Kidnappings and Disappearances | 48 Hours Full Episodes | Forensic Files

Heat. Heat. Hi, it's Stan. Please leave a message. >> It was January 22nd, 1998. It was Stan's
38th birthday. He didn't come to work, and that's not like Stanley. Here's a very diligent
person with a very high-profile job. And he had an appointment that he didn't show up for and didn't call anybody
about. A federal prosecutor was missing and nobody knew where he was. A group of his friends were throwing him
a party at a club in downtown Manhattan. It was his birthday and he didn't come to his own birthday party.
Did he go out? Did he go partying? Did he drink? Was he using drugs? Was he involved in some sex capades?
You know, they were saying no. You know, he's kind of a quiet, mild mattered guy,
like he wouldn't just disappear. He wouldn't just not come to work. One possibility was that he was at home
either ill or or sleeping or passed out. When we arrived at Stanley's apartment,
the superintendent didn't have the key. So, one of the guys followed the building superintendent up the fire
escape, and the superintendent used his elbow to smash in Stanley's kitchen windows.
There was nothing that indicated that Stanley had been there recently. Then, somebody pressed the answering
machine on his telephone. >> Hi, it's Stan. Please leave a message. you know, beep, happy birthday from some
friend or relative. And then the third message was, "This is your credit card company calling to say
there's unusual activity on your card." A couple of beeps after that was even worse.
A person called and she said, "I found your wallet in Bedford Styent in the garbage."
And that was really scary. Bedford Styverson is a tough neighborhood in Brooklyn.
What would his wallet be doing? Bedford Stson. Somebody said, "Maybe he's lying in an
alleyway somewhere bleeding." And somebody else said, "Or maybe." Or he was dead.
>> This is unbelievable. There's got to be something more to the story. As we started to look into it, people were
thinking this is just really way too crazy to be true. This was clearly a serious item in New
York City. A federal prosecutor is missing. He hasn't been heard from for 24 hours.
People are scared. >> There was sort of this hysteria in the apartment with his friends there. You
know, everybody had their theory, you know, of where Stan was and what happened to Stan.
>> Certainly, it was possible to me that he'd been murdered. >> You know, we're sort of trying to come
up with a plan of action when the phone rings. We sort of looked at each other and
we're like, will somebody get it? So I I answer the phone and uh and the voice on the other end of the phone
says, "This is Stan. Who is this?" And so I tell him who I am. I say, "Are you all right?" And he says,
"Yes, I'm all right, but I was kidnapped." And >> we were sort of kind of stunned by that.
You know, he was kidnapped. I mean, who would kidnap a United States attorney? I just ran for it.
I ran across Prospect Park West and went down one of the side streets on my way to 7th Avenue.
There was a pizza place that was open and I and I start saying to the guy behind the counter, "Can I use your
phone? Can I use your phone? I was just kidnapped. Can I use your phone?" I'm a I'm I'm a federal prosecutor, but
but but I made it out, you know. Can I please use your phone? I got to call people. He looked at me like uh I had
three heads. >> And I said, "Stam, where are you?" >> All we got on the phone was, "I'm at a
pizzeria in Brooklyn. Stay where you are. We're coming to get you. Stay where you are."
We piled in cars. I went with one agent. Remember feeling incredibly frustrated because he wasn't zooming through the
red lights. When the agents and detectives picked up Stan in Brooklyn, he was in front of a
pizzeria right where he said he would be. When we drove up and I saw him, he looked almost like a skeleton.
>> He looked exhausted. He was really, really nervous. Um, you know, looked like, um, he'd been up all night.
So, they drove me from Brooklyn to the 9inth precinct in the East Village. And they brought me inside and they put me
in a room and uh, they started questioning him and he started going through his story. And
it wasn't until, you know, hours later that we would start hearing, you know, the details of that evening, you know,
between the drugs and the sex. >> People were like, you know, this doesn't make sense at all.
>> It was a pretty bizarre story um that most people were having trouble embracing.
>> You're kind of rolling your eyes thinking, "Oh my gosh, this is crazy. This is crazy.
The night of January 21st, 1998, I went on a blind date. Didn't work out. An hour later, I got on
the train to come home. It was a freezing cold night. One of those bitterly cold uh winter New York
nights. There was nobody around. It was roughly 11:00. I was walking down 10th Street toward Fifth Avenue in the
village. And as I get toward the corner of 10th Street and Fifth Avenue, from out of
nowhere, I didn't see it. I didn't hear it before. I feel a tug on my elbow. I spin around. There's a big fat
blackbarreled automatic machine gun sticking in my gut. There are two guys behind me. Shove me from behind. They
push me out into the street. Move. Move. Don't say a word. Just get in the car. They put me in the backseat of the car.
I could see the outline of the word Lexus on the dash, so I knew we were in a Lexus. The guy in front of me starts
talking. What's your name? Stanley. Stanley, let me tell you what we're going to do. We're going to take you to
the cash machine and we're going to get your money. And if you with us, we will kill you.
That guy was named Lucky. The toughest thug was called Sen. He was across from me to the right.
And almost by accident, I didn't want to. I looked at him. Our eyes met. And Sen stuck his pistol in my face. And he
screamed at me. He's like, got big eyes. I should kill you for those big eyes. The guy on my right, his name was Ren.
Ren seemed to be more of a henchman. He seemed to be the one who would just do what they told him.
They took me to the cash machine at 23rd Street and 6th Avenue. Lucky goes in to
get money. So, they asked me how much I had in my savings account. And I knew I had to
tell the truth because all they have to do is go put in my PIN number and they can know everything. So, I said
somewhere around $110,000. They heard that number and they were amazed. Well, that's the point where the
plan shifted. They drove towards the Westside Highway and Lucky started explaining to me what
their plan was. He said, "We're going to hold you overnight and tomorrow morning
we're going to take you to a bank and you're going to withdraw $50,000 and if you don't cooperate, we'll kill
you." And then he ordered Ren to blindfold me. So Ren pulls my scarf off and wraps it
wraps it around my eyes, you know, my own scarf, ties it tight. Then he shoved me down on the seat next to him in a
fetal position and they drove. I didn't know where we were going. It was too early to think at that point.
I was just petrified. It was It was the most horrifying moment you can imagine. They decided that they had caught
something that they wanted to keep for a while. That was me. The agents interviewed me with all
deliberate seriousness and they kept me there for hours. >> Stan told a story. you know, he's
kidnapped off the streets at gunpoint, but uh >> I had absolutely no clue that they
didn't find my story credible. Not a clue. You got to keep in mind I'm blindfolded.
What you learn if you're blindfolded is you can pick up a lot with through your sense of hearing.
When we go through the tunnel that's at the bottom of Manhattan, I know we're through that tunnel cuz it sounds
different. And few minutes later, I could hear us going over a bridge. So, I knew we're going somewhere in
Brooklyn or Queens. They pushed me out of the car. I went up couple of steps, through a doorway,
couple steps more, through another doorway, down a long, thin hallway, and then they
shove me up the stairs. And now I'm trapped in somebody's apartment. And I can still see a little bit out the
bottom of my blindfold. I can see two mattresses on the floor. It looks like a place where people just crash.
>> The most obviously terrifying violent member of the gang was sent. Actually, I
could practically feel him close to me at one point, you know, pointing the gun at me and saying, "Stanley, you ever see
one of these guns? All I got to do is pull the trigger and bam, bam, bam, your brains will be all over that wall.
Repeatedly they kept cocking and unccocking the guns so that I could hear it. They demanded my father's address. It
was in my wallet. Lucky told me that if I didn't cooperate with them at the bank
in the morning, he would kill my father, that they would break every bone in my father's body.
It always drove me crazy that they picked him of all people because apparently they thought he was some rich
Wall Street lawyer type. >> Stan was a federal prosecutor. It was a very important job.
He's a person who wants to make an impact on the world and in many ways wants to make the world a better place.
Stanley was certainly not born with a silver spoon. He was the kind of guy who had to work for everything he had.
I grew up lower middle class in Brooklyn. We didn't have a lot of money. I spent all my time out on the streets.
I was a little guy, a little skinny guy. So talking your way out of things was one good skill that you that you needed
to learn. A few minutes later, I could hear the front door of the apartment open and I
could hear a bunch of footsteps. I could hear them talking. Hey D. Hey mystic. What's up? How you doing? How'd
you do out on the street? Mercedes and Mystic come into the apartment. These two teenage girls who
are prostitutes and they're friends of Ren and Sen. So a few minutes after that, Lucky left
the apartment and you know, you got the feeling that people were kind of settling in.
Somebody struck a match and you could smell the marijuana. So then they're smoking pot and you can
hear that there are sexual acts going on and you know this was awful good thing that I was blindfolded cuz I couldn't
see what was happening around me. >> So here is Stan, this sort of reserved US attorney sitting on a mattress while
two people are having sex next to him. Um, and then another couple is having sex across the room. My gosh, this
didn't happen. This guy got lost for 24 hours and he needs a good story. And then, you know, when it was over,
there was a calm in the room. So, Sen asked me, Stanley, what you know, what would you be doing if um if we hadn't
grabbed you on the street? I'd be meeting my friends for a concert because that day was my birthday.
And they heard that and they just burst out laughing. Oh my god, we kidnapped the on his birthday.
Then Sen says, "You know, it's your birthday. You deserve something nice for your birthday. How about a from one of
these girls? These are nice girls." And I said, "No thanks." And then they kept pushing it. Stanley,
you should take it cuz you know what? I think the girls like you. So I said, "You know what? The only reason they
like me is cuz most of my face is covered." Here's a guy who's been kidnapped. You
know, he's sitting there and they're offering him oral sex. A lot I think the more uh seasoned individuals didn't
believe it at all. >> I can't explain it. I just tried to make them not dislike me so that they
wouldn't want to kill me. In the middle of the night, S and Ren were openly discussing what their plans
were with me. And Sen wasn't happy with the plan. And he didn't think it was going to work. It's not going to look
right. It's going to look odd for two black men to be taking this sort of nerdy white
man into the bank and he's, you know, withdrawing all this money. So Lucky comes back at 4 in the morning
and Ren and Sen say, "Look, we got to talk to you." And they go outside the room.
They talk for a couple of minutes and then Lucky pops his head back in the room and he says, "Stanley,
tell me again what you do for a living." And I say, "I'm an assistant US attorney."
and he says, "US, oh no, the FBI is going to be after us." And that's when Lucky told me that they
changed the plan. And he says, "Stanley, look, I got good news for you. We're going to be taking you back. I'm going
to come back here at 7:00 in the morning. We're going to take you back and let you go."
They stayed outside the room at that point talking. So, did I think they might be planning to kill me? Sure.
Until this thing was over, I knew that my life was hanging by a thread the whole time.
In the early morning hours, things got very quiet. There wasn't much activity. And you know, I could feel that dawn had
come. I could hear buses going by. And I also could hear seagulls. And then this guy Lewis shows up and
he's renting the space to them. S and Ren have decided that they want to get out of there. They've got things to
attend to. So they tell Lewis, "Here's our guns. You stay here. You hold these guns. You watch this guy until we get
back." Lewis offered me food. Actually, all of them offered me food at one point or another.
I thought about trying to convince Lewis to let me go cuz there were hours where
the other guys went out. He's there holding the guns. He's with the girls. But he was a volatile, paranoid,
scared kind of guy. And what I was really afraid of is that if I tried to go down that path, if I tried to
convince him to let me go, he'd freak out. I mean, just pull the trigger on that
Tech 9. Multiple bullets are going to come out per second. I'm done. You know, in 25 hours of being
blindfolded and sitting on a mattress, you have a lot of time to think. And what I was thinking was if I don't get
killed, I'm going to gather enough evidence so that these guys get put away and they don't do it to anybody else
again. I had a lot of clues that could help them find these guys. I could actually
see the pattern on the tiles as we went into the building and I tried to memorize the pattern.
I could tell it was a railroad flat in an old tenement building. So I counted the steps of the first landing and I
counted it to the second landing. They tortured me. They threatened to murder me. They threatened to kill my
father. I couldn't possibly allow them to do that to another person ever. I was absolutely devastated by the
thought that anybody would hurt my father. During the interview when Stan was sharing about his dad and his concerns
about his father, you could see a physical change. Now it was becoming emotional.
This is something he was feeling. And for me as an investigator, it's telling me that he's telling me the
truth. You know, we ended up after several hours of talking to him, you know, believing what he said.
Hour after hour goes by and nobody knows where's Lucky. Nobody is telling me why
he didn't come back. Nobody is telling me why they haven't set me free. about 6 or 7:00 Ren and Sen came back.
So there was a period of a few hours when things got lighter and you know they started getting friendly. They
wanted legal advice. >> I think one of them had gotten into some sort of a car accident and uh he had
some injuries from it. He wanted to know Stan's opinion that would he be able to
have a lawsuit >> and he wanted to know how much his case was worth. He had a lumbar problem. He
had to go to a chiropractor once a week. He wanted to know how much he could get
for his case. He had a lawyer, but he had, look, he had me there. He had a chance for a second opinion.
And then there was this whole period where everybody sat around like we were at a dinner party and starts telling
jokes and they kept calling me Steven. And I kept correcting them and said, "My name's not Steven, it's it's Stanley."
And at one point Ren says, "Oh, sorry, Stanley." Uh, our mistake. Steven's the guy we did this to the other night.
And then somewhere around 10:00 at night, Lucky comes back. Comes bursting through the door. Right away, the mood
changed. Lucky was the boss. He's back. They're not going to be joking around anymore. Everybody is dead serious.
Everybody is quiet. And he says, "Come on, let's go." And boom, like with military precision, they marched me out
the door. I started to get very nervous. I started to feel palpitations in my heart. I got
a sweat on the back of my neck and my forehead. I felt a little sick. Lucky stopped at the doorway, turned
back to me, and said, "Stanley, let me ask you something. If you had the chance to put
me away for life, would you do it?" Look, you already told me you know where I live. You know where my father lives.
I don't know who you are. I don't know where we are. and you say you're gonna release me unharmed.
I don't think this has to go any further. So, nobody says a word. Lucky gets out
of the car until a minute later, I hear the trunk opening. And then I heard the sound of duct tape
being pulled off of a roll. And it's that point that I was positive that my life was over. I was sure they
were going to kill me right then and there. Suddenly your whole life flashes in front of you.
You'll never call somebody. You'll never watch a movie. You'll never sit down to
a meal. you'll never meet somebody with the hope of getting married. All those things that make up life
for me in that moment when I heard the duct tape pulling off the roll, that was over. And I and and that was really the
most horrific feeling anybody can imagine. So second later, I heard Lucky applying
the tape to the plastic that was covering the broken window on his car. And then it slowly dawned on me that I
had just made a big mistake. Overnight, somebody had broken into his car, smashed the passenger side window. So,
uh, he was just fixing the plastic. They kept driving and drove for I don't know maybe another 10 or 15 minutes
and then they stopped the car again and the guy to my right says, "Should we give him $20 for a cab?" Of course, it
was $20 of my own money, but that sounded courteous. But they might have been tricking me. I really didn't know.
That same guy opened the door and and they and and he took me outside and I'm still blindfolded and he said,
"Put your hands up." And he says, "You just walk." So I took a step and then another step
and eventually I think I can very gently hear the Lexus pulling away. So I said, "Are you there?"
And nobody answered. And I ripped the blindfold off and I spun around and they were gone.
And that was the happiest moment of my life. It was it was it was it was ecstasy. It was
pure ecstasy. I just ran for it. You know, I recognized that it was Prospect Park. I grew up there. I I was
there all the time. I was rushing to find a business or restaurant, something like that, where I
could go in and make a call. >> And then when the phone call came in, that's when the energy in the room sort
of went from 0 to 60. >> Just stay where you are. Stay where you are. The the precinct was crazy. It was
a buzz with energy. You know, they debriefed him and they started typing up the report and it was
as she was typing it, we were pulling it off. She would get a half a page typed and we would yell, "Print it." She'd
print it and then we would run with it. We had one group of people, you know, running down, you know, Ren and Sen. We
had another group that was looking for Lucky, looking for that Lexus. We had people looking for the prostitutes.
We ran Mercedes, that nickname, through the NYPD database, found a young female who'd been arrested a number of times
for prostitution. >> Our job was to try to see if we could locate Mercedes and interview her.
I'd seen a number of pictures of her from, you know, her wrap sheets. There's these two girls standing in front of
this building. As soon as we walk up, I recognize uh Mercedes right from the pictures.
So, I actually say to her, "Hey, Mercedes, how you doing?" You know, I say, "Hey, listen. We got to talk to you
for a minute." When you do an interview with somebody, what you want to do is you want to
basically elevate the level of threat towards them, which make them feel like they're in a world of trouble. You have
no idea. I said, "You and your friends have basically done one of the worst things you could possibly ever do. you
kidnapped a a US attorney and I said, "I'm an FBI agent." And I said, "And if you ever been in trouble before, you
have no idea what kind of trouble you're going to be in now." >> So, she gave up everything that she
knew. You know, she started rambling off Lucky and Ren and Sad and all of a sudden it was like, "Oh my gosh." You
know, everything that Stan had told us, she she confirmed for us. She said she had felt sorry for Stan and had offered
him oral sex because it was his birthday and she felt bad for him. based on the information that she
provided. Um, we had Ly's cell phone number. Every time he he turned his phone on, we were able to see what cell
tower it was pinging off of. So, we were able to sort of narrow down where he was. So, um, we had agents and
detectives out in Brooklyn. A lot of police work is boring, but when you get to the hunts, there's nothing
like it. Nothing like it. I always love to hunt. The Lexus had a broken window, we were
told, but we also had a plate number. And it was about 9:00 at night when the when the Lexus drove by us. So that's
when uh our heart started beating and we uh gave pursuit. you know, or you believe that they're
all armed and and you know, you have to really be careful at this point because we just don't know what's going to be
the next move on their part. Well, we pull them over. We're on both sides of the car, right? Uh we all have
our guns drawn and we're telling them we want to see their hands. We want to see
all their hands. The pups we pulled out of the car were Lucky and Scent. We cuffed each one of them and we got into
our cars and we all drove back to Manhattan. Ren was picked up by uh a couple of other detectives uh probably
not much later. Criminals have the idea when they come into an interrogation room they're going
to outsmart me. My feeling is if they had brains all that we would be in trouble.
