you're given something called a sail and sign card, which is used to document everything that you purchase on a cruise ship. In this particular scenario, I don't believe that the sail and sign card would have any information as to what was used at the resort. But what we do know from our preliminary investigation is that there was a toxicology investigation conducted. There was a urinalysis taken. There was blood obtained. And we've actually asked for that information from Carnival. We've asked Carnival to provide us with the lab work, with the reports, and the response that we've received essentially is none. They told us via letter just the other day that they received our preservation of

evidence letter, which is a letter that we typically sent out in any sort of cruise ship incident, especially involving rape or sexual assault. And we've asked them to not only preserve whatever evidence they have, but to provide us with copies of the records that they possess for our clients. They're not entitled to just withhold the information. And more often than not, what lawyers like me are required to do would be to actually file a lawsuit just to obtain some of the preliminary information because they don't or they won't provide it to us voluntarily. So to answer your question, we believe that there is going to be forensic evidence that will not

only corroborate what my clients are telling you what happened to them, but there will also be forensic evidence and reports that document what drugs were in their system. But there will also be forensic evidence and reports that document what drugs were in their system. And it should also be noted that when the toxicology was conducted, I don't believe that it was conducted. We're still trying to find out what time all this information was when the investigation took place, but it was many hours after the incident so in cruise ship crime cases there's often a delay in reporting and there's a delay in the cruise lines investigation into what happened and they just use that to their benefit as a strategic advantage to try to discount what passengers or people on their vessels, or in this case,

what my clients say happened to them in the Bahamas, didn't take place. You know, another issue you're going to have to battle, Nicholas Gerson, is lack of witnesses in that on cruise ships. When everybody gets off that boat, they're gone. You can't put Humpty Dumpty back together gone. You can't put Hupty Dumpty back together again. You can't find all those people, which makes these toxicology reports that more important because you're going to be relying on them. And I can tell you one thing from trying more cases than I can think, and I can count, the fact that they haven't handed it over pronto, there's a reason they haven't given it to you.

Of course there is. I can only imagine why. Guys, with me is Nicholas Gerson, who is the lawyer for Amber and Don Gila. Okay, so you're out in the water. You're FaceTiming live with your family, and they're like, what is wrong with you, Mom? And they notice something is wrong. What's your next memory? I remember we decided that we needed to get out of the water. We had to get out of the

water. We were both scared that something was going to happen because if we can't even stand up in this water, like we're going to die. So we get out of the water and we decide, you know, let's go look for shells for our kids. Let's see if we can find any of the cute little conch shells or whole pieces. And I did actually find a small piece of a broken conch shell that is absolutely beautiful. And so the resort worker, he's still with us at this time, and he's telling us, oh, I know exactly where to find them. They're just right over here. Come follow me and I'll show you.

Oh, that's just hurting me to hear it. Sadie Whitelocks, you are a travel editor for DailyMail.com, one of the biggest websites in the world. I mean, this is so obvious. Asking them, do you want to pose for a commercial? For, I mean,

hey, I know where some shells are. Follow me. It's so obvious. They give the ladies the drink and then they lure them away. It's so hard, though. Like when they're dressed in a uniform as well, you put your trust in workers and you're at a resort. So it's obvious in hindsight. But at the time, it's difficult.

Yeah. So obviously a ploy. And this is one of the red flags travelers, ladies, especially to watch out for. You hear Amber and Don Gila, those, the guy saying,

Hey, do you want to be in a commercial? Do you want to be in a promo shoot? BS, BS. And then, Hey, I know where some really good shells are.

