I SURVIVED: But I Was Not Going To Stay On That Floor...

Summary

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Cold Case Files — I SURVIVED: But I Was Not Going To Stay On That Floor...

Date: December 27, 2025
Host: Paula Barros for A&E / PodcastOne

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Episode Overview

This episode of Cold Case Files features three harrowing survivor stories, demonstrating resilience, instinct, and the will to live in the face of violent crime and natural disaster. Through first-person accounts, survivors detail encounters with a pregnant woman targeted by a sociopath, a couple fighting to stay alive during Hurricane Ike, and a woman brutally attacked in her own home. The stories explore trauma, survival instincts, and the process of turning from victimhood to empowerment.

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1. Sarah Brady: The Impostor Pregnancy Attack

[00:53–14:47]

Key Points & Events

• Sarah, nine months pregnant, is contacted by a woman ("Sarah Brody") who claims a mix-up with baby shower gifts.

  • The woman shares personal stories and insists on meeting multiple times, cultivating trust.
  • Sarah's family expresses unease, but she dismisses their concerns.

• Strange Behavior and Red Flags

  • On Sarah's second visit, the woman locks the door, contrary to her earlier claims that her husband would be home.
  • Sarah notices inconsistencies: an inhaler labeled "Katie Smith" (not "Sarah Brody"), and coupons addressed to "Katie Smith".
  • In the bedroom, Sarah observes a disturbing, vandalized Sex and the City magazine cover with names scratched out and "Sarah" written on it.

• The Attack

  • The woman fakes going into labor, prompting Sarah to drop her guard.
  • Suddenly, the woman becomes aggressive:
    • “[She] just looked up with this almost demonic look in her face. And it was just like everything changed.” (Sarah Brady, [06:29])
  • The woman attempts to keep Sarah from leaving; eventually pulls a knife and attacks.
  • Physical struggle ensues. Sarah, despite being nine months pregnant, fights back:
    • "I'm gonna die. I'm going to lay here on this ground, and I'm gonna die ... I'm not gonna lay on this ground and die, and I am not letting her take my child's life." (Sarah Brady, [08:46])
  • In the chaos, Sarah manages to disarm her assailant, only to have the woman attack repeatedly.
  • At the climax, Sarah stabs her attacker in self-defense and escapes the apartment.

• Aftermath

  • Sarah learns from police that the woman was not pregnant at all and had planned to perform a forced extraction of Sarah's unborn child.
  • Authorities discover the impostor (Katie Smith) had faked numerous pregnancies over years, holding baby showers and collecting money for non-existent children.
  • Sarah is exonerated as the killing is ruled self-defense.

Notable Quotes

• “Every hair on my body stood up. And I just thought, my God, something's really bad wrong. I don't know what it is, but I gotta get out of here.”
  — Sarah Brady ([06:32])

• “I wholeheartedly believe that I survived because of my daughter. I believe that she gave me the strength with God to prevail.”
  — Sarah Brady ([14:47])

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2. Sherman & Deann: Trapped by Hurricane Ike

[15:29–26:50]

Key Points & Events

• Hurricane Ike Approaches

  • Sherman and Deann prepare to evacuate but are caught as water rises too quickly.
    • “The ocean was in our yard.” (Deann, [15:58])

• Stranded in the Storm

  • The couple, with two dogs, two cats, and an aviary of birds, are trapped as 20-foot storm swells smash through their home.
  • Forced into their attic, they watch waves break inside the house.
    • “You could see like two or three foot breakers like you would see at the beach in the hallway… It was the ocean right there in your house.” (Sherman, [17:25])

• Survival Through the Night

  • They cling to attic rafters as the house is partially destroyed.
    • “I told him then I said, it's been a good 25 years. I love you and I'll see you in heaven. And we were pretty sure we were going to die at that point.” (Deann, [20:25])
  • They endure the storm’s eye and the terrifying “backlash” as the winds intensify again.

• Aftermath and Rescue

  • When morning breaks, their home is gutted—only the foundation stands:
    • “It was just total devastation. It was kind of a cross between Disneyland and Vietnam.” (Sherman, [21:40])
  • Sherman injures his hand but sets out in search of water; they ration what little they can find.
  • A low-flying helicopter spots them after repeated attempts to flag down rescuers, eventually leading to their retrieval by a rescue boat.

