A Heart-Breaking Story of a Girl Found Alone in the Ocean

lost famished scared and drifting alone in the open sea for almost four days on a tiny raft and all that when she was just 11 years old that's the unbelievable but true story of teri Jo du Perrault and you'll be absolutely shocked when you hear all of it the story begins like your typical American dream it's 1961 and dr. Arthur duper all a prominent optometrist from Green Bay Wisconsin decided to take his family of five on a long-awaited vacation to the Bahamas for this he took a luxury yacht from Fort Lauderdale Florida to make the trip all the more exciting apart from dr. duper alts wife and their three kids there were his old friend Julian Harvey and his young wife dr. duper all took Harvey along as his skipper because of his past as a marine and World War two vet his experience at the sails and expertise in navigation gave everyone confidence that the voyage would go marvelously and the trip was going just as you could imagine sailing across the sunny seas swimming in the ocean bathing in the Sun five days of maritime paradise kids laughing adult smiling everyone was happy or so it seemed the events that followed our fit to make your hair stand on end even now more than fifty years later it's hard for teri Jo to speak of what happened on the fifth night and you really can't blame her the then 11-year old girl was awakened by a commotion from above her cabin she heard stomping on the deck and recognized the voices alarmed by the uproar teri Jo went outside her cabin and onto the deck only to see Julian Harvey quickly walking towards her still uncompressed him what was happening but his only reply was an order to get back below the deck frightened and shivering teri Jo complied laid back into her bump and waited all that followed was stark silence it was only when her cabin started filling with water that she dared leave it again and take another look at what was going on it turned out that Harvey had opened up the Yahtzee valves to sink it with everyone on board there wouldn't be any radio calls for help or a joint effort to keep the ship from sinking crazed Harvey had taken care of that possibility II and little teri Jo were the only ones still alive seeing that she'd shown up on deck again a man approached her and gave her a rope tied to a dinghy he told her to hold it and that she did but when he left her for a brief second what the girl did next would end up saving her life in that moment she let go of the rope and the dinghy started floating away from the yon RV panic and dove down into the ocean to catch up with a dinghy teri Jo however managed to keep her wits about her and remembered there was a small cork lifeboat on the yacht as well she untied it threw it into the water on the other side of the yacht so that Harvey couldn't see her immediately and escaped the horrible scene but the 11-year old girl still had more surviving to do for the next three and a half days she floated aimlessly on the little cork raft that was becoming flimsier and more deteriorated with each passing day the nights were freezing yet the scorching Sun beat down on her during the day how the little girl managed to hang on to dear life is still beyond comprehension but she was weak and her strength was fading that was how a Greek freighter called captain Theo found the little girl and the ship's crew just couldn't believe their eyes when they spotted her in the tiny right lifeboat a small frail body said all wet and completely exhausted when the crew took her on board they saw she was severely dehydrated sunburn and fever the yacht the family had taken which was called Bluebell was nowhere to be seen neither was Julie and Harvey's dinghy they later found out Terry Joe had been stranded for eighty-four grueling hours in her little escape vessel with no water food or shelter it was a miracle that she managed to survive this ordeal as well when she came back to the mainland she was immediately rushed to the hospital soon enough the photo captain Theo's crew had taken of the little survivor before pulling her up on board as well as the story behind the whole ordeal made headlines across the world so what had happened onboard the Blue Bell and how did a peaceful family vacation go so terribly wrong as it turned out the whole thing started with Julian Harvey wanting to collect a twenty thousand dollar life insurance policy he'd drawn for his wife of just four months it struck him as very convenient that she should drown in the ocean in an accident it was later discovered he had been married five more times before that being the sole survivor of a car crash with one of his wives and her mother and had lost two sea vessels under suspicious circumstances all these resulted in him collecting sizable amounts of money for the losses so the plot Harvey conspired was rather simple to fake an accident for his wife under the cover of night while everyone else was on board asleep in the morning he'd tell them that she simply fell overboard and he couldn't save her his plan however was the warded when the duper alts heard the commotion that's when Harvey decided to get rid of any witnesses on board and sink the boat to conceal the evidence he was probably getting ready to take care of the last witness when he handed little Terry Joe of that row still others believe that he had planned to let the girl escape because somewhere deep inside himself he wanted to get caught whatever the case Terry Joe duper all escaped the man which would bring him to his ultimate demise his dinghy had been found three days earlier than Terry Joe's raft another freighter the golf lion picked Harvey up and gave him to the US Coast Guard he told the investigators that the blue bells masts had been broken by strong winds in the open sea as they fell they tore through the yacht's Hall and made a hole in the gas tank which started a fire according to Harvey he was the only one left alive no one suspected him of committing any crimes yet after a few days however he heard the news of teri Jo's miraculous rescue that's when he knew there was no real escape for him and he'd be brought to justice for what he'd done he decided he wouldn't let them get him alive so he checked into a motel room and ended it there that all happened in 1961 but no one knew the whole story from the little survivors point of view for twenty long years Terry Joe didn't want to speak about her incredibly traumatic experience to anyone she needed time to heal her wounds in the 1980s she finally found the strength to open up a bit and discuss the tragic events on the Blue Bell with a few of her close friends eventually they convinced her to seek some professional help and support as well Terry Jo by then a young woman already took their advice and decided it was time to do something about her past unsurprisingly it was still haunting her she did get the right care and at long last found some relief from what she had survived all those years prior and the peak of a recovery was a book she wrote with the help of psychologist dr. Richard Logan called alone orphaned on the ocean it was published in 2010 almost 50 years after the events it describes but it still chills the souls of everyone who reads it teri Jo now goes by teri Jo do Perrault Fassbender and her book is signed as such she confesses that writing it was the final step of her healing process in one interview she said that she hoped her book would also help other people with traumatic experiences overcome their tragedies and live on it takes real strength of character to not only survive such a nightmare at just 11 years old but to also talk publicly about such personal events in your own life teri Jo is living proof that nothing can overcome the human will to survive and keep moving forward do you know any incredible stories of survival and rescue share them in the comments below if you learn something new today then give this video a like and share it with a friend but hey don't go anywhere just yet we have over 2000 cool videos for you to check out all you have to do is pick the left or right video click on it and enjoy stay on the bright side of life

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 1,193,312

Rating: 4.8584929 out of 5

Keywords: survival story, survivor, true story, critical situation, dangerous situation, surviving the crash, shipwreck, ship crash, survival at sea, lost at sea, how to survive at sea, sea survival stories, at sea alone, Terry Jo, Julian Harvey, Orphaned on the Ocean, Bluebelle

Id: xnA3bZlXwvc

Length: 9min 31sec (571 seconds)

Published: Tue May 28 2019