Okay, so then what happens, ladies? The next thing we know, I wake up to being raped. This is Amber talking. I wake up, and I'm being raped, and I grab the tree in front of me. I pull myself up, and I run. I'm just running. Okay, wait a minute. What do you mean the next thing you know know you were being raped? You're outdoors. You said you reached up

and grabbed a tree. You were raped outdoors? This is reminding me of Natalie Holloway so much. Yes, ma'am. The beach was still in view. There's a little bushy area with trees, like the tree line of the beach. We were right there and I woke up to being raped. What was the first thing you saw? The first thing that I could see was the ocean in front of me. So I wasn't far from where I started. Was the perpetrator on top of you or behind you? He was behind me. So he was raping you from behind. Did you see his face? When I got up, yes, I did. You got up, you turned around, and you looked at him, correct?

Before I ran away, yes, I did. Is your rapist the same guy that first approached you wearing a resort uniform? Yes, ma'am, he is. The one of the same, the same one in the picture that you took? Yes, ma'am. Were you screaming? I was screaming for Don Gaylaala I wanted to find her I was screaming Don Gala Gator which is my nickname for her is Gator and I was looking for her she was coming around the bend on the beat and I found her and I was

we've got to run we've got to run we've got to run we've got to go we've got to get to the bathroom I remember there was an attendant in the bathroom wait Wait a minute. Did you still have on your swimsuit? Yes. It was half to the side. I didn't care. Wait. So he yanked your swimsuit to the side so he could rape you vaginally? I had vaginal and anal penetration. So you take off running with your swimsuit all twisted around you? Yes. I mean, right there. What woman would run out on the beach in that condition? Now, you're telling me that you were screaming for Dongela, as you call her, Gator, and then you saw her. Yes, I seen her.

I grabbed her arm, and it was one of those where we were so drugged. You can't think. You have to make yourself think. You have to make your body move. You have to make yourself do anything because you have no control over anything. I mean, none. Then what happened? We forced our son, basically dragging Gator to the bathroom where we had seen the attendant because I knew there was another staff member there. And then I remember both of us vomiting in the toilet. And then I don't remember anything. They said Dongayla was blacked out in the floor and I was still vomiting when they arrived. You mean the nurse? The FNP, LaDonna. Apparently, she had taken care of the attendant earlier in the day,

and she had had a sprained ankle or a stepped up knee. I can't remember what LaDonna had told me, but she thought LaDonna was a doctor, so she went and got LaDonna. The nurse practitioner who was on the trip? Yes, ma'am. Okay, hold on. Let me back up. Dongela.

I don't know where the second perp, where did he come from? Tell me what happened from your perspective after you guys were kind of falling in the water. What happened with you? So like we said, we decided we're going to get out. My mom had messaged me that she was extremely concerned about us, but I told her, I think, you know, we just don't drink the alcohol. must be hitting us a little harder. But it's okay, Mom. We're going to get out of the water. We're just going to kind of lay on the beach, kind of take it easy.

We're not going to be doing too much more today. Like, this has got to wear off because we can't feel like this. And then I remember this guy who's showing us where the conch shells are. Because I wanted to sound so stupid. I just wanted them for my kids to take them back home, shells from the Bahamas. Hold on, hold on. You are now hearing Dongala Dobson. You've heard Amber. You're hearing Dongala. And hey, really quickly, Nicholas Gerson, before I forget, not that I have to tell you this, you're the high profile lawyer, but you have saved all of those emails, texts, video that your clients were sending back and forth home. Cause I find it very probative that even their families are like,

what is wrong with you, mom? I've never seen you like tripping over like this, right? You've preserved all that. Of course. We're trying to, right now, and I don't want, all I'll just add is that we're collecting as much evidence as we can from parties and non-parties to help pursue our client's case. Okay. Of course you have. And that's why you've got a great sterling reputation. You're gathering at all, all as I like to call it, the ammo that you're going to fire right at Pirate's Cove and specifically the rapist. Back to Dongyela Dobson. And you know, these ladies, you think they like sharing their rapes and their humiliation, their embarrassment when they look back on what happened? No, but they're doing it because they don't want it to happen to other women.