Notable Quotes

• “It made you feel like you were the only person left alive on earth.”
  — Deann ([22:02])

• “We survived because we worked at it. We worked at it real hard.”
  — Sherman ([26:50])

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3. Ellen: Attack in the Hills Above Austin

[27:08–39:17]

Key Points & Events

• Home Intruder

  • Ellen, home alone, discovers a man in a “ninja suit” with a large knife in her bathroom after she takes a shower.
    • “At first I thought it was a joke. … Then I rolled into thinking, well, this is a nightmare. … He began screaming at me to get on the floor.” (Ellen, [28:29])

• Terror, Rape, and Assault

  • The intruder binds, threatens, and interrogates her. He reveals he’s been hiding in her attic, observing her family’s schedule.
  • He assaults and rapes her at knifepoint:
    • “He kept telling me, you're going to have a bad accident, lady. A bad accident. He told me he was a Drifter ... I remember begging him. I remember crying and sobbing and begging him, please don't do this. I’m a Christian. Please, please, please don't do this.” (Ellen, [31:49])
  • Afterwards, he showers, makes her sign a $600 check, and leads her to the bathroom, where he attacks her brutally with a hammer and knife.

• Clinging to Life and Escape

  • Despite severe wounds (including a knife hammered into her skull), Ellen slithers down the stairs and calls her parents.
  • An ambulance rushes her to hospital; she survives after over 600 stitches.
    • “I remember hearing the EMS personnel talking and they said they didn’t think I was going to make it. I couldn’t say anything, but I remember thinking to myself, oh you bet I’m going to make it. That was the first time I knew absolutely I was going to make it. This man was not going to take my life.” (Ellen, [38:00])

• Aftermath

  • Her attacker, Troy Eugene Wigley, is convicted and sentenced to life. Ellen becomes the Director of the Victim Witness Division for the DA’s office in Austin.

Notable Quotes

• “But I was not going to stay on that floor. I got up and I went over and sat on the edge, the bottom edge of my bed.”
  — Ellen ([29:19])

• “I survived because I wasn't ready to go. I had the strength to make it and I pulled on that strength many, many times during this ordeal.”
  — Ellen ([39:17])

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• “[She] looked up with this almost demonic look in her face. And it was just like everything changed.” (Sarah Brady, [06:29])
• “It was just total devastation. It was kind of a cross between Disneyland and Vietnam.” (Sherman, [21:40])
• “But I was not going to stay on that floor. … I survived because I wasn’t ready to go.” (Ellen, [29:19]; [39:17])
• “We survived because we worked at it. We worked at it real hard.” (Sherman, [26:50])

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Important Timestamps

• [00:53] — Sarah Brady’s ordeal begins
• [05:26] — Red flags and fake identity details emerge
• [08:38] — Physical attack and Sarah’s fight for survival
• [13:15] — Sarah escapes and police investigation
• [15:29] — Hurricane Ike’s landfall begins for Sherman and Deann
• [17:25] — Water floods their house, survival in attic
• [21:24] — Aftermath and devastation
• [24:29] — First rescue attempt
• [25:58] — Final rescue
• [27:20] — Ellen confronts her masked attacker
• [29:19] — Ellen refuses to stay down
• [33:47] — Ellen is forced to write a check
• [35:06] — Hammer attack and critical injuries
• [37:53] — Ellen escapes and calls for help
• [39:02] — Ellen’s recovery and attacker’s conviction

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Tone and Style

The episode is intense, matter-of-fact, and deeply personal, centered on the survivors’ own voices. The narrative honors the emotional and physical realities of these crimes and disasters while emphasizing the strength and resourcefulness of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

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Conclusion

This episode of Cold Case Files offers compelling, firsthand accounts of survival against criminal violence and catastrophic disaster. Each story is a testament to the unexpected ways in which victims access strength and resourcefulness, ultimately refusing to be defined by their attackers or circumstances. “I survived” is not just a statement, but a declaration of transformation.

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Transcript

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[Narrator]

This episode contains subject matter that may be disturbing some listeners. Listener discretion is advised.

[Sarah Brady]

Even though she's yelling, it was a calm yell. It wasn't like an erratic scream. And I'm thinking to myself, my God, what is this woman doing to me?

[Narrator]

Real people.

[Sherman]

It was just total devastation. It was this kind of cross between Disneyland and Vietnam who faced death.

[Deann]

The water was coming up and it came up so fast that we, I mean, we looked out and it was just there. The ocean was in our yard and.

[Narrator]

Lived to tell how.

[Ellen]

That was the first time I knew absolutely I was gonna make it. This man was not gonna take my life.

[Narrator]

This is I survived. It's February 2005 in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. Sarah is nine months pregnant with her first child. She receives a call from a woman who claims to have a baby shower gift of Sarah's.

[Sarah Brady]

A woman had indicated her name was Sarah Brody and that she believed she had mistakenly received a baby gift that belonged to me through an online registry. So she said that she'd done a little investigating on her own, and with my name being Sarah Brady and her name being Sarah Brody, she believed that the packages belonged to me. So we made arrangements to meet at her apartment for me to pick up the package.

[Narrator]

Sarah retrieved the package from the woman and promptly returned home. A few hours later, the woman called Sarah back, saying another package had arrived.

