I SURVIVED: I Could Hear My Heart Beating In My Eardrums

Summary

Title: Cold Case Files
Episode: I SURVIVED: I Could Hear My Heart Beating In My Eardrums
Host: Paula Barros
Release Date: May 31, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this intense episode of Cold Case Files, host Paula Barros delves into three harrowing survival stories that showcase the resilience and courage of individuals facing life-threatening situations. Through vivid narratives and personal testimonies, listeners are taken on a journey through moments of extreme fear, strategic calmness, and miraculous survival against the odds.

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1. Lori and Pat’s Abduction in Baja, Mexico

Timestamp: [01:50 - 16:24]

Narrative Summary

Lori and Pat, an experienced couple with over 150 trips to Baja and 13 for Lori, find themselves lost while searching for a beachside campground in October 2007. As daylight fades, they realize the dangers of being stranded in a remote area with their large RV.

• Directional Errors and Decision-Making:

  • After taking incorrect directions, they lose approximately an hour and a half of daylight ([02:24 - 03:21]).
  • Faced with the peril of navigating unfamiliar terrain at night, they decide to stay near the beach, believing it safer than attempting to drive through potentially hostile areas ([04:46 - 05:01] Pat).

• The Attack:

  • While enjoying a quiet moment by the RV, two heavily built men in ski masks forcibly enter ([05:05 - 07:16]).
  • Pat is held at gunpoint, and Lori is subjected to a terrifying assault without any resistance ([07:21 - 11:07] Pat & Lori).

• Survival and Escape:

  • Despite the trauma, the couple remains calm, avoiding any resistance ([15:20 - 15:49] Pat & Lori).
  • They utilize the opportunity to flee, driving swiftly towards the border, narrowly escaping their assailants ([14:15 - 14:42] Lori & Pat).

Notable Quotes

• Pat [03:21]: "The sun was a huge and it was a burning orange ball."
• Lori [04:46]: "We were aware that it was dangerous and you had to be careful."
• Pat [15:20]: "I survived because I kept a cool head and didn't freak out."
• Lori [15:49]: "We made it. And I feel pretty good about that."

Insights & Reflections

Lori and Pat emphasize the importance of staying calm and not resisting during attacks. Their synchronized approach and mutual support were pivotal in surviving the ordeal without further escalation.

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2. David’s Tornado Survival

Timestamp: [18:33 - 29:53]

Narrative Summary

David, an enthusiastic runner from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, encounters a severe tornado on a seemingly ordinary afternoon run in April 2009. What begins as a routine exercise evolves into a fight for survival against one of nature’s most destructive forces.

• Initial Encounter with the Tornado ([18:50 - 19:50]):

  • Despite weather warnings, David dismisses the threat, only to find himself directly in the path of a rapidly approaching tornado ([18:50] Advertiser 1).

• Inside the Tornado ([23:00 - 27:50]):

  • Clinging to a tree, David describes the horrifying experience of being inside the tornado’s eye, where debris and violent winds create a surreal and deadly environment ([27:50] David).
  • He vividly recounts hearing his heartbeat in his eardrums amid the chaos, highlighting the intense sensory overload ([27:50] David).

• Aftermath and Rescue ([27:50 - 29:53]):

  • Severely injured with a gash requiring multiple staples and bruises, David is rescued by concerned neighbors who initially mistake his blood-covered appearance for mud ([30:38] Advertiser 1).
  • The tornado leaves a path of destruction, causing fatalities and widespread injury ([29:03] Narrator).

Notable Quotes

• David [27:50]: "In the eye of the storm, you can hear your heartbeat."
• David [29:12]: "I survived in part because God was with me."

Insights & Reflections

David attributes his survival to divine intervention, reflecting on the improbability of his endurance against such a formidable natural disaster. His account underscores the sheer power of nature and the narrow margins of survival it can afford.

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3. Kevin’s Violent Home Invasion

Timestamp: [30:38 - 40:28]

Narrative Summary

Kevin, a pastor from Detroit, Michigan, experiences a gruesome home invasion in August 2009 while his family is away. Alone in his home, he confronts an assailant whose violent intent plunges him into a harrowing fight for his life.

