And I saw blood
dripping to the floor. And I knew then that something-- he was stabbing me in my
neck and the back of my head. The thought that was going
through my mind at that point was, someone may find
my body out here. I said, please don't kill me. I begged for my life. But he didn't listen. He brought the
knife up to my throat. And with my other
hand, I just grabbed onto the end of the knife
and held to it the whole time while he was trying
to cut my throat. This was a Monday. And generally, I
was off on Monday. That was my day off. But my aunt had to do something
that day so I took her place. Two customers came in the store. One of them, I had seen before. He had been in the store
bought a week earlier. And I talked to him. He was very nice. Very kind and polite. And I helped him. He was buying stuff to
set up housekeeping. So I talked to him
for a good while. It was just me and him in
the store at that time. This Monday, it was probably
about 1:30 when they came in. I recognized the one, but I
didn't recognize the other one. I had never seen him before. The store started
getting busy then. So I didn't actually have
time to talk to him a lot. But they shopped around in the
store for about 45 minutes, along with the other customers. I was ringing up
his smaller items. And he was going to
purchase this boom box. And so we always kept our bags
up underneath the counter-- our large bags-- for larger items. When I bent down under the
counter to get this big bag, I couldn't come back up. And I realized that something
was holding my head down. And I remember saying stop it. Because I realized
at that point, he was moving around
to where I was at on my side of the register. And then I saw the blood
dripping to the floor. And I knew then that something-- he was stabbing me in my
neck and the back of my head. The first thing I got was mad. Because I'm like, this
man's holding my head down underneath this cabinet
and I don't know why. And then when I saw the
blood start to drip, I knew exactly what he was
doing and what his motive was. I knew his motive
was to kill me. And I raised my arm
up to him to try to get my balance to get up. And when I reached
my hand up to do-- I guess he thought I was
going to hit him or punch him. And he just took the knife and
he sliced through my wrist. [music playing] I had a large breakfast
because I knew I was going to be skiing for a while. And I checked the
weather report. The weather report was for light
snow and fairly warm weather. I had on a light jacket
and my ski pants. And then I was ready to go. I didn't tell anybody
which ski resort I was at. I decided to go to Squaw Valley. So I had skied a couple of
intermediate-type runs, which are fairly easy to ski. And then I was headed toward
a black diamond, which is an expert run. Not the most difficult, but
more difficult than the ones I had been skiing. And as I got off the
chairlift and was heading toward that ski run, I noticed
that it was starting to snow. And then I was skiing over
toward where the run would begin and it started to
snow very, very heavily. So I stopped. And I knew that I should not ski
the black diamond at that point because I would
definitely be in trouble. So I just stopped and
kind of took my bearings. It was really snowing now and
it was approaching, kind of, a whiteout. You could probably see, maybe,
2 to 3 feet in front of you. So you have to go very, very
slowly because you don't want to run off into a rock or run
off into a very steep area. So as I looked at
the trail map, it appeared that there was a
shortcut through some trees over to an intermediate slope. And that actually led
to one of the lodges. The plan was to find a lodge
and wait out what was going to happen with this storm. I had a cell phone, but I
didn't bring it with me. I don't think it
would have worked. I was on the backside
of this mountain-- Granite Peak. And it was an
out-of-bounds area. So I was skiing and skiing. And every now and
then, I would stop and try to get my bearings. But it was hard to tell what
direction I was heading. It was very difficult skiing. A lot of trees, a lot of large
rocks that I had to ski around. So after about two hours of
doing that, I got to a point where I was kind of looking
over into a precipice. Found out later that, that
was about a 500 foot drop down into a valley with a
stream running through it. And at that point, I realized
that I was in very big trouble. [music playing] 1990, I met Luis at a bus stop. We started as friends
and then we got deeper into a relationship. I thought this was love. I just, wow. I guess, I was very
mistaken about what love was at the time. He would always tell me that
he was going to get help. And that I needed to help
him get into a drug rehab. And that's what kept me there. Above all, he treated
my son so special all the time that I,
kind of, forgave him for everything else. On the weekend, he was
using very heavily. So I did tell him that I just
didn't want anything else to do with him until he got help. He started accusing me of being
with someone in the house. He was very paranoid. And started looking
for that other someone. And I just ignored
everything and went upstairs to my bedroom. He came to my bedroom after
checking all my closet doors and under my bed, as well. And he started accusing
me of cheating. And I became furious. And I told him, if
you're not going to come to do what you say you
were going to do, then just get out my house. That's when he pulled out
