A (4:16)

In desperation, Christine turned to Matt's family for help.

B (4:20)

They also saw some of the violence because some of the violence would occur right in front of him at their house. And so they went and got him diagnosed. He ended up being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. And they put him on medication and assured me he was going to counseling, assured me that everything was in place and he has been getting much better. He got on his hands and knees and he said he was sorry and it's never going to happen again and that he just wants to be in my life and that it'll never happen again. And even him saying that, you know, it's one of those things, you know, that he's lying and it's not the truth. Some switch in his mind would go off, and that was it. You could see a demeanor change in him. His eye color would change. He has hazel eyes. And when the violent episodes would occur, they would become black, completely dilated. And the look on his face would just be enough to scare you to death. He seemed like he was being affected in a positive way with the medication. There was a. His anger was a lot less as long as he did not drink.

A (5:39)

One day, Christine, Matt, and Chris, a friend, spent the day doing yard work.

B (5:45)

We Were working in the yard. Chris, Matt and I, I have a dog. And, you know, we were all enjoying the day. It was a gorgeous day. So we're doing yard work. And I remember Matt was trying to get my dog to get the blue belly lizard. And I was obviously keeping my dog away, saying, no, no, no, I want the blue bellied lizard to live. And so he took a shovel because I wasn't allowing my dog to get the blue belly lizard. He took a shovel and he decapitated it. He said it was funny. And I said, well, it's a beautiful day, but that is very bothersome to me because, again, that is telling me something dark inside is going on.

A (6:25)

That evening, as Christine was preparing dinner, Matt and Chris went out briefly.

B (6:29)

When they left, everybody's talking, everybody's happy, everybody's looking forward to, you know, the rest of the evening. But when they got back, Chris was very quiet, and Matt's demeanor completely changed.

A (6:42)

Before returning to the house, Matt had drunk an entire bottle of brandy.

B (6:47)

With the look on his face, I felt threatened. I wish I could have been kidding, But I've seen that look, though it hadn't been in a long time. And that look is the scariest look that I've ever seen in my life. I said, you're not gonna hit me, are you? And then he went around. Chris came right at me in the kitchen and started pulling my hair and punching me. Chris immediately got up and he fled out of the front door. And I remember saying to myself, oh, my gosh, he left me here knowing what is going to happen or what's happening to me. I couldn't believe it. That's when he grabbed me, brought me into the bathroom area, which is right off the kitchen, and he's punching me. And he ripped off the toilet seat and the toilet seat cover. And he proceeded to start banging my head on the inside rim of the toilet. And so at this point, I could see blood in the toilet from, you know, him cracking open my eyebrow. And he started trying to drown me in the toilet. And I remember holding onto the rim, locking my arms, saying, I am not going in this toilet. He ended up disappearing for, like, two strides. Grabbed a knife out of my kitchen on the counter that I was using, and he came right back in. It was a fairly large knife, I would say, probably, you know, standard 12 inch. And that was the first knife that he took to use to stab me in the chest. He sticks the knife up into my throat, and it's shearing sideways off. He was trying to get My windpipe. But he. He kept. It kept slipping, so he wasn't successful. But he did get it in. He got it in slowly. He just was pressing it slowly. And then I'm feeling blood start coming down my neck. Warm blood. And he looked at me like a little bug. He just squashed. And he stabs me in my chest. And he leaves the knife. He leaves the knife in my chest. And I'm saying, so now I have a knife sticking out of my chest. He ran to the counter, grabbed another knife. As I'm pulling this knife out of my chest, he gets another knife and sticks me in the side of my head with a second knife. And so the knife is now sticking out of my brain. He stabbed me in the side of my head as hard as he possibly could. He penetrated the bone, and I could hear it. And it was like a grinding, like a bone and a knife. To know that you have a knife stuck in your brain is one of the most terrifying experiences a person can go through, especially knowing that he left it there for you to take out. And that's when I knew he just wanted to watch me die. The thoughts in my head were, okay, you need to get the knife out of your head. It was a little bit more difficult getting the knife out of my brain than it was my chest, because it was a bone. He was looking at me, and he had, like, a smile. Like, a little smile on his face, like, how are you gonna get out of this one? I pulled the knife out of my head, and I dropped the knife, and he gave me, like, just a few inches. You know, the door's right here. He's standing in front of me, but he's more interested in watching me. He knows I'm completely bloody, so he knows that he's damaged me, and he just kind of wants to see how I play this out. And I ran for my life. I ran. I slipped. I had. I looked like blood head to toe. I knew he was behind me. I was trying to run, but I was slipping on my blood. So it was very hard to get my traction, you know, together. And I just slipped all the way to the front door. And I got out to the street, and I see a police officer, Simi Valley police officer, Officer Lamb. And I see paramedics. And I'm like, I'm going to be okay. Somehow. I'm going to be okay. They are here. He can't get me anymore. He can't hurt me anymore. He can't stab me anymore. And they are here, and they're going to help me if they weren't there, if the police were not there, if the ambulance was not there, he would. He had a knife still, and he was coming after me to the front door. But he didn't win. He did not win. And the only way that I made it through this is because I fought for my life. I was in ICU for, I think, four days, and then they transferred me to another room. And then I had a lot of subsequent follow ups with the neurologist to see if my NMRIs and CAT scans. He said, do you know how lucky you are? It is an absolute miracle. You got stabbed in your temporal lobe and you are here talking to us right now. He said, that's a miracle.