My end goal is to solicit the truth. I want to know the truth. If I have to cry or laugh in an
interrogation room to get the truth, I'll do that. If I have to be their friend,
I'll do that. The first interview I conduct is with the defendant, Lucky. He kept saying, "I didn't do anything
wrong. and I know my rights. And he says, "I'm having a lot of trouble remembering
even what's going on the last few days." He said, "I had a very, very bad time. It really screwed up my mind."
I said, "Well, why don't you tell me about your bad time?" So, he went on to tell me how two male
blacks came over to him, approached him, pulled out guns, and forced him into his
car. And uh while they were driving him around, they uh brought him to different
banks and gave him an ATM card and they made him withdraw money. I said, "You got to be kidding me." I said, "That's
horrible." Randos told him to go back to Brooklyn uh to an apartment they had over in
Brooklyn. and he went back to the apartment and he said, "My sole objective here was to calm Stanley
down." He said, "I could see he looked a little bit nervous." He said, "I really liked Stanley. I I
thought he was a nice fell and I felt really bad about him." He said that Ren and S were bad guys and
that uh they were more than willing to kill this guy and he insisted that they had to let him go. I tell you, it
brought tears to my eyes that he was such a concerning human being and he was so concerned about Stanley.
Once I had that, I I had really more than I needed. Lewis walked into the precinct and
surrendered. >> Said to the death sergeant, "I understand you're looking for me." And
told him who he was. Right away, Lewis didn't strike me as being very intelligent.
And I said to him, Lewis, I got lucky. I got Ren, I got sent. I got Mercedes. I said, "And they're all saying, you're
the ring leader. You're the guy that set this up for Stanley." I said, "Don't say
a word." I said, "Before anything, I want to know, are you going to be on my team or their team?" and he looked at me
and said, "I want to be on your team." I said, "You got it." And he said, "I didn't do anything." He
said, "It was my apartment." He said, "All I did was sit with Stanley." He said, "I had nothing to do with the
kidnapping, right? And I really shouldn't even be here. If criminals had brains, we'd be out of
business. It's 12 or 15 hours later. Now we've got everybody wrapped up. Now we have
everybody in a big holding cell. I'm on the other side of the squad room and I got my foot up on the desk and I'm
smoking a cigarette and I hear I'm looking around. I I look across the room and it's Lewis
and he's got his face in between the bars. So I go walking across the room. I said, "What's the matter?" Says, "I want
to know. Am I still on your team?" I said, "Yes, you are." And with that, I fell right to the floor.
When they picked him on the street, they had no idea that this mildmannered man was going to turn out to be an amazing
amazing witness. >> He truly had to have a survival instinct in order to get through an ordeal like
that. >> Oh, he was great. He was the best. >> He was able to joke with him. He was
respectful. He was polite. >> The things that Stan remembered, the evidence that he gave us was critical in
solving this case. Absolutely critical. They eventually all decided to plead guilty.
The girls got shorter sentences and the men got substantial time. I personally believe they got what they
deserved. There was no doubt about it. We have the right to be able to go from point A to point B without being
accosted by people with guns and dragged off and held somewhere against your will.
Looking back, the post kidnapping part of my life is really better than the prekidnapping
part of my life. I think I learned some important lessons. These days, I live life more fully. A
year after it happened, I >> Wave. Very good. got myself a dog, which I'd wanted for a long time.
It's a little silly, but I went out and bought myself a little Cabrio convertible.
Just recently, uh, God finally blessed me and had me meet somebody who I fell in love with and I managed to get
married, which was, you know, one of the happiest moments of my life. And so in many ways this kidnapping
was a wakeup call to me. It made me realize how precious life is. [ __ ] Factory.
Yeah, there's no way. There's no way I wasn't going down without a fight because that would just be stupid of me,
you know? How can you not fight for your life? >> It was a carefree night out. When it
began, these two teenage girls had never met. When it was over, they shared an unbreakable bond of survival.
Kidnapped at gunpoint, terrorized during a summer of fear. >> The latest highly publicized child
kidnapping in California this year. >> We're pleading for our lives. Please don't kill me. Please don't shoot.
Peter Vans has their personal story. >> Do you realize today just how close to death you were?
>> Split-second decisions, facing the fear, daring to fight back. >> Because your intent at that moment is to
do what? >> To kill him. >> Time was running out. >> He was hunting for the kids to kill them
and bury him. >> This is the real deal. We have to take action. >> 48 hours investigates. If you don't open
the door by three, I'm going to kill both of you right now. One, two. To hell and back.
Welcome to 48 Hours Investigates. I'm Leslie Stall. Police have called this case a blueprint for survival. In a
summer that was filled with terrifying child kidnappings, the daring escape of Tamara Brooks and Jackie Maris delivered
hope. They took extraordinary chances to survive. And tonight, Jackie reveals harrowing details about the decisions
they made that bought them time, hour by hour. Peter Vans reports on the dramatic
events that changed the lives of two teenagers who found out they are braver than they knew.
I've been kissed by the sun each morning just soaking up the day. >> We do have breaking news to tell you
about the two girls who were kidnapped this morning at gunpoint have been found safe.
>> This case the latest highly publicized child kidnapping in California this year. I have been blessed.
Thank you. >> It's a welcome home party unlike any other. Just days earlier, Tamara Brooks
and Jackie Marris spent a night in hell, kidnapped, abused, terrorized. But they
somehow made it back. >> I was alive. I had my life back. And the bad guy was dead.
will never have to deal with this suspect again. >> The girl's triumph, says Sheriff Carl
Sparks, gives every mother and father something to hold on to. >> It gave them some hope that just because
somebody takes one of their children, it doesn't have to be 4 days later in a grave.
Do you realize today just how close to death you were? >> Yeah. Every second every second of what
we went through was a chance for him to kill us, but he didn't for some reason. So yeah, I know how close I was to
death. Jackie's incredible story of survival begins here on Quartz Hill, a popular
hangout overlooking the city of Palmdale, California. It's after midnight and Jackie is nearing her
curfew, enjoying the view with Frank Mo. It's >> It's fun, you know. It's It's something
different to do, you know. It keeps you out of trouble, I guess you could say. >> Or you thought.
>> That's what I thought. Yeah. At Quartz Hill, they talk, listen to music, then out of nowhere, Frank feels
cold metal against his head. >> Okay, this is serious. You know, it's something in my head. He has a gun. He
has a gun. A gun gets your attention pretty fast. >> Holding that gun with his finger on the
trigger is Roy Dean Ratliff, a fugitive wanted for rape. He demands money and orders Frank and Jackie to put their
heads down. They smell alcohol on his breath and hear duct tape unwinding. >> One second he was calm and then out of
nowhere he just starts getting mad, >> freaking out. >> Yeah. He was like, "You think I'll kill
you?" I was like, "Yeah, man. I think you'll kill me." And he was like, "You think I'll kill you?" And I was like,
"Yeah, you'll kill me, man. You got the gun. You'll kill me." He made me put my head to the back of the seat rest and
started taping my head and then putting tape all the way around my arms, taping my lip, taping my eyes. I was like, you
know, he's going to duct tape me and then shoot me. >> Ratliff starts wrapping up Jackie, but
the tape runs out. Blindfolded and hobbled, she's led to a Bronco parked nearby.
>> So, he picked me up and he placed me in the back. And that's when I saw Tamara's
legs and they weren't moving, and I didn't know like if it was some dead body or what, you know? Lying still in
the back seat is Tamara Brooks, a 16-year-old honor student. The two girls have never met.
When the Bronco disappears, Frank manages to free himself and calls for help on his cell phone.
>> And I see this other guy and I'm like, who's this? You know, what happened to
him? And he has duct tape on him and I'm just like, oh man, this happened to him,
too. >> I heard him undoing the duct tape. The other guy is Eric Brown. He was on
Quartz Hill with his friend Tam. >> Told me he was going to kill me and but he didn't want to. He actually just
wanted to tie me up. He just wanted the truck. >> Ratliff carjacked Eric's Bronco with
Tamara held hostage. >> I just turned 18 today as of about 2 hours ago. >> I was brought up that when you take a
girl out, you see that she gets home and how was I going to take her home? you know, oh what if something does happen
to her? I will never be able to live on myself ever. >> What police don't realize is Ratliff is
just a few miles from Quartz Hill. He pulls over and Jackie can see the lights from nearby homes through a crack in her
blindfold. >> The houses had to be like maybe 15 ft from us and like some of the lights were
on and like you could hear like dogs barking and like people, you know, >> without warning. Ratliff sexually
assaults her. >> Imagine your worst nightmare. >> Did you say anything to him? >> And no one in these houses that were
nearby, nobody noticed. Nobody heard anything. >> That doesn't surprise me because they
were so close to him. But >> and this is where he attacked Jackie. >> That's what we think. That's what we
think. Now, this whole thing took place inside the car. >> Detective Fred McNut retraces the route
Ratliff took that night. >> Why would this man pull over on a pretty busy street right next to a residential
neighborhood to do this sexual assault? He just played it out that way for his own excitement. Maybe some kind of sick
excitement he got on on being on the edge this way. Found in the Bronco were restraints that were used to hold the
girls. And here's the tape that was used. >> Ratliff also carries two guns, ammunition, and sexual paraphernalia.
>> Viagra. He had quite a few packages of Viagra. This is just a scaled photograph
of the rope, and that was described to us as being used around one of the girls necks.
After the assault, he promises to take the girls back to Quartz Hill. >> I could see out of the bottom of my duct
tape that was on my eyes. And so I saw like some of the signs. >> And he wasn't taking you back to the top
of the hill. >> No. >> They drive 30 minutes or more in the dead of night. When they finally stop,
they are allowed to remove their blindfolds. The scene is surreal. Dozens of windmills reflected in the moonlight.
>> He would become very caring and compassionate and then seconds later he might be holding a gun saying, "I'll
kill you if you don't do this." >> After another brutal rape, Ratliff carefully tucks his shirt around the
girls to protect them from the chilly night air. At one point, Jackie's door is left open
a crack. It's a chance for her to escape. But she refuses to leave Tamara behind.
>> I didn't know what he was going to do to Tamara. I didn't know if he would hurt
her more than he already had. >> How do you explain that bond that had formed between you and Tamara and the
fact that you felt protective of her, this total stranger in the back seat with you. It's like I had known her like
like for a long time, but I had just met her and I barely even knew her name. >> Later, Jackie whispers a song to the
stranger who is now a friend, trying to calm her during the long black night. >> What are the words to that song?
>> Do you remember? When we're lying in the quiet and no words have be a beautiful
>> They start driving again. Silently, Jackie grabs Tamara's hand. They dare not speak, so Jackie spells out words on
Tamara's palm, one letter at a time. What did you write to her? >> Do you remember?
>> Yeah. I need a plan. >> What did she write back? I >> think she wrote knife. >> Knife? Where was there a knife?
>> Eric had a knife. A bowing knife in a holster. >> Eric Brown, Tamara's friend, kept a
Bowie knife in his Bronco. The girls realize they have no choice. Jackie would use that knife the first chance
she got. There's no way I wasn't going down without a fight because that would just be stupid of me. You know, how can
you not fight for your life? Lying across the back seat, her hands tied, Jackie Maris watches one mile
bleed into the next. There is rope around her neck, binding her to Tamara Brooks. It is hour five of unrelenting
terror. I asked him if he was going to kill us and he said no. >> He is Roy Dean Ratliff, the fugitive
who's now in control of their lives. Just after daybreak, they pull onto a remote dirt road in the Mojave Desert,
130 m from where they were abducted. >> What's going through your mind? >> Just basically what now?
Jackie watches Ratliff load and fire two guns into the empty canyon. >> I just thought that was it.
>> You thought your time had come. >> Mhm. And that we had to do something by then or, you know, never.
>> Ratantliff then turns his attention to that Bowie knife in the car. He runs his
fingers over the 8- in blade, but before he has a chance to use it, a night of heavy drinking takes its toll. Ratliff
drifts off to sleep. >> This is the time. This is the time to do whatever we're going to do to try to get
away. >> Jackie and Tamara struggle to get free from the rope and duct tape that binds
them. >> You chewed it off. >> No, I licked it off. If you lick duct tape, it's not adhesive anymore and it
just it just comes off. >> They know Ratliff has a gun in his lap. If they run, he can easily shoot them.
Jackie sees the knife on the console. There's a bottle of whiskey on the front seat.
Both are weapons for anyone desperate enough to use them. >> We didn't talk. It was just like,
>> I'm going to stab. >> You're going to hit him with the whiskey bottle. >> You're going to hit because your intent
at that moment is to do what? >> To kill him. To let him pay for what he did and what we thought he was going to do.
Back at Courtz Hill where the girls were abducted, police don't yet know it's Roy
Ratliff they are looking for. >> I don't know. I came up. >> Frank Mo lives every detail of the
night. >> I remember the voice and I remember the way he would talk and the gun. You can't get the gun out of my
head. >> Police learned the suspect ambushed Eric Brown and Tamara Brooks first. Eric was
gagged and taped to this pole when another car arrived. >> I was blindfolded. I just heard them.
>> I heard uh the car come up. Frank Mo and Jackie Maris were in that car. Eric couldn't warn them. Now two girls are
missing and two boys are left to pray. >> I don't know what it's like to be Jackie's mom and dad and not know where
your kids's at, you know? That was really hard. >> Jackie's mom, Naen Dyer. >> Go ahead. No, it's it's all right.
>> She's only 17. I mean, all the things she graduates and and just a lot you think about,
>> all the things she'd miss. Police ask Naen to describe Jackie. She tells them about her daughter's brown
eyes and her trademark smile. Jackie is the oldest of three children. High energy and high-spirited, a determined
student, cheerleader, and surfer. 500 federal, state, and local law enforcement officers. Last summer, Naen
watched news reports about other girls who disappeared. Danielle Vanam, Samantha Renan, Elizabeth Smart. So, she
sat her children down and gave them this advice. >> If someone takes you against your will,
you know, the odds are you're not coming home, you know, so you need to do whatever it
is you need to do in order to get home. I mean, if you got to fight to the end, that's what you got to do.
I knew with Jackie. I knew she'd fight. She doesn't give up. She's got too much life in her. There's
too much she wants to do. 130 m away in the Mojave Desert, Jackie remembers her mother's advice. She'll do
whatever it takes to come home. Even if that means finding the courage to stab a
man. >> I'm so scared. And what if he wakes up? What's going to happen to us? Is God
ever going to forgive us for this? >> Inch by inch, the girls painstakingly get hold of the knife and whiskey
bottle. Jackie hesitates, not sure she can stab him until Ratliff's eyes flicker.
>> I thought he was waking up and so I just did it real fast and then he actually
woke up. Tamara smashed him in the face and then since his door was open, that little crack, he like fell over. So we
kicked him out. I threw the knife at him and Tamar threw the whiskey bottle at him. He was bleeding so much.
>> Bleeding from a stab wound to the neck. They lock the doors, roll up the windows, and just as Jackie takes the
wheel to speed away. She makes a horrifying discovery. >> The key is not here. The key is not
here. The key is not here. >> Ratliff still has the key. >> We didn't know what to do.
>> And both guns. >> I'm going to count to three. And if you don't open the door by 3, I'm going to
kill both of you right now. One. Two. And at this point, we were pleading for our lives. Please don't kill me. Please
don't shoot. Don't do it. What's guy going to think of you? You promised. And right before he got to three, he
collapsed. That was definitely by God. >> So, he's collapsed. Did you get out of
the car? >> No. cuz he's outside the car. >> Ratliff lies motionless. Then, like a scene from a horror movie,
he suddenly staggers to his feet and starts shooting over the car. >> What's the look on his face?
>> A look of intent to kill. Like that's all that he was going to do. No negotiating.
There wasn't anything. We couldn't go back. We couldn't take back what we had just done. And now we were going to
suffer for what we tried to do to him. On a desolate stretch of the Mojave Desert, Jackie Marris and Tamara Brooks
are living on the very edge of death. >> We can't do anything but plead for him not to kill us.
It is hour nine in the grip of a violent, desperate, wounded man. 130 m away, police are leading a massive
effort to find the girls. >> Find her. That's what you got to do. >> It's 10:00 the morning of August 1st,
2002. >> A number of family and friends are gathering here at the sheriff sub station.
>> I just hope she comes back safe. Freeway billboards flash a description of the stolen Bronco.
>> The vehicle has raised large tires. >> News reports are constant. >> They're on the lookout for this Ford
Bronco. >> The signs are part of a new warning system called Amber Alert, designed to
quickly notify the public when children are abducted. >> A license plate number of 1 a.
>> Police know too well that many children are killed within hours of being kidnapped.
When you first heard two teenage girls kidnapped, what's going through your mind?
>> Uh, that we're actually probably not going to be looking for the two girls cuz he's going to dump them.
>> Carl Sparks was then sheriff of Kern County, a sprawling desert county about 100 miles north of LA. When a crime
involves children, Sheriff Sparks gets emotional. If this sucker is in Kern County, he is not getting away from us.
>> Sparks doesn't know it yet, but in fact, Ratliff is in Kern County on a remote desert road.
>> Open the door. >> Ratliff's in a frenzy of pain and anger. >> Open the door. I'm going to kill the
both of you. bleeding profusely from the knife wound in his neck. >> The whole time he was like frantic, you
know, let me in or did I'm going to kill you. >> The girls are locked inside the Bronco.
>> We were in the worst position you could ever think of. You had just tried to kill someone and he's not dead and he
has a gun pointed at you through a car window. >> Why do you think he didn't pull that
trigger? >> I don't know. We started talking to him about God and if he was to kill us, if
God would ever forgive him for what he he was about to do. >> How important was that conversation at that moment?
>> Real important. After we started mentioning God and stuff, he like he calmed down a little bit and he was
silent for like a couple moments. With Ratliff still armed, the girls have no choice but to let him back in the
Bronco. They have managed against all odds to buy themselves a few more minutes of
life. >> Something was watching over someone, something. I don't know. As the search intensifies, a distraught
woman walks into this sheriff's station, hands over a photo, and says, "This may
be the man you're looking for. His name is Roy Dean Ratliff." The woman with this crucial new lead is Ratliff's wife.
>> She's a mother. She cared. She cared about those those girls. >> Kevin Seymour is a psychologist and
friend of the Ratliff family. >> He uh was very kind to my children. Ratliff, a Native American, is the
father of two. >> This is a picture that was taken last year at his birthday party. This is the
Roy that we knew, that smiling face. >> This is the picture here that the public
is most familiar with. What goes through your mind today when you look at that photograph.