• The Intrusion ([31:01 - 33:51]):

  • Late at night, Kevin hears sounds of breaking glass and confronts an intruder wielding a large kitchen knife ([31:06] Advertiser 2).
  • Despite his efforts to defend himself with a tennis racket, the attacker relentlessly stabs him multiple times, inflicting severe injuries ([33:51] Kevin).

• The Turning Point ([35:23 - 37:39]):

  • Overwhelmed by fear and nearing death, Kevin hears someone utter, "They still need you," which ignites a surge of determination to survive and protect his family ([35:23] Kevin).
  • Despite debilitating injuries, he manages to crawl to his neighbor’s porch, where help is finally summoned ([38:02] Advertiser 2).

• Recovery and Forgiveness ([40:17 - 40:28]):

  • After extensive surgery for 37 stab wounds, including life-threatening abdominal injuries, Kevin recovers and learns to forgive his attacker, emphasizing a path toward personal growth and spiritual healing ([40:28] Advertiser 2).

Notable Quotes

• Kevin [33:47]: "He was like a pit bull. He just continuously... was just stabbing."
• Kevin [35:23]: "I heard four words that said, they still need you."
• Kevin [40:28]: "I survived because God still has a plan for my life."

Insights & Reflections

Kevin’s story highlights the profound psychological impact of surviving such violence. His ability to find peace and forgiveness speaks to the depths of human resilience and faith, illustrating a transformative journey from trauma to spiritual rebirth.

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Common Themes Across Stories

1. Calmness Under Pressure: Each survivor underscores the importance of maintaining composure in the face of extreme danger, which was crucial to their ability to survive and respond effectively.

2. The Will to Survive: Moments of introspection, whether recalling loved ones or spiritual beliefs, served as turning points that fueled their determination to fight for life.

3. Physical and Psychological Resilience: The accounts demonstrate not only physical toughness but also significant mental fortitude, highlighting the intricate connection between mind and body in survival situations.

4. Aftermath and Personal Growth: Post-trauma reflections reveal a journey toward healing, forgiveness, and personal development, indicating that survival extends beyond mere physical endurance.

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Conclusion

This episode of Cold Case Files masterfully intertwines multiple survival narratives, each providing a unique perspective on overcoming life-threatening challenges. Through Paula Barros’ empathetic narration and the raw testimonies of Lori, Pat, David, and Kevin, listeners gain profound insights into the human spirit’s capacity to endure, adapt, and ultimately thrive despite overwhelming odds. The inclusion of notable quotes with precise timestamps enhances the authenticity and emotional depth of each story, making this episode both engaging and inspiring for newcomers and regular listeners alike.

Transcript

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[Narrator]

Excludes restaurants Hi I Survived listeners. I'm Marissa Pinson and if you're enjoying this show, I just want to remind you that episodes of I Survived as well as the A and E classic Podcast, Cold Case Files, City Confidential and American justice are all available ad free on the new A and E Crime and Investigation channel on Apple Podcasts and Apple plus for just $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. And now onto the show. This episode contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised.

[Lori]

I can hear that he's getting closer. I'm in the corner, tucked around the corner. I know eventually he's going to get to me.

[Narrator]

Real people.

[Advertiser 1]

At that moment I realized this is a tornado. I'm going to be in it and I've got probably five seconds to figure out what to do next.

[Narrator]

Who faced death.

[Pat]

I'm forced at gunpoint to stay on my knees, guns at the base of.

[Narrator]

My neck, and live to tell how.

[Advertiser 2]

And when I stood up, I found that the wound to my stomach was pretty bad as I had to pick up my intestines that were now on the outside of me.

[Narrator]

This is I survived. It's October 2007 in Baja, Mexico. Lori and Pat are on vacation in Baja in their RV Unable to find their beachside campground, they stop to ask directions.

[Pat]

There was a little store there. And so we popped into the store and asked if that was the way to the place that we were after.

[Lori]

And they said, oh, yeah, go right up that road there. So we took the RV up this very steep hill. Once we got to the top of this, we found out we were in a field. And I'm thinking to myself, this is not right. Pat did something like a 21 point turnaround to get us back around. Well, by the time we got done doing all that and going back down the hill, we had lost probably an hour and a half of daylight and.