[Sarah Brady]

We had a pretty lengthy conversation that evening. She had talked to me about how she had become pregnant, how her and her husband had moved here from another state, how she didn't have any friends here because they were new. She was very descriptive about her life and how her life was and how happy she was to be pregnant. And she told me, you know, she was being induced the next Day the.

[Narrator]

Woman insisted that Sarah pick up her second package the following morning.

[Sarah Brady]

My husband actually came home that evening and I was able to show him the gifts that I received earlier that day from her. He thought, well, here you might find some lady that you can be friend that's pregnant having babies right at the same time. Neither one of us ever suspected anything. And the weird part of it all is that my brother in law, he had seen this package that night and said, I don't want you to go back over there. And I said, what is wrong with you? Why do you think everybody's out to do something bad? Here's a nice lady who went and tracked me down to try to give me my gifts back.

[Narrator]

The woman says she's getting induced and insists Sarah retrieve her gifts immediately.

[Sarah Brady]

I kept urging her like, maybe we should wait, you're being induced today. It's not that big of a deal to me, you know, I'm fine without it. But she was very insistent that I come get it. So I went on, got dressed and I went to her house that morning. I probably arrived to her house sometime around 10 o'. Clock. When I got there, the strange thing was that she was actually waiting inside the doorway of the apartment building. I was just kind of like, okay, she's waiting inside. She must be very anxious for me to come and, you know, get this out of her way. So I walked into the apartment with her and behind me she had locked the front door. And the first thing she had said to me was, you know, I hope that doesn't weird you out. There's an elderly lady upstairs and she's kind of nosy and I don't want her to be in my business. So I lock the door. The one thing that offset me right away was that her husband wasn't at home.

[Narrator]

The woman had told Sarah her husband would be home and was excited to meet her.

[Sarah Brady]

And that's the first thing that kind of offset me. But still I was just like, okay, well, I kept telling her, all right, well, I'm going to let you go. I'm going to take this home. I got some errands to run. And she had kept pressing me to stay. She says, why don't you take a tour through my apartment. When we entered her bedroom, the first thing that I noticed on her dresser was a magazine cover. And it had been torn out and framed and it was actually the Women of Sex and the City. And all their faces were scratched out and different names were written above them. And one of them was Sarah and about that same time, as I'm noticing that picture, she says to me, why are you carrying around your car keys? Are they your security blanket? I think, who says that?

[Narrator]

By now, Sarah had her baby gift and had been trying to leave for 30 minutes.

[Sarah Brady]

And as we were leaving the bedroom, I noticed an inhaler on our nightstand that said Katie Smith.

[Narrator]

The woman had told Sarah her name was Sarah Brody.

[Sarah Brady]

I thought, okay, so, like, all these different things are going on in my mind, and I'm not really sure how to piece them together. But as we're leaving her bedroom, she drops to the floor, screaming in pain as if she's in labor. So everything that I've seen up to this point or that has made me uncomfortable, I kind of push to the back of my mind because here's this woman going into labor. So I help her up and I get her to the bathroom, and I tell her, you need to make sure your water hasn't broken. You know, we need to call the doctor here. I'm frightened. I've never had a child of my own before. I'm scared to death. She's moaning in pain, leaned over on top of me. There's barely any room in this bathroom for either one of us to move. And at that point is when I became frightened because she was, like, literally gripping my arms. And she just looked up with this almost demonic look in her face. And it was just like everything changed. It was like the person that I had met the day prior and had been talking to suddenly wasn't the person that was standing before me. Every hair on my body stood up. And I just thought, my God, something's really bad wrong. I don't know what it is, but I gotta get out of here.

[Narrator]

Pregnant Sarah pulled herself free from the woman's grip and headed for the front door.

[Sarah Brady]

I thought to myself, now what do I do? This is my opportunity to leave. Or do I make sure she gets help? So of course, I'm yelling out to her, making sure she's okay. And she comes right back into the living room.

[Deann]

Let's.

[Sarah Brady]

Like she had not just been moaning in pain and on the ground crying. And I said, did your water break? Nope, I don't think so. And I said to her, well, I haven't had a child before, but I'm pretty sure you will know when your water breaks. And I said, I think you need to call your doctor.

[Narrator]

The woman went into her bedroom and pretended to call her doctor. Sarah could tell she was faking, but did not yet know why.

[Sarah Brady]

I Became kind of assertive at that point, because I was angry. I was offended.

[Deann]

I was.