the loaded 9 millimeter. After he had stabbed me,
I don't know how many times he actually stabbed me
in my neck and my back before the other
guy started on me. But he told me to give
him the videotape. He thought that he
was on videotape. And I told him that
it didn't work. It was down. And he didn't believe me. Then he threatened to kill me. I remember thinking, this
man doesn't have a mask on. No gloves on. And he wants this videotape
so he intends to kill me. He'd made me give him the
money out of the cash register. And then he made me go
to the front door-- walk to the front door and lock the
front door so that nobody could come in. He was stabbing me in my back. And he was pushing
me with a knife. I've never been
around anybody that could be nice like
that one minute and then turn into
something the next minute. That's beyond my comprehension. [music playing] I mean, when they came in
the store, they were nice. They were just like
everybody else. And then in just
such a short time, they could turn into
these monsters that did what they did. I don't understand that. [music playing] All this time, I'm
wondering, where is John? I remember rounding the corner
with the knife to my back and I saw John
laying on the floor. And I knew then that-- I didn't know if John was dead. I went on up stairs
to the office and I got the office door open. And I couldn't
get the safe open. We had a picture up over
the safe that was hid. And the other guy had taken the
picture down off of the safe. I explained to him, after
he had already messed with the tumbler, that I
couldn't get it open with just my key. So I said, I've got the
combination wrote down. I'll just have to get it. So I turn around to get the
combination to the safe. And all this time, the blood's
just shooting out of my wrist. So I'm trying to hold to
my wrist with my other hand and trying to get the safe open. And I never could get it open. It made him mad when I
couldn't get that safe open. So he just-- he hit
me with his back hand. And he reminded me that if
I didn't get the safe open that he was going to
kill me right there. [music playing] I heard something, which
sounded like a stream or creek or something. And I thought, if I worked
my way down this hill, I would find the stream. And then follow that stream
and it would eventually lead me to civilization or to a way out. I realized that
it was too steep. And I decided,
instead of doing that, to sidestep my way back up from
the direction that I had come and then try to ski
in another direction. My plan was to keep
moving as much as I could to keep the body warm and
keep the blood flowing through my body. But I knew that I could survive
for a long time without food, but I had to have water. So whenever I got
thirsty, I would just stop and get the snow and
let it melt in my mouth. And I had water available to me. I tried to ski in
another direction. And I couldn't
really tell direction because there was no sun. There was no way
to tell direction. As I skied in this
other direction, though, it was about another
hour and then I came to a second
dead end, which was, kind of, a mountain that-- the top of a mountain. And it was like a dead end
where I couldn't go any further. I had worked out very hard
so I was covered in sweat. And the wind was really picking
up and it was getting colder. So at that point, I knew
I had to find shelter. What I did was I found
like a grove of trees. And I found a tree
in the center of that and leaned face first
against the tree with my back to the wind. Periodically, I would
nod off and fall asleep for a short time. And then when that happened, I
would fall away from the tree and that would wake me up. And I would do exercises-- jumping jacks. Bend over and touch my toes. Swing my arms in circles
to get the blood flowing into my hands. I was also thinking a lot
about my family, my friends. I was praying for strength to
make it through the situation. The snow was probably
up to my thighs. And I was still in my ski boots. I had my poles so I could
work my way through the snow. As I was walking, all
of a sudden, I fell. I just fell straight down. And I ended up in
this stream bed. And the stream
was not very deep, but it was just deep enough
to fill my boots with water. So now I knew that my
feet were soaking wet. And I knew that meant a
lot of trouble for me. [music playing] He pointed the gun at my face. And as soon as I saw a small
distraction, with my left leg, I kicked the gun. I kicked it hard enough that
the gun fell on the ground. And then the struggle started. I dove for the gun, but
he lifted me from my neck from the ground. I managed to kick the
gun under the bed. I was so close on getting it. I remember that he did put
his two hands on my neck. I don't remember anything else. I guess, I blocked out. He did tell me, I
came here to kill you. And I ask you to go with me. If not, Alex is
going to wake up. Alex, my son, he was in the
third floor in his bedroom. Sleeping at the time. I knew that if I
wouldn't listen to him, he would have shot
me right there. And he was right. My son would have woken up. And I was afraid that
he would shoot my son. I kept as quiet as I could. And I managed to get dressed. He walked me to my
car and made me drive. I saw a police officer
drive right in front of me. And he did say if you
bring any attention to us, I'm going to kill you. And I started
pleading for my life. I said, please don't kill me. My son's at home and he's