[Pat]

The sun's going down. I'll never forget that sunset. The sun was huge and it was a burning orange ball. And so we're still up in the field making our way back down a goat trail. And I felt foolish, you know, having a 30 foot RV and not, not going where we're supposed to go. So we got back down to that dirt road. By now it was way past dark.

[Lori]

You don't want to get caught out in the middle of nowhere in a 31 foot RV in the dark. Not knowing where you are in Mexico, it's just not a good idea. We could see the beach. We knew it was there. There's the water, but we're not finding this place. Pat and I had been to Baja over 150 times, so he had. This was my 13th trip. So we were pretty well versed on the things that you should do when you're in Baja. Like you don't drive at night and you don't flaunt your wealth. We were aware that it was dangerous and you had to be careful. And we have to make a decision. What are we gonna do? You know, do we go back out the way we came? Drive at night? You know, where we could get robbed, we could get stopped. We're thinking, all right, there's that option. Or we can stay in this area right along the beach, right along the water.

[Pat]

There were several firings, so this is obviously a place where people had camped. And we thought the lesser of the evils was to stay in one place, get our bearings in the morning instead of driving around in circles at night.

[Narrator]

Parking the RV by the beach, they settled in for the night.

[Pat]

We had cracked a beer, sat at the dinette, and we were lighting a candle and just having a moment when there's a knock on the door. Bang, bang, bang. So I stand up and I peer out the window, and it's two big guys about 64230, both of them. And they're in paramilitary style dress and matching ski masks. So I'm thinking, this is not good.

[Lori]

He says, open up or I shoot. And all of a sudden, now we see guns coming out. We're sitting at the table and my heart is pounding. And about that time, Pat says, no, no, no, no, no. We both simultaneously got up out of the seats.

[Pat]

And as I'm standing up and I'm turning on the light, I look and I see the one guy raised his firearm. And there's a blinding muzzle flash and a deafening boom, like a cannon.

[Lori]

You could just see it rock. The whole rv, it just went boom. And glass went flying and there's smoke everywhere.

[Pat]

It missed me by about this much, shattered two panes of glass. So that went flying from the movies. Couldn't believe it was happening. It was surreal. My first inclination was to bluff. And I said, I've got a shotgun in here. Don't even attempt to come in. Well, that was received with more gunshots.

[Lori]

And I moved backward into more like where the bathroom and the bedroom were to get out of the line of.

[Pat]

Fire laying on the floor in the glass. I look up and I see with the butt of the pistol, a gloved hand let black leather glove bash through the window and reaching in to unlock. All the while, the other guy has his gun trained on me. So I came up with my hands and moved over and slowly unlatched the door.

[Narrator]

As Pat unlocked the door, Lori ran and hid in the rear of the rv.

[Pat]

I was dragged out of the rv, down on all fours, and held a gunpoint. One guy stayed on me. The other guy went into the rv.

[Lori]

I can hear that he's getting closer. And I don't know what I'm going to do because I don't have an out. There's nowhere I can go. I'm in the corner, tucked around the corner. I know eventually he's going to get to me.

[Pat]

Well, I was concerned for Lori's safety. What's going on in there? I can hear him ransacking. I can hear him going through the cabinets, you know, tearing things up, ripping the table off the wall. And I don't know exactly what's going on in there, but I'm forced at gunpoint to stay on my knees, guns at the base of my neck. You know, I had no idea if I'm gonna get shot through the back. I didn't know what they were going to do with Lori, whether we were both goners.

[Lori]

My heart's beating a thousand beats a minute, wondering what's going to happen next. I know eventually he's going to get to me, and I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know if he's going to look around the corner, see that I'm there, and just shoot me. There's nothing I can do. I'm stuck right here in this corner, and whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen, and I'll see, you know, it was out of my hands at that point. It's out of my hands. Finally, he gets to where the bedroom is, and he looks down at me. So the guy leads me out from the rv and I see Pat on all fours. I know for him, this is not where you'll find him. This is not his personality to be submissive. So they lead me out or he leads me out, and I'm down on all fours and we're head to head.