A (12:04)

Matt Scheer pleaded guilty to attempted murder and was sentenced to eight years in jail.

B (12:09)

There was no trial. He pled guilty to attempted murder. Willful, deliberate, and he is in jail until October 28th of 2015 with no chance of parole. I believe that God had a purpose for me to survive this so somebody else doesn't have to go through it. And he can't threaten anybody while he's in jail. If it wasn't me, it would be somebody else. I subsequently found out that he had done this to other people, not stabbing, but was violent towards other girlfriends. And so therefore, for some reason, I was able to be strong enough and I was able to live and he was able to be in jail where he belongs.

A (13:00)

It's June 2010 in West Hartford, Connecticut. It is late Sunday evening, and John is doing chores in his basement.

C (13:08)

While I was down doing the laundry, I took a look at the boiler and, you know, had this fanciful idea of perhaps cleaning it. I began brushing the vents with my left hand and with the shop vac in my right hand, began vacuuming up the soot. About five minutes into the cleaning, I dropped the brush that I had been using and it fell into the bottom of the combustion chamber. And that's when really, without thinking about it at all, I reached down with my left arm to try to get the brush back. And it was just out of reach. When I first tried to grab was on my fingertips. And I just pushed my arm in a little bit harder. And before I knew it, I was stuck above my elbow with my arm in between the heat, these heating vents. My thought was, if I got my arm into this space, there must be a way to get my arm out.

A (14:24)

John tried to pull his arm free from between the vents.

C (14:27)

The design of these vents and the fact that they were covered with Rust and soot and were just kind of old crackly cast iron R really acted as almost a claw on my arm. I realized I had a pretty serious problem and panic set in because of the grit and the grime on the vent. There was some cutting initially as my arm went in and then my knee jerk reaction to yank my arm out caused significant cutting and swelling set in immediately. What I needed was a neighbor to come help me get out and not having my cell phone on me. The best way that I saw that I could do that would be to shout as loud as I could. And the first night was really just spent yelling non stop.

A (15:32)

John's voice had become hoarse from screaming.

C (15:35)

And several hours into screaming for neighbors to help, I noticed a new problem setting in. And that was that my legs were becoming extremely weak where my elbow was stuck. I wasn't able to stand and I also wasn't able to sit on the floor. And that just caused tremendous, tremendous pain and cramping that started in my legs and worked its way up basically my whole body. I have the boiler on my left side and on my right side is the back of one of the workbenches in my basement. I was able to stack some lumber and some boxes and create a makeshift seat by Monday morning. Hearing the neighbors again getting in their cars and presumably to go to their various jobs, I did have hope that my co workers would notice my absence. And what I could hear by about 10 or 11am Was my phone upstairs ringing off the hook.

A (16:50)

John could also hear his dog Portia who was shut in upstairs.

C (16:55)

She needed food and needed water. I started hearing from the door upstairs a faint whimper that over the course of the hours escalated to full blown howling. I resumed crying out for neighbors, but the cries became noticeably more urgent, more along the lines of, you know, for the love of God, somebody please help me, I'm dying down here. I threw this wrench at the window and I came up about 5ft, 10ft short. And really it was only about 20ft away. And it was a very scary moment because it was the first time that I realized how, how weak I was. If I can't throw something 20ft, how, how am I ever gonna get out of this? I just couldn't imagine dying with my hand stuck in my boiler. I wasn't especially with one arm gonna be able to do much to pry it open. That is when I had the first idea of possibly cutting it open. So I began to look around for saw blades.

A (18:22)

John was able to reach the workbench drawer where he kept his saw blades. He tried sawing through the boiler, but the blades were too thin to cut the cast iron.