>> This is the two sides of this man. This is a man who was a was a good man when
he wasn't drinking, but alcohol was real poison for this guy. Ratliff had been in and out of
prison since he was a teenager for nonviolent crimes. Seymour says Ratliff was always trying to turn things around.
>> He once worked as a gardener at this child care center and said it was the best job he ever had.
>> The children at at the childcare center loved him and for him when he drank he
became violent and he felt unable to control that. This guy had no ability to control himself.
Bull. Just absolute bull. Ratliff is on the move again. Back on the highway. He can't stop the bleeding of his neck.
He kept telling me to look watch his neck and tell him when to wipe because the blood it was bleeding real bad still
and the blood would just like pour down and I'd tell him to wipe so he'd wipe. >> If he's worried police are looking for
him, he doesn't show it. Jackie remembers him listening to a song about suicide.
>> He was talking about, "You think I care if I die right here? Well, I don't. I
don't care. Now, the car that they are looking for statewide is a 1984 white Ford Bronco.
The license plate number one AI >> Milton Walters, a highway worker, hears reports about the abduction all morning.
At just about 11:00 a.m., Walters can't believe his eyes. He sees a white Bronco
coming his way on Highway 178. I looked right at him, right through the passenger side window and he kind of had
like a like a crappy little smile on his face and kind of nodded at me as he went
by. I was panicking and I didn't have a pen. I'm going like this. So, I grabbed my
key and I scratched one a I Z then six 92. >> Walters calls police on his cell phone.
Helicopters and planes race to the area. >> But in this vast desert, they can't find
the Bronco. >> I know the area real well, and there's so many roads that this guy could have
taken. >> 11:30 a.m. Kern County Animal Control Officer Bonnie Hernandez is also on
Highway 178. >> Listening to her police scanner when she spots something white in the distance.
was right about here on on the rise when I saw him and he was going into the trees.
>> And in my mind, I'm thinking, "Good Lord, if if he gets down in there in those trees, even even the airship may
not be able to see him." >> Bonnie knows every second matters, but she's afraid to radio for help.
Everybody has a scanner in a in this type of an area and they know exactly where you're at and where you're going
and who you're after. >> Worried that Ratliff may have a scanner, >> Bonnie tears out to the nearest town to
alert authorities 30 m away. >> How fast were you driving on the highway, would you guess?
>> 110 literally. Back in the Bronco, >> he had us put towels over our heads and
we're on the floor. >> Jackie and Tamara can feel that they've gone off road and they like everyone looking for them
have a sickening suspicion why. >> They were excess baggage that he needed to get rid of. He was hunting for a
place to kill them and bury him. And he had stopped that Bronco cuz he had found
the place where he wanted to do it. He he he just said, "You you guys better hope the cops aren't down there." Like
if they were that he was going to kill us. And then all of a sudden, Tam was like,
"Do you hear that?" And I was like, "What?" And she's like, "Listen." And she's like, "It's a helicopter.
On August 1st, as morning gave way to the midday heat of the Mojave Desert, Tamara Brooks and Jackie Marris knew
they were running out of time. The girls had been abducted, assaulted, and repeatedly threatened they'd be killed
by the gunman holding them hostage. Roy Dean Ratliff was a fugitive from justice, a career criminal wanted for
rape, who had vowed he would never go back to prison. Tamara and Jackie tried everything they could think of to fight
back, even stabbing Ratliff and badly wounding him. Now they were at the mercy of a desperate man they had made even
angrier. With police hot on the trail, Peter Vans picks up the story. Bronco. Great job.
>> 12 hours of terror are about to end. The next few minutes will determine life
and death for everyone in that Bronco. >> We're in the right direction. >> All of a sudden, we hear this um
helicopter overhead and it keeps circling around and Tam's like, "Do you hear that?
But for Jackie and Tamara, the sound of the rescue helicopter is actually frightening.
>> Oh no, the cops are here. You know, get out of here. We don't want you here right now.
>> Roy Ratliff has said he will kill the girls if the police show up. >> So, we were hoping that the helicopter
would go away and like like it did, but then it came back and when the sound came back, it was lower. It kept getting
lower and lower and lower. We need to know how to get in there. >> By the time we get right into here, it's
continuous, continuous talk from the chopper. >> Kern County deputies James Stratton and
Larry Thatcher follow the helicopter to an isolated stretch of land in the Mojave Desert called White Blanket.
>> As I got out of the vehicle, he was looking straight at me through the open passenger side window. attempting to
make contact with the suspect >> here for the first time. They come face to face with Roy Dean Ratliff.
>> This is real. This is the real deal. We have to take action. >> I drew my weapon. I yelled at him to get
his hands where I could see him. He hollered back at me. No way. >> All he had on his face was desperation,
terror, and contempt. I'm not getting away. You're not going to catch me. >> Roy Ratliff presses down on the gas
>> hard. He actually went airborne across here. Hit this road down here off through the brush.
>> He just turned to the left real fast. When he turned, the Bronco almost slipped and then he got stuck up on this
rock. >> The deputies show us just how they close in on the Bronco. >> I started running down the hill. James
started running down the hill. How quickly is all of this happening? >> Seconds.
He was watching our distance as we're closing, thinking he's going to get the vehicle off and can escape.
>> So, where are the girls at this point? >> Don't know. Have no idea. >> What the deputies don't realize is that
Jackie and Tamara are still in the Bronco lying in the back seat. >> We've had no report from the chopper
that they've seen them. I don't know if the girls have already been dumped someplace, if the girls are dead. Uh, I
just don't know. You saw the police outside the windows. >> Yeah, their guns and stuff. Yeah.
>> Did they see you? >> Not at that point. >> Vehicle stuck in the dirt. >> As we got closer, I think he realized
that he wasn't leaving. That's when he leaned over out of his seat, went behind the passenger seat, and started digging
for the gun. >> He jumps in the back of the seat, and he has his gun in his hand. I thought he
was going to kill me right then cuz his gun was loaded, and he had it right by my head.
Roy Ratliff is trapped. He has nowhere to go and nothing to lose. >> He was shouting out at the cops. I have
the girls. You better not shoot or else they're going to die. >> With just about 6 ft separating the cops
from Ratliff, the two deputies are putting their lives on the line. >> I come around here just like this to the
back end of the Bronco. He has no idea that I'm behind him. Within seconds, Ratliff pulls the trigger.
>> He shot the first shot out the window and then the cops retaliated back. They
shot back. >> Suddenly, Jackie and Tamara are in the midst of a deadly gun battle.
>> The bullets are just flying everywhere. We're screaming for our lives. The car
is just like moving back and forth, back and forth. As you're firing these shots, are you
thinking to yourself, "What about the girls?" >> The only thing I see is him and that
revolver he's holding. >> When I heard the shot, Ratliff went back. At that time, I began shooting,
approaching the vehicle and approaching Ratliff. >> Once I made sure of my target, I lined
up my sight straight on him and I squeezed the trigger. The glass looked like it fell like
raindrops. And he looked at me with the sense of you got me. >> Suspect is down.
>> A bullet fired by Larry Thatcher brings Roy Dean Ratliff's trail of terror to a
dead end. He was on top of me and like he his body just like it had no life in it anymore. It was
just dead weight. When I was finished firing then I can see Bronco rocking. Definitely can hear some screaming. I
said somebody's alive. Like a newborn baby. Mom and dad, you want to hear your child screaming because when you hear
that, you know they're alive. >> You know that's life. >> That's life. >> I like looked at him and like his eyes
were open and the blood was just on his face and everywhere. And then I just I pushed them off of me and I ran out.
Tamara was right behind me. We gave each other a big hug and we just were crying
our eyes out and just thanking God that we were still alive. >> 17 bullets hit that white Bronco during
several seconds of intense smoky gunplay. It is nothing short of a miracle that Jackie and Tamara got out
alive. One of the strongest feelings I've ever had in my life was when those girls came out of that vehicle and I
knew they weren't injured. It was I mean happiness, relief, uh everything. >> We have both victims.
They're okay. >> All this time they're saying thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. And I
told those girls, you're going home tonight. This guy is not going to hurt you anymore. We don't have to
rehabilitate this son of a [ __ ] >> In just minutes, news of the amazing rescue hits home. The relief is
overwhelming. >> Okay. Okay, girls. I'm going to give you an update. >> Give me two seconds.
>> Okay. According to the Kern County Sheriff, the girls are unheard. According to the Kern County Sheriff,
the girls are unheard >> and the suspect is down. I just hugged her, kissed her.
>> That was the moment you'd waited all those hours for. >> You know, she was okay.
>> It's over. You know, we were spared. >> You're just so happy. It is like unescribable feeling of like just relief
just like life actually existed again. At 12:55, around that hour, freedom was given back to the two girls.
Justice was served. We do have breaking news to tell you about the two girls who were kidnapped
this morning. >> Okay. Okay, girls. I'm going to give you an update. Okay. According to the Kern
County Sheriff, the girls are unheard. >> It's been just over a year since Jackie
and Tamara were freed from their nightmare. >> How's life today? How How are things
with you? >> They're good. I guess. Yeah, they're pretty good. But everything I don't know. I try to keep
myself like real busy so I don't ever get a chance to think about it. >> Do you find after the all of this that
total strangers care about you now and are interested in you? >> That's the weirdest thing cuz I got
stuff from like every state. This one's one from Iowa. This one's from Castaic. This is for a year free of martial arts.
Crocheted blanket. Got some bracelets here. Neat. Some are letters from rape survivors. Others are inspired by her
courage. >> I prayed for you often over the 10 hours that you were held. I'm so happy that
you're safe. I will keep you in my prayers. >> And now fans throwing out the ceremonial
first pitch. JACKIE MARIS AND TAMARA BROOKS. >> PUBLICLY, Jackie and Tamara are new
symbols of survival. Tamara and Jackie join us today in the call to stop violence against women.
>> Gutsy, smart, and strong. >> Privately, what happened in the Bronco can never be erased.
>> Does this get to you a little bit when you think about it? >> Yes. Now you try not to think about it.
Are you happy today? >> Yeah. >> Have you talked to anybody yet? Have you had any counseling over this? Have you
talked it over with anybody? >> Oh, like professional wise? No. >> Are you are you giving that any thought?
>> Yeah, that's a healthy thing to do. It's not >> Yeah, I know. I know. I just don't have
a lot of time right now. Like when I do have time, I'll go. trying to impress the room.
>> She also has family and friends to lean on. >> But sometimes out of the blue,
the tears come. >> You fought back big time. >> Yeah. Does that help? >> Huh? If I wouldn't have done it, I would have
regretted it forever. Even if things did turn out the way they did, I still would have rather
fought back. Police believe fighting back is a key reason Jackie and Tamara are still
alive. >> The girls bought precious time. >> They are the ones who got away. >> Thank you.
Hey. Hey. Hey. It's like ghosts. You just see the ghosts of them everywhere. If you close your eyes, can you still
see it? All of it. The focus of the case is Michelle Renee. She was living with her uh her daughter
Bria. They were living um in a kind of a secluded house. >> Does it feel like 22 years?
Sometimes it does. Sometimes it feels like a lifetime ago. Sometimes it feels like it was last week.
>> I asked the FBI to take Michelle back to the house to help reconstruct probably
the most traumatic night of her life. >> We came in the door. I put the groceries
away. Went in the kitchen. >> Michelle was a single mom. She was a bank manager. Somebody who worked hard
to gain a job of position of trust and respect. It had been such a long day and I was just excited to be home with Bria.
We were on the couch. It was just the two of us. >> I was sitting here. She was right beside
me and we were playing Game Boy. >> A group of individuals put Michelle under surveillance knowing she was a
bank manager. and they devised a plan >> and we just heard this huge the the sound just the biggest noise from behind
us and we I turned to look and just saw three people. They were all lined up one
right after the other just rushing in running in the door at like squat style and they had their guns and they were
all in black and I just screamed super loud. My daughter screamed super loud. At that point, my daughter took off this
way, but two of them came to me, put guns in my face. One guy grabbed me back of my head, forced me down in front of
the couch that was right here. >> They bind her up with duct tape. They put her seven-year-old on the ground and
bind her up with duct tape. And uh they tell them that uh if they don't cooperate, they're going to be killed.
They're going to be shot. >> Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. They let me turn around and see my daughter laying face
down on the floor right here by the door. Um, face down with her hands tied and her feet tied.
Um, right there on the ground, I heard my daughter say, "Are you going to kill my
mommy? And are you going to kill me?" And they said, "No, not if your mommy does everything that we tell her to do."
>> They said, "You're going to rob the bank for us or we will kill you and your daughter will be first.
The only monsters that had ever scared Michelle Rene's 7-year-old daughter Bria were makeelieve. But on November 20th,
2000, just a day before three masked men broke in. >> She calls me, "Mom, there's somebody
outside the window." I looked out there. I didn't see anything. I didn't see anybody. I just brushed it off.
>> Michelle had chocked it up to her child's imagination, but this time was different.
>> She saw them looking through the window. They were there the night before. The same men now held Michelle and Bria
at gunpoint in the living room. The gunman said they'd been following the 35year-old bank manager for months.
It was very much that mind control thing that they were doing that we know everything about you.
>> Michelle would recount the events inside the house for investigators. >> And we're going to be here all night
with you to make sure you know exactly what you're going to do or you will die. >> Throughout the night, the ring leader
gave specific instructions about how he wanted Michelle to rob her own bank the next morning.
>> We're going to go over this again. and this is what you're going to do. When Brinks gets there, you're going to get
Brinks's money. >> As she huddled with Bria on the couch, now duct taped, Michelle could hear him
talking to a woman on a two-way radio. >> Money one to Money Two were >> That's what they called each other.
>> Yeah, they called each other money one to Money Two. >> Money one was the ring leader. Around
11, the voice on the walkie-talkie got his attention. >> Car coming up the driveway of the
roommates's there. >> It was their roommate, Kimbra. And they put the gun right here in her face,
right up her nose, and said, "Don't make using use this." I pushed the guy's hand
out of her face and said, "Don't do this. Don't hurt her." And he just pointed it right at me and said, "Don't
ever touch me again." >> Michelle realized this might be the last night she ever spent with her daughter.
>> It was almost morning. I just rubbed her hair so she could try to get some sleep.
Wondering if that was going to be the last time I was going to get to touch her hair and see her sleep was pretty
tough. >> In the morning, the nightmare would continue. >> It was like 6:00 a.m. He said, "Get up.
It's time to get ready for work." >> I got dressed and started doing my hair when he came in and stopped me
and said, "We need to put the dynamite on you now." Michelle, her roommate Kimbra, and Bria would all be strapped
with dynamite. Then, Money One showed Michelle what looked like a doorbell. This is a detonation device.
>> One false move. I push this button. >> You will disintegrate. Your daughter will go first.
>> And they sat me right here and said, "Now, we're going to take your daughter."
>> The gunman put Bria in her bedroom closet. I was just telling her I'd be right
back, that everything's going to be fine. >> Be brave, Mommy. That was the last thing
she said when before I walked out to go to the bank. >> Did you feel brave? >> No.
>> As two of the gunmen stayed in the house, Money One handed Michelle a briefcase stuffed with a duffel bag
before he crouched in the back of her jeep. With dynamite on her back and a gun to her side, she drove to work.
>> So, you pull up into your spot. What does he tell you before you get out of the car?
>> Don't Don't this up. And the Brinks truck came at 8:50. I believe right around 8:50 was the drop right over
here. >> That's when Michelle grabbed her briefcase and headed to the vault. I brought my teller in the vault with me
and said, "I'm getting ready to clear out this vault or my daughter and I are going to die. This is what's happened
all night." >> And you whispered to her, "I have dynamite on my back." >> Yeah. I whispered I pulled my shirt up
and then you just opened up the duffel bag and started shoveling in money. >> I did. My heart was racing. My Am I fast
enough? Michelle's colleagues would alert the authorities, but not before she walked out with $360,000.
>> Just get to the Jeep, hurl it in the Jeep, and go >> and just do what's next.
>> Money one directed Michelle to get out a few blocks later >> and that I would find my Jeep down the
street. >> She found her car and raced home. I don't know if Bria's going to be there.
I don't know if she's going to be alive when I get there. And I went to open the
door and I was just screaming and hello, hello. It was eerily silent >> and I just heard Bria and I remember
screaming, "We're back here. We're back here." >> Bria was still in the closet right where
Michelle left her. >> What was that like to hear and see her? >> Oh my gosh. She was alive. I did it. We
did it. We didn't die. probably the happiest moment of my life. But then I could still see the panic on her face.
>> The dynamite's still on me. >> Before leaving, the gunman had ripped the dynamite off of Kimbra and Bria, so
they cut it off of Michelle's back before running to the nearest neighbor. >> I opened the gates, went down the hill
real fast, helped them up to the house. >> Rick Brown lived up a steep hill. >> I called 911 right away.
>> Sheriff, can I help you? >> Yes. Uh, some neighbors of ours were held hostage. I need somebody out here
right away. >> Soon, the place was crawling with investigators from the FBI, San Diego
Sheriff's Department, and the bomb squad. >> This is the dynamite that was taken off
of um Michelle. >> San Diego prosecutor Tom Manning would lead the task force investigating the
case. They quickly figured out the dynamite was fake. They realize that it actually is two
painted dowels or broomstick handles. >> But as you can see from a distance in the lighting, plus it's on your back
with the stress of the situation, you're not going to take a chance that it isn't
real. >> But during the very real 14 hours they were held hostage. Michelle had held on
to any detail that might help identify the attackers. Remembering details is just sort of this
part of my DNA about people. That was kind of my superpower. >> Details like money one's eyes.
>> When I turned the light on to go to the bathroom and I saw his eyes in there, I
I said that those eyes were at my desk. Those eyes were at my desk today. Oh my god.
>> Michelle says it was a man with whom she'd had an odd encounter at the bank hours before being taken hostage. and he
sat at my desk for a really long time asking sort of the same questions over and over. And then a woman walked in and
said, "Chris, we need to get going." And they got up and left. The man had handed
Michelle his business card. >> And the name on the business card was Christopher Butler.
Central. >> After hours of police questioning, Michelle and Bria were sent to a hotel.
Michelle called her brother Dave. >> It didn't sound like her. It was someone, you know, heavily traumatized.
