Narrator (2:36)

I survived. It's July 2007 in West Palm Beach, Florida. 27 year old Jessica has just moved into her own apartment. Her parents have an apartment in the same complex.

Jessica (2:54)

We have an extremely close family, so it didn't bother me too much to live close to them. And it was a nice apartment at the time, really, really nice apartment. So kind of felt lucky that I had this great one bedroom apartment all to myself.

Narrator (3:10)

One evening, Jessica's air conditioning unit broke down.

Jessica (3:13)

It was after hours and you call the apartment complex and they dispatch one of the maintenance men to come out and fix it. I happened to be on the phone with a girlfriend of mine at the time and I saw him pull up and I saw which maintenance man it was and I said to her, please don't get off the phone with me. This guy kind of creeps me out. I've never spoken to him or anything, but I've seen him around the complex and just stay on the phone with me. I saw these men every day. He was the only one that would never look at me, never say hello to me. It was just something creepy about him. Came in, asked a couple of questions about the ac, fixed it, and off he went.

Narrator (3:54)

A few weeks later, Jessica woke up to the sound of keys in her door.

Jessica (3:58)

The first thought was, my mother and father are the only ones that have keys to my apartment. But why would they be coming over? It was about 2:30 in the morning. I saw a man enter into my bedroom. And I had stepped up out of the bed, he had a machete in his hand and he had pushed me face down onto the bed. And he had the machete to my throat. And the blinds, although closed, the street lights from the parking lot would still shine in and kind of cast enough light to where you could actually clearly see him. He was way over six feet and a big, stocky, stocky guy.

Narrator (4:35)

Jessica realized he was the man who had fixed her air conditioner.

Jessica (4:40)

I knew immediately who he was, although you question it, you know, because you're half asleep and you're also saying, this can't be real. My dog, I have a little dog. She was still on the bed and he went ahead and he started to roll her up in my sheets. And I thought he had actually slit my dog's throat. Oh my God, he just killed my dog. This is a bad situation. If he was capable of killing my dog, this 10 pound little dog, what is he gonna do to me now. I really thought that he had killed her. I thought he had just sliced her throat and that she. She was dead. He put the machete to my throat. He grabbed my wrist behind my back and he threw me onto the bed. And he said, give me all your money. Where is all your money? And he had zip tied my hands behind my back and had picked me up and tried to find my purse in my bedroom. I realized that the right zip tie was loose and I could pull my wrist out of the zip tie. I knew it wasn't the right time to do it. I still had to get out the front door and down two flights of stairs. So I slid my wrist through the zip tie and I waited until the next step, until I knew that I would have an opportunity to run. He opened up the front door and he led me down the two flights of stairs. We got to my car, he opened up the passenger side door and he had me sit inside. As he closed the door, I took the opportunity to take my hand out of the zip tie. And as he walked around the car and sat down into the driver's seat and closed the door, I opened up the car and I took off running. I was just screaming, yelling at the top of my lungs. And I just remember looking up and at all of the windows going, please, somebody, come on, somebody hear me. And as I was running, you know, obviously you look back to see how close he is. And he grabbed me from behind and he grabbed me by my mouth. He had shoved his hands and his fingers into my mouth. And he grabbed me by my jaw and kind of pulled me around and he zip tied my hands behind my back again. He had pulled them extremely tight that time around. And then he pulled off one of his gloves and he shoved his glove into my mouth. I didn't think about screaming. I had already seen what happened when I fought back. And I was afraid of what would happen next. He started the car up. He said, now that you've run, you're going to have made this worse. I know you know who I am. From the moment he entered the apartment, I recognized him. And I knew for sure he was the maintenance man. And I just looked straight ahead and I said, no, sir, I'm sorry. I haven't looked at you and I don't recognize your voice. I guess he believed me. He wound up going to the. To the very back of the complex. And he stopped in a parking lot, pulled me out of the car, and he led me to a first floor apartment.