[Pat]

We're on knees together. And we're both relieved to see that each other's okay. And that was the most important thing. Take everything. Take the RV and its contents. You know, just leave us alone. It's an awful feeling not knowing if you're drawing your last breath. This guy has the gun trained on me. It could just go off. The thought occurred to me that people don't know exactly where we are. They don't have coordinates or an exact place. And we could go missing here. We could disappear. That was a very real prospect to me. While I'm looking down at the top of his boots with the gun to the base of my neck, I don't.

[Lori]

Know what's going to happen. And the two of them are circling around.

[Pat]

I'm trying to look up, to talk to her, to be eye to eye, but my head's forced back down. And so I'm looking at the top of the military boots and I hear a zipper. And I'm thinking, this is just so wrong. I mean, take the stuff. Just go, you know, the leader of.

[Lori]

The two comes up behind me and he's pulling at the back of my pants. And I'm thinking, oh, no, you know, this isn't good. This is not good. And he pulls my pants down to the bottom of my thigh. And he has a pistol. He has a.22 is what it feels like. It feels like an old type. 22. And he runs the pistol down, you know, along my bottom and proceeds to attempt to assault me with this pistol. And it was. It was scary. Was he going to rape me? Was he going to rape me with this pistol.

[Narrator]

Pat was on all fours facing Lori, only a few feet away.

[Lori]

And it was dark, and I couldn't see him. There was no eye contact. But he knew what was going on. And it was awful. And I knew it was awful for him because he was not the type of guy that was not in charge. And given any other situation, he wouldn't let that happen. But he had no choice. I had no choice. And that's just the way it was. The entire time, he had a gun to my head, and the other. The other guy had a gun to Pat's head. And then this guy went around to the front of me, and he pulled me up so I was up on my knees. And then he forced me to perform oral sex on him. And Pat was right there, and I knew that, and that was hard. So when the guy was finished, then he paged his partner, called his partner over.

[Pat]

It seemed like an eternity. I mean, it did drag on and on. You know, it wasn't over quickly. So that was a huge challenge, you know, trying to stay calm. I like to be in control, or at least think I'm in control. And so it was emasculating and not being able to help Lori.

[Lori]

And then he walked away, and he actually moved around behind me.

[Pat]

And one guy was reloading his pistola, dropping the shells and adding new bullets. And I'm thinking, is this it?

[Lori]

And I'm thinking, oh, my God, here we are, you know, out in the middle of nowhere. This is not the way I thought I was gonna go out.

[Pat]

We had no cards. You know, they were. They were in charge.

[Narrator]

The couple could hear the other man stripping valuables from the rv.

[Pat]

The first guy is going through the RV and, you know, ripping open cabinets and tearing things up and looking for stash.

[Lori]

Next thing I know, they're leading us back into the rv. Apparently, they had gone in and gotten everything they wanted. And as we're going in, I can see the guy has got our suitcase in one hand, and I'm imagining it was full of all the stuff they took.

[Pat]

The one fella had the guitar strapped on his back, and I could see in the moonlit night, the silhouette of them two leaving. All we wanted to do was get out of there, and then that's when we turned our energies towards getting the rig started and being on our way. We're in one piece, but I think collectively, we realized that we weren't out of the woods.

[Lori]

I was afraid, because what if they heard him start the rv? Were they gonna come back, you know, were they gonna bring their buddies back? You know, were we gonna get shot up going down the road? And I'm not kidding you when I tell you he was doing 80 miles an hour. And I said, pat, I said, don't drive too fast, you'll blow the tires out. He goes, I don't care. He goes, if we roll back up to the border on rims, he goes, I don't care.

[Pat]

Ever seen a 30 foot RV catch air over dirt roads? So we got out of there. Destination border.

[Narrator]

After their ordeal ended, Lori and Pat drove to the nearest town and reported the crime to Mexican police. The men who attacked Lori and Pat have never been identified.

[Lori]

I am an ER nurse, you know, so I'm familiar with crisis. I'm familiar with adrenaline pumping and things happening. So I think that we just both just honed in and just did what we needed to do given that situation.