the only thing I got. I begged for my life. But he didn't listen. He kept hitting me. And pointing the gun at my head,
my face, my neck, my chest. And telling me how
much he hated me. At this point, I knew
I had no way out. At this point, reality sunk in. I know he was going
to try and kill me. He said, I'm done
talking to you. You're not going to
tell me the truth. I'm going to go and kill you. I'm going to shoot you and
throw you in the river. I knew that they
were going to kill me. They were mad enough because
I couldn't get the safe open. So I told the guy
that had the knife, I said, if you'll let
me go downstairs-- this was just things I was
thinking in my mind get away-- I told him that we hid money
downstairs in the stock room. Which we didn't. It was just my strategy to
try to get to that back door. The one guy that was holding
the knife handed it to him and told him to
take me down there. And so he drugged me
down to the stock room. And the whole
time, I'm thinking, I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to run
for that backdoor. And if I can ever get that
back door open and get outside where people can see
me, then he won't bother me. I'll be free. I'll be safe. I knew that if I didn't
get out that door that I was going to die. So I was just constantly
thinking over and over, what am I going to do next? What am I going to do next? I've got to make a plan
because I didn't want to die. As soon as I got to the doorway
that led into the stock room, I broke from him and ran
for that stock room door. Well, he was right behind
me so I never got-- I got to the door. But before I could
get the handle pushed and get to the outside, he
grabbed a hold of my hair and pulled me back. He, sort of, like jumped-- he was on me. And I remember he
dropped the knife. And when he dropped the
knife, I reached for it. And I did get the knife. The week before,
my dad's brother had gotten in an
accident and got killed. And the only thing that
was going through my mind is that my dad was at the
funeral home last week and he's going to be at
the funeral home, again, next week That's
what was in my mind. And I couldn't let that happen. We were scrambling around, both
of us, on the floor together. And I reached for the
knife and I got the knife. And I actually stabbed at him
one time and cut his hand. It just made him furious. He was a lot meaner
than what he was before. And he just told me, he said,
oh, no you don't, you bitch. He said, I'm going to kill you. [music playing] As I'm walking, my feet are
getting colder and colder. And after, I'd say,
a couple of hours, they started to
get very painful. Now I had been moving for
another eight hours that day. It was about 4:00 or 4:30. And I knew I had
to find shelter. So I did the same thing, again,
that I had done the night before. And that was to find
a group of trees. And then try to find a
tree in the center of that. But this time, there was
also a granite rock face. I knew that my ski
poles had metal tips and I knew that if I struck
the granite with my ski tip that it would make sparks. So I was getting extremely cold. I thought my feet were
frozen so I thought I should try to make a fire. I went and gathered kindling. And I stacked it at the base
of this granite rock face. And I started to
strike the rock face with the tip of my ski pole. And as I did that, sparks
came onto the kindling. And so I saw that
happening and thought, I might be able to build a fire. I actually had some
bills in my wallet and stacked those onto there. Because I thought that might
create the necessary fuel for the fire. After about an hour,
actually, the ski tip broke off of that pole. So I had another pole. So I continued to do that. And then, eventually,
the fire did not start. The second night was colder
than the first night. So I knew I had to just
be very, very positive. And stick with it and make
it through this night. So I thought about that. I just said, OK, I'm going
to renew my determination. I prayed some more. I thought about my family
and friends, again, and thought, I have
this to look forward to. I'm going to make it through. [music playing] I thought that there should
be people out looking for me. And I did wonder why I hadn't
heard any rescue vehicles or snowmobiles or somebody
out looking for me. [music playing] We switched seats
and we started driving towards an industrial area. And I saw a moving truck
going the same direction we were going. I wanted to get the
driver's attention. And I opened the door and I was
trying to jump out of the car, but he was holding
me with the same hand that he had the loaded gun. The driver of the tractor
trailer just kept going. I guess, he didn't see me trying
to get out of the vehicle. We started struggling. I was punching and
just trying for him to let me jump out of the car. He did point the gun
on my head and he shot. Just that one shot. The bullet grazed
the back of my head. And I also saw the
window shattered. Glass just went on me. I remember tasting and feeling
the blood just coming down my neck. And half of my body
was out of the car and half was in the car. I know I kicked. And I was punching and
kicking for him to let me go. And he finally let go of my leg. And I fell out of the car
and rolled into train tracks. And I got up and
started running. As I was running, he
shot two more times and got me on my right leg. There was a parked
tractor trailer. I didn't see anyone in there,
