The Mother’s Day Attack

Summary

Summary of "The Mother’s Day Attack" Episode of The Knife: A True Crime Podcast

---

Introduction

In the gripping episode titled "The Mother’s Day Attack," hosts Hannah Smith and Patia Eaton delve into the harrowing true story of Tennyson Jacobson and her family's encounter with a violent intruder on Mother's Day in 2013. This episode underscores the profound ripple effects that crime can have on victims and their loved ones, showcasing resilience and the journey towards healing.

---

Background: A Peaceful Life Disrupted

In 2013, Tennyson Jacobson, a 26-year-old new mother, and her husband, Kyle, owned a CrossFit gym in the Pacific Northwest. They were in the process of building a new home and enjoying a seemingly idyllic life. Tennyson recounts:

“[03:04] Hannah Smith: ...we owned a CrossFit gym. So I managed the gym, was a new mom, and then my husband is a firefighter. So, yeah, that was, that was life at the time.”

Their routine involved competitive CrossFit training, with Kyle serving as the captain of their CrossFit team, aiming for the prestigious CrossFit Games.

---

The Attack: Mother's Day Terror

Mother's Day took a nightmarish turn when an unknown man targeted Tennyson and her family. The attack occurred shortly after their planned dinner outing. Tennyson describes the terrifying encounter:

“[09:00] Hannah Smith: ...he pressed his body into me and bends me over the couch...”

The intruder, estimated to be over six feet tall and weighing around 215 pounds, forcefully entered their home. Despite their secure and secluded location, the man barged in, overwhelming Tennyson with his sheer intensity and malevolent presence. He demanded money, leading to a tense and frightening ordeal where Tennyson had to fight for her and her family's lives.

---

The Confrontation and Self-Defense

As the intruder aggressively demanded money, Tennyson realized the severity of the situation. She recounted:

“[10:09] Hannah Smith: ...I had $41 of cash, which I never have cash in my wallet. And so I had this slight sense of relief...”

Despite her attempts to comply, the situation escalated when the intruder struck her, causing a sprained ankle. This prompted a physical confrontation where both Tennyson and Kyle defended themselves. The struggle culminated in Tennyson using a baseball bat to incapacitate the attacker, ultimately leading to his demise.

“[26:03] Hannah Smith: ...I grabbed a can of wasp spray... and then I started stabbing him...”

---

Immediate Aftermath and Investigation

Following the attack, the family's home became a crime scene. Law enforcement arrived, and it was swiftly determined that Tennyson and Kyle acted in self-defense. The police identified the intruder as Ken Boonstra, a 48-year-old man with a troubled past, including a bitter divorce and evident mental health issues.

“[37:03] Hannah Smith: ...he had a YouTube channel which since has been taken down that was just misogynistic rants...”

Investigations revealed that Boonstra had harbored deep-seated animosity towards women, possibly catalyzed by personal grievances and a subsequent psychotic break.

---

Impact on Life and Healing

The traumatic event had a lasting impact on Tennyson and Kyle's lives. They relocated temporarily to Kyle's parents' home, installing advanced security measures and seeking professional help to cope with their PTSD. Tennyson shared her ongoing struggles:

“[46:41] Hannah Smith: ...five years after the event, I thought I was doing really well. And then I was interviewed on Tony Blauer's podcast...”

Through therapies like exposure therapy and building a support system, both began the arduous journey of healing. Their shared experience strengthened their bond, allowing them to support each other through the darkest times.

---

Tennyson’s Book: "The Mother of All Days"

Inspired by her experiences, Tennyson authored a book titled "The Mother of All Days." She explains her motivation:

“[51:03] Hannah Smith: ...I need to share my story... to share our story in my words and then the path after and hope that whoever is reading it can find themselves in their own way.”

The book serves as both a personal recount of the traumatic event and a guide for others facing similar challenges, emphasizing resilience and self-discovery.

---

Conclusion

"The Mother’s Day Attack" is a poignant exploration of survival, the enduring effects of trauma, and the strength found in unity. Tennyson and Kyle's story not only sheds light on the vulnerabilities faced by victims of violent crimes but also celebrates their courage and determination to rebuild their lives.

---

Notable Quotes

• Hannah Smith:
  “[03:04] ...we owned a CrossFit gym. So I managed the gym, was a new mom, and then my husband is a firefighter. So, yeah, that was, that was life at the time.”

• Hannah Smith:
  “[10:09] ...I had $41 of cash, which I never have cash in my wallet. And so I had this slight sense of relief...”

• Hannah Smith:
  “[26:03] ...I grabbed a can of wasp spray... and then I started stabbing him...”

• Hannah Smith:
  “[51:03] ...I need to share my story... to share our story in my words and then the path after and hope that whoever is reading it can find themselves in their own way.”

---

This episode of The Knife: A True Crime Podcast masterfully combines first-person storytelling with in-depth interviews, providing listeners with a comprehensive understanding of both the immediate trauma and the long-term healing process that follows such a life-altering event.

Transcript

[Patia Eaton]

This is exactly right.

[Ryan Reynolds]

How to have fun anytime, anywhere.

[Tennyson Jacobson]

Step 1 Go to chumbacasino.com chumbacasino.com Got it.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Step 2 Collect your welcome bonus.

[Tennyson Jacobson]

Come to papa. Welcome bonus.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Step 3 Play hundreds of casino style games for free.

[Tennyson Jacobson]

That's a lot of games all for free.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Step 4 Unleash your excitement.

[Hannah Smith]

Woo hoo. Chumba Chumba Casino has been delivering thrills for over a decade. So claim your free welcome bonus now and live the chumba life. Visit chumbacasino.com Purchase necessary vgw group void.

[Tennyson Jacobson]

Where prohibited by law 21/ terms and conditions apply hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile Now. I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited Premium Wireless for $15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills. But it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment.

[Patia Eaton]

Of $45 for a three month plan.

[JLo]

Equivalent to $15 per month required new customer offer for first three months only. Speed slow after 35 gig if network's busy, taxes and fees extra. You're a hustler. You get things done, but you don't always do things for yourself. With JLO Beauty, it takes just a few minutes a day to look like facials are a regular part of your routine. JLo Beauty's Fresh and Flawless skincare kit includes six skincare products that work as hard as you do. They'll hustle to brighten, firm and hydrate your complexion morning and night. This skincare kit is a one and done solution that is clinically proven to visibly tighten and lift for instant and long lasting results. Cleanse, treat, moisturize, protect. The fresh and flawless Skincare kit does it all. See why the kit's a best seller today? Visit jlobeauty.com deluxe and get an extra 25% off your first shipment plus free gifts with code Deluxe. If you're not satisfied, return the bottles within 60 days for your money back. See the website for details. That's jlobeauty.com Deluxe to get that JLO glow.

[Patia Eaton]

This story contains adult content and language. Listener discretion is advised.