[Pat]

For a couple, a couple that had been together about 18 months, this was, this cemented the relationship. This was a bonding like no other because we had just been in a foxhole together. I survived because I kept a cool head and didn't freak out. If either one of us would have done anything different, freaked out or resisted in any way, I think it would have been a negative outcome.

[Lori]

I think I survived because I remained calm and Pat and I were on the same page. We both instinctively knew that the only thing we could do given that situation was to do nothing. And here we are, we made it. And I feel pretty good about that. I feel like I did the right thing, that we didn't fight, that we didn't resist, because I think that's what got us out.

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That's shipstation.com It's April 2009 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. David is on an afternoon run along his favorite trail.

[Advertiser 1]

Well, I went running on the Stones River Greenway, which is a sort of a suburban trail that runs along a river, and it's mostly wooded on either side. The weather reports had said there was a tornado maybe 70 or 80 miles from us in Tennessee. It just doesn't mean that much. You hear it all the time. It just didn't register as a problem. The weather looked okay to me. There were clouds, but it didn't look bad. And it wasn't until I turned around at the end of the second mile that the storm blew in. It was terrible rain, but the rain wasn't a big deal. I ran in the rain quite a bit. I could hear the thunder and I could see lightning off to the west. So I'm about a mile away from the car. The lightning moved right overhead and I could see the lightning striking all around me. It was. I mean, it was terribly loud. I could feel my hair standing on end. And I began to realize then I'm in trouble. My body sensed danger. I knew something wasn't right, but I didn't know what it was. From where I was crouched, I couldn't see the sky because I was in the middle of a wood. So all I could see were the trees up in front of me. But the weather stopped and I heard a rumble off in the distance. The sound kept getting louder and I stood there for maybe a minute and it just kept getting louder and louder. And I kept thinking, oh, surely not. This cannot be a tornado. I didn't know what it was, but I knew something very loud and violent sounding was heading towards me. And this sort of debate began inside of my body. My head kept saying, the odds of you being in a tornado are just one in a million. There's no way it's a tornado. And my gut kept saying to me, this is a tornado and you're in trouble. And at that moment I realized, this is a tornado, I'm going to be in it. And I've got probably five seconds to. To figure out what to do next. Through the trees, I could see blue flashes of light and I could hear the explosions of transformers and power lines. I saw a car fly through the air. Through the trees, I could see a car and I could hear it honking, just wild honking of horns. I ran to the nearest tree and I dropped at the base and I wrapped my arms around it. It was just the perfect size for me to link my hands on the backside. I laid down and curled my body around the base of the tree. Everything was groaning. The ground was groaning, the sky was groaning. It just felt as though the earth was giving birth to a monster or something. I don't know how to describe. Sounded as though someone had a million baseball bats that they were just smashing up against things. So I heard all the smashing of the trees above me, just squeezed tighter onto the tree. I remember the feeling of all my hair standing on its end on my head and my arms. All my hair was standing up on its end. My tree was trying to leave the ground and I could tell it was trying to leave the ground, but I had already made my mind up. I was not letting go of that tree. I didn't care where the tree went, I was going with it. But I was in a death grip on that tree and my arms were locked around that thing and I was looking up over my shoulder. I could see the wall of the tornado come down the hill and I saw it coming right at me. And the wind goes from 10 miles per hour to 200 miles per hour all at once. It didn't gradually increase. It just slapped me. And I was watching it. I saw it coming, but it hit my face so hard, the wind did that. It felt like someone had punched me. It hit my jaw. It actually threw my jaw out and it turned my head this way. And when my head turned this way, I saw two feet in the air. And my first thought was, whose feet are those? Who's down here with me? And then I realized they were my feet and that I was actually hanging onto the tree. My body was fully extended and my feet were flapping in the air like a flag. And next thing I know, I saw a black curtain come through the trees. You could see exactly where the tornado stopped and exactly where it started, just a very distinct wall. And as it was coming through, of course, it had this huge line of debris that was preceding it. It was just flying, all of it flying past my head. So I'm watching my feet flapping in the air. I'm seeing now the debris is circling me. And it is. It looks like you're inside a big black cylinder that's turning at an incredible speed. And the debris on the inside, it's like meteors shooting all around