but the passenger's door was open. And I went into the
cab to take cover. And Luis crashed my car
against the tractor trailer. He was so mad. I mean, he was in a rage. And I was scared. I thought I had
run out of options We were fighting a little bit. And at that time, I had
already come to the conclusion and I had settled in my mind
that I was fixing to die. And that's when he
pulled my head back and I knew what he
was fixing to do. I saw him bring them the
knife up to my throat. And with my other
hand, I just grabbed onto the end of the knife and
held to it the whole time. He cut my throat. And he hollered for the
other guy to bring the hammer and bash my head in
and finish me off. I cut all my fingers
because I held to the knife the whole time. I never turned loose of it. I never felt any pain. The only thing that
I felt close to pain was when the first time that
he stabbed me in the back of my neck when I bent over. But when he cut my throat, all
the other times that he stabbed me, I never felt
any pain at all. [music playing] Still going through my mind
was, what am I going to do next? I've got to do something next. I've got to come up
with another plan. And that's when I told him,
I said, if you'll let me up, I'll try to go back upstairs
and I'll get the safe open this time. And my dad had
always told me when I started working at that
store, in case we ever got robbed or anything, to
not let them take me out of that store. To play dead or
faint or anything to get them to not take me out. And that's the next thing
that popped in my mind. that's the only
option I had left. He helped me up. I got up and I got as far as
to the bottom of the steps to where the office was. And I dropped, and I just
laid there, and play dead. [music playing] So I decided that I would not
sleep the rest of the night. The exercise that
I added that night was just to kick the
tree or the rock. To try to get blood into my
feet because I felt like my feet were frozen. The thought that went through
my mind was take my feet. I really don't need my feet. Just give me the strength to
make it through this situation. I did actually fall
asleep and woke up, I, kind of, did fall
away from the tree. But I think I had been sleeping
for a while because this was-- and I had my watch. So I looked, it was 2:00 AM. And I was just extremely cold. Cause this was the only time
during the days and the nights that I was out there that I
felt like I might not make it through this. I was shivering. My teeth were chattering. There was an extreme amount of
cold throughout my entire body. So I didn't think I was
going to make it through. The thought that was going
through my mind at that point was, someone might
find my body out here. [music playing] I was trying to
catch my breath, but it just happened so fast. He was already at the
driver's side shooting. And that's when he
got me on my chest. I felt that I couldn't breathe. So I was on the
passenger's side seat and I fell, like,
into a fetal position. I saw him getting
closer and closer to me. I actually felt when he
placed the gun on my back and fired two more shots. As I looked to my left side,
after he had fired those two last shots, I would
never forget his face. His look when he fired
those two last shots. [music playing] Such a betrayal. So cold. It was just becoming more
difficult for me to breathe. And I felt very cold. And I felt so alone. I never felt so
alone in my life. I didn't see him anymore. He was gone. At that point, I'm not really
sure what I was thinking about, other than the fact
that I was dying. I remember closing my eyes and
just, feeling the coldness. And I went into this dark place. I'm not sure how long I was
there for, but it was scary. I thought I was going to die. So I prayed. I asked that God will
take me to heaven. I kept thinking about my son. The only purpose I had at
the moment was to get my son. That's it. He stood there
for a few seconds and naturally, I
had my eyes closed. I didn't know what
he was going to do. I didn't know what he
was going to do next. And I heard the other guy from
around the front of the store holler at him and say,
let's get out of here. I guess, at that time, they
had gotten nervous about being in there so long. And as soon as he left, I
heard the front door close and I knew they were gone. At that point, I couldn't
believe I was able to get up. I couldn't believe
I was still alive. I was kind of in shock. But I knew that I had to
get help because I knew I was bleeding so bad. I was drenched in blood. I've got a friend that works
next door, about 150 feet away. So if I can just get over
there, he can get me some help. When I finally did
get out to the door, I managed to get my shirt
up and put around my neck. And I held it to my neck to
keep that from bleeding so bad. When I got outside, free, I
just ran as fast as I could run. When I first went
into the store, he said that his first reaction
was that somebody was playing a Halloween prank on him
in the middle of August. Because I was covered in blood. My clothes and my hair was
completely covered with blood. And it was red and standing
right straight up on my head. I remember going to his
door and opening his door and walking in and telling
him that I had been stabbed. I had been robbed. And that John was next
door and we needed help. There happened to be an
off-duty paramedic that had came to the store to shop that day. And she saw the two guys when
they came out of the store. And she told me later that