[Hannah Smith]

All these details come together so fast, but it was basically like this is going to be a fight for our life.

[Kyle]

Welcome to the Knife. I'm Hannah Smith.

[Patia Eaton]

I'm Patia Eaton. This week we're speaking with Tennison Jacobson. In 2013, Tennyson was a new mother. She and her husband owned a small but successful CrossFit gym in the Pacific Northwest. They were building a house. Life was good.

[Kyle]

But Tennyson's first Mother's Day turned their lives upside down. When she and her family learned in the most terrifying way that a man she'd never met was targeting her. Tennyson and her husband were in a fight for their lives.

[Patia Eaton]

Let's get into the inter.

[Hannah Smith]

So I'm from Washington State. We live just outside of Seattle in the suburbs. And in 2013, I was 26 years old as a new mom. Our daughter was seven months old. We owned a CrossFit gym. So we had had that for about four years. So I managed the gym, was a new mom, and then my husband is a firefighter. So, yeah, that was, that was life at the time.

[Patia Eaton]

At the time, Tennyson and her husband were in the middle of building a house. So they were living with Tennyson's mother in a small town outside of Seattle, Washington. The area was rural and wooded, and the house had this long winding driveway. You probably wouldn't even know it was there unless you were looking for it.

[Hannah Smith]

So, yeah, it was a safe neighborhood. We had great neighbors. Our house was kind of on the outskirts of town, so it was already a small town, but we were a little removed. So we hadn't locked our doors in probably at least 10 years and didn't even worry honestly about it.

[Patia Eaton]

So tell us where we're at in 2013. What time of year is it?

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah, so it was my first Mother's Day and we had planned that weekend to go to Crescent Bar, Washington, which is about a two hour drive from our house. And then on Mother's Day, we were going to. The plan was to come home. And then at the time, while we owned our CrossFit gym, we had a really competitive CrossFit team and my husband was the captain of the team. And at that time, it was kind of the buildup to the CrossFit Games, which is like the Olympics of CrossFit. And we always had a really strong team that got really close to qualifying. So the plan was for my husband to go to the gym, workout with the team. I was going to spend time with my mom.

[Patia Eaton]

So you get back from Crescent Bar, what time of day is it?

[Hannah Smith]

It's about 12:30pm p.m. yes. Okay. And on Mother's Day on Mother's Day.

[Patia Eaton]

And so your husband heads to the gym and are you home with the baby and is anyone else home with you?

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah, so my mom's there because we were hanging out and having a little time. And to be totally transparent, we had a rocky time. And my mom has been through a lot in her life, and that ended up impacting our relationship quite a bit. So we were putting that to the side and spending time together. My daughter was there again. She's about seven months old, so just the three of us, and we kind of fell into one of our old patterns of miscommunication and not landing on the same page. And so she went to her bedroom and was pretty upset and went to take a shower. And so I was pretty frustrated with how things were playing out. I was like, I'm just going to start cleaning up the house. So my daughter, I put her on the floor. You know, she's not walking at the time, so she's sitting with toys on a blanket. And then I just started cleaning up the house. And that's when, yeah, I started seeing someone walk up to our front door. And like I said, no one ever came to our house. We were on the outskirts of town. People had a hard time finding our house. People never came. So my first instinct was to walk, to greet the visitor as we kind of would. And so I started walking towards the front door. And it's just so crazy how quickly things really register because my mind's going, well, this is weird. Like, somebody's here. Well, this is weird. It's Sunday. This is Mother's Day. And within maybe one or two steps, I realized, like, the intensity that this man was walking to the front door with. And I immediately knew he was not going to be stopping at the front door. Penny didn't. So he barged right in and walked right towards me. And so my only instinct was to head towards my daughter. So I had her on her little blanket right by the couch. So I turned and I ran towards her. And he got me right before I got to her. I had a ponytail. He grabbed me by the ponytail, he yanked me into him. And then by that time, I was right. It was like two or three feet from my daughter. And so he pulls me into him, presses his body into me and bends me over the couch as he's yanking my head towards him. And to give, like, a description of him, he was probably six, two, you know, over six feet tall. I'm five, seven. He's a lot bigger than I am, probably at least 215 pounds. He just looked grungy, but it was more so. It wasn't his physicality. It was his, like, this energy. He was so intense. And then he Smelt. I mean, I don't even know how to explain this smell. It wasn't a body odor thing. It was like filth, disgust. Like, it was so bad. And so he's bending me over the couch, and all that's going through my mind is like, I mean, I have no idea who this person is. We live in a safe place. Never seen anybody. So I'm wondering, you know, is he going to take me? Is he going to take me and rape me? Is he going to make me take my daughter? And all the time I'm kicking and trying to scream. So he's yanking me with his one hand in my, you know, holding my ponytail. And then he took his other hand and he was covering my mouth. And I'm small, but, like, we owned a CrossFit gym. I worked really hard to, like, keep up with the other really strong women in my gym. And so I was. That is fairly strong for my size. So I always wondered for most women, you know, what would we ever do in this type of situation? And I kind of always say, like, humbling is not the right word, but it is the word. Like having somebody, you know, almost £100 more than you and so intense. It was like I didn't know what I could do. He is holding me there, and then he gets right in my ear and he says, I won't hurt you. I just want your money. And I remember just having this, like, ounce of relief because thankfully, by the grace of God or whatever higher power there is, somebody had paid me for a hoodie at our gym. So I had $41 of cash, which I never have cash in my wallet. And so I had this slight sense of relief that, oh, if he just wants money, I actually have some money to give him. So I tried to mumble to him that I have money. So he yanked me up by my ponytail. He's like, basically holding it like it's a leash, and takes his other hand on my hip and he walks me to my diaper bag, which was right next to the front door where he came in. And so we get to the diaper bag and just everything was off. I'm like, if you want money, like, wouldn't you just take a big purse or, you know. And so he's waiting for me to sift and find my wallet. Of course, it was the heaviest things that fell to the bottom. And your.

[Patia Eaton]

She's in the shower. She doesn't hear any of this.

[Hannah Smith]

Yep, yep. I finally find the wallet and I have one of those zip wallets so instead of even just, like, yanking and taking my wallet, like, he waits for me to unzip it, and, you know, seconds just feel like forever. So it's just like. It was just weird. And so I take out the money, I hand it to him, and then he let go of me. And he stood about 3ft in front of me, and he just stared at me with the blackest eyes I've ever seen. It's like you see in the movies, like, of a complete psychopath. He just did not even seem of this world. And I have always explained, like, it was this look of, I hate you. And then he wound up his hand, and he smacked me across the face. And I fell down, sprained my ankle. And that was a. It's a weird detail, but I looked back, I'm like, if you got money, like, why did you have to hit me? So he hit me. He turns, walks. Not even runs. Just walks out the front door, hops over our railing. It was a few feet off the ground, and he left. I'm screaming now. My daughter's now screaming. I think I'm swearing the way you.