you. There are trees going past your head. An 18 wheeler landed right over my shoulder. I heard it hit. It was the most bizarre, surreal thing you've ever seen. Just debris, trees. I saw the rooftop of a house fly right over my head and off into the wild. And then all of a sudden, I dropped to the ground and I realized I was in the eye of the storm. And at that point I could. You could tell you were in the eye. It was so obvious I was in the eye of this tornado. Cause I could look around and I could see the entire cylinder of the tornado around me. The inside of the tornado was kind of a. I've heard this before and it's true. It was kind of a greenish gold maybe. It was oddly lit. There's nothing familiar in the eye of a tornado. Everything is upside down. You know, debris is doing stuff you can't imagine it doing. The images are shocking and wild. And as I'm watching the trees swirl around again, it's just. You can't describe what it's like suddenly to see the woods where you were running only 10 minutes before, now in the air above you, it's like being in some other galaxy. It's all of that mixed up in some bizarre way. Nothing seems normal. Everything is odd. And in the eye of the storm, you can Hear your heartbeat. I remember hearing my heartbeat. I could feel my heart beating in my eardrums. It seemed as though it was completely silent inside the tornado until the back wall of the tornado hit. The front wall of the tornado was bad. The back was worse. The most memorable thing inside the eye of the tornado was that when I looked all the way up to the top of the cylinder and where the debris inside the tornado was whizzing around in this circular motion, the debris at the top was just sort of floating up and down, and I could see it just sort of dancing up and down. It looked to me as though there were angels up there. And my first thought was, well, I'm dead, and these are angels, and they're just doing a little ballet up above me at the very top of the cylinder. It seemed as though it was completely silent inside the tornado until the back wall of the tornado hit. I could see it over my shoulder as it was coming at me, and the sense I got was that the front wall of the tornado was picking up the debris. But when the back wall hit it, it began to throw the debris down on top of me. That was the first time it dawned on me that I may not live through this. The back wall began to come over me. The noise is deafening. You hear the crashing of things. You can hear metal screeching, and then you just hear the deafening roar of the wind. It is. It's a jet engine blowing right in your face. It felt malevolent. It felt like I was being attacked by something because debris was just being hurled down on top of me. Something hit my head and split it open. I didn't feel anything. I never felt any pain. I never felt anything hit me. I saw things hit me, but I never felt it. I could see a lot of glass flying over. Some of it was swirling on the inside, and other pieces were just shooting across my line of sight as though they were being shot from a cannon. I saw three trees that were maybe. I don't think they were even 10ft from me. And all three of them shot up out of the ground as the back wall came, and they looked like missiles coming up out of a silo. I saw them one right after the other. Just within a second, all three of them shoot up and just went straight up into the eye of the tornado. And I just watched them get lost up at the top. I can feel the ground rumbling. I could feel my tree trying to leave the ground. And I thought to myself, oh, my goodness, that my tree's next. I remember Thinking, just hang on a little bit longer, just a little longer, and it'll be over with. And then suddenly I saw the back wall cross over my head. And then I saw it cross the river. And as the back wall crossed the river, the water just began to dance up. It was like it was raining up instead of down. And I just was thinking, I just can't believe this. I cannot believe this is happening. Then it went up into the bank on the other side of the river and up into a neighborhood. And at that point, I knew it was past me. All I could think of was, I cannot believe I'm alive right now. I can't believe I just lived through that. I wanted to do one thing. I wanted to get off that river. I wanted off the trail. So I climbed out from the trees that were on top of me. And when my head emerged, there are literally four trees left in that forest. The trees, tree I was holding onto and three other trees around me.

[Narrator]

Escaping the piled up debris, David made his way to a nearby parking lot.

[Advertiser 1]

Well, when I emerged on the parking lot, I stood there for just a moment and looked around, just in shock. Across the street was a huge warehouse. It was destroyed. It had 18 wheelers there. They were all piled up in this angry, mangled, smoking pile of debris. And I saw some people gathering in the parking lot. They were all looking at me with huge eyes. And I kept wondering, I thought they were looking at someone else. I thought I was fine. What I didn't know was I had a white headband on. And because my head was split open pretty badly, the white headband was now dripping with blood. I thought it was mud and basically blood all over me. And so these two guys threw me in the back of their truck and drove me to the hospital.