C (18:31)

Tuesday, late Tuesday. I probably had a little bout of desperation for those few hours. It was pretty grim. I was in a pretty dark place. I could smell the smell of rotting flesh. My arm had become so swollen that the blood basically ceased to flow to my arm. And I could go, barely feel my fingers. And then the smell, kind of an almond smell, really became hard to ignore. I didn't have the courage to actually look at it because I didn't want to see what it looked like. But I knew it was dying. I had no reason to believe that help was coming. So I hatched a new plan, probably past midnight on Tuesday, and that was to sever my arm. I did a quick practice cut to see if, in fact the arm or the shoulder might be numb from the lack of circulation. And unfortunately, it wasn't. It was clear to me from my quick practice cut that this was going to be a painful process. I said a little prayer and, you know, thought about my loved ones and Portia upstairs and family and friends, and fashioned a tourniquet on my arm with the shirt I was wearing and working from the top, about midway between my shoulder and my elbow, started cutting. And my first attempt at cutting through went fairly well. But just about as the blade was hitting the bone, blood began gushing, almost squirting out of. Out of the cut at an alarming rate. It became hard to hold the blade because it was so slippery, and I had to divert my attention from all the blood to try to stay on task and complete the cut. Started cutting through the bone, and I was using a very fine toothed hacksaw at this point. And I realized that it was going to take too long to get through the bone and that I was bleeding out pretty badly. So I grabbed a little coarser tooth reciprocating saw blade that I had handy and resumed cutting with that. And that made short work of the bone. And that's when I kind of looked up and looked around and. And everything was covered in blood. The boiler, the wall 15ft away. The amount of blood that was coming out was very alarming. So much so that I didn't think that I would make it. The side of the boiler was absolutely covered in blood, and I wanted to convey how much I loved my family and Porsche and, and. And my fiance. So I. I started as best I could, writing notes to them in this blood on the side of the boiler. And Mom, Dad, Mel, I'm Sorry. As I sat there and. And looked at the. The notes I had scribbled on the wall of the boiler and, and thinking about again all the reasons I had to live. And I gathered myself up as best I could. I removed my shirt tourniquet, which had become just completely drenched and totally useless, and used an old telephone or speaker wire that I had nearby and fashioned another tourniquet and started a second round of cutting and really thought I was home free until I got to about the last quarter of an inch, the bottom of the arm. And. And that is when I ran into, as I understand it now, the. The bundle of nerves that runs through your arm. And the first one I hit at, the pain. I've never felt, Felt anything anywhere near this amount of pain. So much so that I. I just froze and dropped the drop this saw I was using, and in it went into the boiler. So, you know, now I'm down to. I think I'm down to one saw blade at this point. And what I was left with was a very dull blade. And. And I'm looking at this, this last sliver and saying, okay, it's gonna be a little uncomfortable, but, you know, suck it up and two minutes, you know, we'll be home free. So I went to work cutting and each. Each time one of the saw teeth hit the nerve, just the most agonizing pain. And I made it through one nerve and then two nerves. And I, at this point, I basically threw down the saw blade and said, I'll never be. I'll die trying to get through this bundle of nerves.

A (24:26)

John's partially severed arm was still trapped inside the boiler.

C (24:31)

Worse than being just stuck with my arm in the boiler. Now I'm stuck with a severed arm, bleeding profusely in a basement that nobody knows where I am. Do I remove the tourniquet?

B (24:45)

Do you?

C (24:45)

Do I cut my throat? Do I end my life some other way? It's beyond just the will to live and the human spirit. It's knowing that there are people out there that love you and you love them. And that is what kept me from taking my own life. Essentially, over the course of the next few hours, I was in and out of consciousness.

A (25:17)

John's friends, who were increasingly worried about him, had called 911. On Wednesday afternoon, police broke into the house to find a semi conscious John close to death.

C (25:27)

The EMTs arrived shortly after the police did. At the same time, the fire department was getting their compressors and their hydraulics, hydraulic gear out to try to crack open the boiler finally, they managed to break the cast iron open. Of course, unfortunately, the arm was not viable at that point.

A (25:54)

Almost 72 hours after his ordeal began, John was hospitalized, suffering from blood loss, kidney damage, and blood poisoning. It took surgeons two and a half hours to complete the amputation of John's arm. John's fiance Mel and his parents arrived the next day.

C (26:12)

It was. It was great to see them. And when Mel came, that was, you know, just, you know, we both just choked up and, you know, kind of gentle sobbing and it was just really, really emotional. The fact that I was alive and that, you know, our wedding is still on, I think, you know, that's all that mattered.

A (26:40)

John's dog Portia also survived.