[Sarah Brady]

I was angry, and I was uneasy, and it was time for me to go. So she goes into her dining room. She brings back these coupons for me, Keeps insisting on trying to keep me there. And at this point, I'm like, okay, I'm leaving. Thank you for the coupons. I have to go. Well, on the back of one of them, it said, especially for Katie Smith. So I'm like, okay. The inhaler on the nightstand says Katie Smith. The coupons say Katie Smith. And she's telling me her name, Sarah Brady. But nothing up to this point, nothing's in sequence. Nothing is right. Something is so wrong. And who is this woman standing in front of me? And as I tried to leave, she kept insisting on giving me a hug. And I'm literally pushing her off of me as she's trying to hug me. And that's when she pulled out the knife. She pulls out the knife. It's leaning over top of her head. I have no real time to have any thought process. I mean, it may have been three seconds, and I literally just reached up and knocked it out of her hand. The first thing that she said to me was, you're not going anywhere, you effing bitch. And once the knife hit the ground and she realized, hey, it's not in my hand anymore. She literally. I was leaning back against a loveseat, and she flips me over it.

[Narrator]

Pregnant Sarah landed on her stomach. The woman then jumped onto Sarah's back.

[Sarah Brady]

She was actually on top of me, hitting me on the head with some type of. It was like a round glass dish, like a candy dish. And I'm thinking to myself, I'm gonna die. I'm going to lay here on this ground, and I'm gonna die. I'm laying there, and I'm seeing pictures of my now husband at the time and my stepson and my mom and my grandparents and everybody that I loved and my friends and my family. And I'm thinking, I'm not gonna lay on this ground and die, and I am not letting her take my child's life. So I pulled everything I had and threw her off. Literally threw her off my back. And she hit the ground. And I went running to the front door and got it unlocked. And I made it to the front of the apartment building itself. And at that point, I was trying to get the front door open, and I couldn't get the glass of the screen. And I feel her breath on the back of my neck. And I'm thinking to myself, oh, my God, I've made it this far. I just have to get out this door. I get out this door, I'm gonna be outside, and somebody's gonna find me. She starts banging my head against the glass door, and she wraps her arm around my neck and takes the other one and just literally pulls me back here. I. I'm huge. I'm nine months pregnant. I'm a week overdue. And she's literally dragging me back in. That's how much strength she had. And she's screaming into my ear, you effing bitch. Nobody can hear you. Quit screaming. You're not going anywhere. I'm thinking to myself, my God, what is this woman doing to me? And she pulls me back through the hallway, and I'm kicking and screaming and scratching at the walls, and she finally. I just. I lose my strength, and she breaks me through the door and slams it and gets me back down on the ground. But this time, I really start to fight back. I start throwing punches myself, and I think my motherly instinct kicked in, and I thought, no, you're not hurting my child. You can hurt me, but you're not going to hurt her. I was actually on top of her at one point, and I was hitting her as hard as I could, hoping to knock her literally out so that I could get out of the apartment and be free. And as I get off of her, she just jumps up off the ground. And I'm thinking, my God, I didn't knock her out. And she just gets closer to me and closer to me, and she starts brushing the hair out of my face. And at this point, all I want to do is throw up, because I am just overwhelmed with emotion and pain, and I'm sorry.

[Narrator]

And.

[Deann]

So she starts to brush the hair from my face.

[Sarah Brady]

And she says to me, you're not going anywhere, but I won't hurt you. You just sit here. We have to clean up my apartment before my husband gets back. And I'm thinking to myself, does this woman have split personalities? I mean, I have no. And I'm just begging her, and I'm pleading with her, please, just let's go to the hospital and check on our babies. I'm saying anything to her, thinking she'll go. And at that point, she pulls out the knife. And I said, katie, please.

[Narrator]

By now, Sarah knew the woman was Katie Smith, not Sarah Brody, as she claimed.

[Sarah Brady]

And when I caught her, Katie, she snapped. And she pulled out the knife, and she just came charging at me.

[Sherman]

With it.

[Sarah Brady]

And I grabbed the blade of the knife and I thought, as long as I hang onto the knife, she can't stab me with it. And I literally take my hands and just twist the blade until I'm able to get it loose from her. And I just started swinging the knife towards Katie, hoping not to stab her, not to hurt her, for her to back up so that I can get out. And she just keeps coming and coming. She just goes for it. And at that point is when I stabbed her.

[Narrator]

Sarah thought she had stabbed Katie in the shoulder.

[Sarah Brady]

She fell back in her love seat and the blood became immersed through her sweatshirt. She looked up at me and said, you stabbed me, you effing bitch. And at that point, I ran out of the apartment building screaming for help.

[Narrator]

Sarah flagged down a passing van, then blacked out on the curb. When Sarah came to the hospital, she was questioned by police.

[Sarah Brady]

The detectives came in and they asked me why I thought Katie was pregnant. And I told them because she was. I'm not crazy. I've seen her twice. I just was in, you know, an altercation with her. I know she was pregnant. And they said, well, we believe she might have been wearing something or maybe she had stuffed her shirt. They said, by the way, she didn't make it.