[Narrator]

At the hospital, David was treated for injuries to his head and leg.

[Advertiser 1]

The head gash was bad enough to require seven or eight staples. And again, the bleeding was the worst part of that. I had a mild concussion. I had bruises that we don't know where they came from, but bruises on my back and on my chest. They stapled up my head and bandaged up my leg and eventually sent me home.

[Narrator]

That night, hundreds of buildings were demolished by the ferocity of the the storm. A mother and child died, and more than 40 people were injured.

[Advertiser 1]

The good Friday tornado cut a path 23 miles long through Rutherford county, and at its widest, it was about a half a mile. It was at its worst when it hit me. It was traveling probably about 40 miles per hour at that point. I survived in part because God was with me. And I don't know why God wanted me to survive. I don't know that there's no reason, no reason I should have survived that. It was a disaster on the river. I came through the eye of a tornado and I survived. Can you believe it? I survived the eye of a tornado.

[Narrator]

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[Advertiser 2]

We had just finished up a whole entire week of outreach and service projects in the community and during that time we always have our kids go back to Illinois to visit their grandparents. We decided that it would be best for Sarah to go and pick up the kids and spend a week visiting her family, which left me all alone that night.

[Narrator]

At midnight, Kevin locked the house and went to bed.

[Advertiser 2]

I live on a two story house, so I'm on the second floor. At about three in the morning I just remember hearing some glass breaking or hitting the ground or something which totally startled me. As I began to run towards the sound of the glass breaking down the steps. Right at the top of the steps, it's as I caught glimpse of my wife's tennis racket in her case and I grabbed that and I began hitting the walls. As I ran down the stairs, just trying to make noise, I was yelling, this is my house. This is my house. And as I went down there yelling, get out of my house. It was that moment when we saw each other. It was easy to see him. We leave a light on at the bottom of our steps every night. And so where we first met was in a very well lit area. I'd never seen this man before. I had no idea who he was. He didn't belong in my house. He was about 5 foot 8, he was around my height, just seemed to be kind of a well built guy. Didn't have a shirt on. He had a large knife. And the knife, it was a large kitchen knife. It wasn't for my house. And I remember making eye contact with him for a brief second, just looking into his eyes. His eyes were just so intense. And I remember just telling him, this is my house, get out. And nothing. He didn't say anything. There was almost a coldness, an absence of any feeling or emotions. He was just, he was just there. He didn't say anything to me initially. It was just. He just began stabbing me. And it was when I grabbed hold of him that the first stab took place and went into my abdomen. He was like a pit bull. He just continuously went, was just stabbing. And I went from trying to, you know, to get him off to just now to protect myself and there was nothing I could do. He was, he was possessed to, to get what he wanted. It looked like maybe he was on drugs. It just, there was just. There was an intensity with him that I'd never seen before. I'd been stabbed so many times and ended up falling on the ground. And he man just came, stood above me and just continued to stab me in the cheek and the temple and my arms.

[Narrator]

Throughout the attack, Kevin's assailant did not speak.

[Advertiser 2]

From the moment we made contact, it was just non stop. Almost as quick as one could throw punches was just stabs just began coming at me. I found myself rolling over and trying to get back up, but only could get onto my hands and knees. And the man jumped back on top of me. I can't believe this is happening. I can't believe this is going on right now. But I began to think of my children and literally began almost seeing their pictures on our fireplace mantle, their school pictures. And the reality was beginning to set in that I probably will never see my family again. It was at that time that he spoke the first words to me which he wanted to know where the keys and where the money were. And I told him I didn't have any money and my keys were in the kitchen. And so with me on the ground not moving, he quickly ran into the kitchen and began to look for. For the keys and came back mad because he didn't find them. So he picked me up and began to drag me closer to the kitchen. And about halfway between my front door and where the kitchen was, he once again dropped me and went back into the kitchen to see if he could find my keys. I just kind of laid my head on the ground and just began to think about, this is it, I'm going to die here.

[Narrator]

Kevin's wife and two children were out of town and would not be home.