she thought they were painters because they were
covered in red. And she said she
thought that was paint. But when she saw
me run next door, she knew then what had happened
and she came right behind me. She asked the store owner for
some towels and a first aid kit. And he just kept
bringing towels to her. And she would hold
them to my neck until that one would
fill with blood and then she would put
another one to my neck. And she just-- she
kept talking to me. She put pillows under my feet. And I remember asking her,
at least I remember twice, was I going to die? And she would tell me no. Not as long as I'm here. [music playing] The lady that had towed my
car remembered it from a Marine Corps sticker and had the
license plate number written down. So now they knew I was lost
somewhere in Squaw Valley. He told her that it had been
snowing for two days and two nights. There was 4 feet. It was 30 below the first night,
40 below the second night, and don't expect to
find your husband alive. That she needed to make
arrangements to bring a body back from Squaw Valley. The third morning,
the snow stopped. And I could now
see the direction that the sun was going to rise. So I knew where East was. So I started marching
with my boots and poles toward the direction that
I knew I had to go in. And then I got to this
point around 11:00 AM, where the snow was kind of
blown away and it was frozen. And I could walk without
sinking down into the snow. And in the middle of this
area was a dead tree. And so what I decided
to do, I was all covered in snow and ice, was to stop. Take a rest. The sun had now just
peeked above the mountain. So I leaned against this
tree, facing the sun, and let the sun beat down on me. I'm continuing to
lean against the tree. I hear snowmobiles, again. And I start screaming, again. And I hear return, we hear you. And it's amazing, the
feeling that you have. Because you didn't know if
you were going to make it out. And now, you know
that they hear you. About 20 minutes later,
I see a helicopter come up over the
mountain and fly over me. And I'm literally crying because
I know I'm going to be rescued. And I just go running
across this snow. And as I'm running
up to the helicopter, one of the guys in the
helicopter had gotten out and he sees me running now. I actually had, kind
of, a nice suntan from leaning against this tree
with the sun beating on me. There was no snow or ice on me. And he's got a walkie-talkie. And he's saying into
the walkie-talkie, this isn't the victim. This can't be the victim. This is somebody who's
been snowshoeing or hiking. And I run up to him. He says-- asked me my name. I tell him my name. And he says, this is the victim. My wife gets on the phone. And I said, I'm OK. I'm rescued. The guy who had
the walkie-talkie now gets on the phone with her. He says to her,
your husband is OK. He just has cold feet. OK, so it goes from
dead to cold feet. Takes about an hour to
melt the boots off my feet. And as they do that, then
they peel the socks off and my feet are black. But it didn't bother
me at that point. I was now alive. And I knew everything was
fine because I was alive. And if I'd lost my
feet, I lost my feet. [music playing] When I opened my eyes, I saw-- I saw light. I saw a bright light. Like when the sun comes out. And all I could
remember is I need to get home and get my son. This guy is crazy and
he's going to kill my son. According to witnesses, I
was found at an intersection, trying to cross the street. And I flagged this gentleman
and he rolled down his window. And I remember telling him,
please help me get my son. He's going to kill him. He said no. I guess, he must've
thought I was crazy. He saw me so covered in blood
and he rolled up his window and he drove away. I flagged this gentlemen. I guess, he was an angel. He stopped. I woke up in the hospital. I remember there was a lady
and a police officer that went right next to me
on the hospital bed. And say, we do have your
son, Alex, and he's OK. That was the happiest
moment of my life. [music playing] It's made me look at
life a lot different. It's made me appreciate
every day that I have. It's also made me learn to
live every day like it could be my last day. And to always be ready to
go, no matter where I'm at. I didn't have to think
about forgiving them. It just, to me, it came natural. I was just so thankful to be
alive that I didn't have room in my heart for hate. I didn't have any
room for anything, but thankfulness and
happiness to be alive. I just didn't want to die. I wanted to live. I think everybody does. And when it comes down
to it, we do everything that you can to survive. [music playing] An experience like this
changes your perspective on life. It gives you the perspective of
what things are really, truly important in your life. Your friends, your family,
your spiritual life, those are all extremely important. I survived because I
maintained a positive attitude throughout the situation. And I never gave up. I continued to find
ways to survive. [music playing] I survived not
because I was lucky. But because of the grace of God. And I believe that I survived
because of the eagerness I had to save my son. I never gave up hope. I always look for that what
to do next What to do next. And I knew as long as I was
still up and even as bad as I was bleeding, I knew that
if I had strength enough to be up and
talking and walking, I knew that there was hope. And I never gave up hope.