[Kyle]

Described him walking toward the front door.

[Hannah Smith]

Mm.

[Kyle]

So just to clarify, you saw him when he was outside? Was there, like, a window or a. Oh, yeah.

[Hannah Smith]

Great question. Our front doors were basically big glass doors.

[Kyle]

Okay.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah.

[Kyle]

So you saw him, and he was walking, you know, quickly or with intention, like, aggressively toward your door, and then opened it and went immediately to you. Did it seem like he just walked into the house or like he knew you were in there?

[Hannah Smith]

No, it was like he knew I was in there because all the rooms kind of, like, were pretty open. And I was in the dining room, which was right in the middle, so almost like right in front of the door. And so as soon as he walked in, like, I was right there. So, yeah, he saw me right away.

[Kyle]

Had you ever seen him before?

[Hannah Smith]

No, I had never. I had no idea who he was.

[Patia Eaton]

So he walks out the door. You go get your baby. And then what is the next move?

[Hannah Smith]

So my mom runs out in a towel wrapped around her because she heard me screaming, you know, fff. Which I don't really ever say. And so I first lock the door immediately. I go get my daughter, and then my mom's running out at the same time. And then I started running to every door in our house to make sure it was locked. And then I think I must have called my husband first to tell him what happened. So I called him. He started heading home with our friend and co owner. Of the gym. And then I called 911. And then once the first cop arrived, like, I could see him coming down our long driveway. I opened the door to make sure he knew it was the right house. And then we had several other cops come to. So he had a trucker hat, and when he bent me over the couch, the trucker hat fell off. So that was like, one piece of evidence that I had to be able to give them. Yeah.

[Patia Eaton]

And so most of us never find ourselves in this situation. When the cops arrive, what happens?

[Hannah Smith]

It is a little blurry, like, all the moving pieces. And so I just had to start giving my, you know, testimony to share what happened. And. And then meanwhile, there's cops that are looking outside for him. They're looking for evidence. And there's a little bit of woods behind our backyard. And so they had said, like, oh, there's a little bit of trampled on place that looks like somebody could have been hiding here. They found a couple blades of grass that were, like, broken. But part of me also knew, like, I just. There's something that was like, I don't think they're going to find him. Like, he was just so he wasn't anxious. Like, he was just intense.

[Patia Eaton]

Almost like he would go and blend in other than being very smelly.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah. And that's not what they're picking up on. You know, it's the other. And they didn't find a single thing. They were probably there for. It was at least four hours, I want to say. So an aid car came as well. Checked out my ankle and just checked me out. And then during that time, there was something about all the details of. Of it that, again, were not adding up and didn't make sense. And they were trying to say, oh, you know, homeless people live in the woods area behind your house because we have a church, few churches that would do hot meals. And so they're like, you know, maybe he's here for a hot meal. But that didn't seem right. And so they had that thought, but I just was like, something just feels really off. And then I had this thought that came that was like, he's coming back, he's coming back. And one cop who had 30 years of experience was like, you know, I've had 30 years of experience. Nobody's ever came back. Another one was like, of course they don't have a crystal ball, but, you know, the statistics of coming. Somebody coming back are almost impossible. So they weren't being rude or, like, trying to, like, dismiss me, but they were Using logic and statistics to say that just doesn't happen.

[Patia Eaton]

And do you think that that little voice inside you that felt that way came from the fact that he, like, Hannah had asked you earlier. It seemed like he knew you were there, and he seemed like he might be watching.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah. It's not like he came in, like, looking around. He came right for me. It came from him waiting for the wallet. Like, that didn't make sense to me. It came from the look he gave me, like. And then hitting me, like, why did you have to hit me? That didn't make sense. So I think it was those. Those things. Yeah.

[Kyle]

Yeah. And the fact that he's so unpredictable and doing these strange things, like, I can see how that would lend you to believe, like, there's some other motivation here.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah. And they think later that maybe, like, my daughter who was there, like, maybe he didn't expect her to be there. And so the kind of only working thing was that that threw him off, and so he left at that time.

[Patia Eaton]

And so the cops are there. You estimate they're there for four hours. And so what does a person do after an experience like that? After law enforcement goes home?

[Hannah Smith]

It's so hard because it's like, our homes are our safe place. I mean, getting attacked anywhere is unacceptable and awful. But I think in your home, where is supposed to be your. Your one safe place that really messes with you, especially in a place that felt so safe in our neighborhood.

[Patia Eaton]

Tennyson was shaken, still trying to wrap her mind around what had just happened. She and her family had had these long standing dinner plans to celebrate. This was her first Mother's Day as a mom. It's not like this sounded like fun in the moment, but neither did staying home. She'd watched her attacker disappear into the woods and knew that he could be anywhere. There was no right answer.

[Hannah Smith]

So we went out to dinner, and even going out to dinner was awful. And I had to go to the bathroom, and I'm like, well, what if he's at the end of the hall? Like, he jumped out of nowhere before he could jump out of nowhere again. And then even just little things that, like, you're watching people and they're so happy and they're having so much fun, but inside you're complete mess and scared. And then I feel like, oh, well, crap, now I'm being a wet blanket. Like, I'm not fun, but I'm messed up. So there's a whole bunch of, you know, mixed emotions. So we went to dinner and then came back Home, I spent time. My girlfriend still came over. We had a couple glasses of wine, and my husband's an early to bed guy. I'm gonna stay up late. So he, he went to bed earlier than I did. And he is such a trust the professional guy. I think part of that is what he does in work. Like, you have to trust those who you work with. And so when they said nobody comes back, like, he believed that. So he went to bed totally fine. Where I was like, how the hell am I going to go to bed tonight? Like, it's dark, it's night, I can't sleep. Just thinking about everything and then also worrying about this guy coming back. And part of it too is like, I'm also trying to be like, okay, I have this thought, but like, everybody's telling me that that doesn't happen. So then you're trying to not be the crazy person and you're trying to, like, go back to normal. So when I went to bed, I always slept on the side of the bed that was closest to the door so that I could get up to go, you know, take care of our daughter if I needed to. But that night I was like, there's way I'm sleeping next to the door. So I made my husband switch sides of the bed with me. We always slept with wasp spray on one side of the bed and a Louisville slugger bat on the other.

[Patia Eaton]

So what time did your friend leave and what time did you go to bed?

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah, she left probably around like 10 o', clock, 10:30. And then I went to bed around probably 10:30, cleaned up and then went to bed. But first, you know, double checked every single door, every single window, and then I got back into bed. I'm like, what if I missed one? So I did it again, and then I got back into bed and like, I got to do it again. So I triple checked. There are a lot of windows in that house. Every single window, every single door. And then, yeah, finally got into bed around 10:30.