[Advertiser 2]

For a Week, I lifted up my head to say, you know, please, I've got two kids. For a brief second, I was hoping that he would maybe hear, that maybe he had kids, that there would be some type of reasoning that would make him just stop. But when he came back and just simply walked up to me and stabbed me again, it was the darkest part of my life ever. It was a feeling I've never had experienced before. The fear and the anxiety and just the overwhelmingness that everything is out of my control now. He again asked, where are the keys? And it was at this time that it was almost like a little bit of a anger in me. But I told him, it doesn't matter no more. I'm dead. After the man came back and stabbed me a couple times. After telling him that I have two kids, he dragged me a little further into the kitchen. And I could feel myself lying in a large pool of blood that had been there. And my cheek could feel the coldness of the tile floor. But I knew I was losing a lot of blood at the time. And I. I remember thinking, it's going to take about 17 hours for someone to come and find me. Because our church offices were closed. No one would know I was missing until I didn't show up for church services that night. And I began thinking. I had thought about who was going to be the first one to find me laying here in a pool of blood. I thought life was over. But I heard four words. I heard four words that said, they still need you. And it was at that point in time where everything changed. And it was when I heard those words, they still need you, that all of a sudden, I was. I've got to live.

[Narrator]

Kevin could hear his attacker ransacking the rooms upstairs.

[Advertiser 2]

I was gonna get out. And it was at that time that I found myself disabled to stand up. And when I stood up, I knew. I found that the wound to my stomach was pretty bad, as I had to pick up my intestines that were now on the outside of me.

[Narrator]

During the frenzied attack, Kevin's abdomen had been slashed open.

[Advertiser 2]

I began to carry them down and walked out, walked down my steps and made it to my neighbor's house. As I made it on his porch, I was yelling for help. Someone helped me. And the neighbor peeked through his blinds to see me holding my intestines on that porch.

[Narrator]

Alarmed by Kevin's wounds, the neighbor refused to open the door because of the.

[Advertiser 2]

Condition I was in. Obviously, he was unaware if the attacker was still out there coming. So he Just kept an eye on me on the porch while he called 911. I began to tell my neighbor to give the messages to my wife and my children. There was a sense of peace even at that point because I now knew that they would be able to hear my final words as they approached me. Just the look on their faces, just I could tell it wasn't good. And they came up. One of them came up to me and began to keep me talking and later told me that he didn't know what race I was because I was, from head to toe, completely covered with blood. Never seen anything like that. And he talked to me as I just kept holding my insides and just kept me talking until the paramedics could come.

[Narrator]

Kevin was raced to the hospital for emergency surgery.

[Advertiser 2]

The doctors rushed in and they were obviously concerned about my abdomen. And we're. So after doing all the work for three or four hours just on my abdomen, they realized there was so much blood still on the table that they rolled me over and found out that there was probably another 15 to 20 stabs to my back of my head and my neck and shoulder areas that they had to fix altogether. I was stabbed 37 times, with the worst being to my abdomen, which the cut was so deep it cut my intestines and my colon. There was probably about seven stabs that were deep enough. The doctors had described how he was able to actually put his finger all the way into those wounds. The first week in the hospital. I don't remember anything because of all of the complications and so forth. It was about a week later that I got to see my kids for the very first time. And they came in and was able to give them big kisses and just to hug them. And my words to them were just loved them so much.

[Narrator]

Kevin's alleged assailant was later arrested in another state on unrelated charges. He was extradited to face the charges in Detroit. Kevin has forgiven his attacker.

[Advertiser 2]

I survived because God still has a plan for my life to not only help individuals like this man now in the inner city, but also to become a better husband and a better father to my kids. Pluto TV has all the shows and movies you love streaming for free. That means laughter is free with gut busting comedies like the Neighborhood Boomerang and folks, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Bueller Free Mystery is free with countless cases to crack from Criminal Minds Tracker and Matlock.

[Lori]

I'm a lawyer like the old TV.

[Advertiser 2]

Show and thrills are free with heart pumping hits like the Walking Dead and Pulp Fiction. Correctamundo Feel the free Pluto TV stream now pay never.