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Don Gila, okay, so you're out in the water chipping around. Then what happens? When we decide we're going to get out, we dry off. We're going to go look for some seashells. So I put my bag up at the top of the, there's like a table area and I leave my bag there while we go look for shells because I don't want to drag my towels and everything we're not going to be gone that long we're just going to look for a couple shells yeah and um I remember we get over to that side and I remember seeing a couple of other tourists, not very many.

I mean, it's February. It's not necessarily peak season right now. And then I remember seeing two other guys in uniforms, staff members in their uniforms, walking the beach. They weren't walking like side by side, but they kind of were walking, you know, just up and down. And I didn't think of anything of it. I mean, if I was normal, that they would be patrolling the beach. And the next thing I know, I'm waking up to sternum rubs in the security office. I don't even remember the bathroom. What do you mean by sternum rubs? So a sternal rub is what we do to a patient to kind of bring them to when a patient is fading. So what you do is you make a fist and you use your knuckles. You place it in the middle of the sternum and you rub as hard as you can.

And that's what they kept doing to Dongayla and I to keep bringing us back because we kept fading away stars you were in such bad shape what are you are you guys nurses i'm in the medical field don gala is not i'm just trying to take in everything you're saying so don gala you come to for lack of a better phrase you're lying in the floor are you still in your swimsuit? Yes. And how do you know you were raped? I have a brief, very brief recollection of being pushed down and then face forward. I'm sorry face forward and remember a glimpse of his face but he just had this distinctive face he was he was an older gentleman and he had like a goatee and it I don't know how I remember this, but I thank God each and every day I was able to remember that. So you saw his face.

I saw his face. In daylight. In daylight. And you were not wearing glasses or any type of corrective contacts. No. How close was he to you when you saw his face? Maybe two feet. Was he in you when you saw his face? Maybe two feet. Was he in front of you or behind you?

Did you have to turn to look at him? I know that he was behind me at some point, but when I saw his face, he was in front of me. In front of you, standing on top of you? Yeah, like walking past me as we were looking for shells and then like then I remember him pushing me down so I seen him in front of me but I by the time he pushed me down like I I no longer could see him and I I don't I don't know any anything else like I said until we get to the security office at pirates co i don't have any recollection of amber finding me i don't have any recollection of being in the bathroom i i i

don't recall that and that is exactly why rapists use things like roofies think about bill cosby those women come over for an interview or to get mentoring and they wake up and their underwear on backwards and they have no memory of what happened. No memory. So let me ask you this. Don Gila, was your swimsuit in place or was it out of place? I don't know, but I do know LaDonna had told me my swimsuit was extremely out of place. I was the one that she was describing as completely exposed on the bathroom floor when she walked in. So this is Amber. Don Gaylor's swimsuit was exposed. What do you mean by that? Just tell me straight out. So the bathing suit itself was like a cross pot and my boobs were

all out but it had a cross top and her breasts were exposed because the cross top had come off of her breast and slid up and i was and her breasts were literally hanging out one hitting the floor and one just one of the vagina in me and now probably what about the bottom part of the swimsuit her vagina was exposed as well i do remember feeling the burning sensation inside of my vagina when i woke up and knowing something terrible has happened to me and then i feel semen and bodily fluids running down my leg. And there's no denying, there's no doubt in my mind I know exactly what had happened to me at that point. Then what happened? What do you recall happening next? I recall us going into, well, being in the security office. And I remember I kept coming in and out of it.

And Amber would come in and out of it kind of almost at different times. We kind of just took turns going in and out of it. But I remember the lady, one of the security members at Pirate's Cove, pulled up security footage, and she was able to find the man that attacked Amber. And it just so happened that I was able to give a good enough description that my perpetrator just happened to walk, to go into the security office at the same time as I was explaining it to her.

And LaDonna actually seen him outside and she was like, that's him, that's him. And so they brought him in and I was able to identify his face in person been in there and say that for sure is him that that that was him. LaDonna had seen this is Amber LaDonna had seen the man that had been following us all day long the man who had raped me so she she immediately knew who he was. And then with the description Don Gayla gave, they were able to see who he was too. Was he also in a resort uniform?