Narrator (7:28)

The man used his master keys to unlock the door.

Jessica (7:32)

The door opened and he turned me to the door and he pushed me in. And it was actually an empty apartment. No furniture, nothing in it. He told me to take off my shorts. My hands were tied behind my back. I was not able to. So he wound up having to pull off my shorts and my underwear and he told me to lay down. He then took his pants off and he raped me on the floor in that apartment. I am going to die here. And I just remember thinking, please just let. Let my body be found. Let. Let my parents have closure. I was okay with dying. I just. I wanted it to be quick and easy and I wanted to make sure that my parents. I just. I wanted them to have closure. I thought there would be nothing worse than not knowing. Took me back to his car, stuck me in the passenger side. He got into the driver's side and just started leaving the complex. My arms are tied behind my back. The zip tie on the right side was in incredibly tight. The swelling on my hand had gotten so bad that I had asked him, please just take this one off. I don't care if you put another one back on, but take this one off, please. I can't handle this pain anymore. He pulled the car over onto the side of the road and he pulled out a saw blade. And he was trying to get the saw blade inside the zip ties to cut it off. And when I pulled my hands forward, I saw that my wrist was bleeding. He had actually sliced my wrist. I was bleeding a considerable amount. I thought let me try to leave some markings of me behind. So I kept trying to put a little bit into the stitchings of the car, trying to leave some DNA anywhere that I could.

Narrator (9:29)

The man drove to an ATM and forced Jessica to withdraw $600. He then drove back to Jessica's apartment.

Jessica (9:36)

And he started to push me back up to the staircase to my apartment. I'd seen my door was cracked open still and my dog was actually sitting at the door. And I just remember thinking, oh my gosh, she survived. And it was a slight bit of a happy moment for me throughout everything that if I survived, so did my dog. Because I really thought that he had killed her. I thought he had just sliced her throat and that she was dead. He grabbed me and towards. Turned me towards him and started to stick his hands down the front of my pants. And you know, oh, you know, you like this, that kind of stuff. And he led me towards the bedroom and he proceeded to raped me again on the bed. My dog had Actually jumped up on the bed. We were sideways on the bed and she had jumped up on the bed and she was curled up next to my head. And I just remember turning towards her and just petting her, trying to take my mind off of what was happening. I guess that upset him a little bit. So he wound up just shoving her off the bed and she crawled under the bed and never came back out again. He proceeded to rape me in multiple ways. And then he finished, got up, told me to take a shower. And he sat on the toilet with the machete, just twirling the machete in his hand. And he said, what am I doing? Why am I doing this? And I said, just let me out now. Let me out here. And we will never, we will never talk of this again. I will never go to the police. Just let me out here. And he said, I can't do that. He had the machete in his hand. I knew there was still that opportunity that he could kill me here and just leave me here. I shut the shower off and he stood up and he said, we're cool, right? We're cool. And I said, yes, sir, we're cool. I'm not gonna tell. And he said, okay, well, I'm gonna leave $100 on your doorstep every Friday to pay you back for the money that I stole from you. And he walked out of the bathroom and out of my bedroom. My first thought was just to call my parents. So I quickly called my mother and I said, mommy, help me, I've been raped. As I saw them approaching, I grabbed the handle and I just opened up the door and I was hiding behind the door. And the look on my parents face when they walked in was just devastating. That my father was the first one to come through. And I think his facial expression will forever be embedded in my brain. My mother called 911 and the police were there almost immediately. I wanted to tell them every last thing. It was still fresh in my head. And I just started rattling off details. Paramedics had wound up coming in and they took me to the. To the local hospital and a rape kit was done. Two of the police officers that arrived to the scene actually lived in the apartment complex. One actually lived just a couple of doors down from me. So when I told them that it was that, I said, you know, I believe it's one of the maintenance men here. They said, which one? And I described them and they, they indicated that they knew who I was referring to. After my statement, the police had asked if I would drive around with them to try to find each of the locations to follow the path that he had taken me. Just as we were about to get into the car, they got a phone call to say the suspect is getting ready to get in the vehicle that we think was used. Would you ask the victim if she will come over and make a positive identification? I was just filled with panic. And I remember looking out the windshield and seeing his vehicle come into view. And I said, that's the car. That's the car. And just as he passed, I looked over and I said, oh, my God, that's him. And I hit the floor curled up in the backseat behind the car, hysterically crying. And the one detective said, that's enough of an ID for me.