[Patia Eaton]

Earlier that day, after the intruder had left, Tennyson's husband Kyle had raced home to be with her, and he'd brought a friend with him for support. So instead of driving the friend back to his car that night, Kyle just told him, take the truck and he'd get it back the next day. So Kyle's truck was not in the driveway that night like it usually was when he was home.

[Hannah Smith]

So I went to bed around 10:30. Again, I'm not sleeping. And I got the baby monitor because we had one of those Video monitors. And so I pulled it onto my side of the bed and I was like, well, I'm just gonna be watching this because if by any chance he happens to come, like, I am going to make sure that if he goes into her room, I'll see it. And so I was just literally laying there all night until about 1:30 in the morning. And we had two little Yorkie New Yorker terrier dogs that slept with us in her bed, Lola and Lily. And they woke up most nights to go to the bathroom, which was super annoying. And they did that night. So at about 1:30 in the morning, they woke up and wiggling their little bodies just to like say they needed to go to the bathroom. And there was no way I was taking them. I was so scared. So I felt awful. But I woke up my husband to see if he would take them out. So he was annoyed. So he gets up to take them out. And I told him I was like, babe, take the bat. Because I was so scared. And that was on my side of the bed. So it would have taken a bit of extra effort to walk around, grab it. So he grabbed the wasp spray just to appease me, probably because he knew I wouldn't stop bugging him to take something. So he grabs the wasp spray, he walks out. So how our house was set up was. It was a one story house. In the middle of the house, there was this music room and then there was like this long hallway. So he walked out our bedroom door into the hallway towards the front door. And then just within a few steps, the dog started growling. And so he turned to tell them to shut up because he thought they were going to wake up, you know, my mom or Lila. So he turns and the man is right there in the hallway. Yeah. So I'm still in bed, I'm not hearing anything. The dogs like run back into me. You know, they're like nervous and they weren't like that. So what my husband said is he walked into the hallway, turned guys right there. He immediately, exactly like what he did towards me intently, just beelined it straight from my husband. And my husband was like, oh my God. And immediately knew this was the man from earlier. And he also pretty much knew, like, you know, subconsciously. All these details come together so fast, but it was basically like, this is going to be a fight for our life. And so guy rushes right towards Kyle. Kyle starts spraying the wasp spray at him. And it just pisses him off. And he holds up his hands and he has gardening gloves duct taped to his wrists. As he's holding them out towards my husband. And so they start fighting. And when the dogs come back in, I'm like, well, this is weird. And then it was just like a few seconds of quiet. And then I started to hear rustling. So I immediately knew what was going on. So I jumped out of bed, grabbed the bat, ran out to the hallway, and by that time, Kyle. And to give a little context of Kyle, so we owned a CrossFit gym. Like, he was, you know, the team captain. So he's. He was one of the strongest. Just physically, like, strong, but also like endurance wise. And then he also had been a high school wrestler. And then he coached wrestling after. So he had that experience. And then he's a firefighter, so he has experience with, you know, pretty crazy stuff and having to remain calm. So, like, there's one person you wanted in this fight. Like, he's the top candidate. So by the time I got out there, it was crazy. But Kyle had gotten him in a headlock. So the guy was on all fours. And then my husband's arm was wrapped around the back of his neck, tucking him down so his back was wide open. And, you know, I had the bat. And so I was like, okay, I'm just going to slam this thing down on him as hard as I freaking can. And again, I knew I was small, but now I'm like, jacked on adrenaline. And I knew it was the same person. Not just like, because who else would it be? But, like, you could smell him too. It was the same exact thing. And so I wound up the bat as hard as I could and I slammed it on his back, screaming, you know, F bombs at him. And so I slammed the bat on him. And then I do it again. By the sixth time I slammed it on him, the bat broke in two. Which is actually crazy. I mean, it was a grown up, wooden, solid bat. And it looks like what it would in a baseball game if it, you know, breaks. And it's got the jagged ends. And so I'm like holding the broken half that has a jagged end. I'm like holding, oh, my gosh, like, I should stab this in his back. But I was like, I can't do that. And so I threw that down. And then the next thing I could think of was, okay, well, his hips are high, like, I'll just start kicking him in the balls. So I go to start kicking him in the balls, but because I had sprained my ankle from when he hit me, like, it really freaking hurt. So then I try with My left foot. That's even more pathetic, not doing anything. So then I look around and I see the can of wasp spray that my husband had brought on the floor and his head is still tucked down.

[Kyle]

Can I ask, is your husband kind of struggling with him the whole time?

[Hannah Smith]

For me, it doesn't look like it's a struggle, but, you know, like, in these matches, there's so much intensity that's happening, and so it's taking everything within him to keep the upper hand. Like, the guy is trying to grab his balls, break his finger, bite him. So there's a lot going on down there that I'm not really aware of, but just so much energy to keep the upper hand. So they're on all fours, kind of facing each other, and he's slowly, like, moving down the living room so it doesn't look like much is happening, but so much is happening in that. And even when I broke the bat on him, like, there was no ow. There was no, like, you bitch. There's absolutely no sounds. And my husband was the only one that could hear him. And it was basically just like growling and grunting.

[Patia Eaton]

Wow. So your husband is struggling with him, but currently still has him in the headlock. You've hit him with so much force that the bat broke. Now you're kicking him, but you're realizing your ankle is making that really hard to, like, use any real force. What do you do next? And what is the look in your husband's eyes while all of this is happening?

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah, so I actually can't see him at all because he's like, to the side holding the headlock. We're not talking at all. So at that point I see the wasp spray. So I grab the wasp spray because I can tell the guy's head is tucked down and Kyle's on top of him, so I could spray it in his face without getting my husband. So I grabbed a can of wasp spray. I crouch down where the guy's head is, and I just point blank, finger on the trigger. I'm spraying wasp spray literally right into his eyes. And again, like, nothing is happening. I'm just holding and spraying, holding and spraying. I mean, it's a full can of wasp spray. I'm just holding that. And then we're slowly moving still down the hallway and nothing's going on through. Like, I didn't. Wasn't even thinking of anything else. And then my husband, which, you know, I've never heard in my entire marriage with him, relationship with him was like, tenny, I need help. It was. Yeah, it was just like a light switch flipped in my brain because, again, I've never heard him say those words for anything, let alone something physical. And so it was an immediate knowing that there needed to be something more drastic than what we were doing. So I dropped a can of wasp spray and I ran to the kitchen and. And by that time, my mom had heard me dropping F bombs and screaming when I had hit him with a bat. So she ran out, and my husband was able to say, Rosalind, call 911. And so she came back out and she was on the phone with 911. So then I go to the kitchen, and we had two big kitchen 10 inch kitchen knives. One was flimsy and not great, and one was sturdy and really solid. And so I took the time to grab both of them just to make sure they didn't get switched. And I had the better of the two. I got the knife and I walked back out, and his back was still wide open, and I started stabbing him. I stabbed him four times. And then on the fourth time, I pull out the knife and there's like this chunk of the knife missing. You know, I'm so on adrenaline that you almost, like, don't even know what you're doing. And so when I pulled it out, I saw the chunk of a blade missing and this solid knife. I'm like, this is crazy. Oh, my gosh. But then I. I just kept stabbing him again. It was just like nothing was working. And so it just felt like he was never going to be stopped. And so by the eighth time I stabbed him, my husband was like, tenny, stop. And so I paused for a second because he could tell his breathing had shifted to agonal breathing, which is basically end of life. So he let the guy fall to his back on the floor, and then I stabbed him once more in the gut. And then my husband was like, tenny, stop. And so I stopped. My mom's on the phone with 911 as I'm doing this. So I stop, and he crawls on the guy because just like me, it was like, is he going to get back up? It felt like he could resurrect any second and keep resuming. And that started the initial investigation.