>> Dave, who lived 3 hours away, rushed to his sister's aid. What I saw when I opened that door, it
scared the daylights out of me. Are you okay? And she would shake. >> How about Bria?
>> Same thing. >> In the days ahead, Michelle struggled to hold it together for her daughter.
>> She was the strongest person for me. >> While investigators wanted answers, they grilled her about that odd
encounter with Christopher Butler. Why was he in the bank? What was he saying he was there for?
>> He came in to say that he was a potential client and that he wanted to talk about
investments. >> Before Butler handed Michelle his business card, a woman he introduced as
Lisa came in and whisked him away. >> Hey Chris, we need to go. >> It was the same voice Michelle says she
heard later that night on the walkie-talkie. >> I kept saying it over and over. Check my
desk. Check that card. Check my desk. Get that card. I know that it's them. >> Through that card, they started the
investigation. >> The FBI soon discovered Butler was a convicted felon with a history of
robbing banks. >> They figured out where he was staying and then uh the team that I work with
set up surveillance. >> Butler and his fianceé, Lisa Ramirez, lived in a house just a few miles from
the bank. Some of the people in the house were telling the police who was there when they planned it.
>> Within days, detectives identified the two other men. Christopher Huggin. >> There was a big guy maybe maybe 6'4.
He's gang ties. >> And the man who' held a gun to little Bria, a gang member called Bones.
Real name Robert Ortiz. >> Ortiz was a connection who got the guns. On December 1st, they decided to arrest
Butler and Ramirez during a traffic stop. >> In the glove compartment was a uh weapon. It's It's actually a BB gun. If
you look at that in a stressful situation that looks as real as it can get. >> What' they find when they pump the
trunk? >> Plethora of evidence. >> All this. >> All this. They found the uh the black
bag that Michelle described the money being carried in. Uh several pairs of black gloves. and um a
homemade ski mask. >> Oh yeah, look at the eye holes there. >> Yeah, >> but they clearly cut themselves.
>> Michelle's credit cards were all found in the uh trunk of the vehicle. And then
of course the money straps from the bank. >> Also in the trunk, that doorbell detonator.
And there was even more at the house. >> They found all the ingredients uh to make the fake bomb. There were broom
handles which were cut up into small dowels which actually were used in making the the fake dynamite. They also
recovered the the actual spray cans. Ramirez's uh fingerprint was on one of those cans. It was crazy. I've never
seen that much physical evidence left at a crime scene. >> They thought they'd gotten away with it.
>> Yeah. >> One thing investigators didn't find on Butler and Ramirez, any of the bank's
$360,000. But after arresting Huggin that same day, they did recover 93,000 of the cash
that he'd stashed away. Huggin confessed and said that he'd already spent several
grand on a trip to Vegas. The fourth suspect, Robert Ortiz, was on the lamb. When authorities
arrested him three months later in Wisconsin, Ortiz still had $32,000 of the bank's money and gave a full
confession. Did Huggin and Ortiz's confessions corroborate each other? >> Yes, very much so.
>> So, did Huggin and Ortiz's confessions corroborate what Michelle had told investigators?
>> Yes. Almost identical. >> Butler denied everything, even when confronted with direct evidence,
his thumbrint on the fake dynamite sticks. >> And we got fingerprints that are yours
that went to the bank robber. find out that because I wasn't involved in anybody.
>> He tried to protect Lisa. >> Lisa wouldn't have been involved with that. >> But Lisa was about to start talking. She
admitted she was the female voice on the walkie-talkie. >> She even took credit for the idea to use
fake dynamite and kidnap the bank manager. I don't know whose idea that was about
eight months ago. >> Jokingly, mine. >> Lisa said they'd split the money three ways, but that her and Butler's share,
more than $100,000, had been stolen. And to everyone's surprise, she said Michelle was in on the plot.
>> They had told me that Michelle was helping them. walked out of that um thinking, "Okay, Lisa's Lisa is the
mastermind behind all this and um is it possible Michelle's involved?" >> Manning says ultimately he knew Michelle
was innocent. >> The first time I interviewed her, she had Bria with her and I I I saw that
bond and relationship and when she left, I went, "She's not involved in this." >> But that wouldn't be enough in court.
San Diego County Sheriff's Detectives Rudy Zamora, Dale Martin, and Randy Demurs would have to rule Michelle out
as a suspect. >> Every time we pushed a button, she would react in a way a true victim should.
>> They recreated the dynamite packs and strapped them on Kimbra, Michelle, and Bria. She was very upset
>> and Michelle was emotional when asked to revisit the horrific details of the kidnapping.
>> And then they I had to put her in there and they shut the shut the closet. >> She was shaken up. I thought she was
going to have a nervous breakdown. When Michelle did those reenactments, were her story, Kimbra's story, and Bria's
story consistent? >> Yes, completely consistent. >> In fact, investigators couldn't find any
evidence Michelle was involved. Still, they worried. >> She was not our normal victim
>> as they took a deep dive into Michelle's life. >> What did they find out about Michelle's
past? She didn't hide anything, >> including the fact that for years she had worked as a stripper.
I'm not embarrassed or ashamed by any of that. >> Michelle says it was one of the choices
she had to make for survival at a young age. I ran away at 15. I worked really, really hard to get to where I was.
>> With no high school diploma, she had climbed the corporate ladder all the way
to regional vice president before taking the bank manager job to be home more with Bria. And while you were working at
the bank, you were still dancing, still stripping for a while. >> I was for a while. The money was really
great. >> But more worrisome were things that went directly to Michelle's credibility.
>> She falsified resumes, claimed she had various experience, various education,
which she didn't have. >> Bounced a check, filed for bankruptcy. >> Right. >> That doesn't look good.
>> It doesn't look good. And if you're a defense attorney, you're licking your chops.
Oh, the best verdict I ever got in my life. By spring of 2001, the suspects were in
custody awaiting trial for kidnapping and bank robbery charges. But Michelle and Bria were still reeling from that
night of terror. I could still hear them. I could still hear the the sounds. I couldn't get it
to turn off. >> I just wanted to hide. I thought they were going to find us. They were going
to kill us still. >> In June, Michelle decided to move Bria to Alaska to live with her grandmother.
>> I was going to fly her up there and get her to safety. I was going to figure out
what to do from there. After a few days, Michelle says she had an epiphany >> to go back to San Diego and get rid of
everything I could possibly get rid of and drive back to Alaska with a dog. >> Come here.
>> Some cash. >> Can do this on a budget. >> And a camcorder. >> Today is July the 6th.
>> She embarked on a 9-day drive. >> On my way, baby doll. >> To the last frontier.
You had a deadline. >> I had a deadline. Bria's birthday was in 9 days, and I promised her I'd be back
before her birthday party. >> That's when Michelle and Bria say they began to heal.
>> Did you feel safe in Alaska? >> Safer. I could be a kid again. >> Happy birthday to you.
>> By the time they returned to San Diego a year later for the trial, Michelle says
she was ready. There was so much evidence. There was no way I thought that this trial was going
to be anything but slam dunk. >> Butler and Ramirez would be tried first. >> When her case came across your desk,
what did you think at first? >> She's guilty. >> You thought she's guilty? >> Well, yeah.
>> Herb Weston, who represented Lisa Ramirez, had a problem. His client had confessed on camera. There was a female
voice that came all at once all the time. >> If they play that tape, saying that she
wasn't involved would have been difficult. >> Weston proposed a plea deal, hoping to
save Ramirez from a potential life sentence, but the prosecution turned him down.
>> We thought we would definitely get state the key statements in that she was involved. But since Ramirez had also
implicated Butler, the judge ruled her entire statement inadmissible. >> We now can at least argue to the jury
that she wasn't involved. Without her confession, the case against Ramirez relied almost entirely on Michelle.
A fact Manning was keenly aware of during his opening statement to the jury on June 3rd, 2002. You told the jury
that this case was about credibility. >> Right. Michelle's uh background was was
going to be an issue. I knew there were issues, but I believed her. and you thought the jury would believe that,
>> but not if the defense had its way. >> What was your strategy going into trial?
>> My strategy was to beat the hell out of the victim and show all these inconsistencies that
the victim is saying. >> It got very confrontational. >> I was really, really off.
>> That played right into Weston's hand. >> Angry witnesses don't come across as
credible. I was treated like I was the criminal. >> During his cross-examination, Weston
implied Michelle was lying about recognizing Lisa Ramirez's voice on the walkie-talkie.
>> Wait a minute, ma'am. I've looked at all this stuff. Isn't this the first time
you've said that? >> In fact, he pointed out it wasn't in any of the FBI reports.
But Michelle insists she told them. >> I did. I 100% did. And Manning says she identified Lisa's voice to him before
taking the stand. >> Does it bother you that Lisa actually admitted that that was her voice on the
walkie-talkie? The fact is it was Lisa. >> But that's not the issue for me. It made
a great opening to attack her credibility. >> Weston then grilled Michelle about bait
money. The traceable bills banks keep in their vaults to trap bank robbers. You didn't take the bait money.
>> Did not take the debate money. >> Why not? >> They said no funny money. You say that's
suspicious that she must have been in on it. >> Correct. >> Maybe worst of all for Michelle Weston
question her maternal instincts. >> Would a mother run to a place where her daughter was? If she believes that I
have a bomb on my back? >> She wasn't sure whether her daughter was dead or alive. Don't you think it's
possible that she wasn't thinking straight? Sure. But also what could be true is she knew there wasn't a bomb and
so she didn't have to worry about it. >> Did you feel like you were on trial? I 100% felt like I was on trial.
>> I would be sitting in the front row and all I could think about was it's going
to take me maybe 6 seconds to get from this point to the offender. That is how I rape I was
>> day after day listening to this >> listening to this. >> Is it fair to beat up the victim?
>> Absolutely. While Weston hammered on every decision Michelle made that day, the attorney representing Butler went
after everything else. >> What was the worst thing they asked you about my sex life? They were trying to
paint me as somebody that was irresponsible, a selfish, terrible mother that would do anything for money.
>> And they picked apart Michelle's finances. She's in uh financial uh distress and that could be the motive.
>> Isn't it kind of odd that we're talking about motive when we're talking about a
victim? >> It is the defense in the case was to uh make Michelle a uh uh a culprit here.
>> After Michelle's grueling 3-day testimony, it was Christopher Butler's turn. He protected Lisa on the stand, claiming
Michelle was the mastermind and that they'd had an affair. I was shocked. >> It's almost laughable. What was his
story about how the two of you met? From what I understand, we met in a grocery store and that I recruited him. Butler
claimed that he'd gone to Michelle's house that night with Huggin and Ortiz. He said that in the early morning hours
while smoking pot, Michelle brought up the bank robbery idea again and decided they should do it that morning.
>> His evidence of this, his proof of this, >> zero. If any of this were true, he would
have thrown Michelle down in a heartbeat in his interview. >> The jury deliberated for five days
before finding Butler guilty of the bank robbery and Bria and Kimbra's kidnapping, but they hung 9 to3 on the
charges of kidnapping Michelle. >> When we talked to the jurors, you know, we discovered it was one juror who
completely believed Butler, and the other two jurors were unsure. And they found Lisa Ramirez not guilty on all
counts. >> Oh, the best verdict I ever got in my life. >> Mind-boggling. The fact that it was her
idea to do this to a mother and a child and laughing and proud of it. >> How involved do you think she was in
this? >> Very involved. The investigators kept saying she she was the brains of the
outfit. >> So, the brains of the outfit walked, >> right? The second trial would go very
differently with Huggin and Ortiz easily convicted. >> In so many of uh the stories that we
tell, the ending is the conviction. But in your case, in a lot of ways, that's just the beginning.
All righty. Is it working? >> Yes. >> If you close your eyes, can you still see it?
>> Okay. >> All of it. I can still see all of it. >> Even though the men who had terrorized
them were now serving multiple life sentences, Michelle and Bria would never be the
same. There's aspects of that night that are going to be with me for the rest of my
life. >> They were treated for post-traumatic stress disorder for over two years.
>> They had their guns. >> Michelle says dealing with the breakin led to a breakthrough.
It was two choices. Call them monsters and stay angry and blame everything of my life on them. Or I can take this
other road. The best thing I could do for Bria is to be an example. Enjoy the book.
>> Michelle wrote a book >> which was made into a TV movie >> and she and Bria went on speaking tours
to discuss their experience with trauma. >> A lot of people coming out of this would
want to just forget about it, put it behind them. But you and your mom talked openly about it.
>> Yes. And I think it was the best decision for us. >> We're speaking out about our experience.
I was showing people that it's not always the end all be all when something bad happens to you. You can come out of
it stronger. >> 1 2 3 4. >> And by 2011, >> she really turned the corner and started
enjoying her life again. >> The girl who had hidden from everything was a high school senior and competitive
cheerleader. She loved it. It was her absolute passion. >> You're thriving. You're living the
dream. You said you dreamed of this. You were living the dream. >> I was. >> Then suddenly
>> senior year in December, I started feeling a little off. I was dropping things. Showed up at my work at
6:00 dragging her leg going, "Mommy, something's really wrong. Something's wrong. I don't know what's happening."
>> I said, "Mom, I'm really scared." >> They had no idea Bria was in for the fight of her life.
We rushed her to the hospital and they started pricking her leg and she couldn't feel it and her heart rate
started going crazy. >> Oh my gosh. >> By 8:00 p.m. that night, I was paralyzed on my left side. Couldn't talk, couldn't
swallow, blind in my left eye. >> We found abnormalities in the brain is all they could tell me that night. It
almost sounds like there's that same feeling of helplessness that you had the night that you were held hostage
>> completely. >> The next morning, Bria was diagnosed with an acute onset of multiple
scerosis, an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks its own
tissues. >> Based on the scans, she has tumactive MS, which is not only rare in and of
itself, but people Bria's age at 18 rarely get MS. Bria says she was told she might never
walk or talk again. >> Just like that. >> Just like that. >> One, two, three, go.
>> My life just ended again. >> There you go. >> I was 18 trying to go off to college, do
cheer in college, and that was never going to happen for me. >> So much of your healing had been
talking, and now you couldn't talk. >> No, I couldn't talk. >> What is it? Okay. And push.
>> I couldn't feed myself anymore. >> She had to relearn all of that. >> Up good.
>> But it was as if they'd been training for this for years. >> Do you think in some way what happened
to you when you were seven prepared you for battling MS? >> Yes. I think it made me strong enough to
go through what I went through with MS. >> It was here we go again. Here we go again.
Bria would spend six weeks in the hospital, >> two to three times a day of physical
therapy, occupational therapies, speech therapy. >> After she could talk again, she turned
to me and said, "Kidnapping was a piece of cake compared to this. >> Do it again."
>> And just as with the kidnapping, Bria wanted to inspire others. She wrote her
college essay from her hospital room, from her wheelchair. >> It is my hope that my college experience
>> and said, "I'm going to college. I'm going to be the first person in my family to graduate college no matter
what." >> I now know that there is no time to waste. Life can change so suddenly.
>> She chronicled her journey on her Facebook page. >> Bria, what? >> I love you.
She fought tooth and nail every single day for every single step she took. She walked out of the hospital.
>> This time it was Michelle doing the cheerleading. >> Pray for you. >> The rehab started in the hospital, but
the real rehab was Michelle, constantly on her. We're going to do this. >> It's okay. Good job.
>> We were a total team. We just ended up going into full gear. We lived in a house with stairs.
>> Good. That was really good. >> She couldn't do stairs anymore. >> So, once again, you're out of a home
that you've been living in. >> Yeah. And I had to become her full-time caregiver for about a year and a half,
two years and rebuilding our life again despite the odds. >> Three, four, five. Oh, she made it to
college. >> She relapsed three times her first year in college and had to come home, but she
did it. She follows in her mom's footsteps, >> teaching her how to get her foot to stay
on the line. >> I with the tenacity and the never give up philosophy that they have.
>> Lift your knee up. Ready? Go. >> Bria is walking talking proof. So they told you you would never walk again.
>> Yeah, I would never walk again, never see again, never anything like that. >> And
>> I would say I beat the odds >> yet again. >> Yes, exactly. But 20 years after their
world first came crashing down, they'd be faced with the unimaginable once again.
Christopher Butler could be released. It's been over 20 years. What stands out about this case in
hindsight? The victims. >> From the very beginning, the case hit close to home for prosecutor Tom
Manning. >> The fact that there was a a little girl, my daughter was the same age as Bria
when this happened. Nearly 20 years later, in June 2020, Christopher Butler was up for parole.
>> He's the one who lied about me. >> Manning made sure he was at the hearing. >> And you had a plan going in.
>> I did. >> He saw a chance to set the record straight by asking Butler about the
story he'd told on the stand. >> I told Michelle if I felt it was right, I was going to go for it. What' you
think about that? >> Go for it. Ask away. Even though that's risky. >> It's a little risky. This guy could go
to the grave with these lies. >> The risk paid off. Butler recanted his whole story, admitting he and Michelle
never had a relationship. >> How did that feel to hear that? >> It's about time. I wanted everybody who
ever doubted me to read this parole transcript. I want to blast it all over the internet that there was never ever a
chance that I would ever ever have been involved in anything like this ever. Bria says it's a bittersweet victory for
her mom. >> Feels good, but it's a little too late. You can search my mom's name and it can
come up on the internet. You can't take that back. Why has it take him so long to come
clean? And it's probably because he had an opportunity to be free. >> Even though Butler was unequivocal that
Michelle was not involved. >> He still hasn't really taken responsibility. >> He blamed his old flame, Lisa Ramirez.
But Butler said he was sorry for what he'd put his victims through and even said he'd read Michelle's book more than
once. He said some of the passages in your book really got to him. >> Yeah. On the road trip to Alaska, I
really started to think about what it would be like to try to just understand. >> Michelle says that's when she started to
wonder about the people behind the masks. This is someone's son. This is someone's
brother. This is someone's grandson. What happened to them in their life that got them to the point where they thought
the only option was to attack a mother and her daughter? Do you accept Christopher Butler's apology?
>> I do. Yeah. A thousand%. I appreciate him finally being honest after all this time. I hope he keeps
digging deeper. >> Yeah. I forgave him a long time ago and I accept his apology.
But neither Bria nor Michelle want Butler released. He's already been denied parole twice.
The irony isn't lost on Dave. >> All he really did is free everybody else. He's held hostage with his life.
>> In a very weird way, I could breathe. I could exhale finally after all this time. While they don't
believe Butler has changed his ways, they feel very differently about the other two men who held them hostage.
