We're Never Going to Get Out of This Alive

Shopify is a platform built for growth whether you're just starting out or already running a thriving business. From managing inventory to creating a seamless checkout experience, Shopify is designed to handle it all. And it doesn't stop there. Shopify helps you sell everywhere your customers are, online or in person. It's the ultimate tool for turning big dreams into big wins.

Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash opp. Did you know that parents rank financial literacy as the number one most difficult life skill to teach? Meet Greenlight, the debit card and money app for families. With Greenlight, you can send money to kids quickly, set up chores, automate allowance, and keep an eye on your kids' spending with real-time notifications.

Kids learn to earn, save, and spend wisely. And parents can rest easy knowing their kids are learning about money with guardrails in place. Try Greenlight risk-free today at greenlight.com slash Wondery. If your appliances can't handle the holiday hosting heat, December deal drops at Lowe's makes upgrading easy.

Get up to 35% off select major appliances and rewards members save an additional $40 on the Whirlpool electric range and the over the range microwave. Plus get up to 60% off select ladders so you can deck all the halls. This episode contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. I'm shaking. And he said, I'm going to open your door if you scream or you try to get away. He said, I'm going to kill you. Real people.

We're never going to get out of this alive if he doesn't get out of that ice. Who faced death. I'm angry and I'm thinking, I'm just going to hit this guy in the head. I don't care if he dies. And lived to tell how. I'm starting to lose consciousness because he's strangling me pretty hard. If I black out, who knows what's going to happen at that point. This is I Survived.

It's May 1985 in North Aurora, Illinois. 21-year-old Sharon has spent the weekend working at a trade show. On her way home, Sharon installed her car at a red light. I noticed someone pulling up on the passenger side of the car, and he yelled over, hey, do you need some help? I said, no, thank you. I'm fine. And the car started before the light even turned green, and I proceeded on.

there's a basically a traffic light every block so i came up to the next light hit another red light noticed a car again pulling up kind of glanced over and noticed it was the same person who had I'd seen at the light before and asked if I needed help. I was starting to get a little on edge at that point. So I pulled into the complex and pulled into my spot when I notice out of my peripheral vision a car pulling into the complex as well. It was the same car that I had seen.

at the traffic lights. Now I'm starting to get really leery because if he followed me home, it means he followed me home for a reason. not knowing what that reason was, but it didn't feel right to me. And again, it's late and I'm by myself. I started glancing around for a way out. The door of my home was...

Literally 50 feet away from me at that particular point. The man following Sharon knocked on her car window and suggested they go for a drink. I said, all the bars are closed. It's late. I've been working. I just really just want to go home. Thanks. He... looked to be a late 20s and nothing odd about him that I could sense at the time besides the fact that he was, you know, glaring at me.

I'm really starting to get scared because he's really close to me at this point. I'm glancing up at my mother's bedroom window, which was right there, thinking... She might have heard me pull in. She's going to look out. And then he basically said, well, you want to make some money? You want to make 80 bucks? I said, no, I'm not interested. Sharon tried to close her car window.

That's when his arm shot through the driver's side window and I could feel a knife up against my throat and he pinned me to the headrest of the car. It was so fast, I froze. and the horn in my car didn't work. I went to hit it and it didn't sound. I was afraid if I screamed that he would cut my throat. I'm shaking at this point.

And he said, I'm going to open your door. If you scream or you try to get away, he said, I'm going to kill you. He was holding the knife still to my throat, and he started strangling me. telling me, you're going to do whatever I say, I'm going to do whatever I want to do with you. So I'm trying not to lose consciousness. If I black out, who knows what's going to happen at that point.

I said, you know, please don't, you know, don't hurt me. I'll do whatever you say. Just don't, don't, don't stab me. As he's pulling me out of the car is when I feel something being pressed up against my stomach and he said, I've got a gun.