Narrator (13:46)

Bobby Brumfield was charged with armed sexual battery, false imprisonment and burglary. He was sentenced to three life terms plus 32 years in prison.

Jessica (13:56)

Everybody that I met throughout this whole ordeal, the police, the paramedics, the victims advocates, everybody in the courts, said to me, we have never met anybody like you, Jessica. We walked through your apartment door and you said, sit down. I need to tell you what happened to me. I didn't do anything remarkable. I just did what I thought at the moment was the right thing to do. I survived because it just wasn't my time yet. I was lucky. I had gone through all of that horrible stuff in the matter of two and a half, three hours. But I was lucky enough to have come out alive during the course of the night. When I reacted to things, it's not that you plan them out. You don't say, well, if this happens, I'm gonna do this. It's just an opportunity presents itself and you take that opportunity and you do whatever you can. You can't pre plan what you're actually going to do. It's just you're faced with.

Narrator (14:57)

It doesn't always happen all at once. Debt kind of creeps in. It starts with a missed payment, then another notice, maybe a call. You push off. You tell yourself you'll catch up until suddenly you can't. And that's when it feels like the future you plan for slips right through your fingers. The truth is, debt doesn't leave fingerprints, but it can absolutely wreck lives. The good news? It doesn't have to end there. PDS debt has already helped hundreds of thousands of people get out from under credit cards, loans, even medical bills. And they can help you, too. What I love about PDS debt is that they don't just crunch numbers. They take the time to look at your unique financial situation and build a personalized plan just for you. There's no minimum credit score required, which means they meet you exactly where you are. Their focus is on helping you save more, pay off what you owe faster and and actually start putting money back where it belongs in your pocket. PDS Debt is a rated by the Better Business Bureau, has thousands of five star Google reviews and a five star rating on trustpilot. That's because what they're doing works. They've helped hundreds of thousands of people find a way forward. If you're feeling stuck, I recommend reaching out to PDS Debt because you deserve a plan and more than that, you deserve a fresh start. You're 30 seconds away from being debt free. Get your free assessment and find the best option for you right now@pdsdebt.com survived that's pdsdebt.com survived pdsdebt.com survived I survived is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart Choice. Progressive loves to help people make smart choices. That's why they offer a tool called Auto Quote Explorer that allows you to compare your Progressive car Insurance quote with rates from other companies so you save time on the research and can enjoy savings when you choose the best rate for you. Give it a try after this episode@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy it's September 1998 in Denali Highway, Alaska. It is the first day of Mark and Jeff's week long moose hunting trip. They're heading into a remote area of Alaskan bush.

Mark (17:14)

There's no roads, there's no trail, it's open country, it's bog, marsh, trees, rivers, creeks, lakes. We traveled the whole first day and we made it about probably what we imagined was halfway and we knew we had to go much further to get to where probably the moose were hanging.

Jeff (17:32)

And I think we made it probably about six or seven miles and it was starting to get late in the evening so we pitched the little pup tail, we had some food and stuff and we went to bed. The next morning we woke up, the mist was hanging in the valley over the lakes and it was real pretty and real quiet and we loaded the Argo and all of our supplies for, you know, seven, eight days.

Narrator (17:55)

An Argo is a six wheel drive all terrain vehicle.

Mark (17:59)

The Argo weighs 900 pounds. It's like a lawn tractor is what I like to refer to it as. But it's six wheels wheels, constant drive and It'll go a lot of places where a four wheeler won't.