[Narrator]

Sarah unknowingly stabbed Katie in a major artery and Katie bled to death. Police found a maternity suit, an umbilical cord clamp, and a surgical kit in Katie's home. Authorities believe Katie had planned to kill Sarah and extract her unborn child.

[Sarah Brady]

The police found so many much overwhelming evidence she had faked that. They know of at least 11 pregnancies from the 8th grade on. She had faked stillborn deliveries. She had collected money for funerals. I mean, family members really thought she was pregnant. She had baby showers. She was a very psychotic person, but very articulate and very well spoken and knew exactly what she she was doing.

[Narrator]

A grand jury absolved Sarah of any crime and deemed Katie's death an act of self defense. Sarah is now the proud mother of Michaela Grace.

[Sarah Brady]

I wholeheartedly believe that I survived because of my daughter. I believe that she gave me the strength with God to prevail. And instead of becoming a victim, I became a survivor. And I have to be a survivor for my daughter. That's the whole reason I survived was because of her.

[Sherman]

On January 9, Greenland 2 is making an impact across the globe. Hang on. Audiences rave. It's deeply emotional and better than the first. I wanted you beginning first. You'll be holding your breath. From start to finish, I got the something. Greenland 2 migration rated PG 13.

[Narrator]

It's September 2008. Sherman and his wife Deanne live in a small beach town on the gulf coast of Texas. Hurricane ike, a Category 3 storm, is expected to hit there within several hours.

[Sherman]

Ike was coming in. When we realized it was actually going to hit the peninsula, I knew we were in trouble. I knew it was going to be a really, really bad storm. Otherwise we wouldn't have, you know, tried so hard to leave.

[Deann]

We were prepared to leave and the reason we didn't get out because by the time we were getting ready to get out, the water was coming up and it came up so fast that we, I mean we looked out and it was just there. The ocean was in our yard.

[Narrator]

The hurricane touched down hours earlier than expected with winds over 100 mph. Sherman and Deann were stuck in their house which sat atop 16 foot pilings near the shore.

[Deann]

Before we could get the two 16 year old dogs, the big birds up in the attic, little crawl space, attic. The first wave hit.

[Narrator]

The couple had two dogs, two cats and an aviary full of birds.

[Sherman]

The water now is 20ft deep from the ground, but the wave was like 15 to 20ft on top of this water. The wave actually hit the eaves of our house. It was kind of like a bulldozer going through the house.

[Deann]

It came through the living room wall, took the whole living room wall out the living room, all of us. We went up against the other side of the house.

[Sherman]

The water's just totally unstoppable. It moved everything. It pushed the walls in, pushed the floor completely out from under the front of the house.

[Deann]

And it was like at that point we knew we were there for the long haul. We weren't going anywhere. Just grab what you could do, get and go up in the attic because we had nowhere else to go.

[Narrator]

All roads out were completely underwater.

[Sherman]

From up in the attic we could look down and see the water and the waves actually washing through. We could see like two or three foot breakers like you would see at the beach in the hallway and coming through the bathroom in the back bedroom just like you were sitting at the beach.

[Deann]

This went on for hours and hours.

[Narrator]

Just.

[Deann]

I can't even tell you how it felt to be in that dark attic with a flashlight. The ladder is down and I'm hanging off this rafter and watching the waves wash through my house and you're hearing the glasses breaking and it sounds like a war zone and all I'm doing, I'm Praying dear Lord, please don't let this house fall. Don't let this house fall.

[Narrator]

Hurricane Ike rips through their beachfront town with 135mph winds. The couple are trapped in their attic as 20 foot swells crash through their home below.

[Deann]

Right before we went up, the last three people, I talked to my granddaughter and she's just crying her eyes out. What are you gonna do, Momma Dee? What are you gonna do, baby? There's nothing we can do except go up in the attic. That's all we can do.

[Sherman]

When we first got into the attic, we knew we didn't have the things we needed to survive because they were already gone. But we had flashlights and we sat and looked down through the hole where the ladder goes up and down and that's where you could actually see the waves coming through. Just like sitting at the beach, you expected to see seashells and small children with umbrellas. It was the ocean right there in your house.

[Deann]

It sounded like a war zone.

[Ellen]

It was horrible.

[Deann]

And the waves were just going through the house. I don't know how to explain it to you except that how I felt at that moment was, okay, fine, Lord God, I know the house is gone, but can we please live? Just let us live. Just don't let it fall. And that was my prayer. Father God, hold this house up. Don't let it fall.

[Narrator]

Deann and Sherman clung to the attic rafters, racing for the eye of the storm.

[Sherman]

When the eye hit, it's just a sudden drop. It's like all of a sudden you went deaf instantly and there's not a sound. I mean, there's no wind, there's no waves, there's not one sound. It's just total, absolute dead.