Too scared to scream, Sharon hoped that someone noticed what was happening. I'm like, why isn't anybody seeing this? Why isn't my mother, she had to have heard something. Why isn't she looking out of her bedroom window? Why doesn't a car drive by? He tied my hands behind my back. Then he laid the knife that he had used earlier on the seat of the car right in front of my face. So he said, the knife is right there. After tying Sharon's hands, the attacker blindfolded her.

I felt pretty helpless being blindfolded and with my hands tied behind my back. I heard him start the car and proceed to drive away. So I tried to listen as carefully as I could to sounds. Now I'm being taken away from somewhere that's familiar, so I'm thinking at that point I'm going to die. Maybe I just do whatever he says. I plead with him a lot. Every time he would make a threat, I would respond with,

Just please, I'll do whatever you say. And he said that, you know, he told me his name was Brian. He said that he knew me from somewhere. I said, I've never seen you before. He mentioned a... bar that was in town somewhere. He goes, no, I've seen you there before. I said, I've never been there. I don't even know where that is. Blindfolded and bound, Sharon listened to figure out where Brian was taking her.

We had been driving for what I thought was about 15 minutes or so and I could feel the car slowing down and we hit gravel and he made one more turn and the car stopped. I got the sense that he took me to a place that he was familiar with. I heard a dog barking. I said, I hear a dog. He said, don't worry about the dog. Nobody's around. Nobody's going to see what's going on. So just do what I say.

And I said, well, what are you going to do? And he said, don't worry about that. You'll find out. He mentioned somebody that he knew or that was in prison at the time for for a rape case and he had said it would be worth going to prison for six or eight years for what I'm going to do to you. When he mentioned that case, all I could think about was my death.

thinking I would never see my family again. He told me to take off my clothes. And my response was, well, I can't. My hands are tied behind my back. What are you going to do? He said, you know what I'm going to do, take your clothes off. So he came over to me and untied my hands. I proceeded to start to undress. And I...

I guess I wasn't going fast enough for him. He came over and he started pulling my clothes off. I knew he had a knife. I had seen the knife. I had felt the gun. I didn't know where they were. And there were a couple times where... He touched me again with the knife. I could feel the blade, the coldness of the blade. My heart started racing. I'm crying. I'm shaking everywhere. I can't breathe. It's getting hard to breathe.

I'm trying to think I should run because I'm starting to get into that panic mode. Should I just start running and maybe, you know, I could hit the blindfold off my eyes? I was absolutely... helpless. I couldn't even tell where a door handle was or even to try to push him if I wanted to. I was just totally, totally rendered helpless. Sharon decided that escape was impossible. I was crying at this point. I'm only 21. I'm engaged. This is not the way...

I want my life to start with my husband-to-be. I had to suppress my anger and my fear and my... wanting to just hurt him or do something and knowing that I had to think of another way or I might not make it out alive. I'm getting sick to my stomach at this point, thinking what I have to do. but I know I have to do it to hopefully survive. He basically demanded for me to perform oral sex on him.

I was pleading with him, please don't make me do this, please don't make me do this, and that's when he would get aggravated and, you know, shove me around a little bit and say, you're going to do whatever I want. When I would cry or show any kind of emotion, that agitated him. And then he would start with stronger threats or more threats. So I tried to keep my emotions as much as a minimum as possible. With her life on the line, Sharon resisted the urge to fight back.

I knew what he was going to do. He had already mentioned that he was going to rape me, but now it was real. I'm crying. I'm hysterical at this point. Thinking in my head, I just want this to be over. Just try to concentrate on something else. I started thinking about my family, thinking about my fiancé, anything to get my mind. of what was happening. Sharon was sexually assaulted for over three hours. After several times being raped, he said, get your clothes on.

He said, the knife's right here. Don't try to get out of the car. Don't take the blindfold off. Don't do anything. Just get dressed. He basically said, just stay in the back seat. We're going to go somewhere else. I thought that The worst was over and now I'm thinking that that might have been nothing compared to what he's going to do next. I felt pretty helpless being blindfolded and with my hands tied behind my back.