[Patia Eaton]

So do the cops arrive within moments of him?

[Hannah Smith]

No, no, she had only. She only got on the phone with the cops maybe like a minute and a half before this happened. If that. She's screaming into the phone when I'm doing it. You know, she's stabbing him. She's stabbing him. And so as soon as I'm done, they ask to pass the phone to me, and then they ask my name and how old I am and where's the knife? And so there's a lot of just conversation with the dispatcher to, can you set the knife down? I'm like, I don't want to set the knife down. I'm too scared to set the knife down. So there was that, and then they had dispatched by that point. But again, it takes a while to get to our house. So it took about eight minutes before, you know, they actually arrived.

[Patia Eaton]

And meanwhile, the intruder is now laying on his back, and your husband has climbed on top of him just to be extra cautious. And he's dying.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah.

[Patia Eaton]

Are you witnessing that?

[Hannah Smith]

Well, it was like. I mean, it was completely dark in the house. There's like. It's literally almost like the movies are just moonlight. Like, we. And we had recessed lighting in our hallway, so that was already dim, but nobody went to turn lights on or anything. So I honestly don't even think I saw his face that entire second time. Yeah.

[Patia Eaton]

So it takes about eight minutes for law enforcement to get to your house. In that eight minutes, do you turn on lights? What's going on?

[Hannah Smith]

I was coached by the dispatch to bring the knife to the kitchen. So I think I was maybe in there. And then I came back to the living room just to stand by my husband. He got on the phone with 911 and is trying to help explain to them how to get to the house. Listening to the 911 calls, I can hear myself, like, when he's on the phone with 911, I'm talking to my mom and, like, explaining what happened a little bit, of course. Freaking out and crying and shaking and, like, I just killed somebody. I think when I reflect back on that time, you're just in total shock. And also, like, I just did something that people go to jail for the rest of their lives for doing. And then eventually the cops get there, and then medics come, and I didn't realize this at the time, but, you know, their job is to tend to the worst. The hurting individual, which was him. And so they were giving him cpr, which I just remember being like, what are you doing? Like, we just did all this work to stop him. Why are you doing that? I mean, we were now murder suspects, and so we were held there and then had to essentially wait for detectives to come. Now, this is a crime scene.

[Patia Eaton]

You were held at your home.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah. And never handcuffed, but basically, like, there was A bench in the front entryway. And so just Kyle and I, we were sitting at the bench and then my mom went to go check on our daughter and she was still sleeping, thank gosh. And so she basically just stayed in the room with my daughter as now law enforcement just start swarming in and detectives. And eventually the lead detective came. I don't know like how long it took her to get there. And we had to each individually go to her car to give our testimony. And I think it must have been obvious to them that it was self defense because we were never handcuffed, we were never treated like any other way of. Just like they were so kind. And I remember one point like just sitting there and we were sitting there for a while and I'm just, you know, I'm covered in blood, it's drying on my shorts, it's drying on my body. Like I felt so disgusting covered in his blood and just even him, you know. And so I asked if I could take a shower. And they got approval from a detective to let me shower. And like a cop walked me to the shower or he walked me to get clothes, walked me to the bathroom and then I go in and he was, you know, going to stand outside. And I just remember thinking like that's so nice of them to stand outside so that I feel comfortable. But they're not standing there for my comfort. They're standing there because I just killed somebody, you know.

[Patia Eaton]

Tennyson and Kyle had been in a fight for their life. It was almost an out of body experience. This had all happened at around 1:30 in the morning. And then hours of questioning followed. Tennyson had an open wound just from the friction from holding the knife. And Kyle's knees were rubbed completely raw from being dragged across their living room floor as he struggled with their attacker. They were both in need of medical attention.

[Hannah Smith]

So yeah, so we went to the hospital and then the infectious disease doctor to run tests and then it was back to. We now went to Kyle's parents house to figure out, okay, well what does this mean now? Where do we go? How do we even navigate all of the moving pieces of now a murder investigation, complete trauma. You know, we, we didn't even want to be in a car alone. So thinking of like, how do we run our business? You know, so we're running our business. We have our daughter, we have, we're building a house, my mom, there's a crime scene. There was just so much to figure out. And so it was kind of almost just like one hour At a time. And the detective, she was just amazing. Like, I think she is a special person in my life who. I don't know what it would have looked like without her, but she just was incredible. It was so clear it was self defense. And they quickly got that the evidence from the hat matched the guy. So that all checked out.

[Patia Eaton]

It was quickly determined that Tennyson and Kyle were acting in self defense. And they soon also learned the identity of this man who had invaded their home not once, but twice in 24 hours. His name was Ken Boonstra, a white male, about 6 foot 2, age 48.

[Hannah Smith]

And we did find out a couple days later, like, he had a camera on him. He had a tripod and he had duct tape. He had a flashlight. And again, circling back like, this was the only night my husband has been home when his truck wasn't. So it's pretty clear his intention that evening. And as they started to investigate him, he had a YouTube channel which since has been taken down that was just. It was all misogynistic rants about how evil and awful women are, that we're the scum of the earth, we are serpents, we were just made to destroy men. We need to be destroyed. And as they started looking into his family, like, apparently he went through a pretty bitter divorce. And then it was after his divorce that he pretty much spiraled. So even, like, his family was scared of him. And he had said, like, he thought monkeys drug him down his trailer and aliens drug him back. And when they ran the toxicology report, which did not surprise me at all, there was nothing. No drugs, no alcohol, no anything. Which people kind of assumed that would be the case. But I just, again, thinking back to the first incident, like, it seemed like something else. And so their theory is that he essentially had a psychotic break and he might have saw me somewhere at, like, a Starbucks or the grocery store, and something about me maybe reminded him of his wife. And obviously he had so much hatred towards women. And so that was what they think the motive was. Wow.

[Patia Eaton]

Were they ever able to determine when he first sort of zoned in on you or they just. That's their sort of best maybe guess they weren't.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah, they found, like I said, in the woods behind their house, they said there was some, like, ground that had been trampled on, but there was no, like, indication of how long it had been. And no lead to where he saw me. Yeah.