[Deann]

And I just looked at Sherman and I said, it's over. And he said, no, baby. We got the backlash.

[Narrator]

Though the couple had made it through the eye of the storm, the back end was yet to hit.

[Sherman]

Our biggest fear was the fact that when the storm came back the other way, it would finish tearing the house down. With 140 mile an hour winds and the water 20, 20 something foot deep, there was just, there's no possibility you could survive.

[Narrator]

135 mph winds picked up again and began lifting the couple's home off its foundation.

[Sherman]

When the rafters started raising up right when the storm came back, my wife asked me what we were going to do and I told her, well, now we're probably going to die.

[Deann]

And I told him then I said, it's been a good 25 years. I love you and I'll see you in heaven. And we were pretty sure we were going to die at that point. We knew we were going to die.

[Narrator]

The couple clings to the rafters through the night praying they will survive.

[Deann]

I didn't think it was ever going to stop. And I kept. And I kept praying, just let the daylight come. I just. Somehow or another in my mind I thought if the light would just come, everything would be okay.

[Narrator]

The storm had finally passed. At 8am the next morning.

[Sherman]

I came down from the attic about probably 9 o' clock in the morning. It was like you were on the seashore after a storm. But it was in our house. It took several hours to clear a path, pushing stuff out of the way and scraping stuff out of the way to get into the living room. And there was our love seat sitting there in the living room floor. But you could see the ocean all around it.

[Deann]

We watched guitars floating and keyboards floating and cages floating. And we just watched our world floating out there in the ocean and everybody else's too.

[Narrator]

All that was left of Sherman and deann's home was its foundation.

[Sherman]

It was just total devastation. It was kind of a cross between Disneyland and Vietnam. The block of houses across the canal from us just wasn't there. There was no debris, there was no house pilings left standing. There was no slabs, there was nothing. It was just. It was like they were ready to start construction on a new place.

[Deann]

There was not a living soul that I saw, not one living soul really. It made you feel like you were the only person left alive on earth. It really did.

[Narrator]

Sherman and deann had only enough food and water to last a few days.

[Sherman]

There's no green grass, there's no green tree leaves, there's no green weeds. It's all brown dead.

[Deann]

We had dead cows in the field and horses and cats and dogs and they were just dead everywhere. And it was bad. And you know, I'm thinking, well, what are we gonna do? We can't survive here.

[Sherman]

When I first tried to leave the house, the front of the house, the floor fell completely out from under me and I had to ride it down to the ground. And I stuck a piece of wood into my hand. I didn't realize it at the time. I thought it was a big raw place and I couldn't straighten my wrist out. It was just locked in one place and it wouldn't move.

[Narrator]

Sherman fell 16ft to the muddy ground below. A 2 inch piece of wood was wedged in his wrist.

[Sherman]

But at the Time. I didn't have time to worry about it. I was on a mission. I had to find food and water.

[Deann]

He said, dm, we gotta have some water. That sounded like we can survive. And he said, I'm gonna go look for water.

[Narrator]

Sherman walked over a mile through sludge and debris in search of clean water.

[Sherman]

I came to this little local store we had up there, but it had blown the back wall out of this store. And here were these gallon jugs of water laying out back. So I rescued 10 of them and realized I couldn't carry 10 jugs of water.

[Deann]

He found a T shirt up there in a tree, and he pulled the T shirt off the tree and put 101 gallon jugs of water. And he's trying to pull it home now. He's gonna pull it through this mud and this sludge. He's gonna get us some water home.

[Sherman]

So I drug him a mile and a half back to the house. And just before I got to the house, I thought I was getting my second wind. I was real proud of myself. It was getting easier to drag these things until I got to the house and found out there was only four of them had any water left in them.

[Deann]

But we did have four gallons of water, and it was covered in mud. And of course we had to get through that to get to the water, but we did.

[Narrator]

The couple had only enough food and water to last a few days. They had already been stranded without any sign of help for 48 hours. They had no access to their roof from the attic.

[Deann]

Sherman's hanging out the side of the house there, and a helicopter comes by, and this helicopter takes. And he's hanging there now up, waving at him, and they put this spotlight.

[Sherman]

On him, and I'm waving to him. I can see the guy. I can see his face.

[Deann]

And they hovered there for about five minutes, and then they just go away. Just go away. We just about give up. I said, well, Sherman, what are we going to do? Because that's my favorite thing. Sherman, what are we going to do? He said, well, Dan, I don't think they're going to look anymore. I think they're about through looking. And I said, don't you say that. I know God didn't save us for us to be stuck here. There's. Somebody's going to come.

[Narrator]

A few hours later, Sherman heard a helicopter overhead.

[Sherman]

I ran downstairs, down the ladder and out into the front of the yard. Took my T shirt off and I just stood there and waved it till my arm about fell off.