Jeff (18:12)

Mark had never showed me how to drive the Argo, so he pretty much did all the driving. It's hard to steer and it's a lot different. You know, there's no steering wheel. You have two levers. I said, I'd like to drive this. And he says, yeah, we will when we get to a place that I can teach you. But that time never came because we.

Mark (18:31)

Were getting stuck continuously because it was bog and marsh and it had rained a lot and it was very wet.

Jeff (18:40)

A lot of times we'd use the winch on the Argo and then as Mark was winching us up, I would pick up the back of the Argo and get us out. But this happened time and time again.

Narrator (18:51)

At dusk on the second day, Mark and Jeff stopped and made camp.

Mark (18:55)

It gets dark about 9, 9:30 in September, so we knew we had a couple hours. And usually that's the best time to hunt.

Jeff (19:02)

We grabbed our stuff and we started walking towards a hill. We'll get up on that and we can look over the river bottom and scout for moose.

Mark (19:11)

I didn't have a round chambered and I had my gun on my shoulder.

Jeff (19:16)

Mark was just in front of me a few feet and to my right.

Mark (19:20)

As I was coming up over that knoll, the first thing I saw was that bear sitting there eating berries.

Jeff (19:28)

Mark said something and I looked at his face and I could see his eyes got big.

Mark (19:33)

And this was a big bear. He was, I would say, 20 inches from ear to ear. He looked straight up at me and his eyes got gigantic. He went into attack mode and he came straight at me.

Jeff (19:48)

He was like 30ft away, but he was there in an instant. I mean, it was like two strides and he was on top of us.

Mark (19:57)

That bear was mean. You could tell right as soon as he looked at me, he immediately charged. It's like head on automobile crash where you have no time to react. Which way do I go? Do I go left? Do I go right? Hair was up on his back. You could see snot, like bulls in a bull fighting ring. I knew right away he was gonna attack me. I knew there was no running.

Jeff (20:25)

And I could see his claws. Cause each step he took coming down the hill was like slow motion. It was like snapshots.

Mark (20:33)

I knew there was gonna be no time to get a round chambered into my gun. I was carrying a.30 06, which is a sufficient round for any large game. But that's the first thing I thought Was my rifle. Felt like a BB gun.

Jeff (20:46)

As I was going backwards, I seen the flash of the bear go by. And that's when I realized, well, he's not on me now. I thought maybe he had overran me or something. And I was getting up, and that's when I heard Mark yelling.

Mark (21:00)

One of the last things I saw was Jeff falling into the bushes, my gun going up in the air, and the bear directly in front of me. And the first thing the bear tried to do was swipe at my feet to knock me off of my feet. His claws were completely out, just like what a cat would do when he's striking at a bird. He grabbed my leg with his mouth and he flipped me over on my back. I turned my head as fast as I could and he grabbed onto the back of my head and he forced me into the ground. Stood on top of me and he just started to chaw away on my head.

Jeff (21:32)

The bear had Mark's head in his mouth and was shaking him around. It looked like almost like an anaconda swallowing a mouse.

Mark (21:41)

I thought that I was gonna die. I was gonna be killed right here. This bear was gonna eat me. All I heard was the crunching, the snapping, the bone crunching and all that going on. My face was being pushed into the ground. I was trying to cover up the back of my head and I could feel his snout with my hands.

Jeff (22:02)

Bear was there to kill Mark. He wasn't there to slap him around, he was there to eat him.

Mark (22:07)

And all the time I just kept thinking, shoot him, shoot him, shoot him, shoot him.

Jeff (22:13)

There was no shooting the bear before he got to us. I mean, it wasn't an option at that time. And then after he had grabbed Mark, just the strength of this bear picking up a full grown man by the head and shaking him around is just unreal.

Mark (22:29)

You could feel the tongue and you could feel the teeth. You could feel everything about it. He was trying to rip my head off.