I thought to myself, he's going to take my body somewhere and he's going to do horrible things to it and dump me where nobody will ever be able to find me. He says, where do you want me to drop you off? And I thought to myself, I don't know that I actually heard him say that. Or is he toying with me? Is he just trying to make it, like, give me hope and then go somewhere else?

Split second, I'm trying to think of a place to tell him. Sharon told her attacker to drop her off at a school a half mile from her home. I feel the car come to a stop. There's no way that he's going to let me go. I had way too much information on him. There was no way he was going to let me walk out of the car. He says, I'm going to come around, I'm going to let you out. I felt pavement.

under my feet and he said, I want you to just stay facing this way or I'm going to come back and I'm going to kill you. I heard him get in his car, close the door. I heard the car driving away. I was just so afraid to turn around that he might be right there. I waited until I absolutely could not hear another sound. I pulled the blindfold and I was looking at... the elementary school that I had gone to and I proceeded to run the rest of the way home. I couldn't run fast enough.

I kept looking over my shoulder thinking, the car's behind me, he's coming after me again. My mother was already coming down the stairs because she said she had heard someone screaming, and I just remembered screaming to her. You know, somebody just kidnapped me and raped me. She immediately was like, oh my God, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? And I said, no, call the police, call the police. You know, he may still be close, call the police.

Two weeks later, Brian Dugan was apprehended for a traffic violation. DNA linked Dugan to Sharon's attack and two unsolved murders of young girls. While in prison, Dugan had also been convicted of murdering a 10-year-old girl and sentenced to death. I asked myself, why didn't he kill me every day of my life? I survived because I didn't. I turned that energy around and used it to just try to concentrate on what I had to do every minute to get to the last minute.

And maybe that's why he decided not to kill me. We've got you covered. How about card readers you can rely on anywhere you sell? Thanks, have a good one. Yep, that too. Want one place to manage all your online and in-person sales? That's kind of our thing. Wherever you sell, businesses that grow, grow with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash listen. Shopify.com slash listen.

It's March 2008 in Lake Umbagog, New Hampshire. Al and his wife Linda are vacationing at the Bull Moose campground. As night falls, the couple and their daughter Haley go snowmobiling on the frozen lake. March 7th was Al's birthday, so it was very important for him that he, Haley, and I go snowmobiling. And it was a beautiful night. The stars were out. It was clear. It was mild. We stopped at the gas station to fill the sleds up with gas, and we were starting to make our way.

back up to the camp. So we basically head out of town. It's about an eight-mile ride up through the trails. It was still very lightly snowing. Nothing to be concerned about. We were really fooling around, just riding around. It was deep powder, and we were actually enjoying ourselves. It was so mild out. It was right as we were getting closer to the lake that the snow picked up. It was like a blizzard.

out of nowhere. I could not even see in front of me, barely seeing the light from Haley's sled, never mind Al, who was up ahead. And I'm thinking to myself, OK. I can't see. How is he seeing, and how does he even know where we're going? When we first hit the lake in the whiteout was when I said, oh, God, I didn't bring the GPS with me. And I usually always have it.

on the sleds, always plugged in. You know, I said, oh, we're going to find our way, and, you know, don't worry. And I was just trying to keep them calm. You know, I'm a typical guy. I didn't want to say, you know, we're lost. I mean, there's three feet of ice in the lake. I mean, I was...

Not really any worries, and we were actually kind of having fun. I thought, how are we going to get out of this? And it's pitch black, you know, the only lights are from our sleds. After riding in the darkness for 40 minutes, Al realized he had made a mistake.

The whole time, I'm thinking I'm working my way down across the bottom of the lake. I'm really heading north. We're heading towards the mouth of the river. They were now in unfamiliar territory, off course by eight miles at the wrong end of the lake.