C (26:43)

Nobody thinks that they could cut their own arm off, but I think people would be surprised what they're capable of. I survived because I loved my family and my friends and my fiance and my dog Portia too much to die in that circumstance. It just. I couldn't. I couldn't let that happen.

A (27:18)

It's July 2008 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Amanda teaches at an inner city school.

D (27:24)

We had just gotten back after winter break. It was our first day back, and my students were a little bit unmotivated. And so I decided to go during lunch and get some candy.

A (27:35)

Amanda drove to a nearby strip mall.

D (27:37)

I walked out of the restaurant where I picked up my lunch, and I'd already been to the store, so I had a bag of stuff in my hands, and I was getting my keys out, and there was a man standing about, I don't know, 20ft from my car. And he came up and said, do you know how to get to this location? I think it was like Sugar Creek Road. Do you know how to get there? And I said, no, I'm sorry. But very politely, because that didn't bother me. I thought, you know, he just wants directions. And I kept on walking to my car. I really didn't feel that threatened. He looked like someone's like fat, middle aged, you know, white, kind of creepy, but not threatening. Uncle, just this fat old guy. And then he got a little bit closer and he said, you know, I really need to get to this place. Can you take me? I'll give you $20. And I said, no, I'm a teacher in that school. I have to go back to school. It's really important, you know, but I'm sorry. I'm sure you'll find a ride. There's a bus station over there, you know. And he was like, what if I give you $50 and he's getting closer this whole time. And I'm saying, okay, I don't know. I can't help you. I'm really sorry. I really have to go back to school. And I turned around to get in my car, and he says, wait. And then he opened his jacket, and he had kind of right under his jacket, I guess, kind of hiding in his jacket, he had a gun, and it was pointed at me. He. Yeah, he said, get in the car. And as he's. As he's pointing this gun at me, he reaches around my driver's side door, which I had already opened, to unlock the passenger side door, and pulls the door open. He says, you get in the car. And he motions with the gun because I really don't want to have to shoot you, but I will. The first few minutes in the car, I was convinced I'm going to die. I just thought of all the people I hadn't talked to, of all the things I hadn't done, of just all the people that, you know, I never said, hey, you're really important to me. I thought, you know, when was the last time I talked to my mom? I don't remember, you know, but he. He said, get on the road. And I was shaking so bad, and he said, do not get pulled over or I will shoot you. And I was going, I can't drive. Like, I'm thinking, do I. Do I try and crash into someone at first? Like I'm thinking, do I try and, you know, do I try and wreck the car? Do I try and see if I can wreck it hard enough to hurt him? Do I. Do I take a chance and drive? I was really. My feet were shaking so bad. I thought, he's going to take me to some hotel and he's going to do whatever he wants to me, and then he's going to kill me. We're driving down the highway, and he points to a motel and he says, stop there. That's good. And he said, we're going to go together to the front desk. We're going to check in. You're going to rent me a room for a night. And he said to me, at this point, very clearly, if the police are involved, I have just gotten out of prison. I am not going back. I will shoot you. I will shoot them. I will shoot everyone. I will. I will get killed. I don't care. I am not going back to prison.

A (30:18)

With the armed man at her back, Amanda was forced to book a room.

D (30:23)

I was so nervous that they were going to notice that this guy had a gun. And then on the other hand, I was also kind of thinking, do I try and signal that he has a gun? I mean, is this my chance? Am I missing my chance? If I don't say something now, is it going to be too late? So we're going into this hotel room, and he's kind of. He opens the door, and he kind of motions me in with the gun as I'm going in the door of the hotel room. I thought right before I went in, I thought, do I run? And I thought, what if I try and run and I don't make it? He catches me, then he's going to be angry, and he's going to think I want to run, which I thought is bad. I want him to think everything's cool. I'm going to help him out. I just didn't want him to shoot me.

A (31:03)

Amanda's attacker told her that he had carjacked a man the day before.

D (31:07)