[Kyle]

Were they able to figure out how he got into your home?

[Hannah Smith]

It's a great question. No, they weren't the Front door. I locked it and I pulled on it to make sure, and it didn't budge. It was a weird lock. Sometimes it wouldn't go all the way through. But even when I tried, I couldn't open it. So, I mean, I think they think he somehow got the lock open. They found, like, blades of grass and, like, there was a bathtub by a window by my. In my mom's bedroom, but she never used that bathtub, and she would always wear shoes. And so that didn't make sense. But, yeah, the thought is the. The front door, some. My sister, she sometimes lived there, in and out. Like, she thinks that maybe he was hiding in a room like that he actually never left. But that didn't make sense because our dogs were there, and they would have.

[Kyle]

You know, and then did anyone. That the man, the attacker, you know, you kind of filled us in on his story and that he had probably had some kind of mental break and had been fostering this kind of, like, rage and anger against women for quite a while, to the point where he isolated his family members. Did anyone that he had known in his life ever reach out to you?

[Hannah Smith]

I will say his ex wife reached out to me a few years ago, and it was very kind and very supportive, and she just felt so bad. And so she even talked about connecting and maybe meeting up sometime, and I just wasn't quite there yet.

[Patia Eaton]

Did your response to hearing this man who had terrified you earlier that day, understandably so. Did your response to then seeing him again in your house, struggling with your husband surprise you?

[Hannah Smith]

Sorry, my response to him being there.

[Patia Eaton]

Like, the fact that I think it would be equally easy to understand if you grabbed your baby and ran out of the house.

[Hannah Smith]

Oh, okay. No, I mean, I think I'm seeing my husband fight him. I'm gonna help.

[Patia Eaton]

Like, you jumped into action.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah. To me, there is actually no processing of grabbing my daughter. Like, I knew she was in a safe place.

[Patia Eaton]

Right.

[Hannah Smith]

And I think I subconsciously knew how dangerous this man was. Like, again, somebody's not in your house 12 hours later in the middle of the night to steal some jewelry. You know, like, there is some intention there. And I'm not cognitively piecing all that together, but you subconsciously. And so it was just like, I think it was assumed I needed to do whatever I could to help Kyle. One thing to say, too, that I really commend Kyle for is everybody focuses on me and what I did. I get it. But him asking for help was a pivotal moment in that night. And I think I Mean, we all struggle with asking for help. I think sometimes men more so. But if he hadn't asked for help, I do not think like all of the intuition and instinct that had felt that day would have kicked in to know for me to do what I did next. And so again I go back to like, we both need each other, we both did it. We were both a team.

[Patia Eaton]

You know, what does life look like after something like this happens?

[Hannah Smith]

It was the hardest experience of my life. So that day that, you know, we basically come home from the infectious disease doctor and Kyle gets a call from his fire department that was basically like, hey Kyle, you know, within 30 minutes of us learning about what happened, your shifts are covered for three months. So his fellow firefighters volunteered to take his shifts so he could have three months off, which was just incredible. And so we moved in with my in laws in the home essentially that my husband grew up in. And it was about 15 minutes from the house where this happened. And it was a small house, but there was nowhere to go. Our new house that we were building, I mean, we had just poured foundation so there was nothing to move into. So we knew we had about seven more months to build our house. So we moved in with them. They immediately installed a security system. I mean, we didn't even, I think, drive anywhere by ourselves for the first two weeks. My in laws drove us to the grocery store, drove us to the bank. I mean, you're completely traumatized. You can't sleep. My in laws had a guest bedroom which was like on the opposite side of their house and had its own bathroom. And we're like, don't think we can sleep there. And so we pulled a mattress into my in laws bedroom and we slept there for three months, which was crazy. I love my in laws but you know, it's a wild thought to think of sleeping next to your in laws. You know, walking down a hallway, I just expect that a door is going to open and somebody's going to attack me. It gets really draining when you're not getting any sleep. Your body's on overdrive all the time. You're facing an investigation, you're building a house, you have a seven month old daughter. Things were complicated with my mom. I'm living with my in laws in a space that's, you know, not really my space. And at one point we were told to go to the doctor and my doctor prescribed me Xanax and I was terrified to take that. I had never taken anything like that before. But I was struggling so I got on Xanax pretty quickly, and that helped during the day. Like, even just driving in a car, like, if I saw someone pass me that wasn't expected. I'd get shivers all down my body, everywhere.

[Patia Eaton]

The trauma from what happened that day impacted everyday tasks that used to be automatic, like just closing up their gym, something Tennyson and Kyle used to be fine. Doing alone was now impossible. They also had a friend who set up a GoFundMe to help provide them with a highly trained protection dog. The couple knew they couldn't face this alone, and they sought out professional help.

[Hannah Smith]

We had been advised to go to a trauma center in Seattle that, you know, is, like, the best of the best. And we very quickly started meeting with their trauma therapist there too. And what they prescribed really is called exposure therapy. So expose yourself to the thing that you're most terrified of, which for me, was sitting in, like, just being in a room alone. And so very quickly, I started doing exposure therapy, where I'd have to sit in a bedroom. Literally, people are right outside the door, and you have to expose yourself to it for 20 minutes and then rate yourself. And the idea is that as you sit in it and you know, you know nothing happens, then your body comes down and starts to learn it's okay. So we both did that. Kyle did it, staying up later than everybody else.

[Patia Eaton]

The exposure therapy was starting to work, but it wasn't a quick fix. Tennyson and Kyle took everything one day at a time, and after seven months, they moved into their newly built home. Life continued, but for Tennyson, this idea that this stranger she'd never even noticed had fixated on her and carried out this calculated attack. It was so scary. All she'd done was exist, and somehow that had been enough to provoke him. It made everyone she didn't know feel like a threat.

[Hannah Smith]

I think on the outside, I totally looked normal and happy, but like, the internal experience of being paralyzed by fear everywhere you go, you know, there was never an understanding of why necessarily me. I never knew what I did. So I almost like even going to the grocery store, and if I'd pass a man, I'm like, okay, I don't want to smile, like, too big because I don't want to lead him on. But then if I look mad, will I upset him? So it's been a long road. And even like, you know, this is 12 years later. I still find myself double checking locks. I still analyze every person but about and kind of going backwards. Like, five years after the event, I thought I was doing really well. And then I was interviewed on Tony Blauer's podcast, which I don't know if you know who he is, but he's incredible in the self defense world. And by the end of it, like, he had picked up on a lot of cues that, like, I was not maybe doing as well as I thought I was. And so he asked me if I wanted to connect with a therapist he knew. And I was like, okay, yeah, anybody? Anybody you recommend? And so I connected with that therapist. And from the first call I was like, oh my gosh, this person is different. And he was so kind and so compassionate and, like, took time to explain my nervous system, which was shocking to me because in five years and probably seeing at least four therapists, nobody had explained to me my nervous system, which is crazy. And so him even just explaining that gave me, like, compassion towards myself because I was like, now I understand why I'm experiencing the things I'm experiencing that I can't control. I can't just think I'm safe. Like, my body does not feel safe. And eventually I got my nervous system to calm down. And then that led me to realizing other things in my life that I wasn't aware of that were at play, like perfectionism and people pleasing. And so this event really became a catalyst for me not to just to heal from this event, but to heal these other things that I had no idea were really holding me back from really being my true self and began this journey of self exploration. And. Yeah, wow.