So we had stopped and we were talking, and it was at that time, and I'll never forget, Haley said those fateful words, Daddy, is that open water over there? The only place that's any open water on this lake is all the way up to the north, and we never traveled to the north.

We have no business up there. I said, listen, right now we're going to turn around and we're going to get out to the middle of the lake. Al knew it was safe to ride in the middle of the lake where the ice is thicker. I started turning and I thought I heard a scream. All of a sudden, I saw Haley jump off her sled as I saw her sled just go melt into the ice. It just disappeared. And I couldn't believe what I was seeing, and I just yelled out a scream.

like no one would ever believe. I turned back to look behind me and I saw Haley standing on the ice and no sled. And I went, oh dear God. Al's attempt to drive onto solid ice failed, and he disappeared from view. My husband had just gone through the lake. He sunk right into the ice. And at that time, I can't even tell you, I just felt, probably feelings I've never felt in my life. It was total despair, disbelief.

And that was it. The party was over. She just sunk. And in the water, I went. I knew I didn't have a lot of time. Everything's kind of numb. I wasn't really cold. It's like something travels through your body, and you just go on shutdown. Only yards away, Linda couldn't see Al in the darkness and was scared of falling through the thin ice. I still couldn't hear Al. I couldn't see him. And I didn't even know if he was alive. I mean, I can't even tell you.

the emotions, I was petrified. I would start trying to back myself up on the ice and using my feet in the ice and trying to slide and slither backwards onto the ice. And then I would almost be out. and it would break. I'd just fall back through the ice. My sled still was running and still had the light on it. I was just so grateful that we at least had one sled left. The only thing I could see when I popped my head out of the hole was...

Through the snow was the light on Haley. I remember just kept hearing her cheer me on. Come on, Daddy. Come on, Daddy. You can do it. I know you can do it. The weight of Al's wet clothing made it impossible to get out of the ice. I knew if I would have started shedding gear.

I wouldn't have made it through this whole thing with all my extremities. I knew we were still out in the middle of nowhere. We were lost. You know, we were down to one sled. And even though that stuff was wet, it was still protecting me.

And it was right then I was trying to make my third attempt at getting out when things went on shutdown. There was no more kicking, there was no more treading water, there was no more flailing around, breaking ice or anything. Just trying to take a breath was very difficult.

After being in the freezing water for 10 minutes, Al was starting to suffer from hypothermia. As his temperature plummeted, Al's vital organs started to shut down. And I just was ready to take a nap. And you don't really feel like you're...

giving up, but you just kind of start going to sleep. I said, Linda, I said, I remember saying something like, I don't think I'm going to make it. That's about the golden rule, about 20 minutes about how much you can take before you start hypothermia starts running through your body. All of a sudden, Al said to me, honey, I don't think I'm going to make it. And I think that just totally got me out of the shock I was in and put me right into gear because I'm thinking,

That is so not an option. All I was able to do was holding onto the edge of the ice just to keep my mouth out of the water. One thing I heard from her was I remember hearing, I can't see you. Al's helmet with its flashing red light had been knocked off when he fell through the ice. Linda screamed at Al to grab the light. I just dove for the helmet. You know, I figured I'm going to go down. I'm going to go down trying. He had managed to grab his helmet.

And with the light on it, he put that right where he was so I could actually see him. Out of the darkness, here she comes with this, you know. Here comes my wife, this little woman of, you know, 5'4", 120 pounds, with the sleeve of this jacket saying, here, take this. And I just yelled to him, grab my sleeve, and he did, and...

And I can remember just squatting down, because I know that if you squat and your legs are stronger, I'd have more of a chance to be able to get leverage. She just yarded me out of that ice like a bulldozer. You know, she could have lifted a house off the foundation, I think. I was worried about her falling into, but I remember just saying, stay back there as far as you can. And she got down low, and she just yarded me right out.