Jeff (22:35)

It was a vicious attack. He was tearing him up and shaking him around all in one motion. I pulled my rifle up and just as soon as it got there, I leveled it and I shot. And the bear fell over.

Mark (22:48)

All of a sudden, all the pressure was off. And I thought to myself first was, there's no way this bear could have died with one shot. Because I had been on a hunt before and I had seen bears that took three, four, five shots to put down.

Jeff (23:03)

I wasn't even looking at the bear anymore. I looked right at Mark and I was just. I was tunnel vision. I couldn't see anything around me but a bear. And I could see Mark standing there with blood all over. And I could see his left ear was dangling down here, just hanging by a little thin piece of skin. I could see part of the eardrum, and I could see his ear canal in his ear. Without the ear. I mean, it was almost like somebody had shaved it right off of his head.

Mark (23:31)

So I just immediately put my hand up to my ear and. And just started saying to Jeff, shoot him again, shoot him again. Thinking that because you could tell he.

Jeff (23:40)

Wasn'T dead, Mark was saying, shoot him again, shoot him again. I shot again. I went up behind him and I shot him right at the base of the skull to separate his spine. That way I knew he wasn't going to follow us back to camp or get up again.

Narrator (23:55)

Jeff had to help an injured Mark walk half a mile back to their camp.

Jeff (24:00)

I tore the camp apart looking for the great first aid kit that we had brought, which I then realized that we didn't have it and we didn't pack it. So as Mark was leaning up against the back of the Argo, I told him, I said, I need to see your wounds, to see what we're dealing with.

Narrator (24:14)

Jeff was a trained emt.

Mark (24:17)

He said, I need you to take your hand down from your ear. So I did this real fast because it felt like my ear was gone. There was nothing there. And as soon as I did that, he said, oh, no. And I was like, jeff, you do not need to tell me that. I don't need to know how bad it is. And he says, yes, you do, because it's bad and we need to get out of here.

Jeff (24:39)

I got his ear back up. I pulled it, put it into place, and I told him to hold it. And then I looked at the top of his head. He had a cut from ear to ear across the top of the head. So I'd taken my fingers and scattered down between the scalp and the skull and pulled it back to where it should be. And then I would fold paper towels and make bandages out of them and placed them on his head and his ear, and I wrapped him up with electrical tape.

Narrator (25:04)

Jeff did not know how to operate the Argo, so Mark had to drive.

Mark (25:08)

When we left the campsite, we had a long way to go, and I knew that it was going to be tough. It was just basically open country. We talked about maybe running into another bear, possibly in the middle of the night.

Jeff (25:26)

It was dark by now, and I had a spotlight in one hand and I had My rifle in the other hand. Mark was driving really fast and I told him, I said, dude, you got to slow down because if this thing breaks then I'm either dragging you out or, or we're walking out of here.

Mark (25:45)

There were several creek crossings we had to make. That's where the bears liked to hang out around the creeks. And some of the creek crossings were really treacherous where not so much the water rushing, but coming out of the creek, very, very steep banks. And it was been really easy to flip the Argo over on top of us. It was very cold, I would estimate maybe 35 degrees. I was shivering uncontrollably. No matter how many coats or clothing I put on, I just couldn't stop shaking.

Jeff (26:15)

And I kept thinking, he's going to go into shock and I'm going to have to carry him out of here.

Mark (26:20)

I had towels wrapped on my head with electrical tape. And knowing the whole time my ear was dangling off of my head, knowing that you could see clean to my skull, I was frantic. It's pitch dark outside, all you can see is the stars. And then I hit a tree.

Jeff (26:41)

He hit a tree straight on with one of the tires and flattened the tire.

Mark (26:46)

I heard something go and it was a tire, but it's a six wheel vehicle so we still had five.

Jeff (26:53)

And I told him again, I'm like, mark, you gotta slow down. Well, Mark never slowed down. I mean he gunned it out of there the whole night. And we got onto the trail and then it was just a short time to the truck. It took us maybe, I don't know, 20 minutes, 30 minutes to get to the truck from there.