>> They confessed. They take accountability for what they did. And that's a big thing.
>> Are you actually rooting for these guys to succeed at this point? >> Yes. They were younger than what I am
now. If they are doing the work, I want nothing but the best for them. especially Robert Ortiz.
>> Robert Ortiz >> at the sentencing. Robert Ortiz is the only one that turned around and looked
at me and said, "I'm sorry." He mouththed it. >> They wrote to Ortiz back in 2011 and
received a reply 9 years later. >> Out of respect for him, I'm not going to say everything that's in the letter. I
can say that it's beautiful. It's heartfelt. And I can't wait to see where that leads.
>> This is the young man who held a gun to your daughter's head. >> Yes. And she spoke at his parole hearing
in his favor. >> There's my puppy. We're road tripping. >> In the meantime, Michelle has written a
follow-up book. >> So, we're on our way >> about the road trip that changed her point of view.
>> Great morning. Really great morning. >> It is about healing. just called 9 days which is how long I
was on the road to Alaska. >> It is possible to forgive. >> I do believe that through this terrible
tragedy, >> it's possible to see beauty again >> that something beautiful was meant to
come about. >> It has built these people into these incredible human beings. And through it all, they say they
wouldn't change a thing, even the kidnapping. >> So, if you look back at the last 20
years, what is this journey been about? >> Raising a remarkable daughter, it's the
best thing I've ever done in my life is be her mom. >> It seems like both of you look at this
at least a tiny bit as a gift. >> Mhm. Yeah, I wouldn't change it. It gave us a chance to build the bond that we have
today and it's just gotten stronger. Yeah. I can only describe it as evil, something horrible.
>> From 48 hours, this is Train to Kill, the dog trainer, the ays, and the bodyguard.
>> He couldn't control his obsession. >> Who was the hunter and who was the hunted? Follow and listen on the free
Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. My story is evil. Sort of getting a
taste of hell, but it's a story that needs to be told. My name is Victoria, but it's not my
real name. I'm going to take you to a really dark place. I was 19 years old. I was an absolute rocker chick.
That night I was with a few friends. We were gearing up to go out and look at Christmas lights. As I was going home
that evening, I know it was just after midnight. I was pulling into my complex. I noticed my gate was wide open.
It was extremely dark in the parking lot and the lights in over my carport were um
glitching and I thought I had heard the sound of possibly somebody coming through the gate. It was
that D sound of tires going over like a rail. Just the sound. I had taken my dog and um stuck her
inside my jacket and then folded her up real tight cuz it was very cold outside.
And as I got out, I just had the weirdest feeling that I was being watched. And as I got up to the sidewalk, I saw a
shadow go in front of a light. And as I did that, a guy just came up uh and fastly approached me and he kept
saying, "Excuse me, excuse me. I'm lost. Can you help me find where the beach is?" And then a second person comes up.
He had a cigarette in his hand. And I see this in slow motion in my head. I see him flicking it. And I said to
myself, "Watch where it lands." And then bam, I got pounced from the front and from the back.
He slammed a gun to my head and he's just like in my ear, "I'm going to kill you so bad. I'm going to throw you off
the cliffs. I'm going to mutilate you and throw you down the cliffs. And I fought with everything I had in my
soul to not be a missing person or to have a toe tag at the end. Victoria's story is a miraculous tale of
survival. But even nearly 25 years after the attack, it's not over. Which is why
she's not using her real name on camera. I've been referenced as Jane Doe for many years.
I just remembered thinking, I don't have a toe tag. I lived through that night. A warning. Some of the details of
Victoria's ordeal are difficult to hear. With sheer will, Victoria survived a series of terrible events, beginning
with the assault on that Christmas Eve. Her attackers came out of nowhere. One she thought was Hispanic, the other an
intimidating Asian man who, according to Victoria, was the one calling the shots
that night. Bam. I got sandwiched like a bear trap. He gouged me in the eyes as hard as he could and he slammed
a gun to my head. He tells me, "Bitch, you're going to die tonight. I'm going to effing kill you."
And at that moment, my little puppy dog, who was caught in between all this, bit him so hard in the
wrist, and he says, "What the f was that?" They both kind of broke free for a second, I threw my dog in the bushes
as I ran because I didn't want her to get killed. And then my hair got pulled back and
then they both jumped on top of me and just started beating me and he just takes his gun and he slammed it into my
mouth and he takes my hair and he turns me to the side and he says, "Do you see that?" And it was the Hispanic man with
his gun pointed at the windows of my neighbors. And the Asian guy says in my ear,
"The first one, the first one, the first one >> that hears you, they're going to get
their head blown off and you're going to watch the first one." >> So, it's your choice. And
I heard this really loud smack, what I thought to sound like maybe a bowling ball being dropped on
cement. When I came to, the door was opened and they threw me in. And then he asked me where the cliffs
were. Take us to the cliffs. Do we need to go to the cliffs? He's trying to get me to pick out where
I'm going to be thrown to. And as we were going, I I had this flash of my funeral.
So I zoned out of that and I said to myself, there's two guns. Silencers are on them and
nobody knows I'm missing. So it is going to be game on from this point. And I need to think of everything I can
cuz all I have is my mind. That's my only weapon. So I'm like, there are no cliffs around here. I don't
know where there are any cliffs. I ended up pulling over in front of someone's house
and the Asian guy said, "Bitch, take your clothes off." and he took his gun and showed me that it was loaded.
And he put that into my ear and told me not to get any ideas cuz he will have no
problem splattering my brains in this car and proceeded to rape me for the first time.
And then he proceeded to say, "I needed a beach girl for my Christmas present to
myself because I'm going to throw you down. I'm going to make sure the cops see you." He had a specific role for me.
And I felt like my only chance to live was to rewrite that role. just so happens that I have in my wallet
a friend of mine's newborn baby picture that she had mailed me and I remembered saying that I had a a kid I
had a baby and you're going to let me out so I can go and see my son and he says [ __ ] you
think I'm going to let you go after you've identified me and I said you poked my eyeballs out with contacts
in them. I can't see right now and then it got real quiet and I just thought, did they buy that?
Did they buy that? Victoria was desperately trying to gain their sympathy. Yet, the assault continued for
what felt like hours. The two men taking turns raping her at gunpoint in the back
of the car. And when things couldn't get worse, they did. The man in charge became even more sadistic.
And I'm like, "This guy is psychotic. He is an animal." I just remembered thinking
at this point, I would rather die than continue where where I'm at right now. And he rips the door open, rips me out
by my hair. I'm naked. He's got me with a gun to my head. Right here. Right here.
And so I'm on all fours like this. He's telling me, "Bitch, keep your head down.
Keep your head down." Right as he goes to pull the trigger, the other guy throws a jacket on me real
quick and he goes, "What the are you doing, man?" And the friend says, "She's cold, man."
And here I am on the ground going, "Oh my god, the guy has caved. He feels something
for me." And it was that pivotal moment. He comes down to me and he said, "One, two,
by the way, [ __ ] Merry effing Christmas. Run. I just kept thinking, "Evil has crossed my path. I was
kidnapped. I was tortured. And I was left for dead by the grace of God. I knew the right words to say and I
ended up getting away. I was like, "Oh my God, did I really make it? Am I not in a car?
Victoria was suddenly free, running for her life. A family took her in and called 911. But before she went to the
hospital, Victoria returned with investigators to the initial crime scene. They were looking for evidence.
Victoria was looking for something she had left behind. I got out and I'm calling for my dog.
Shasse, chassis. And I didn't hear anything. And I'm like, oh my god, I probably killed her
when I threw her. And I'm crying now because I'm thinking she's dead. And I heard this screech sound. Yip yip y
like this. And I saw her and I'm like, "Shazzy, come here, girl." And I look over and
these officers are at the end of the sidewalk balling and jumping up and down and saying, "She found her. She found
her." It was a perfect moment. We got to the hospital. We went into the waiting room.
You know, it was kind of all confusing because at 12 years old, I didn't understand what was happening and no one
was saying anything and all we knew was just that my sister was hurt. I had red marks going across each one of
my eyes where apparently his nails had gone in and uh cut the backs of my eyes. I had a semi- dislocated shoulder. I had
dislodged part of my hinge in my jaw. Majority of my teeth were extremely loose. I lost a lot of hearing from the
head trauma. I was in so much pain that on a scale from 1 to 10, I would have registered a thousand.
I guess the way you could explain it is it took the air out of my lungs. It was just devastating.
Nothing that any child that age should have to see. She was always the strong one and always
our rock and now she was made into nothing. Now she's the one that needed us. They took me
into hiding at my grandmother's house in Huntington Beach. I wanted a shower. I wanted to be clean.
And I remembered my mom and she just lost it. >> My mom couldn't do it. It was just too
It was too hard for her. So, I took her, you know, but I just had to reassure her. It's okay. I'm going to get you
clean. We're going to make you beautiful, you know. And just if you've ever watched a horror movie and seen
a murder scene in a shower, that is what it looked like. All this stuff was was touching my foot,
my ankles, like something it reminded me of when I was in the beach. That seaweed
would wrap up around your ankles. I was like, "What is that? What is that? What is that?"
She said, "Don't look down. Don't look down." >> As I washed her hair and as I tried to
smooth it out, just chunks of hair came out. And by the time we were done, probably half of her hair was on the
floor of the shower. It had just been held on there by the blood that was in her hair.
That day made me an adult. It was a nightmare and it's still a nightmare and there's
not a day that I don't think about it. My sister's so brave. And she was so strong
and got me through the worst day of my life, which was Christmas Eve. I was assigned Victoria's case on
Christmas Eve of 1990. Well, when the case was first assigned to me, I looked at it and I realized we
really had a problem here. These are two violent offenders. I felt certain that they were going to continue to assault.
And so, I set everything else aside on my desk to work this one. I remember sitting there and them asking me what
was the shape of the brow, what was the face shape, what did their hair look like.
We post the the composite drawings uh through the news media on television. Just about any place we could distribute
the composite drawings we did, hoping we get somebody to to recognize them. But investigators had something else.
DNA. Evidence collected from Victoria's body at the hospital and from the jacket
she was wearing that night yielded profiles for two men. And there was another clue. Something Victoria
remembered her attackers discussing. I know that they were saying, "Show the respect to Sons of Samoa and
and really playing into that as though they were part of that gang." And I saw a smug, self-centered psychopath.
He carved SOS onto my rear end. I know. I've heard of SOS before. They were a really bad gang.
>> I thought that they had uh had screwed up by telling her that and not killing
her. I thought that was a real viable lead. I knew we'd get these guys. I was in a 90% certain range that we get him
real quickly. >> Detective House told me people like this who do heinous acts will slip up one
day. And I'll be there when that day happens. I felt like my whole life was completely
dominated by this attack. And it really beat me down because I thought I survived it. And the realization was
that my journey had just begun. >> They broke her. They broke her spirit. She just was different.
She didn't smile. She didn't laugh. I remember when I would nod off to sleep. I was back in the car again.
I would wake up screaming and I would shake like a seizure. I was in the moment every time I closed
my eyes. So why would I want to close my eyes? I'd have to talk to her and talk to her
to get her to realize you're okay. You're safe. You're safe. Things that set me off would be the break of a car,
a door shutting, the phone ringing, knocks on my door, the news, somebody passed by a window, and I I
heard this this quick move and the shadow. They're coming to get me again. They're coming to get me again.
>> I would double check all the windows and doors for her over and over cuz she was
too terrified. How in the world am I going to get past this? >> This one was at the top of the pile for
a very long time. I thought there was enough information immediately to have these guys in jail in a few weeks. We
worked at Sons of Samoa Angle for about a year. There was nothing. There was no rumors on the street. There was no gang
intel. There was no one matching the descriptions. So, I had to come to the conclusion that it was a false lead.
What didn't we have in this investigation? We did not have a license plate. We did not have fingerprints.
Nobody else saw the bad guys coming or going. What we had was a lot of nothing. But we knew we had to work the DNA.
And in 1990, DNA evidence was just starting to become popular. And so we had this good DNA evidence that would
tie us to somebody. We just didn't have a big enough data bank to make the connection. It was incredibly
frustrating. After the days turned into weeks and turned into months, >> I'd have to tell her, "No, we got
nothing." >> And then years went by. >> Case had gone cold and actually gone to the point to where we weren't actively
doing a lot with it. Knowing that they were still out there made me fear for every single person on
the street in the daytime walking amongst two demons cuz they were out there and nobody knew who they were.
For my sanity and my health, I was going to leave the state and start over fresh.
It was amazing. It felt like the weight of the world lift off my shoulders. Eventually, I made it to where it wasn't
with me every day. I could sleep through a whole night. I was regaining some of my inner peace.
And I think with that, allowing myself to feel again. I had made a phone call to an old friend
and the day he showed up, he never left and then I ended up having twins. It's the highlight of our lives.
In one day, I received a phone call that I waited for for 18 years. >> I said, "Yeah, we got him." We finally
got a DNA hit. This was the best part of the story. >> Yes. Yes. >> To know that one of them was caught.
>> Just to confirm that she could identify him, we arranged to send the photo lineup to her.
>> So the moment I looked at this lineup, I immediately knew. >> And she goes, "Number one, no. Number
two, no. Number three, no. Number four, no. >> Number five was him." That's the face I see every
night when I go to bed before I fall asleep. That's the nightmare I have. I don't have to look at number six.
>> When I saw his face, I said, "You're caught. It's you and I've caught you and you're
going to go down." >> Please welcome from Huntington Beach, California, Joe Sun.
>> The name to the DNA was a man named Joseph Sun. rather than going and hiding and staying
away from the limelight, he was in the MMA >> and now he's in command on the ground.
>> It all came together. That's why he was doing all the wrestling type moves with
me. >> Oh, now he's working the choke. He's got He's no longer arm. >> Joseph's son was in the DNA database
only because he had a conviction after he kicked in the door of a former roommate's car. As part of his plea
deal, Sun had agreed to submit his DNA, and that's what led to the hit in Victoria's case in 2008.
But investigators couldn't believe what else they found. He was an actor with a role in a Hollywood blockbuster, Austin
Powers, International Many. >> I had his movie sitting on my rack. I remember running over to there and just
destroying it because I thought, are you serious? He's in my home. >> So, we're trying to give you your
opportunity to tell us what happened that night. >> I've never done anything like that. I
have no idea what you're talking about. >> Completely denied the crime. Completely
denied any contact with her whatsoever. >> That's nasty. That wasn't me. >> We knew that he was lying to us. I
prefer confession, but sometimes lie is just as good. >> Despite Sun's denials, there was that
DNA. So, in October 2008, he was charged with multiple counts of rape and kidnapping. And then the case was handed
off to another DA, brand new, to the sexual assault unit. It was my first day. Okay. I had been on
the job in sexual assault for maybe half an hour. I just pulled a case down by random and
it's the Joseph Sun case. I cannot believe the horrors that this woman had to go
through. This is my entire case load. I'm never going to survive. This is a case that you have to work
for. You have to fight for to make sure she gets justice. I was glad we had Joseph's son, but I
wanted to find the second suspect. You know he's dangerous. You know he's out there. That was my priority number one.
When I got this case, it kept me up at night. We had identified one of the suspects
who had assaulted Victoria and I knew there was another one out there and that's really where I focused my
initial energy. So, we decided to put Joseph's son's picture out on a bulletin along with the sketch of the second
asalent and we put it out to the media. >> We weren't getting anything. I mean, nothing. And we're going, "Come on, you
know, this somebody has to know this guy." And then a couple of days into it, we get an email from a man who wanted to
be anonymous. He told us he didn't know anything about the crime, but he knew Joseph's son in high school and he knew
one of Joseph's friends and the sketch looked a lot like that friend. It's a couple of months of hard detective work
and they were able to put together a very good profile about who this individual was and where he was living
>> and his name was Santiago Gayan. >> We still need to identify him. We still have DNA evidence for the second
offender, so we need to get his DNA and compare that. >> Two Huntington Beach detectives set up
surveillance outside of his apartment complex. They were there for maybe 30 minutes, and they saw Sante Gaitan
walking out of his apartment, drinking a bottle of sun-kissed soda, and throwing
out the trash. Finishes his last drink from the bottle, and puts it on top of the dumpster. The detectives get out of
the car. They grab the bottle. They bag it. They grab the trash. They take that with them.
>> And what do you know? >> Was a DNA match. >> So Santio Gaiton is arrested. >> That was the best night's sleep of my
life. >> Mr. Gaitan had minimal criminal history. He had moved out of state and essentially had tried to start a new
life for himself. He had a wife. He had a couple of children. He was like anyone
else you might meet. So, we've identified the suspects. Now is when the real work begins. Anytime
you have a case that's 18 years old, you know there's the potential for things to
go wrong. Memories fade, evidence gets lost. So, I wanted to make sure that I dotted my eyes and I crossed my tees.
Let's get ready. Let's get ready for trial. >> But things did go wrong. Very wrong.
Deputy DA Scarbor made a sickening discovery. It had taken police so long to track down the suspects. The statute
of limitations for rape and kidnapping had run out. >> It was like my stomach had hit the
floor. There was the very real likelihood that we were going to have to dismiss the case and they were going to
walk out of the courthouse scot-free. >> Oh my god. I spent the weekend looking for
different ideas and different angles. I reread through the entire case file. And so a light went off. Why don't I
charge torture? There was no other way to describe the defendant's conduct other than they had
tortured her. Because torture carries the possibility of life imprisonment. There is no statute of limitations.
There was still going to be an opportunity to bring Victoria justice. One of my absolute best days,
bar none. Santel Gaitan's attorney ultimately approaches me and says his client is
willing to plead guilty. >> I agreed that a plea deal would be acceptable, but he needed to confess
what he did. He confessed to everything and they gave him 17 years. Son decided that he wanted to go to
trial. He wasn't going to confess to anything. >> Then let's get ready to go. >> An actor from the Austin Powers movies
goes on trial in Orange County this week for charges of a violent rape. >> The trial took place in August of 2011.
Victoria was essential to this prosecution. I had a job to do. My job was to put away what I considered one of
the biggest monsters ever. >> I was terrified for my sister cuz I knew that she was going to have to see him.
My biggest concern about going in the courtroom was making eye contact. I didn't want him to be able to wink at
me or do anything that would give him the sensation that he was doing something to me again.
So, I didn't allow him eye contact. >> The testimony was heart-wrenching to hear.