He's kind of started telling me, you know, I'm running from the police. I think the police are after me. And so, you know, he says, we need to wait this out. We'll just sit here for a couple hours, and I'll call a friend of mine, and then he's gonna pick me up. You're gonna go in the bathroom, I'm gonna lock you in there. We're gonna drive off, and it's gonna be fine. And I thought, okay, I can do that. I'm still thinking he's gonna shoot me. I mean, in the back of my head, I really thought, he's not just gonna drive off. He's gonna shoot me. So I'm waiting, I'm thinking, you know, this time is gonna roll around. And he's gonna. It was like, four o', clock, it was gonna happen. This guy was gonna call, and they were gonna come pick him up. So 4 o' clock happens. This guy calls. He says, no, I'm not coming to get you. And he looks at me and he goes, well, I can't let you go now, because I don't know how I'm gonna get out of here. I started to cry, and I said, you're never gonna let me go. I really want to go home. He got really upset, and he started waving the gun around, and he said, oh, you know I'm gonna shoot you. You need to stop this. You need to stop this right now. He pulls out of his pocket this pipe, and I look, I looked at it, and I said, oh, my God. Like, I don't Know what that is? And I said, what are you doing? And he said, oh, I'm just gonna smoke a little crack. It will calm me down. And obviously, you know, he was already kind of panicky and me panicking was really bad. And so he starts waving the gun around. And I said, he said, well, I'm gonna have to kill you if you, you know, if you, if you can't help me, if you can't stay calm, then I'm gonna have to shoot you. And I was like, okay, what can I do so that you can trust me? What can I do to prove to you that you can trust me? Because I want to get out of this situation. I don't want you to kill me. I wanted him to not just see me as something expendable, as someone he could just kill or hurt. I wanted him to see me as, as a person, as his friend. And he looks at me and he said, alright, well if you smoke this crack, I'll believe that you're not going to tell on me. And I was like, I can't do that. And he sat right next to me and he pointed the gun at me and he said, if you don't smoke this, I'm going to kill you. And he forced me to smoke crack. After he forced me to smoke crack, he had these beers and he said, you know, have a beer with me. And I thought, at this point I want him to believe that I'm on his side, so I'll have a beer with him. I'm going to be his best friend and if I convince him that I'm on his side, then he'll let me go or I'll figure a way out of this. At about 2 o' clock in the morning, he decides that he needs more drugs. And he says, this is okay, right? We're go get more drugs, we're going to have a party. And I'm going, oh my God, I have to go to a crack house. Like I'm having, you know, like a panic attack about this. Like, oh my God, I can't be in this neighborhood. You know, if we're driving around this neighborhood, it's 2 o' clock in the morning. What if the police pull us over? He said, if the police show up, you need to be really sure about this. I'm going to use you as a human shield and I am going to go down shooting. I don't care. Eventually it's seven o' clock in the morning and there are no more drugs and he kind of sobers down A little bit. And he looks at me, and he says, I have to get out of the state of North Carolina because what I'm wanted for is a state crime, and I have to leave the state. If I leave the state, they won't be looking for me. It's fine. So I said, why don't you take my car? Why don't you just take my car? I won't report it stolen. I. I'm on your side. I mean, you know, I've already done illegal things, so you have to know I'm not gonna tell on you. So you take my car. And then he says, you'd do that for me?

B (34:30)

You would. He would.

D (34:31)

You know, he looks at me and he said, you like me that much? And I'm thinking in the back of my head, I don't like you. I just want to get out of here. But he was just like, oh, that's. And that was really like. Then he really said, okay, now I trust you.

A (34:42)

Amanda offered to drive her attacker to her bank and withdraw money for him.

D (34:47)

If I can get him to stay in the car at the bank. If I can get him to stay in the car, and I can get him to trust me enough to let me go in by myself, and he won't be able to get me before I can tell somebody what's going on. And so we get to the bank. I said, here are the keys. I'll be right back. I'm gonna go in the building. And I really thought, you know, at this point, he's gonna shoot me. He's gonna realize he has to know that no one is this stupid. And I walk into the bank, and that was the hardest, maybe, like, 20 yards. And it was the hardest 20 yards I have ever walked in my whole life. I went into the first office that I saw. It was, like, on my right. The first office on my right. And I said, there's a guy in my car in the parking lot. I've just been kidnapped. I've been held hostage. You know, you need to call the police. He has a gun. And so the police came into the parking lot, and apparently they tased him before he could shoot them.

A (35:41)

Peter Smith was charged with multiple counts of kidnapping, carjacking, and possession of a weapon. As a felon, he was sentenced to 59 years in prison, and he's in.

D (35:52)

His 50s, so 59 years means. But he's never coming out, and he has no option for parole. I survived because I convinced him that I was a person. I think that's the main. I. I said, okay, I'm gonna come up with a way for us to get out of this situation. And I believed that I could do it. I mean, once I believed that I could do it, it worked.

C (36:19)

This October, fear is free on Pluto tv. With horror movie collections from Paranormal Activity, the Ring.

D (36:27)

You will die in seven days.

C (36:29)

Scream. And from dusk till dawn. This is my kind of place. And don't miss the man made nightmares in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or the world ending chaos in 28 days later. Something in the blood, all the scares, all for free. Pluto TV stream now pay never.