Narrator (27:08)

Seven hours after the attack, they reached the truck and Jeff took over the driving.

Mark (27:14)

The road was about 45 miles to the main highway, so we knew where the troopers were and that was basically our first focus. And we just, we were hauling, we were doing 45, 50 miles an hour down a road that you shouldn't be driving more than 25. And Jeff was driving the truck and we made it to the troopers.

Jeff (27:32)

The state trooper came out in his underwear and he had a pistol. And he comes looking out of the door and he says, what's going on out here? And that's when I yelled at him and told him, my friend's been mauled by a bear.

Narrator (27:44)

After a three hour ambulance trip, Mark finally made it to the hospital.

Mark (27:48)

There was seven or eight people around the emergency room. One of the first things I heard was, is that his eardrum? And when I heard that I thought, oh man, it Must really look. We'd been up for at least 36 hours at this point in time. I was just tired, and they wanted to give me some morphine. I told him, I don't need any morphine. I really don't feel any pain anymore. I'm actually in pretty good shape.

Jeff (28:11)

They put him into surgery, and the doctor said, he's going to be in there about six or eight hours, and they're going to try and pull his ear back up to where it should be and reattach it and make sure there's no internal damage, and then sew up the back of his head and the top of his head. And I'm sure there was several hundred stitches that went into this ordeal.

Mark (28:32)

The next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital bed.

Jeff (28:36)

The doctor came out and got me and said, your friend would like to talk to you. So I went in to him and I grabbed his hand, and he says, jeff, thanks for saving my life. I had nothing to say. I was just like, you would have done the same for me.

Narrator (28:52)

Mark made a full recovery, and a week later was back fishing with Jeff. Mark and Jeff wanted to keep the bear that had almost killed them.

Mark (29:01)

Defensive life kills on bears or moose or wolves get confiscated by the state. All these bear hides are put up for auction in February at a thing called the fur rendezvous auction.

Jeff (29:16)

I thought, you know, we should have that. We deserve that bear.

Mark (29:19)

There was a giant pile of brown bear hides, 50 or 60 of them, and I didn't even know which one it was. I'd seen from pictures that Jeff got with the state troopers that it had a big scar on its nose. I bit on number 50, and even if it wasn't the right bear, we were still gonna get a bear. And we turned the head around, and it had this big scar on its nose, and that was the bear. And I was just amazing. I could pick that bear out just based on size and color of the hair.

Jeff (29:52)

I tried to hang it on the wall, but it won't fit on the wall without one of the paws going up on the ceiling. So I have it draped over, like, a cedar chest in my den. That bear was trying to survive just like we were. You know, we were out to try to feed our families. We were trying to get moose meat. He was trying to get meat to make the winner. The bear didn't do anything wrong. He was just being a bear.

Mark (30:16)

The troopers told me later that usually in these cases, the partner runs away and comes back 30 seconds, 60 seconds later, and it's too late. And that's one of the first things I told Jeff when I was in the hospital was thanks for saving my life.

Jeff (30:33)

I survived because I had a bullet in my gun and I made the right shot and we did what we had to do to get out that night.

Mark (30:43)

I survived because I had a partner that didn't run.

Narrator (30:52)

Finding the one can feel impossible, and in today's world, it's even harder. False profiles, Inaccurate pictures, Incompatibilities Ghosting on Dates Is this sounding familiar? But if you're ready to make your move to a new place, it doesn't have to feel like dating. All it takes is a simple search on apartments.com to find your perfect match. Whether you're looking for a three bedroom condo downtown, a two bedroom duplex in a quiet neighborhood, a cozy studio in a walkable city, or even a single family home in a cul de sac, you can find a place that checks all the right boxes. So whichever stage of life you're in, settle down in your perfect home by using apartments.com no more swiping and awkward first dates. Make it easier to get a place that gets you visit apartments.com, the place to find a place.