I can't even tell you the relief when he stood up on that ice and I thought, oh my God, thank you. And within a second of him standing, he broke through the ice again. I didn't panic because I thought, this is nothing it was so effortless to get him out the first time it was like a feather we can definitely do this again and we just did it again the same exact way except when he got up this time he'd stayed down and we both pretty much crawled back you know

towards Haley. So she towed me along the ice and we got back over to where her sled was at and them guys peeled my the heavy jacket off me, the jacket. I remember opening up the hood to that sled, just laid my chest and my head right on the exhaust pipe. And I remember them guys kind of huddling over me for a minute and just warming me up.

Still on the ice and eight miles from camp, Al needed urgent medical attention. We still were lost. We only had one sled and he was shivering and freezing and I didn't know how much damage had been done. you know, with how cold he was. The sled was frozen to the ice. It had been sitting there idling so long that the skis actually froze to the ice, so I had to get that unfroze and turn around.

The relief I felt was like I had never experienced in my life. The three of us just hugged and we just kind of savored that moment, but still we knew. There was more for us to do because we still weren't safe. We still were lost, and we knew we still had to find someplace warm to get Al warm. We opened up the hood of the sled. We tried to warm him up with the heat from the sled that had been running.

And we tried to get warm, warm stuff on him. We had him huddled over with our coats over his head while he was trying to get warmth. I'd get some heat and it would be like... Like the monster, let's go, we gotta go again. From going ready to fall asleep to come on, let's go. Al had a vague idea where the shore was located. Al insisted on riding, Haley in the middle, and I was hanging on.

the very end of like the little bumper and he took off like a bat out of hell and and it felt like hours. They rode a mile to the lake's edge searching for any trail signs. Al was just hammering that sled like nobody's business. We actually found a trail, worked our way around and... sure enough i was never so happy in my life to see a trail sign said carrie road on it once he found a trail and we saw signs we were so hopeful and i think that made him just ride it even faster

I was hammering it. I remember hearing Linda scream, and I'm going to fall off. And we just all locked onto this thing, and you could hear the poor sled just, the suspension just grinding on itself, because I was just pounding it. Maybe every... 10 or 15, maybe 20 minutes or something like that, I could make it before I just start shivering so bad and want to stop blacking out. I just would go, I mean, I was driving, falling asleep.

You know, trying to go, you know, off a bumpy trail through the woods, still hammering it. Al fought to stop himself from slipping into a hypothermic coma. All of a sudden, I'd be nodding off. I mean, I'd literally be driving the sled and nodding off. And I'd say, okay, I got to stop. Al just had to keep stopping. We had to keep trying to get him warm because he would just start shivering and shaking.

He just needed to try to get some warmth. She would jump off the sled, would stop, would open up the hood of the machine, and I'd just lay my chest and my head right on the exhaust. Even with frequent stops to warm up, Al struggled to keep going. And I was freezing, I was shaking, and I remember telling myself, come on, God, we can make it one, let's try to go one more minute. It was about seven or eight miles down from the lake.

When we came across this little, little cabin, and there was smoke coming out of the chimney, and it was probably the best sight I've ever seen. I was like, amen. Thank you, God. Two nurses were vacationing in the small cabin. These people just jump on me like a NASCAR pit crew, just stripping me. Before I know it, I'm naked, I'm wrapped in a blanket. These total strangers are, you know, wrapping their bodies around my legs. And then I would freeze them out.

And they would all just, okay, switch. They were like an emergency room ER, the way they just took Al's clothes off, got him warm blankets, had him in a seat in front of the wood stove, and started putting... their warm body parts against his cold flesh to try to warm him up. Despite the nurse's efforts, Al was still fighting for his life. By now I'm in this, I'm in like this crazy...

shaking thing that I've never really experienced, like not way, way past a shiver. I wanted to just keep doing this and she'd grab me by the face and scream, don't shut your eyes! And I'm like... Why are you screaming at me? And she just insisted on me, keeping my eyes open. She apologized. She says, sorry for screaming at you. She says, but when people are shaking like that, you're one step away from just going into a coma.