[Deann]

He was out There with his t shirt, just waving at anybody and everybody that come by. Finally, a medic copter saw him.

[Narrator]

The medical helicopter landed on a dry patch of land nearby.

[Deann]

And this little guy jumps out with this big old pack over his back, and he's running toward him, and he's running toward him.

[Sarah Brady]

He's.

[Deann]

Well, I wished I could have had it on camera. Sherman told me then he said, that's the closest I ever come to kissing a man. And he had tears in his eyes because he was really tired. He had been trying so hard to keep us alive, and he's about to give up. He didn't think we was going to get rescued either.

[Narrator]

The helicopter left the couple behind to rescue others, but radioed for help. Two hours later, a rescue boat arrived and took sherman and deanne to dry ground.

[Deann]

They're saying there's a little over 300 that are still missing and not accounted for. There were so many people down there on that beach. I can't put a number on it. We were there for 25 years. It's a lot of people.

[Narrator]

Over 15,000 Crystal beach residents were displaced from their homes. Sherman and deann relocated to granbury, texas.

[Sherman]

The memories are still there. It was home, and you knew everybody, and that's a little hard to get over.

[Deann]

I survived because God's not through with me yet. Seriously, that is the reason that I survived.

[Sherman]

I survived because God's not through punishing my wife yet. Actually, we survived because we worked at it. We worked at it real hard.

[Narrator]

It's September 1986 in Austin, Texas. Ellen lives in an affluent area in the hills outside of austin. Ellen's husband and children were gone for the day. She was home alone.

[Ellen]

I got up, had a very busy day. I sat around, read the newspaper, drank coffee for a little while, and then I decided I better get moving. So I went upstairs to where my bedroom was and took a shower, washed my hair, just the normal things that I would do in the morning. Stepped out of the shower, grabbed a towel, and as I was walking from my shower to my closet to get a rope, I spotted a man hiding in the corner of my bathroom. I couldn't believe what I saw. I saw a man dressed in a ninja suit. He had black things tied around his head. He had a black outfit on and even had gloves on his hands. The only thing that I could see was just the skin around his eyes and his eyes. He had his right hand held high up in the air. And in that hand was a big knife, a very big knife.

[Narrator]

The Masked attacker was holding a meat cleaver.

[Ellen]

At first I thought it was a joke. I don't know why, but I remember kind of laughing. And then I rolled into thinking, well, this is a nightmare. And I was telling myself, wake up, wake up, wake up. He began screaming at me to get on the floor, to get on the floor. And we. We actually tussled a little bit. He had that big knife in the right hand, but with the left hand, he was pushing on me. And we actually tussled some, and we moved out of the bathroom back into my bedroom. And at that point was when he backhanded me with his left hand and knocked me to the floor. But I got up again, and he backhanded me again and knocked me to the floor. But I was not going to stay on that floor. I got up and I went over and sat on the edge. The bottom edge of my bed.

[Narrator]

Ellen was naked except for a towel wrapped around her.

[Ellen]

I began pulling my knees up to my chest, wrapping my arms around my knees somehow to kind of hide myself. My feet were hanging off the edge of the bed. And he took the big knife that he had in his right hand and he dragged it across my feet. I didn't know what he meant, but he said, I just want you to know that my knives are a lot sharper than your knives.

[Narrator]

He binds Ellen's hands behind her back and tapes her ankles together.

[Ellen]

He said, I want you to put your head down. I want you to look at your knees, and don't you raise your eyes up. In fact, you close your eyes and you leave your head like that until I tell you that you can move. So I did. He took off his mask, and he tied his mask on my face so I could not see him. And he said, you know what? It's a shame you can't see me. I am half black and half white, and I am a very handsome man. After he tied his mask on my face, he just began walking, walking and pacing. He began asking me how much money I had. How much money do you have in the bank? How much money do you have at your office? You have a beautiful house. You must have a lot of money. I offered to drive him to the bank, and I could write a check and he could get every single penny out of the bank. I said everything that I could think of at the time to say, to try and not have him so angry with me. And he kept telling me, you're going to have a bad accident, lady. A bad accident. He told me he was a Drifter. He'd been on the road for two months. He told me he'd been in my house for two days. He told me about things that had gone on in my house while he was there. Because he was in the attic and he was listening to everything. He knew my husband was going to play golf and that he wouldn't be back until the middle of the afternoon. He knew my son was at school that day. And he wouldn't be home till the middle of the afternoon.

[Narrator]

Ellen had no way to persuade the attacker to leave.