Yes. Did you later learn that they did in fact work there? Yes. Amber's rapist had started one week. She said, the lifeguard said, and he's been here less than a week. This is what gives us bohemians a bad name. And then the other one, I don't know how long that he has been there, but I know that he works there for certain because I have been in contact or people just kind of reach out to me and let me know, especially from the resort that's seen us in

that situation, the lifeguard, and let me know that he indeed was a staff member. He did indeed work there and he had worked the zip line area, which is nowhere near anywhere where we were. He was there predating, as experts say, looking like hunting for a victim. Who said, hey, this is what gives us all a bad name. He hasn't even been here a week. Who said that? The lifeguard. Okay. Sadie Whitelocks. First of all, let me just say to Amber and Don Gala, I feel right now the same way I did so many, many times trying a rape case. I hate putting the victim through the retelling and the reliving because very often they then will have renewed nightmares or daymares

or night terrors because of having to relive it. But I want you to know, I'm just, I'm just so sick for you and so sorry for what happened because it's going to be with you the rest of your life. To you, Sadie Whitelocks, you had a brush with danger in the Bahamas. In your capacity as a U.S. travel editor for DailyMail.com, what is your reaction and your advice after hearing Amber and Don Gala's story? And I believe what they are saying completely because I have an impartial witness telling me facts that corroborate everything they're saying. What happened to you in the Bahamas, Sadie? Well, it was something completely different, but I think I just learned from a very young age that

basically I was on vacation with my family. I was around 11 years old. We spent a good few days on this stretch of beach, and it seemed really idyllic. It was like paradise. There was this guy who came along. We called him Coconut Joe, and he had a machete, and he served fresh coconuts on the beach, and we felt safe. I was with two children, similar age, and we went off alone. And our parents didn't worry.

You know, we were playing in the sea and things like that. We got home, back to the UK, and on the news, the same week we were there, and the exact location, two women had been murdered and their bodies were found. And it was like the lady was saying in the Bahamas just set back from the beach there was a tree line and that's where they were found

but it was very unnerving as a child thinking that we'd been in this apparently safe environment well you know I just can't help but think about to Sadie Scott, Nicholas, Dongila, and Amber about Natalie Holloway, because she was drugged by a local at Carlos and Charlie's near the cruise ship. She was taken out on a beach near the tree line where she was raped and killed.

And even in light of this horrible thing that has happened to you, I got to tell you, I praise God that you're alive. Thank you so much. How are you getting through your days now, Amber? How has this, I know you're getting horrible, horrible hate mail and nasty comments. I'm not quite sure why, but how has this whole thing affected you and your family? So my children and I have temporarily moved in with Dongayla because Dongayla and I don't feel safe unless we're together. And where I'm not married, it's easier for me to pick up and move and we can just transport my kids. Neither one of us are able to work. It's just

too stressful. It's too much. We feel overwhelmed. We can't be around people. We have panic attacks when we go into Walmart. Anything day to day, like we can't go get groceries. We can't, little noises scare us. Anytime we close our eyes, we see a rapist. Scott A. Johnson joining me out of Minnesota, a renowned forensic psychologist

at ForensicConsultation.org. Scott, when victims go through traumatic episodes, when they are attacked, when they witness a murder, when I can't really explain. They continue to have nightmares, night terrors, flashbacks, I believe, for the rest of their lives. A crime like this can completely change the course of your life. And I'm speaking from personal experience. I've had many, many people I knew in my youth tell me they don't know each other, that my personality completely changed after my fiance's murder. I don't know that. They know it. I mean, it affects you the rest of your life,

Scott. Yes, absolutely. Because again, the brain doesn't forget traumatic events. But as you talk about it, as you experience, you can hopefully come to a point where the impact is lessened over time, but it does not go away. And there will always be that bad day, even when things seem to be going good. But the biggest and most important part to focus on is talking about it when it's occurring. So you're not keeping it in your head and isolating yourself. You know, I noticed that Amber and Don Gala say they,, quote, don't know why, but they have to be together. They don't feel safe. That is actually very common amongst rape victims.