Jeff (31:43)

What if the stories of gods, angels and ancient technology weren't myths but memories of alien contact?

Jessica (31:51)

On Ancient Aliens, we investigate the evidence.

Jeff (31:54)

From mysterious ruins to strange celestial alignments.

Jessica (31:58)

Asking bold questions about humanity's origins.

Jeff (32:01)

Could visitors from the stars have influenced our greatest civilizations? Journey into the unknown and challenge what you think you know about history in episodes like Secrets of the Sumerians, Mysteries of the Maya, or the Chosen.

Jessica (32:16)

We are not Alone. Download Ancient Aliens every Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts.

Narrator (32:29)

It's November 1986 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 16 year old Carrie is jogging home from her part time job.

Kerry (32:36)

It was a Sunday evening. I had worked till approximately 5 o' clock at night, but it was November, so it tends to get darker early in November. I was two blocks or so away from home and suddenly I heard footsteps coming coming up from behind me. Which isn't unusual because there are a lot of joggers that jog the same road that I would. I had grown up there all my life. I felt very safe there. It didn't matter if it was daytime or nighttime, and because it was such a highly traveled area, I really didn't have any sense of fear or sense of being unsafe. Something told me though, just to glance behind me. Just take a look and see who's coming up behind you. And as the footsteps got closer, that's What I did, I turned my head to look behind me and suddenly there was a gloved hand over my mouth and a knife to my face. And the man said, if you scream, I will kill you. It was surreal. It was kind of like an out of body experience. Everything went by very slow. I couldn't see him. So your other senses tend to kick in. I could just smell. The gloves smelled dirty and the knife blade was cold. And I could smell the smell of stale beer or alcohol on his breath. I looked around and there was no one. That street was just vacant. No cars, no pedestrians, no people anywhere. And I knew I was in trouble. Then he had one hand. His left hand was over my mouth and his right hand had the knife to my cheek. And that is when he said, if you scream, I will kill you. His voice was calm, almost eerily calm. Almost as though this was something that he had done before. Almost as though he had this plan. He knew exactly where he was taking me. And that frightened me even more. He was approximately 6ft, 6ft, 2 inches tall maybe. He was very forceful. And I felt as though if I did try and run or I did try and fight him, that he would definitely be able to overpower me. I never saw him. Anytime that I would try and look back at him, he would yell at me very angrily and insistently, you know, don't look at me, turn around, don't look at me. He dragged me across the busy street that I would normally jog on. And he was taking me towards an alley all the time, saying, you know, if you scream, I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you. The houses and garages in this alley were friends of mine. It's where they lived. And so now I had another decision to make. Do I run, you know, to try and get into one of these houses? And if I do that and I ring the doorbell or pound on the door, is he then going to come with me and are they now going to be a victim? So I decided not to. I decided just to go with it. But then I see where I'm going next, which is even worse than the alley. And there's a lot of dense shrubbery in this area. And I thought to myself, he's going to rape me, he's going to kill me and it's going to be a long time before someone finds me there. He took me into the middle of that area, forced me to kneel down. I had a fanny pack. And he took the knife and he cut the strings of that and he proceeded to tie my hands behind my back and blindfolded me. Once he put the blindfold on, I couldn't see out, but I could see down. Of course, I wasn't going to tell him that, but it gave me a little sense of relief that I could at least see what was going on, you know, on the ground. He angrily said, don't you have any more than $10? And I said, no. But I was thinking to myself, I'm 16 years old. I'm not going to have anything more, more than $10. And he said to me, if you're lying, I'm going to kill you. I said, I'm not lying. Then, for whatever reason, he untied my hands. It was clear that he was going to have me perform oral sex on him. I'm still fully clothed, but I know this is going to happen. So I begin praying aloud. In a very intense situation like that, you swear you hear someone talking to you. And I believe that because I did hear someone talking to me that said, you're gonna be okay. Things are gonna be okay. He's telling me, shut up. Shut the f up. And it was at that point that this calm just came over me. I looked down, and I saw that he put down the knife. That was the first time I could actually see the size of. Of the knife. And it was a switchblade knife. It was about this big. We're facing each other, still kneeling. His pants are down to his knees. And I see the knife, and I know it's either him or me. And I'm not ready to go yet. I know I have one shot at this, and I have to be quick. So I grabbed the knife with both hands, and I stab him with it. I plunged the knife in until I could feel the bottom of my fists hitting his skin. And I just tore. I tore. I could feel the muscles tear, the skin tear, the tendons tear. And I dragged it till I couldn't go any further. It appeared I hit some, and it wouldn't allow me to go any further. Now I have a decision to make, because the knife is stuck in him, and if I keep the knife there too long, he's going to be able to get it. So I take the knife out of him, and I thrust it into the ground with both hands, and I hold onto it for dear life because I know if he gets this knife away from me, he's going to stab me, he's going to kill me. I'm holding the knife in the ground with both hands, and I'm still blindfolded, still can only see down. And he yelps out in pain, and he says to me, oh, you're gonna play rough, bitch. He started pounding me with his fist and striking me very hard in the side of my head. And I knew that I probably couldn't take many more hits without losing consciousness. So I took the knife out of the ground again and I stabbed him again, same thing. I plunged that knife in till my bottom of my fist hit his skin, and I just tore. I was hoping I would kill him. I thought for sure with the amount of cutting that I had done that he would be dead. And he wasn't. I heard him get up and try and grab his pants and pull them up, and I heard him running away. I pulled the blindfold down around my neck and I began running. I'm trying to scream, help me, help me. And I must have looked like a raving lunatic because I have a knife in one hand, I have this blindfold around my neck, and I'm beaten pretty badly. Two guys had pulled up in a car, and they looked at me just terrified. And he said, one of the guys said, we're here, we're going to help you.