And she said, we didn't want to lose you because you were just right on the edge because the next step from shaking the way you were shaking is just coma. I just couldn't believe our luck and what a miracle to find a place that had These people who were so qualified to treat him because I don't think he would have survived. You know, it's one thing to say to be grateful to be alive, you know, but to be that close to death, then there's grateful to be alive.

We couldn't stop thinking about what could have happened. Everything could have gone so wrong for us so easily and probably should have. Mostly I survived because God wanted me to survive. He has a plan for me. It's not done with me yet. And he lined up just too many things happened that night for me to survive.

It's October 1995 in Abbotsford, British Columbia. 16-year-old Misty and her best friend Tanya have been at a party. With three hours left before their curfew, they decide to walk to Misty's boyfriend's place. I told her that we could just walk there and then we'd get a ride back and make it back in time for curfew. Tanya and I used to walk around town all the time. We would hang out with our friends till late at night. She didn't really want to go, but...

I kind of begged and pleaded, I was like, come on, let's go, it'll be fun. I was joking around, I was like, oh yeah, it's Friday the 13th, because that's when we were out. I said, watch, some guy's going to jump out of the bush and try and rape us, and we kind of laughed it off. We were walking by a parking lot, and this guy comes out of the hedges. He's creepy looking, and he looks at us and says, hey, you bitches want to party. We kind of looked at each other, no thank you.

I know I thought of him more as a creepy pervert, like older, wanted to hang out with younger girls, just a creeper. We were turning around to leave and keep walking when he brought out the baseball bat. and told us to go through these hedges that were in front of a parking lot and take our clothes off. He was very vile. He swore a lot.

angry, very angry with us. I went as far as undoing my belt and as he was yelling at us and I'm looking at him, that's when I'm realizing I might not live tonight. I'm not going to go down without a fight. We were supposed to go through the bushes, and he started pushing us through and telling us to take our clothes off. Both of us were questioning what to do without saying anything. I'm pretty sure that if one of us just would have said, run.

we would have, but I think we were too stunned. It was just surreal. And it was almost like, okay, at any time, it's going to be a joke, right? He was very angry to look at his eyes. I knew that... There was something, like, I didn't think that we would make it through the night. Fearing for her life, Tanya started taking her clothes off. I remember looking at him, and then I looked at her. I said, don't take your clothes off. Don't.

When I decided that I wasn't going to go down without some sort of fight back, the first thing I started doing was just pleading for him to let us go. We're just kids. You don't want us, and we won't tell anybody. Just let us go. We just want to go home. Then I started thinking of other ways out. Like, what's my other plan going to be? I can't just run.

Tanya's still going to be behind, so I can't leave her. And so I started pretending to have an asthma attack. I don't have it, but I acted it out so much so that I fell to the ground and, you know, all-out drama. He just looked at me. He starts laughing. He's like, you think I'm stupid? If you had asthma, you'd have one of those puffer things, as he called it. I was like, okay. Well, now I'm on my knees, on the ground, thinking.

Now what? I didn't start off with screaming right away. I wanted to find another way out. Because if I just started screaming, what is that going to do, right? Then I'm just a person standing there screaming while my friend gets raped. He'd pushed Tanya onto her hands and knees. She had her pants off and her underwear off. She had these big green eyes. And they just looked at me like pleading, you know, to help her or something. I could leave.

I could go get help now. This is my chance. And maybe come back and she might be raped, but I could at least get her help before she gets killed. Misty decided it was too dangerous to leave her friend behind. I don't know how he knew I wasn't going to run away, or even if he cared. He got that one right, that I wasn't going anywhere. That's when he positioned himself behind her, was undoing his pants.