>> The jurors were horrified >> and they needed to hear every single detail. There were jurors who had tears in their
eyes. >> There wasn't a dry eye in the whole courtroom. >> Joseph's son did not testify during the
trial. At various times throughout the case, he would attempt to yell out, "That's a lie. They're making this up."
When I was waiting for the jury to make their decision, in my head I thought, was everybody affected? Did they believe
me? Did they see the evidence? DNA is DNA. >> There are no guarantees in a jury trial.
>> What if 99% of them feel one way and one doesn't? >> The jury deliberated for a few hours
before they reached the verdict. He was guilty. Guilty of torture. I just thought, you son of a [ __ ]
Now you're the one who has your hands behind your back. Have a little taste of my life and what you put me through.
Joseph's son was sentenced to seven years to life in prison, which meant that theoretically he would one day be
eligible for parole. But then just one month later, guards made a gruesome discovery.
No one was safe around Joseph's son. No one's safe. In my career, I have dealt with what I
think is some of the worst of the worst that humanity has produced. Joseph's son, I think, deserves a place
at the top of that list. Joseph's son was convicted and sentenced. He was transported to state
prison. Within a very short time of being there, he murdered his cellmate. The fact that the cellmate died of
punches, kicks, and blows It just sounded exactly like the person that I was with that night who did the same
thing to me. >> Under California law, if you're serving a life term in prison and you kill
somebody in prison, that could be a death penalty trigger. And so, it would be possible for them to
file a death penalty case against Joseph's son for this. And if so, Victoria would need to come and testify
at the sentencing to say, "This is the crime he committed against me. He's bad enough a guy to warrant that level of
punishment." Honestly, in the very beginning, I didn't think he deserved to live,
but there was a lot more to it than that that I had to think about. I didn't know
if I had enough energy to do this battle. My understood they wanted to put him to death.
I mean, he killed somebody. They tried to kill me. He's an animal. But I just felt at the end of the day
that I was done. I had a life to live and I wasn't interested anymore. So, prosecutors dropped the death
penalty for Joseph's son's upcoming trial. But Victoria's ordeal was still not over. It's hard to believe, but once
again, she found herself in a fight for her life. I had noticed in May of 2014 that I wasn't feeling that great. I
shared with my husband that and he said, "Get to the doctor immediately." He just had a bad feeling.
I was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. I think you for a minute or so lose your faith
that why is this happening to my sister so many times? Why is she being attacked in different ways?
Why can't she just have a beautiful happy life? Why now does this have to come in?
I needed to get in immediately. and start getting treatment. >> When she got diagnosed, I told her, "I'm
going to shave my head because I didn't want her to go through it alone." And I wanted to make her feel that I
supported her. To shave your head for someone in my heart meant that I'm traveling with you.
It made me feel like I wasn't the only bald person in the room and it made me feel like I had someone
like me there. >> Can you see? I apologize. >> I've managed to bounce back pretty good.
>> Back to your driver. >> I'm in remission and I'm just going to stay in that light
for as long as it allows me to. She has that something in her that allows her to bounce back even when bad
things happen to her. It's quite remarkable of her to do that. I don't know if it's in her DNA or in her karma
or in her personality. The way she was raised, I have no idea. For her to not only survive, but to
survive well and do well is is it's a miracle. It's miraculous stuff. I chose the name Victoria because I find
that it's more rewarding and more healing to be called Victoria because it was a
victory. It was an epic victory. There is happiness after tragedy. It's okay to be happy again. I've had my
kids. We're in a good place. I'm healthy again. And I rock out every chance I get.
When I was a kid, I had a strange fear of being kidnapped. That always scared me.
It always freaked me out that there might be somebody that wanted to take me and I'd never see my family again.
We were headed home from a family vacation in Mexico. Family trips to Mexico have always been wonderful and
we've been going for as long as I can remember. Deini and Tyler were asleep in the back
seat. Um, for some reason Tyler always sits behind his mom and Dein always sits behind me. It's they've done it their
whole life. I don't know why. We were um on the toll road headed north. You could see the lights of San
Diego. A police car turned on their lights, the red and blue lights and siren. And I
looked back, I said, "Crap, Dad. We're getting pulled over. I heard sirens. At the same time, I felt
the truck kind of jerk over to the side. And I asked him, "Were you speeding? What have you done?" He said, "No, I
wasn't speeding." At that point, we were probably a mile and a half as a crow flies from the
border. We were so close to being home. We've been pulled over by police before.
It's never really been a big deal. So, he pulled over. The policeman walked up to the window.
He didn't even get a chance to really talk to him >> and he put a gun straight to my forehead
right here. Told me to get back in the truck. At that same exact second, another car came around and blocked us
in. It happened so incredibly fast. >> So, at that point, there was nowhere we could go. They really trapped us in.
>> I looked in the mirror and could see probably 8 10 guys. >> There were 8 to 10 gunmen. There's men
surrounding our truck. >> They were all dressed the same in a kind of a military type.
>> Very precise in their movements. All the other guys except for that first one um had their faces covered. They
just had this portion of their eyes showing. They all had guns with silencers on
them. They told us to put our heads down and shut up. I remember my brother saying, "Oh, God,
no. Please, no. after being told for I don't know how many times that you're going to die.
Like there's not a lot of other options to think. In the truck, Chris had a radio that is
specifically made for off-road racing. Right before they o were opening the door, I grabbed the mic and I said, "Is
anyone out there? We need help." >> And no one came back on the race radio. >> There was nobody to turn to, nobody to
call, nowhere to go. >> Once they realized that the race radio was there, they ripped it off the mount.
They ripped out the wires. When all this was happening, a guy climbed into the truck on my brother's
side. >> There were guys in the back seat with the kids with guns on them as well.
>> And another man jumped in the driver's seat. >> He tried to reach back behind me and
touch them and pat their legs or rub their legs. And I just kept telling them, "I love you and it's going to be
okay." The whole time I'm doing this, there's this guy with a gun in my side yelling
at me to shut up and keep my head down. This took place in November of 2007. We went down for the Baja 1000. It was
Tyler's It was going to be his 16th birthday. >> Chris and Tyler were working as part of
a pit crew for the Baja 1000. >> Tyler started racing motorcycles when he was five.
He's very adventurous. Ever since my dad would take him, he would jump in a car and help out where he could with
changing tires or handing a driver a water bottle. Anything he could do to spend the day in the dirt.
As a family, we have traveled to Mexico a lot. We would just go and have fun. It was
just you didn't have a care. You just you went down and relaxed on the beach. It was always warm.
Cabo San Lucas is the very south tip of the Baja Peninsula. It's amazing. The day before we came back, we had
stopped along a little spit of beach coming up the peninsula and probably 35 people met up with us in
this deserted beach and we all barbecued and drank beers on the beach and um camped out overnight and that was
probably the most perfect day we've ever had down there. It was awesome. We got up really early in the morning to
drive home. At first, we were caravanning on the way home, and those caravans get a little broken
up. >> And we were pulling a big travel trailer, so we weren't driving nearly as
fast as anybody else. >> The plan was to stop in another city and sleep. >> I'm using the cell phone and calling the
hotel and confirming, "Yes, we're going to check in late. We still want that room. Please hold the room." No problem,
Mrs. Hall. Keep coming. We've got your room. when we get there, the room's gone.
>> I really think that was the turning point. >> I was tired and I was like, you know
what? We're not that far from home. We're just going to keep going home. >> Just go forwards 5 hours and sleep in
our own bed. At the time, it seemed like an okay idea. My dad said, "Please take it all. Leave
us here. Just whatever you want, take it. Leave us here." And the guy took his gun and put it to my dad's forehead and
said, "Shut up." I was so afraid that I was going to watch my dad get shot right there in
front of me 6 in from where I was standing. I could hear Chris breathing really heavily like in through his nose
and kind of shuttering out through his mouth. I could hear Tyler breathing really, really heavily and I never heard
a peep out of Deinia. >> Deborah had to sit up and pretend like everything was okay. I remember her
crying and and hold trying to reach back and hold Tyler's hand. Sorry. Chris is the even killed one in
our family. He kind of sets the tone for things. If he's he turned white gray, he
looked like he was going to be sick. And if he's scared, I'm scared. >> We begged them. Just please let our kids
go. Just let the kids go. We Deborah and I didn't care what happened to us. >> These are my babies. My They don't need
this. Just let them walk away. We're out in the middle of nowhere. My kids are not going to hurt you. They're not going
to call anyone. just let them go and they didn't care. >> They just laughed at us and said, "Shut
up about your kids." >> I think the gunmen were nervous once they discovered it was an entire family
in the truck. And that scared me in itself because the dynamics have changed. They're nervous, too.
>> And then he started driving and the cars followed us. And then they made a righthand turn off
the toll road, but not at an exit or anything and then drove up into the hills. They
said they were going to shoot us that we were going to die. When we were traveling, it was in
November of 2007, we weren't aware of any issues that were happening across the border that would
make us question traveling on the road at night or traveling on the road alone. Mexico has become one of the most
dangerous places once in the number of kidnappings for ransom gangs have killed more than 5,000 people. That's more than
the entire >> I don't see it as the hall's fault at all. These uh criminals took advantage
of the family being pulled over late at night in Mexico when you're uh been traveling all
day by a group that's dressed as law enforcement. It's it's very intimidating. The groups think that um
you do have money or you do have vehicles. You know, at that point it becomes very serious and very
life-threatening. The violence in Mexico has increased dramatically in the last 2 years.
There's a battle going on. San Diego, we had probably 200 murders last year. in Tijuana, which is next to
San Diego, we're talking about thousand murders. We're seeing targeted executions.
Criminal organizations are melting human bodies in acid and they're hanging them
from bridge abutments for everybody to see. Drug cartels in Mexico are getting into kidnapping for ransom and they're
executing anybody who stands in their way. If you're kidnapped, you could expect to get executed.
They drove us onto a dirt road up into the mountains above Tijana. I don't know exactly where I was because
they made us keep our heads down and they stopped. They kept asking us, "Who are you?
What's your name? What do you do for a living? Um, where's the race car? Do you Where's all the money?" My dad told him,
"I'm I'm just a truck driver. I There's no race car. I'm just a truck driver." I
think these people wanted money. I think they thought we were somebody who we weren't.
They were going through the trailer just ransacking everything. >> They dug for money and cell phones.
>> I told them, you know, this is all the cash we have on us. This is our name. We're not anyone. I mean, we're just
somebody's family. I remember them rubbing down my legs to check my pockets and my pants. I
remember somebody grabbing at my neck looking for any jewelry. >> I was absolutely worried about them
being raped. Don't think I've ever felt that helpless in my life. >> You've got 8 to 10 guys with guns. I
just did not want them touching my daughter. I was scared to death of that. >> It was creepy. I didn't want them near
me. And I know my dad didn't like the fact that they were running, you know, grabbing at my legs and my neck and
stuff trying to look for things. And I couldn't imagine having to watch his daughter have that happen.
>> My only thought was to tell her I'm so sorry and and to try and protect her as
best I could. My mom kept asking these guys to please just leave my babies here and take what
they want. Just leave the kids alone. And they were mocking her. She would say, "Please just leave my babies here."
And they would be like, "Oh, please, please just leave my babies here." It was cruel. As a parent
in that situation, I felt like the most horrible person there is because there wasn't anything we could
do to help the kids. Tyler was shaking and crying. He was very, very upset. Um, he had a gun
pointed in his side the entire time we were there. Um, I just kept trying to hold his hand,
tell him that I love him. I mean, I tried to tell him it's going to be okay, but how do you tell somebody it's going
to be okay when they have a gun in their side? Once they realized there was no race car
on the trailer and left the trailer there and took us further up in the mountains.
We got to the top of the mountain. They stopped again. where they took us really dark, like
pitch black, not be able to see your hand in front of your face, pitch black out.
These men pulled my dad and I out of the driver's side and my dad instantly just
wrapped his arms around me and he hugged me and he told me he was sorry and that
he loved me. and they pulled my mom and my brother out of the passenger side. He's still breathing really heavily.
And I looked over and they were putting him into a ditch on his knees pointed away
from me. And there were two men with guns, one on each side and Tyler in the middle.
And I thought, "Oh my god, they're going to shoot my baby. This is it." And I just didn't want to see that
happen. Just stop for just a second. Our friend George had driven down with Chris
and Tyler. The second day we were in Cabo, George said when he woke up that he had had a
bad dream. He dreamt that there were guns and somebody was killed and he just couldn't shake this bad feeling. He
said, "I I just need to leave." In retrospect, I think George had this dream. It was a premonition. We should
have all left. When the hotel gave away our rooms, that was a sign. And we had two signs and we ignored them both. And
now look what happened. When they put Tyler in the ditch, I was physically ill. One of the gunmen placed me in the same
ditch about 8 ft from him and he kind of shoved me down into the dirt and I crawled over to where Tyler was and the
guy yelled something at me and I'm like told me to stop. I'm like, you know what? No, you're throwing us in a ditch.
If he's going to kill us in a ditch, I'm not going to be 8 feet from my baby. They threw a sleeping bag over Tyler and
I and I thought, "They're going to shoot us. This is it. They're putting the sleeping bag on us so that when they
shoot us, they don't get blood on them." Because of how big my dad's truck was, we couldn't see my mom and my brother.
So, we rounded the back of the truck and my brother was laying face down and so was my mom and both of their
bodies were covered with a sleeping bag. And right then and there I I thought they were dead.
The last thing that I remember seeing before they threw the sleeping bag over Tyler and I is Tyler's head.
I crawled over and I just put my hand over his head and kind of held his head and I was whispering him to that I loved
him and I was so very sorry that we got us into this and he was like, "It's okay, Mom. It's okay. I love you. It's
okay." They forced my dad and I down on the ground with my mom and my brother. Deina
and I got over there as close to them as we could. And as Deina got down the ditch, I got down tried to get on top of
her as best I could to cover her body with with my body. >> I could hear my brother crying and I
could feel him shaking. We all just laid there and they threw a pillow on the back of my dad and I's
head. At that point, I really thought this was it. Execution style to the back of the head. All of us laying here. we
were gonna die. I told my brother that I loved him. I told my mom and dad that I loved them.
It was kind of like just wait for it and you know, is this going to hurt? Am I going to know it just happened?
But it it never came. It seemed like a long time and nothing had happened and it it seemed like it
got real quiet and we laid there and the truck drove away and we laid there and they were gone.
They were just gone. And after probably 10 minutes of laying there, my dad got brave enough to stick his head up and
look around and realized there was nobody around. Deborah kept saying, "Keep your head
down. Keep your head down." And I looked around and everybody was gone. And the truck was gone. And
the four of us gave each other a big hug and and I remember Deborah and I telling
the kids, "We're sorry. We're going to get you out of here." We had no cell phone, no nothing. And we had no clue
where we were. No sense of north, south, east, or west. No sense of direction cuz
of the fog. >> Our first reaction was to get up, get out, get away. My mom wanted to find a
place to stay until daylight so we could see what we're doing, where we were going, and everybody else felt, "No, we
need to we need to get out of this situation. What if they come back?" Tyler was sick and we were all just so
cold from being out exposed to that cold fog and air for so long. So, we wrapped
the sleeping bags around Tyler and Chris just said, "Come on, we're walking. We're getting out of here."
And I said, "We got to sit and listen for the ocean." I knew as long as we could find the
ocean, we we could find our way to help and find our way home. And we started walking.
>> We were all in shorts because we had just come from Cabo where it was 90° out.
Um, being the middle of November, in the middle of the night, it was about 48° I
believe. There were cactus, there were trees, there were bushes, there were barb wire fences everywhere.
Rocks were wearing flip-flops and were trying to go down steep goat trail type, no trail terrain. I mean, just not
something that you would ever walk on if you were wearing hiking boots. I mean, it was just bad.
>> We probably walked for down the mountain for 45 minutes to an hour. We saw a light, a
very faint light in the distance and it was a trailer and we could hear dogs barking.
>> Deb said, "There's a house. I see a light and uh she wanted to start walking towards the house and I didn't think it
was a good idea." >> And so my mom started yelling, "Help." Somebody came out and fired two rounds
in our direction. Now we're getting shot at. We ducked and hit the ground just trying
to get as low as possible to get out of any potential line of fire. >> God's supposed to take care of you and
give you only what you're can handle and now we've got some other yahoo shooting
at us. It was crazy. If you don't prepare yourself for the worst, you know, how would how are you
going to get through it when it comes? You're not necessarily always safe when you think you are.
>> In 2001, um my freshman year of high school, there was a school shooting. >> Just getting reports of shots fired at
Santana High School in Santi. We've heard that three students. >> It sounded like fireworks just going
off. I walked into class and I instantly started hearing popping noises. >> See so many ambulances at the school
>> and someone said somebody's got a gun. I heard some shots. >> They're doing a It sound like a shooting
at Santana High School. >> We heard the shots and I saw some kid laying on the ground.
>> She was in the ninth grade when they had the shooting at the high school. 14. I was really close to where the
gunman was. Grabbed my camera, started taking pictures. >> I happened to be in a cooking class. You
could hear screaming and just chaos. >> Everybody was running around. Who is he?
>> I don't know. I tried to do something. >> You have a whole quad full of people.
You know, he fired. He killed a person in the restroom. He shot someone in the back who ran and collapsed.
and died in in my teacher's arms. >> And he is still shooting. He's still shooting.
>> Still shooting. Okay. >> People were running into the classroom saying, "He's got a gun. There's
somebody with a gun." And it the next hallway over from where I was. Um, another freshman was coming out of the
bathroom just shooting. No real target, just shooting. The SWAT team came into the classroom.
It was a team of three or four men. They had us one by one go out of the classroom.
>> Okay. Where's the shooter? >> He was in the boy's bathroom. >> We know that there is one suspect in
custody. >> The shooter was Andy Williams. He was a fellow freshman. It was a kid that said he was bullied.
>> I didn't know she was okay until I actually saw her. I was never so glad to see her in my life. And she was she was
shaking. She was really scared. >> It was instant crying and hugging and just so happy to see them.
>> I mean, he took two lives and he permanently mentally wounded a lot of people.
>> She went from a little girl that, you know, was innocent to seemed like she grew up to an adult right then and
there. I think the school shooting forced me to grow up a lot faster than most teenagers grow up.