Narrator (40:31)

Kerry's rescuers stayed with her until the police arrived.

Kerry (40:35)

When the police came and started doing their investigation, they were asking if I could identify him. I never got a chance to actually look at his face, but I did tell them, I know I stabbed him at least twice. The police received a call from one of the local hospitals that stated that there was a male in their emergency room seeking treatment for stab wounds. The man stated that he was in a bar fight earlier in the night. And the detectives looked at his clothing and said, well, there are no cut marks on your pants. So since when does someone get into a bar fight with their pants down? They were quite certain that that was the man that had attacked me, and they arrested him.

Narrator (41:24)

Martin S. Green was convicted of attempted first degree sexual assault. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison. In 1994, Kerry became a deputy sheriff.

Kerry (41:35)

One day I was getting ready to book in an inmate. It was Martin Sikarsky Green, the same guy that attacked me when I was 16. As part of the booking process, you have to ask the arrestee if they have any scars, marks or tattoos. I said, I don't need to ask if you have any scars, because I know you do. And he looked up at me, very cocky, and he said, how do you know that? And I said, because I put them there. I'd be lying if I didn't say that. I thought to myself, look, I overpowered you once, and I'm still in control now. I survived because I trusted my gut instinct to try anything I could to get out of that situation. That night, he was looking for another victim. That night, he got a fighter instead.

Jeff (42:29)

This September, CBS hits are streaming free on Pluto TV and coming in for this month only. Stream full episodes of Matlock.

Jessica (42:37)

I'm a lawyer. Like the old TV show Fire Country.

Jeff (42:40)

Elsbeth.

Kerry (42:41)

I do love a mystery.

Jeff (42:42)

NCIS Origins, Watson and Ghosts.

Narrator (42:46)

What the hell?

Jessica (42:47)

This is the most amazing site I've never seen.

Jeff (42:50)

All for free the CBS shows you love this month. Month only on Pluto tv. Stream now. Pain never.