He was getting ready to rape her. That's when he's like, stop looking at me, bitch. You're going to find out what this is like later. And that's when I saw the baseball bat. He'd put it down. And so I scrambled for it. I thought, okay. I grabbed the bat, and I'm angry, and I'm thinking, I'm just going to hit this guy in the head. I don't care if he dies. When I hit him the first time, and he moved, I thought, okay, I'm good.

I started yelling at Tanya, I'm like, leave, run, go, go now. And I was screaming for help because he's not going to let me go. He's angrier now. I just pissed him off. I kind of looked down, and that's when I saw the bat. And he stopped paying attention to me. I scrambled over and I grabbed it. I thought, it's great. Great, the bat's there. I can get it. I thought, okay. I grabbed the bat. I'm going to hit him with it.

I can't hit him in the head because I'm shaking and I'm scared. And if I miss and I hit Tanya and she goes down, what do I do? I hit him in the back, at least to kind of jolt him back. away from her, and then I went to hit him again in the head, and that's when he caught the bat. I started yelling at Tanya. I'm like, leave, run, go, go now. She wasn't leaving. She was just standing there, and I'm yelling.

Just leave, Tanya. Just go. Go get help. Tanya was too scared to leave. He was still on his knees, and he had it. He had a grip on it. And then he got up, and that's when we started pulling on it. This would be the point where I wished I hadn't done that. And I began to plead and apologize. So sorry. I wish I could take it back.

And I'm still holding onto the bat and I'm thinking, I can't let go. If I let go, that's it. I'm done. The enraged attacker wrestled the bat away from Misty. Then I let go. I gave up. I did. I didn't have the energy and I didn't... have any more plans. I saw that I was backed into a corner and I had no way out. I turned around and I was looking through the hedges and I'm looking at my school and I kind of put my arms up to try and cover my head.

And my thought process was, this is the last thing I'm going to see. He started hitting me in the head. It didn't hurt at all. And I was surprised. I remember thinking, I can't believe this doesn't hurt. I counted seven times and then I guess I passed out. When I woke up, hours later, I was on the other side of the parking lot. I was lying there and it was freezing cold and I was confused.

And then I started talking to Tanya, but she wasn't there. And I was confused, not sure what happened. I knew what happened, but I wasn't really cluing in to it. And I started walking home. But I took a wrong turn. And then I thought, well, I don't know where I am now. I'm lost. Like, I took down the wrong road. I don't know where I am. So I'm going to go. I ended up walking to the hospital.

Bleeding severely, Misty stumbled into the emergency room. I looked up at the triage nurse, and I just remembered the look on her face. Her eyes were huge, and she was shocked. My head turned and all this fluid came running out of my ear. My skull was pressed against my brain and that's what was coming out of my ear was blood and spinal fluid. So basically...

What they said is I had a hole the size of a baseball in the back of my head. Surgeons operated to pull Misty's skull away from her brain. When Misty woke up the following morning, her first thoughts were for Tanya. As soon as I woke up, I started talking about her, telling people, you need to go get my friend. She's in the bushes over there. And I tried to describe it. They didn't know where to look.

Tanya's badly beaten body was discovered later that morning in a local fishing spot. I remember my mom sitting down saying, Misty, we have to talk to you. Tanya didn't make it. When I found out she didn't make it, I thought, wow, I did all this thinking that I saved her, and I didn't. Tanya's death started one of the most publicized manhunts in Canadian history.

For seven months, Tanya's killer taunted Misty with phone calls. He also called the police to brag about his crimes. He called quite a few times, and my family and I were put into witness protection. for seven months. It's a terrible thing to do to someone who's been a victim, right? He took Tanya's gravestone and he defaced it. Wrote across her face, you know, one day, Misty, why? After a tape of his voice was made public by the police, the killer was identified by his mother and brother.

They received a $10,000 reward. Terry Driver was convicted of murder and attempted murder and jailed for life. I survived because I didn't give up. And now I have a purpose, and that's to help other victims.