Absolutely. Explain. Absolutely. And it's because of the, number one, people that have gone through same similar experiences have a connection that others don't. And secondly, it's just simply who does that particular person feel the most safe with. And so in this case, both of them have been through same similar and experience, obviously, and both trust each other and feel safe with each other. Plus, they know each other understands they don't have to explain to each other what the hell happened or what they're going through.

When they have a daymare or nightmare, they can simply talk to each other, but they get it because they both likely experience similar things. So it feels safer to be together. Amber, a question. In the Bahamas, was a rape kit performed on you or Dungala? A rape kit was not performed on us until we were on the Carnival Cruise ship. How many hours later was that? That was at about two o'clock. And I remember LaDonna having to get on, she kept saying she had to leave at 1145 to get on her bus to get back to the elation. So our rates, I don't know the exact timeline when our rates happened, but somewhere between 930 and 10. So that to two o'clock, I mean.

Okay, so sperm would still exist at that time. It is starting to break down. But the bohemians made us urinate. Why? What? They made us urinate and collect toilet tissue. And they said that would provide evidence and that would be enough evidence for a rape test. And I was like, that's not that's not true.

Did you get a rape kit on the ship? We got a rape kit on the ship? We got a rape kit on the ship. But they kept telling me that toilet tissue would suffice, that that semen would suffice to identify our rapist. And I said, no, that's not enough. We still need the rape kit. And LaDonna will testify that I had asked for a U.S. physician, a cruise physician, I'd asked for rape kits.

Toilet paper? Yeah. I mean, when you go abroad, you are lulled into a false sense of complacency. You're on vacation. You're having a good time. Your defenses are down. Can you hear me? They told these ladies, just TT and the toilet paper will be fine. That's a rape kit. What? I mean, it's almost as if they're actively engaged in a cover-up. But ladies, what is your message to women listening today? Don Gaylor likes to tell people that two is not enough. Two is not safe. You need to travel in pairs of four or more. We both encourage people to drink

drinks if they want to on vacation, but make sure their drinks are sealed. You cannot always trust staff members. You must be vigilant. You must be your own advocate and speak up, speak out if something doesn't feel right. Amber, what is your response to all of those trolls sending you these hateful messages after what you and Dungala have already survived? It's funny you say that because just yesterday, Dungala and I went and we felt we didn't feel ourselves after our rape. And we both cut about seven inches or more off of our hair. And we both posted pictures.

And these trolls are even sharing our pictures somehow on Facebook. But, you know, with my message, I said, I'm trying to live day by day, smile by smile. And that is so true because it's these small victories that I get. The smallest victories are the biggest victories for us because everything is hard. Everything is complicated. A small victory like what um we were talking earlier about you know it being hard for family members when you come back do you know how hard it was when we came back and our children tried to jump on us or touch us and we flinched those are our children those are our children. Those are our children, and we push them away.

We push them away because automatically in our minds, we are back in that place. And we know that we love our children. We know that they're our babies. But in those moments, it just terrified us. For all of you listening and watching, if you know or think you know anything about the identities or the circumstances surrounding the rapes of these two American ladies. Please call toll-free 1-800-225-5324. It is the Elation cruise ship with Carnival Cruise Lines.

800-225-5324. I'm not sending you a Carnival Cruise Line tip number. I'm sending you the FBI tip number. If you remember anything from that day at Pirate's Cove, the date of the offense was February 4, 2024. Were you at Pirate's Cove? 800-225-5324. And to Amber and Don Gala, you are a beacon. You are a light to other women that have been raped and are too afraid or embarrassed to speak out. Our prayers for you continue. Thank you. And now we want justice.

Thank you so much. Yes, ma'am. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.