>> We heard some dogs barking and Deb said, "There's dogs. That's there's a house. I
see a light." I'm in flip flops. My mom's in flip-flops. Everybody's in sandals. It's
very slippery. My legs were getting cut up by the brush and we kept falling. >> Tyler absolutely stood up and shared the
burden. He definitely looked after and watched out for his mom and his sister as best he could.
We crossed the toll road, not realizing it was the toll road. got into this housing area and we yelled for help and
we rang bells and we banged on doors and nobody would help us. >> It was around 3:00 in the morning and my
doorbell was ringing. So, I got up and I went through the window. When I opened the curtain, I saw four
people standing there, father, mother, and the two children, teenagers. They looked very scared. something told
me I should open the door and I opened the door >> and she came out and she said, "Get in
here right now." And she pulled us in and she took us into her home and she was a lifesaver. Literally an
amazing woman. She gave me her jacket. Um she said, "What can I do for you?" I said, "Can we use your bathroom when
we're all just do you have water?" And she gave us her water and she said, "You can use my bathroom." She said, "It
doesn't flush, but I'll carry the buckets of water to flush the toilet for you."
>> I noticed they had some scratches on their knees and some on their arms, so I
offered to clean them up and give them some medicine. I offered to call the police so they could get some more help.
>> She said that she was going to call the police and we all said, "No, don't call
the police. The police are who had us. don't call the police. She said, "No, no, this isn't I'm going
to call. I know the men in my department. It's going to be okay." And she called the police department in her
little Colonia and two men came in a pickup truck and they put Deini and I went in front with the driver and put
Chris and Tyler in the back with the other policemen and we did not want to be separated. And my mom told the woman,
"If you don't hear from us in a few hours, please call my dad." So, my grandpa. And the woman said, "You'll be
fine. These they're going to take you home. These police are going to take you home." And she wrote down their their
names, their truck number, the license plate number, every detail about them. And when they were driving us to the
border, they were going away that I've never been to the border. And that I think that made my mom and I both very
nervous. And then the officer that was driving, he shook his head and he looked down and said, "You need to go home.
It's not safe for you in here." And so they rushed us up to the border. And they got out of the car and both of the
officers hugged my entire family and we thanked them as much as we could and they said go.
>> When we walked up to the first customs agent, we told him who we were, what had
happened to us. We were sweaty, bruised, just a mess. >> And we said, "We don't have any ID or
anything. We need a bathroom. We need a phone. We need water." And uh said, "There's a bathroom and phone at
McDonald's across the street." He didn't seem to really care. >> The San Diego Police Department has like
a little satellite trailer thing right at the border. We talked to the police. They
would only take the stolen purses and wallets report. And I said, "Well, what about the brand
new truck that doesn't have 8,000 m on it and the 3-month old camping trailer and oh, I don't know, being kidnapped at
gunpoint by the Mexican police." And they said, "We don't, that's not our issue. We don't care about that. We're
here to take the stolen property report." >> And that was the extent of the police
report they could take. We left. They let us leave. We went to the McDonald's like they told us. We didn't know where
else to go. >> And we called my cousin and um we called him collect and he came to pick us up.
>> The crime that occurred to the family down in Mexico and they reach out to United States law enforcement to assist.
It sometimes becomes very difficult for us cuz we have no authority in Mexico. >> When we were pulled over,
in my heart, I honestly believe that it was the Mexican police or possibly the federalis.
At the time, we were under the impression they were police because they pulled us over like they were police and
they were very well organized. But truly, we didn't know. There have been several reports of
kidnapping cells or the c what we call the criminal element that do use Mexican law enforcement uniforms, also Mexican
military uniforms to further their criminal enterprises. >> At the time, I had no idea who they
were, and I still don't know who these people are. >> The bandits were probably after uh the
expected race car that um they thought was in the trailer. Anybody down in Mexico gets accosted by what
they think are uh law enforcement person or military personnel. Uh and then they're held at gunpoint. They're placed
in a ditch face down and guns held at them at their heads. Uh they're extremely lucky to be alive.
>> I never felt it was over until I was home in my own home. We were just so so glad to be home.
>> I remember getting home just being thrilled to be home, happy to be around our dogs,
but still worried because they had our driver's license. They had our address. They knew who we were.
>> After we got home from Mexico, we had four people sleeping in our bed for a while.
>> Once we did get home as a family, we went to go see a therapist. sleep. Don't
we don't sleep anymore. Couple hours here and a couple hours there. We don't we don't get a peaceful night's sleep.
>> I'd sleep maybe an hour to a night. Pretty much ran on energy drinks. >> Nightmares all the time.
>> I absolutely have nightmares. I honestly think that the men with the guns are in our house and I will wake up
screaming and I don't even know what's happening. Tyler Tyler kind of went into his own
little locked himself away kind of thing. >> Tyler wanted nothing to do with seeing a
therapist. Didn't like it. >> I would like to talk to Tyler about it. He's not comfortable with it.
>> Tyler hates to discuss anything that happened down in Mexico. >> I think that Tyler is trying the hardest
to ignore what happened. if you ignore it, maybe it'll just go away. >> The therapist and my parents both felt
that I should go see a therapist on my own based off the fact that this is not my first traumatic experience.
>> When someone said, "Somebody's got a gun." >> I know exactly what I was wearing and
it's been 8 years and that sticks in my head every day. I think with any traumatic event, your
personality changes. Um, I don't know whether mine was for the good or for the worse.
>> I think that Deina was able to deal with the Mexico incident much better due to
the shooting at Santana. She knows that she can be exposed to something that traumatic and come through. Okay. On the
other side, I think that it's really hard on Chris. I felt responsible for bringing him to
Mexico and I felt like I put him in that situation. Even if I had one gun, there were still
eight to 10 guys with guns. No matter how I look at this in different directions,
the outcome would have been way worse than what it was. >> When he and I do discuss what happened,
I say, "Had you been, you know, Mr. I'm macho dad, you know, rescue my family. They probably would have killed you and
killed us. >> I guess what I did was right because my family's alive and nobody was hurt. But
in my mind, it sure seems like I could have done something different. >> We're all home and we're all together
and we're all safe. And I really credit him with that. I'm at work. This person is obviously,
you know, an official with the State Department calling me. He said, "I regret to inform you that we found
Chris's body in Tijuana." Your first reaction is to go, "Oh my god." They were sure it was Chris because this
man had his driver's license in his pocket. I hadn't talked to him in probably 2 and 1/2 hours.
I had to get a hold of Chris and I called him at home and he was actually meeting with
someone. He said, "I'm in a meeting. Can I call you right back?" Well, absolutely. Call me back. Don't call me
back. I just needed to hear your voice. I called them back. Leave a message. You
have the wrong person. This is not my husband. Please don't call me back. The next day, I get a call from someone
else within the State Department. They left me a voicemail and they said, "Mrs. Hall, we're so sorry for your loss. We'd
really like to help you make arrangements to get your husband's body back across the border." I'm like, "Are
you freaking kidding me with this? Don't they talk to each other?" Third day, I get another call from the
same person. Mrs. Hall, we understand that this is a stressful time. Can we help you make arrangements to get him
back? And I was just by this point I'm not even frustrated anymore and beyond that. And I called and left her a
message. I said, "You know what? I never liked him. Keep him. I don't care what you do with the body." They never called
me back. I think the are getting better. It's getting back to normal. I don't know if
it'll ever be normal. But it's absolutely getting better. Our experience has brought us together.
>> As time goes on, hopefully this will heal itself. We're >> a couple. >> My parents being younger parents are a
lot of fun. I think as a family we're definitely adventurers. We like to get out and see
what there is to see. >> We bought a boat. We all go to the river together. That's our new place to go. I guess we
just had our 25th anniversary. We took our kids to Hawaii for their first time >> and we had a lot of fun.
I don't think there's anything that's going to take the place of Mexico just because
it's such a different world down there. >> Even Tyler still talks about the Happy
Times. Um, still talks about his favorite burrito shop. >> There were so many times
that were good that completely outweigh the bad >> and know we've lost Mexico and we won't
go back and just leave it at that. It's just going to have to be something that was once upon a time for us.
It's so powerful to see how my mom handled this situation. She's amazing, you know, and she's
really, really strong. >> How often do residential kidnappings happen here? >> Very rare. Yeah. Not very often at all.
Shauna Hanley is at her home with her daughter Isabella. her friend came over just to come and
visit with her. >> We talked for about 5 or 10 minutes and the doorbell rang and so I went to the
door and it's these two men. >> These two individuals essentially present themselves to be delivery men of
some sort. Shauna sees them, says, "Look, I have a friend over. Now is not a good time." She goes to close the door
on them. They force themselves in with guns. They started to scream to get the F on
the floor and don't move. They handcuffed me in front like this. >> I was just stunned. I saw that my mom
and her friend were handcuffed. >> I said, "I have valuables. I have jewelry. I have cash. I have precious
metals. I can get you money." Didn't interest them at all. >> I said, "Come with me." And she went and
they came back and asked me and I said, "No." and they just accepted that and left.
>> They put her in the van. >> I'm hooded. They hooded me as soon as I went into the van. It was a van that
didn't have the windows in the back and it was just a rubber mat without seats back there and laid me on the floor.
>> And then they leave. These guys are heading out of town with Sean handling in the back of that van.
One of the guys sat on top of me, you know, so he stayed screaming at me. He had the gun to my head. I was trying to
pay attention to where we were. I could feel when we picked up speed that we had
made a turn. I was like, "Oh no." My heart sunk. I was like, "We're on an interstate or something." And the guy
stripped me. They threatened to assault me sexually. He put a pill in my mouth and he gave me another.
I said, "What are you giving me?" And he said, "Don't worry about that." And so I
guess I started to maybe drift a little. And I started praying. >> So this particular day, I got out of
work. As I was traveling, there was a wreck on the interstate. I got stopped behind a white van. I could kind of see
the the driver of the van was starting to get nervous in the mirror. He was looking at me. He decided to get into
the shoulder and speed off, but it didn't sit right with me. So, I got in behind him. I put my emergency lights
sirens on. Then I hear sirens and I was like, "Yeah, yeah, okay. Thank you, God."
This is where the vehicle exited. It's a dead end onto a dirt road, which had been mud cuz it just rained. Their van
got stuck. That's when they exited the vehicle and kept running. >> The siren stopped and it just sunk
again. And I was like, "What happened? Did I imagine the sirens? What's going on?" And I'm full of anxiety.
>> When you approach the van, you've got your gun drawn. >> Yes, sir. I opened the rear door of the
van, and in the van, what I thought was a mannequin moved. Scared me. Startled me. So I jumped back and I shut the
door. Said, "Oh my god, things aren't always what they seem. I didn't know what was going on with my
mom. There was no one really telling me what was happening. Police say the woman was forcefully
removed from her home in Lafayette >> with her childhood home now a crime scene and her mother Shondaanda Hanley
just abducted by armed intruders. Isabella Cumberland found herself confused amidst a crowd of investigators
and forensic analysts. They wanted to go over the fingerprints on the doors upstairs, my phone, and it just kind of
felt like I was another piece of evidence. >> Isabella, then just 14 years old, was
trying to process the sight of the violent kidnapping she had just witnessed at her family's home in
Lafayette, Louisiana on August 6th, 2017. >> As they're driving away with her, did
you think that was the last time you'd ever see her? >> I thought there was a chance.
Lafayette investigators and Isabella had no idea that about an hour after the kidnapping, just across the state near
Baton Rouge, Chad Martin, an Iberville Parish Sheriff's deputy, had just pulled over a suspicious white van after a
brief pursuit. There were two men inside. When they pulled into this parking spot,
they got stuck in the mud. So, the men jump out and they take off running. And right behind us is the inter coastal
waterway. They jump in and disappear. And when Martin went to clear that vehicle, he discovered Shondaanda Hanley
handcuffed and naked in the back. >> She looked at me and I'll never forget this. She said, "Are you the real police
or are you the one that's going to kill me?" >> And he was like, "You're safe. You're
safe." Just minutes before, Martin was rushing home for Sunday dinner in his squad car after clocking out, unaware of
Shondaanda's kidnapping nearly 60 m away. His biggest worry at that time was his wife's wrath.
>> I heard you were habitually late for dinners. >> I had a tendency >> Uh-huh. >> to be late for everything.
>> Now, he had unwittingly made the rescue of a lifetime. >> What's going through your head? I mean,
you were just trying to pull over a couple of guys who looked a little suspicious.
>> I can't really tell you what was going through my head. Almost like I went into
like robot mode and I was just trying to get this woman help. >> Shondaanda told him a harrowing story
that the kidnappers had drugged her and threatened to rape her and kill her >> if not for Chad Martin.
>> Oh, I would be dead. I can't even imagine. But I know it wasn't going to be quick and swift.
>> Martin relayed the news of Shondaanda's rescue to dispatch and it soon reached
Isabella. >> Whenever they told me that she was safe, I felt this relief. >> Law enforcement began to ask questions.
Who were Shondaa's kidnappers? And why did they abduct her? But for Shondaanda, there was no mystery who was
behind it. She had said that she believed that her husband is the one that had paid them to
kill her. >> Her estranged husband, Michael Hanley. Shondaa says that before the difficult
months leading up to the kidnapping, Michael would have been the last person she could have imagined would harm her.
They had met in 2005 through friends in Lafayette at a time when both were single parents and emerging from failed
marriages. He was really catering and just sweet and compassionate. >> Another thing they had in common, both
were in recovery for addiction. At that time, I had been sober for about 18 years.
>> Oh, wow. >> Michael was newly clean and sober. He had about a year. >> The new couple hit it off and a year
later they were married in Hawaii. Isabella took an immediate liking to Michael.
>> He well was my dad from when I was 2 years old. And so that's how I saw him was really as my dad.
>> In 2007, Michael and Shondaanda found success, channeling their experience in
recovery into a new business. >> We're going to provide care and we're going to meet you where you are.
>> Partnering with a doctor to start a chain of addiction treatment centers. So we wound up opening at one point I think
there were 14 centers throughout the south. >> Eight years later they made a decision.
>> We sold the company. >> How much did y'all make on the sale? >> The two of them, Michael and his
partner, we sold the company for $21.5 million. >> Wow. >> Yeah. >> But their life as happy millionaires
didn't last long. Say prosecutors Donald Ket and Kenny Abear. You know, money and
free time with someone with an addictive personality isn't a great combination. >> Shondaanda was seeing that firsthand
with Michael in 2017, less than two years after the sale of their company, when she found a bottle of Adderall with
Michael Hanley's name on it. >> So, what we believed at our treatment center was that
use of something like that amphetamine could open the doors to a world of trouble. So when I found the bottle, it
terrified me. And I can remember telling him, "This could lead to death. This could lead to something devastating."
>> And soon things got even worse when Shondaanda discovered that Michael was seeing another woman.
>> He was having an affair. And all I could think was like, I don't even know who
this man is. >> Shondaa issued an ultimatum. Michael had to go into treatment. But when he
refused to get help, she made a difficult decision. >> I changed the locks and Michael was
locked out of the house and he started to lose his mind at that point. And so after a couple of weeks, he said,
"You're going to regret this." And then that turned into, "I'm telling you, it's going to get
bad." >> The Hanley's life together was falling apart fast. Michael accused Shondaanda
of assaulting him. She was charged but later acquitted by a judge. All while Shondaanda was begging the authorities
to see that she was the one in danger. >> If Michael wasn't apprehended, he was going to kill me.
As Shauna Hanley was recovering in the hospital, investigators were learning the details of her tumultuous past with
Michael Hanley. They knew they had to find him and the kidnappers fast. They started scouring the last place her
abductors had been seen, this canal. There was a fisherman and he reported these two individuals waiting by him in
the water and one of them pointed a gun at him and said, "Be cool." >> But as the kidnappers had been swimming
towards freedom, the canal's unforgiving current had other plans. >> Behind me at the Inter Coastal Canal is
where two bodies were found yesterday. >> They found them floating in the Inter Coastal Canal, drowned, dead. Dead. They
were later identified as Sylvester Bracie and Arsenio Haynes. >> What did you think when you found out
they were dead? >> I thought I'm not going to have to worry about them hurting me. As sad as that
is. >> While investigators suspected Michael Hanley was responsible for the abduction, proving it might have been
difficult with their main witnesses, the kidnappers, dead, but Handley, it seemed, had made it kind of easy for
them. detectives are running the VIN number on the white van. That VIN number leads them to an Enterprise dealership
in Baton Rouge. Said, well, a few days ago, an individual named Lawrence Michael Hanley came in and rented the
van. And then a couple days before that, he went to Barney's Police Depot, which
is a store that carries specifically police issue merchandise. Handley was seen on store surveillance
cameras as he pulls up and purchases handcuffs. Finding evidence allegedly connecting
Hanley to the kidnapping wasn't difficult, but finding him turned out to be the challenge.
>> I'm asking if Michael's been apprehended and they said no. And so they said we
need to like lay low for a little while. >> With a fortune at his fingertips, investigators feared he could be
anywhere. and a danger to Shondaanda once she was released from the hospital. So they came up with a plan of action.
>> We decided on a safe house outside of Lafayette. >> Sid Abear, a former Louisiana sheriff,
was part of the security detail watching Shondaa 24/7. >> We had a Lafayette sheriff's deputy in a
marked unit on premises. No visitors, no package deliveries, nothing until further notice. Even in hiding,
Shondaanda was feeling relief that Michael was finally being recognized as a threat after living in constant fear
prior to the kidnapping. >> The terror that I was in for those 3 months, the kidnapping was nothing
in comparison. The kidnapping was a blessing. What >> the kidnapping is what allowed me to get
to a place where people were willing to support me. >> In the beginning, how many people
believed Shondaanda? >> Not many. >> But Shondaanda had found a fierce ally in Christine Mir, her divorce attorney.
Christine knew all too well what Shondaanda had experienced. The most dangerous case I have ever
heard about, let alone been a part of. >> What made it so dangerous? >> Michael Hanley.
He was constantly stalking her, telling her that he knew where she was, threatening her, threatening her
daughter with harm. Shondaa called the police several times, but felt she wasn't taken seriously.
Christine helped Shondaanda secure a restraining order, but says Michael found creative ways to make it
effectively worthless. >> He disguised his voice. He also used an app that picked up dummy numbers that he
used to contact her. So, there was no proof that it was him that was actually violating the protective order.
>> And he seemed to be tracking Shondaanda's every move. >> He was able to spy on her through her
own laptop computers, her alarm system. He compromised all of that. Nothing was out of balance.