[Ellen]

It was about that time that he told me what he was going to do to me next. He was going to rape me. Those weren't the words he used, but I remember begging him. I remember crying and sobbing and begging him, please don't do this. I'm a Christian. Please, please, please don't do this. He told me that no one would ever catch him. Didn't matter what he did to me. He cut the tape around my ankles, and he told me to get back on the bed. I had a hard time doing that. I didn't want to get back on the bed. But he kept yelling at me, get back on the bed. Get back on the bed. Until my head was near the top of the bed. I was crying. And then he raped me. When the rape was over, he told me how much he had enjoyed it. After that, he bound my ankles together again. My hands were still bound behind my back, and I had on blindfold. He left me on the bed, and he went and took a shower.

[Narrator]

The attacker had now been terrorizing Ellen for an hour.

[Ellen]

While he was taking that shower and I was lying on the bed, I kept wondering, is there anything I can do? I mean, I could only hop. I didn't have my hands. I was blindfolded. I just. I didn't do anything. I knew I couldn't get away, and I was afraid he would kill me instantly if I tried.

[Narrator]

After he showered, the attacker put his ninja suit on and approached Ellen on the bed.

[Ellen]

He cut my hands apart and showed me a check that he had written for $600. And he told me he wanted me to sign it. So he had me sign it. And then he told me his name so I could write his name in.

[Narrator]

Ellen made the checkout to Troy Eugene Wigley. The attacker then tied Ellen's hands and made her go into the bathroom.

[Ellen]

He told me he wanted me to lie face down on the floor, but he wanted me on my knees with my face against the floor like a fetal position. I didn't know what was going on. I had no idea what was going to happen. The next thing I knew, I felt a horrendous blow to the right side of my head. I didn't know what had happened. He hit me with something. He knocked me completely over. When I was lying on my side, I felt him stab me in my left breast. He straightened me up, and the next thing I knew, there was another blow to the right side of my head. The same as the one before. And he'd knocked me over again.

[Narrator]

The attacker was smashing Ellen's head with a hammer. He then pulled out his knife again.

[Ellen]

And then he stabbed me two times in the back of my neck. Two quick stabs, in and out, in and out. The next thing I knew, he had taken his knife and he was trying to stab it through my skull. But he couldn't. The knife wouldn't go in. So he got his hammer and he hammered his knife into my skull. He may have hit me in the head with a hammer again, I don't know. But I will never forget when he wanted to get the knife out and he couldn't get it out. That he put his foot on the top of my head. And he shook my head around like a rag doll. As he was trying to get that knife out of the top of my head.

[Narrator]

Ellen was going in and out of consciousness, lying in a pool of blood.

[Ellen]

There was some time that passed after that. I didn't know where he was. And I remember that I turned my head to look, but I could see back in my bedroom. And I saw him in there. He was not in his outfit anymore. And he screamed, put your head back down again. And he came in and he hit me in the head with that hammer one more time. Well, I knew he wanted me dead. And I didn't move after that. He came over to me and pulled my left hand up. And he was trying to get my wedding rings off. He couldn't get them off. And I remember thinking, oh, my God. Oh, my God, he's going to cut my fingers off. And I remember thinking, God help me. And God did.

[Narrator]

The attacker got Ellen's wedding rings off and left the room.

[Ellen]

I was scared to move or even try to move because I didn't know where he was. But I was so cold. I had lost so much blood. And I knew I was gonna die. I knew I was gonna die if I didn't get help. I still didn't know if he was there. I didn't know if he was gonna pop out any minute with his knives and hammer. I didn't know. I just knew that my instinct for survival was telling me I had to get help. Of course I couldn't stand up and I remember that I tried to pull myself along the floor. I actually slithered out of my bathroom through my bedroom and I slid down a flight of stairs to the floor below.

[Narrator]

Ellen felt her way to a phone and called her parents. Parents. Ellen's parents called an ambulance and rushed to her home.

[Ellen]

I don't remember anything after I made that telephone call until I heard my father scream when he saw me on the floor. I remember hearing the EMS personnel talking and they said they didn't think I was going to make it. I couldn't say anything, but I remember thinking to myself, oh you bet I'm going to make it. That was the first time I knew absolutely I was going to make it. This man was not going to take my life.

[Narrator]

Ellen was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery. She had deep stab wounds in her breast, back, back and head and required over 600 stitches.

[Ellen]

When I saw my family again, I was just so grateful that I was alive. I wasn't sure how I lived through that.

[Narrator]

18 year old Troy Wigley was convicted of aggravated robbery and sentenced to life in prison. Ellen made a full recovery. She is now the director of the Victim Witness division of the DA's office in Austin, Texas.

[Ellen]

I survived because I wasn't ready to go. I had the strength to make it and I pulled on that strength many, many times during this ordeal. I wasn't ready to go.

[Sherman]

Joy to the World.

[Sarah Brady]

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[Sherman]

Ted, The Expendables and so much more on Pluto TV. Stream now. Pay Never.

[Narrator]

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[Sarah Brady]

Go to VRBO now and book a last minute week long stay and save.

[Audible Narrator]

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