[Kyle]

Sometimes it's really just like finding the right therapist or right person and can take such a long time, the healing journey. And I'm so glad that you spoke about that. So it strikes me that you and your husband went through this together. Obviously you had, you know, your own experiences and, you know, you pointed out the differences even though you were a team that, you know, you were really the person that was targeted. I'm wondering, you know, and I don't want to create the narrative for you, but I'm just really curious how you see that. You know, the fact that you went through this trauma together, how was that experience informative on, you know, the healing process? Was that a collaborative thing or what was that like?

[Hannah Smith]

It's crazy. The things that happened that night, that happened exactly as they did for the outcome to be what it was, you know, exactly when my dogs woke up, the fact that Kyle's car wasn't there. And so I really do think, and this might sound really freaking cheesy, but like, there was so much Gratitude that we were all safe and okay and honestly that he was gone. So I think that was a layer of it. But when you're so close to, like, losing each other, like, so close, that was such a bonding thing for both of us. It was really the later years where, like, because in the beginning we. We both struggled very similarly. But it. It's been in the more later years where I have struggles when maybe he doesn't. But then we still have some similar struggles too. Like, we just went on our first family vacation, just the four of us, 11 years after the event.

[Patia Eaton]

And so this, you know, you've been on this healing journey. This happened, like you said, 12 years ago. And you recently wrote a book. I would love for you to tell us more about it.

[Hannah Smith]

Thank you. Yeah, you know, I. I never intended to write a book about it. You know, media focuses on the sensationalism of a story, which I understand. But I think what's so beautiful and intriguing and interesting and inspiring is when we can see how somebody rebuilds after that, so we can see ourselves in that. And so I eventually was like, I need to share my story of again after. And it's not just about healing from ptsd. It was about running into these, you know, little t traumas that it exposed me to and being able to apply the work that I learned with my therapist Jeff in the nervous system to these other things. And I love a good self development, personal development book. I've read them all so much. I don't like THE here's your five steps to healing. Here's your 10 steps to healing. You know, I learn through listening to story and, you know, taking that wisdom and insight and then being able to, like, see they can do it. And so that is the intention of the book, is to share our story in my words and then the path after and hope that whoever is reading it can find themselves in their own way. Because what I have learned is even though my experience is unique, we've all gone through something, and at the root are similar feelings and emotions and struggles. And so everyone can find themselves in that.

[Patia Eaton]

What's your book called? I don't think you mentioned the title.

[Hannah Smith]

The Mother of All Days.

[Patia Eaton]

The Mother of All Days. Part of what we were thinking so much about when we developed this show is this idea that when you're the victim of a crime, you're dropped into this story that then you have to go and finish, but you didn't start it. And I think what you just said about the purpose behind your book really speaks so much to when we watch people rebuild is when we really see ourselves and others. And I just really appreciate you sharing all of that with us.

[Hannah Smith]

Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

[Kyle]

Wow, what an interview with Tennyson that was so intense.

[Patia Eaton]

And, you know, we were listening to her retelling it years after the fact, so I can only imagine how it feels to have lived it.

[Kyle]

I can't imagine. It was. Yeah, very visual, very intense, and very touching to me. So I'd never heard of this story. You found it. What is your connection to Tennyson?

[Patia Eaton]

Yeah, this was one. I didn't come across it in any sort of research. Rabbit hole. My friend Laura actually worked with Tennessen at one point during when this happened. So she told me about the story, and I went ahead and reached out.

[Kyle]

I'm so glad that Tennyson agreed to speak with us. There's so much that we actually want to get into, to talk about in this outro. There were so many points in this story that brought up other rabbit hole conversations that you and I were just like, oh, my gosh, what about this? What about this? I mean, one of the major things, the overt violence against women that you see on full display here and how truly horrible and terrifying that is, that this random man targeted her. Like she'd literally done nothing wrong and then was attacked in her own home.

[Patia Eaton]

I mean, not many of us experience having someone invade our home and physically attack us. But that moment in the interview when she talked about walking through a grocery store and giving a second thought to every interaction she had with a man, did I look at him? Was I too friendly? Was I not friendly enough? I mean, that is a universal feeling for most women.

[Kyle]

Yeah. And usually it's like, maybe this feeling of being uncomfortable, but for her, it, like, is connected to, like, such physical violence that, yeah, it's really scary. You found an article that gave a little more information about the investigation. What did you find out in that article?

[Patia Eaton]

Well, you know, this person, Ken Boonstra, I think Tennyson mentions that they never quite figured out why he pinpointed her when it happened or where, which is scary in and of itself. But he had gone through a really difficult divorce, and it seems like, mentally deteriorated in some way, had some sort of mental health issue that wasn't being treated, despite his family's attempts to help. And so he was estranged from them. He was posting a lot on YouTube about, you know, nonsensical, very hateful rants against women and probably hallucinations he was having. It Sounds like, you know, but he was a father of five and at one point gainfully employed and happily married. And so his life fell apart, and he fell apart, too. You know, there's no excuse for what happened. Was one of the things that we thought so much about in the edit is balancing Tennyson's very authentic fear and experience and her husband's very authentic fear and experience with the fact that, you know, this is someone's father and someone's.

[Kyle]

Son and he had someone having a mental health crisis.

[Patia Eaton]

A mental health crisis. And so we had so many conversations throughout this editing process for those reasons.

[Kyle]

Yeah. One of the things in line with that, that really sticks out to me about Tennyson's telling of this story is this fear that she had. Even after it was clear he was not physically capable of fighting. Once they had like, you know, she had stabbed him, there was this intense fear that she felt that at any moment he could pop back up and attack her again, even after he had been taken out of the house. She's showering you days, months later, this intense fear that she had that suddenly he would appear. And we've heard that before from different people we've interviewed. I'm just thinking about Jackie's interview. Jackie, who was survivor of a hijacked plane and, you know, months later is back in the States, but still feeling like the hijacker is around the corner. And so I think that that just is a very real experience that people have, especially when they're victims of a very violent crime.

[Hannah Smith]

Right.

[Patia Eaton]

It's like in her, in her husband's, you know, rational minds, they knew that he had died and he would not be back. But the fear lives in your body. This being alone in your home once felt safe and, you know, you don't even need to lock your doors. And now you wonder, did I look at someone the wrong way? Are they coming to get me for some reason, I'll never know. You know, he showed up with gloves on and supplies that someone might have with them if they had a reeling, bad plan in mind. And a lot of our decisions about what to leave in despite maybe the graphic nature of the tape was because it was fair to her, because, you know, this person ends up dying. But she did this in self defense.