>> Michael's behavior was growing increasingly erratic. Even though he was the one to initially file for divorce in
the spring of 2017, he soon changed his mind. And Shondaanda says now he was demanding they reconcile or she'd pay a
humiliating price. He says, "Some of our private videos are going to go out to people in the community."
>> Intimate videos. >> Intimate videos. >> Shondaanda struggled over this, but knew
she couldn't take him back. >> So, videos went out to hundreds of people in the community, my cousins,
uncles, administration at the school, political friends, neighbors. I sat and cried and was sick to my
stomach. I almost didn't stand up. >> Just when Shondaanda thought she couldn't take anymore, on June 8th,
2017, almost 2 months to the day before the kidnapping, Michael Hanley slipped into her house through the garage.
>> He was enraged. He rire of alcohol. He was He was furious. and he had me pinned up against the wall
and I screamed, "Isabella." Well, he put his hand over my mouth and he pulled out a gun, a 9mm.
>> A gun? >> He pulls out a handgun and he said, "If you scream or anybody comes to
interfere, I will shoot you both. I will kill you both. Do you understand me?" Shondaanda says that after hours saying
anything she could think of to calm him down, she finally convinced Michael to leave.
>> As soon as he walked out of that gate, I ran in the house, bolted the door, and I
started screaming and crying. When Michael left that day after he had attacked me, I was 100% positive he was
going to kill me. >> Police were called once again, but they didn't arrest Michael Hanley. I can see
in your eyes that you're getting emotional. >> Oh, I felt as though I was being told
that that I was lying and that I was making it up. >> This is why women don't report abuse
because they fear they will not be believed. >> How many times had Shondaanda filed a
report against Michael? >> I believe that the actual reports filed were a couple dozen, if not more.
As far as how many times was there an arrest made, there wasn't. Why? A lot of times he was out of state, sometimes the
investigators felt like they didn't have enough evidence to actually go forward and get a warrant for the arrest.
>> After the kidnapping, investigators were confident that this time they had more
than enough evidence to make an arrest. But could they find him in time? >> So somehow Michael is able to track
Shondaanda down to the place that she's seeking refuge. Does Michael Hanley know that the cops
are on to him? Yes, because at some point he tried to charter a private plane and so the pilot essentially said,
"I am not going to be taking you anywhere uh because you're a wanted man." >> The pilot reported it to police, but
Michael was long gone. And as he continued to evade authorities, Shondaanda got a text message from a
strange number claiming that Michael had also been kidnapped, saying in part, "Pay the ransom for your husband and pay
us 500 large or we will send him home in pieces." A day later, friends received a shocking
photo of Michael. He was nude, handcuffed, and seemingly injured. And he's got blood on it,
>> right? It appeared to be from Sha's kidnappers, but investigators knew that couldn't be true.
>> We know that obviously wasn't from them because they're dead at this point. >> So, Michael is behind these messages.
>> On August 11th, 2017, after a 4-day manhunt, detectives finally cornered the multi-millionaire.
Once accustomed to private jets in five-star hotels, he was in this off-ramp motel in Slidell, Louisiana. We
begin with new information on the arrest of a Lafayette kidnapping suspect. As they took an oddly smiling Michael
Hanley into custody, investigators began sifting through the nearly $10,000 in cash, pizza boxes, and illicit drugs,
finding this to-do list. On it were things like burner phone, hair dye, cash. But its final task was even more
ominous, says prosecutor Kenny Abear. said Shondaanda's safe house was just 35 miles away.
>> But on the bottom of that list were the words, "Finish the job." >> And finish the job would mean, in our
opinion, he was going to kill her. >> With Michael Hanley now in jail, Shondaanda and her security team decided
it was finally safe for her to come out of hiding. >> It was time to go home. And that's what
she said. I just want to go home and rebuild my life. But with his track record of evading justice, Isabella was
skeptical that the worst was behind them. >> I remember thinking that it was almost
pointless that he was being arrested. It felt like he had all the power and he was going to keep all the power.
>> Michael Hanley pleaded not guilty to a litany of charges, including conspiracy
to commit seconddegree murder, and prosecutors got to work building their case against him. Anytime you're on our
side of the table, you start thinking, what's the defense going to be? We could not figure out what his defense
was going to be. >> There was no question that she was a victim of a kidnapping.
>> But says Kevin Stockstill, the man who Michael Hanley hired to defend him, the
physical evidence doesn't prove his client played a part in any of it. >> Were the van and the handcuffs enough to
convict him? >> I don't think so. That is because Stock Still says there is an explanation for everything. It
started when Michael hired Sylvester Bracie, not to kidnap his wife, but instead, he claims to move some
furniture. That was the reason Michael rented the van, he says, and made no effort to hide it.
>> Mr. Hanley, you know, goes into the Enterprise uh rental car location with his credit card in one hand and driver's
license in the other. So, you thought you could explain to the jury, "Hey, listen. Nobody who's actually going to
commit this crime is going to go in with their license and ID and buy it themselves."
>> Correct. >> It was all innocent enough. Stock still says until the wouldbe mover went rogue.
Stock still theorizes Sylvester Bracie saw Michael's desperation to get his wife back and decided to use it to his
advantage. That's when he enlisted Arsenio Haynes to help him kidnap Shonda and hold her for ransom. So, you're
thinking the kidnappers could have wanted to extort Michael to get money from him so they would have
kidnapped his wife >> potentially. >> And of course, he did buy the handcuffs, but Stockstill says he only used them to
stage that fake kidnapping photo. >> So, as he's bound and gagged, he's bound with handcuffs. It was just the latest
example according to Stockdale. Hey Shondaanda >> of photos and videos that Michael had
been sending to Shondaanda for months showing him in emotional distress and in one case apparently beaten up in a
misguided attempt to try and win her back. I love you. I love you. >> Because Michael had he had a proclivity
to try and stage these things to to get, you know, sympathy from Shondaanda. But as the defense prepared to argue
that the kidnappers acted on their own, Sha de Hanley made a damning discovery while cleaning out a remote Mississippi
property they owned. >> Shauna starts getting some of her personal belongings. Well, one of the
things that they found was this camera. >> It was a type of camera called Arlo. And
Michael Hanley used it for security. >> When Arlo detects sound and video, Arlo starts recording.
>> That's right. That's right. >> Well, it turns out he accidentally turned the camera on himself.
>> All put together, what did the camera record? >> Yeah, I mean, hundreds of hours. Hundreds of
hours. >> One of the first videos is from 2 months before the kidnapping. Michael is by
himself in a hotel room and is apparently talking to himself. You see him moving around and at some point he
picks the camera up and he puts him in a bag and you hear him say the words, "I'm
going to kill her. I'm going to kill her. Kill her. Kill her." >> Prosecutors believe the her intended to
kill was Shonda and that Michael was even more explicit just days later in a conversation with a friend in the living
room of the Mississippi house. They're having beers and they're discussing the issues that he's having with Shondaanda,
>> right? Yeah. She's not going to and you're not going to. >> The friend later said he didn't recall
hearing what Michael said next. >> That's why she didn't die. >> Michael says that's why she's going to
have to die. So, matter of fact. In yet another clip from just two weeks before the kidnapping, Michael Hanley is
caught with Sylvester Bracie at that property planning how it was the perfect place, prosecutors say, to bring
Shondaanda to torture her and possibly worse. He specifically says it's almost impossible for anyone to get in here. To
which Bracy responds, and it'll be impossible for her to get out. >> You can't break it.
>> I see. They can't break it. So this account >> I mean did you think you had a rockolid
case before that? >> Yes. Well, what did you think after it? >> Uh I thought I must have done something
right in the world. >> Then in a move no one saw coming. >> I just wanted God to give us the truth.
The whole truth and nothing but the truth stop. >> I do. >> Michael Hanley agreed to tell his side
of things. While awaiting trial for the kidnapping of his aranged wife, Shondaanda, Michael
Hanley was held in the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center. But Shondaanda says
even though Michael was behind bars, he continued to harass her. I've received a lot of mail letters
while he's been incarcerated. Had numerous calls. >> Can't they stop him from calling you?
>> I guess not. >> On top of that, Shondaanda lived in fear that Michael just might get out. That's
because at one point, the defense argued that Michael was suffering from mental illness and was not guilty by reason of
insanity. When Michael was sober, he was a fantastic individual, you know, very talented, willing to help people. When
he was found at the hotel in Slidell, I mean, there were drugs there. You know, there's no question that he was using.
Again, I don't know the level of his responsibility, but I think it's a combination of um
substance abuse and some mental illness. For prosecutor Kenny Abear, however, it
was a desperate attempt to get Michael released. >> They did it so that they could get some
psychological professionals on the stand to say he needs to be out of jail and he
needs to go to these mental health facilities. Well, we're talking about mental health
facilities that don't have nearly the security that a jail has. Michael's defense team submitted mental health
records showing that he suffered from bipolar disorder complicated by drug addiction, which they say rendered him
legally insane during the time leading up to the kidnapping. Two court-appointed doctors agreed, but
the judge ruled that Michael was competent to stay in trial and must remain behind bars.
>> Once they initially failed to get him out, they withdrew that plea. >> And what did they change it to? They
just changed it to regular not guilty. >> While Michael Hanley's criminal battle
was heating up, in March 2018, his divorce from Shondaanda became finalized. Shondaa was awarded all of
the assets. There was only one problem. >> There is no money. There's no money. You
know, millions of dollars vanished. >> Michael was a very eccentric person. He was obsessed with the collapse of the
American dollar. So much of their money was in gold bars. >> Shondaanda said she had seen gold before
and knew that there was gold somewhere on that property. I believe people actually went out with metal detectors
to try to figure out if he stashed it somewhere. >> No gold was ever recovered. So there's
all of this money that's unaccounted for, but we know it's got to be out there somewhere.
On top of being left with nothing, Shondaanda says she suddenly found herself responsible for repaying her now
ex-husband's massive debts. How much of a hole did he leave you in? >> 750,000. I can't comprehend how I'm now in a
position where I owe this sort of money. >> Shondaa felt like it was a slap in the
face after enduring so much. But it wasn't all for not. During the settlement negotiations, Shondaanda's
divorce attorney, Christine Mir, had subpoenenaed Michael for a deposition. And surprisingly, he agreed.
>> I mean, that's wild. >> It is. >> I can imagine that someone with the arrogance that Michael Hanley had
insisted that he was going to be testifying, it was going to be fine cuz he is the smartest person in the room.
Shondaanda's divorce attorney and the prosecutors had agreed to cooperate with each other and everyone was interested
in hearing what Michael Hanley had to say. >> It was a risk >> cuz he might go into that deposition and
say stuff that really jeopardizes his criminal case. >> I've never been more nervous in a
deposition than that. >> Do you solve swear the testimony God give us the truth? The whole truth.
Dressed in a striped prison uniform, Michael answered questions for 10 hours over 3 days.
>> I was hanging on every question. >> I bet you were. >> Yeah. >> It was a chaotic and hectic time. I was
living out of hotels. I've been moving from hotel to hotel for several months. >> Michael was asked about his relationship
with Sylvester Bracie and the reason he rented that van. >> I had hired him to move furniture. I
rented the van to make a move to move the furniture. He stuck with his original story.
>> He said that he had hired movers in order to move furniture and they went rogue because they thought he had money.
>> I got a phone call. As soon as I answered the phone, I said, "Hello." They screamed um they screamed, "We've
got your mother wife." And um I just remember cuz it was like I got punched in the head. It's like one of those
moments when you go into a Top Rio. >> But when pressed about the details of how he first met Bracy,
>> I don't recall. Michael claimed he couldn't remember much about the weeks leading up to the kidnapping.
>> I don't remember. I don't know. I don't recall. That's why I'm hesitating. I don't remember. I don't recall. I don't
recall. I don't recall. There are big gaps in my memory. I don't know. I don't know. The reason that I don't recall is
because I was high. I was living like a rockstar. I was on and off medications during this period of time and I was
under the influence of substances. Mental illness is tough, you know. >> But he insisted. Despite the gaps in
memory, there was one thing he knew for certain. >> I would not kidnap my wife. >> He would cry and say that he loved her
so much. >> I don't remember. >> That he was so sorry. It was that type of manipulation. I have uh tremendous
regret. >> During the deposition, Christine pulled that Arlo camera recording in which
prosecutors believe Bracie and Handley were caught talking about the plot to kidnap Shondaanda, the wife Handley
claimed he loved so much. >> I queued up where one of the kidnappers was telling Michael, "And you know, if
she gets out of line, I won't hesitate to kill her. And I said, "What kind of movers tell
that to you?" And his fear was palpable. And he said, "Oh, I don't know, Christine. People tell me all sorts of
things." >> Michael Hanley withered under questioning, poking holes in his own defense with his own words.
>> The civil attorneys provided us with those deposition transcripts shortly after receiving them. And with the trial
date fast approaching, Michael's defense attorney feared the worst. >> We were of the opinion that he ran a
significant risk of of a conviction. >> With the walls closing in and hours before the trial was set to start,
Michael Hanley indicated he was open to a deal. >> He would plead, you know, to seconddegree kidnapping. Um the minimum
sentence would be 15 years. The maximum sentence would be 35 years. Prosecutors Donnie Ket and Kenny Abear
say there was a lot to take into consideration. >> The problem with a jury trial is you you
almost never know. But I also knew that there's Shauna Hanley, there's Isabella,
you've got victims that have to relive that moment if you go to trial. >> Ultimately, the decision to take the
deal or go to trial was sha. I was so scared that if we went to trial that it could work out beautifully for
him because Michael always lands on his feet. Once Michael's out, I'm no longer free.
In July 2021, all Sha de Hanley wanted was for her ex-husband, Michael Hanley, to stay behind bars. So, she agreed to
accept his plea of guilty to secondderee kidnapping. >> I didn't want to take any risks. I would
rather the plea deal than to take the chance and go to trial. Less than a year later, on March 24th,
2022, Shondaanda was in the courtroom to find out what Michael's sentence would be. Isabella was there, too, as was
Michael. >> What was it like to come face to face with him in court? It was so surreal,
you know, and I think honestly for both of us, it was this really strong, powerful emotion that we both felt, but
mine was hatred. >> Hoping to help convince the judge to give Michael the maximum sentence.
Isabella chose to give a victim impact statement. >> What did you say at the hearing? I
really kind of told a story about how difficult it really made my life and how difficult it still makes my life because
I didn't think he knew that it affected me as well as it affected her. >> Shondaanda also had something she wanted
to say to Michael. >> I told him that he wrecked everything and that he destroyed everything and
that how could you like we had like a really we had a good life. We had a good family and we we adored
each other. He was the person I most admired in this world until then. >> Do you think Michael understands his
actions have had an effect on his former wife and stepchild? >> I think that he does.
>> Do you get to sense the guy's sorry? >> I think so. I think he's capable of remorse. Yet, when it was Michael's turn
to speak, instead of a tearful apology, he gave yet another new story. This time, he admitted he did in fact hire
the two men to kidnap Shonda. But he claimed it was all fake and staged so that he could swoop in, save her, and be
the hero. What he really wanted to do was emerge as the white knight who came in and rescued her. It was a way for him
to try to win her back, but he never really intended to hurt her. It was all a big game.
>> In the end, the judge sided with the prosecution and gave Michael Hanley the maximum penalty.
>> A Lafayette man was sentenced today in the 2017 kidnapping case of his aranged
wife. Lawrence Michael Hanley received 35 years in prison for the crime. 35 years
minus five for time served puts him out when he's 79. >> 79. >> Are you okay with that?
>> I'd rather he never get out. >> Are you still afraid even with him behind bars?
>> Oh, yeah. >> That concern is something Isabella shares. >> Do you fear for your safety from Michael
Hanley? >> Yeah, I do. Nothing could stop him. I just see him as a villain, not a good
person. And I'm not sad about it. In my mind, he's changed to a completely different person. So, it doesn't feel
like I've lost my dad. It feels like I've lost a stranger. >> The now 20-year-old college junior
chooses to focus on the valuable lesson that she learned from her mother. >> It's so
powerful to see how my mom handled this situation. She's shown me how she can overcome something so horrible and turn
it into something great and become an even better person out of it. >> Welcome. Welcome to our house. I'm glad
that um you're here. >> Shondaa has found renewed purpose working with others like her.
>> I know the ladies. >> She sold property, took out a loan, and opened two sober living homes dedicated
to helping women get back on their feet. >> We want you to feel comfortable. I want
you to feel like this is a safe place where you can start a new. >> It's been really really rewarding. And
you know, from my experiences that I've had, um the challenges that I've had, I'm able to show them firsthand that we
get up, we keep going, we put one foot in front of the other, and uh we will persevere.
An important part of moving forward for Shondaanda has been recognizing those who stood by her. And while she did
speak on the phone with Chad Martin, that officer who saved her, >> she never got the chance to thank him in
person until now >> when we arranged for them to meet. >> So good to meet you. >> Good to see you again.
>> Yeah, I'm looking at you to see if I can remember. >> I remember. I'm really glad that uh I
was in the right place at the right time to help you. >> Really glad. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Feel like I owe you
everything. I guess my greatest gratitude in you saving my life is that my daughter gets to have her mom and have a
good life. >> Thank you. Give you another hug. >> Wow. 48 hours. To miss it would be a crime.
>> Were you at all prepared for what happened in this case?

Watch this 48 Hours super marathon, which includes true-crime investigations on strange disappearances.

00:00 The Birthday Party 41:45 To Hell and Back 01:23:01 The Kidnapping of Michelle and Breea Renee 02:04:53 My Name is Victoria 02:46:39 Kidnap on Highway 1 03:28:18 The Kidnapping of Schanda Handley

Crime. Social justice. Impact. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

Shondaanda Hanley and her family were kidnapped in Louisiana; her estranged husband was later arrested for orchestrating the crime.

Key points

The Call from Stan. Stanley calls from a pizzeria, revealing he was kidnapped.
Freedom at Last. Stanley escapes his captors and experiences pure joy.
The Moment of Truth. Jackie and Tamara decide to fight back against their captor, Ratliff.
The Rescue. Police engage in a gun battle with Ratliff as Jackie and Tamara fear for their lives.
The Investigation Begins. After the kidnapping, investigators uncover the details of the crime and the suspects.
Bria's Battle with MS. After a sudden health crisis, Bria is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at just 18.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I don't think this has to go any further.

Stanley to his captors during a tense moment.

25:59WatchFeb 11, 2026

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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