[Kyle]

Totally.

[Patia Eaton]

And that's part of her story.

[Kyle]

Yeah.

[Patia Eaton]

So Tennyson mentioned that they had both a baseball bat and wasp spray by their bedside just in case. Her husband worked as a firefighter. You probably see a lot. And so she had him bring that wasp spray when the dogs initially woke up. Just in case, we did a little research and it looks like wasp spray is not necessarily thought to be effective on humans, although it functions sort of like pepper spray. With wasps, you're better off with just pepper spray. If you're thinking that it's too be a self defense mechanism.

[Kyle]

That's great to know. Yeah. I wanted to do a quick shout out to Lola and Lily, their two little dogs that did not do anything to protect them, but, you know, had to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. This is the whole reason they got out of bed, that her husband got out of bed. You know, we just, we love dogs, the Yorkies.

[Patia Eaton]

Yeah. Well, there was that moment in the tape when I was like, wow. So did they like sense that he was in the house and started barking? And she was like, no. They just had to go out every night at like 1:30. It was really annoying.

[Kyle]

This is literally what they do every single night.

[Patia Eaton]

Oh my God.

[Hannah Smith]

Wow.

[Kyle]

They've since gotten a bigger dog, which Tennyson talked about feeling like as part of her healing process. But I was like, well, you know, the Yorkies, at least they had to pee. And that did play a role in this whole thing.

[Patia Eaton]

I mean, they went back to bed.

[Kyle]

The Yorkies. Yeah. I mean, we're out of here.

[Patia Eaton]

Yeah. That was a moment of levity in an otherwise pretty heavy interview. Yeah. And then there was the sort of mystery that remains is how did he get back into the house? Because we know from Tennyson that when they went to dinner that night, when they made that decision, okay, we're gonna stick to the plan. We're gonna go have this family dinner. They're triple checking. They're locking all the windows, they're locking all the doors, as one would. And then they come back and before she goes to bed, she does it all again.

[Kyle]

And then she does it multiple times, which is exactly what I would do too. Like, she's checking every single window lock, she's checking all the doors, she's making sure this house is secure.

[Patia Eaton]

Yeah.

[Kyle]

And investigators said that there was no sign of forced entry. Right.

[Patia Eaton]

So it's like. Well, she said her sister speculated maybe he was in the house the whole time, but, you know, she thought maybe that was unlikely.

[Kyle]

I guess it's possible. It's pretty creepy. While we talked about this, like, the dogs. The dogs would have potentially smelled him or known that he was there.

[Patia Eaton]

It sounds like he had a strong scent and would have been hard for him to go unnoticed.

[Kyle]

Yes. And then there's the fact that, you know, Kyle's buddy had taken his truck. So normally when Kyle was home, his car was always in the driveway. That evening, Kyle was home and his truck was not in the driveway, which it sounds like was incredibly unusual. So you have to speculate that if he were casing the house, he would think, oh, he's not home. I'm gonna come back and take advantage of the fact that this, like, CrossFit man is not in the house right now. Yeah.

[Patia Eaton]

I mean, I loved that moment of Tennyson explaining, like, I think in her words, that it sounded cheesy. I didn't think it sounded cheesy. There was this intense feeling of gratitude, this really strong feeling of gratitude after it happened because, oh, my God, we're all alive, we're all safe, the police are here. This could have gone so differently. And then, you know, her husband, who is less featured in all of the press about what happened that came out when it did happen, but he is in this full body engagement struggle with this man for many minutes before, I think it was, like, in one of the articles, said three to five minutes before Tennyson came out into the hallway. And if you think about the physical stamina that that requires and then for it to have continued, I mean, he was the man for the job.

[Kyle]

Totally. Yeah. I liked how Tennyson made sure to give him a shout out for asking for help, which I think is so important and wonderful. And one of the things that I found really sweet about her story was, unfortunately, tragically, they both went through this horrible thing together, but then it really brought them closer. So many times we hear stories about a person individually going through something traumatic and have heard many times about how that can make their relationship because they're dealing with the trauma and they're trying to heal from it. And in this case, they went through it together. And we're so much a team in getting out of it and saving their own lives. And then sounds like they really, like, banded together through the healing process, which I think is really beautiful.

[Patia Eaton]

Yeah. I mean, so many people, I think also just anecdotally, and, you know, we hear about men being less willing to seek out therapy or those types of resources. And it sounds like as a family, they really sought out professional help and stayed on that journey until, like she said, they're in a place. They recently went on their first solo vacation as a family, which is so amazing. And love it. Yeah, love it. There was so much happening in that interview, and we do so many interviews but that was like. That was one that will stick with me for a long time.

[Kyle]

Same well, that was our interview and we will see you next week.

[Hannah Smith]

Thanks for listening.

[Patia Eaton]

If you have a story for us we would love to hear it. Our email is thenifexactlyrightmedia.com or you can follow us on Instagram, henifpodcast or blueskyenife.

[Kyle]

Podcast this has been an exactly right production. Hosted and produced by me, Hannah Smith.

[Patia Eaton]

And me, Pasha Eaton. Our producers are Tom Breyfogle and Alexa Samarosi.

[Kyle]

This episode was mixed by Tom Breyfogel.

[Patia Eaton]

Our associate producer is Christina Chamberlain.

[Kyle]

Arthena Music is by Birds in the Airport.

[Patia Eaton]

Artwork by Vanessa Lilac.

[Kyle]

Executive produced by Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstark and Danielle Kramer.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Every business has an ambition. PayPal Open is the platform designed to help you grow into yours with business loans so you can expand and access to hundreds of millions of PayPal PayPal customers worldwide. And your customers can pay all the ways they want with PayPal, Venmo, pay later and all major cards so you can focus on scaling up when it's time to get growing. There's one platform for all business PayPal open grow today at paypalopen.com loans subject to approval in available locations.

[Tennyson Jacobson]

A treasure trove of bananas has been stolen and it's up to Donkey Kong and his buddy Pauline to get them back. This unlikely duo is going on a world smashing adventure, using DK's destructive abilities to explore an underground world and the power of Pauline singing to activate wild transformations. Donkey Kong Bonanza Available July 17. Rated everyone 10 and up only on Nintendo Switch 2 game and systems sold separately.

[JLo]

Looking after a senior loved one. Balance protection and independence with Greenlight's new Family Shield plan and all in one money and safety app. Monitor your senior loved ones financial accounts for suspicious activity, track their safety with place alerts and protect them with up to $1 million in identity theft coverage. Caregiving shouldn't mean sleepless nights. Enjoy more and worry [e-mail] familyshield that's greenlight.com familyshield.