The man who was sitting
behind me grabbed my hair and pulled my head
back and cut my throat. At this time, I thought
I'm probably dying. But I'm not going to. No way I'm going to die. I basically was screaming
and trying to hit him. And he stabbed me
in my neck and said, look how easily
I could kill you. I'd been stabbed
17 times in my back. And that was the first moment
where I really thought, if I don't pretend
to be dead, they're going to really kill me. I'd been driving probably
for an hour and a half. And there weren't
many cars on the road. It's a very isolated road. I was just driving
on the freeway, just having a
marvelous time singing and being happy that
I was on vacation. And I look to my left
and there was a car with four young people in it. And I had an idea, they're
going to mess with me. I'm not going to
make eye contact. And I sped up and they sped up. And I slowed down
and they slowed down. So they started pacing me. And then on the passenger
side of their car, two people leaned out. They had these large, like,
almost tree branches-- varied two to three
inches in diameter. And they moved their
car sideways into mine and they started
beating on my car. And I was just terrified. And I tried to slow down
and pull around behind them. And they turned their car
perpendicular across both lanes of the freeway. There was no one
else on the road. It was 2:30 in the morning. I could see all the trucks
way far in the distance. And I thought, well, if
I could just get up there with them I'll be OK. And I was trying to get
the windows rolled up. And apparently, I didn't roll
up the window on the passenger side, because they pushed me
off of the freeway basically. And I stopped because
I was terrified. And I didn't know what to do. So they jumped out of
their car and the woman ran around to the
passenger side of my car and just reached in the
window and unlocked the door, because I hadn't
rolled the window up. And she reached over me. She had a knife. And she stuck it by my throat
and she unlocked the driver's door. And she was yelling
and screaming at me. They were screaming obscenities. They were screaming
"where's the money? Give us the money." And they were just
like wild animals. They were totally hyped up. And their anger
and their wildness was something I had never,
ever encountered before. I was sound asleep
in my own bed. And all of a sudden,
I woke up choking. I couldn't catch my breath. And it took me
just a few seconds to realize that it was that
the air was contaminated. I recognized the smell
as chlorine-- as strong as I'd ever smelled in my life. It was a very sickening smell. The smell just seemed like
it took over your breath. It-- it didn't give you a
chance to really breathe, because every time
you'd try to breathe, it was just like something
going in there and just taking your inside's--
burning, stinging. The windows that were
open would not close. So I aroused my brother-in-law. We stuffed them full of sofa
cushions, dirty clothes, whatever we could find. And still, it
didn't do much good. But we tried. At that instant, my step sister
called and told us there'd been a train wreck. So then we knew. This was a little
before daylight, but I could see a
white liquid plume. Well, more of a stream,
arching way over the trees and over Nelson road, and
landing about 100 feet North of our house. All of the vegetation
as far down as our house was simply burned away. It had been raining for a week. We had no option of driving
out through the fields. It was so muddy that it would
at least take a four wheel drive vehicle to traverse
that plowed ground. We didn't have one. I have a little office
building not far from the house that
is completely sealed. I thought, if we could
make that building, we would have a few hours. Another option I had a tank
of oxygen in the garage. That could also sustain
us for a few hours. I reached into my
pocket and got my keys and they were just a
glob of green corrosion. There's no chance
of opening the door. My next shot was to get
that oxygen out of the shop. Same thing, no key
would fit in any lock. MARY: Hello? 911 CALLER: Hello? MARY: Yes. 911 CALLER: Yes, ma'am? MARY: We're on Nelson Road. 911 CALLER: What's going
on over there, ma'am? MARY: I don't know, I
think a train derailed. We can't breath. 911 CALLER: Oh, we have
someone in route to you, ma'am. Are you in the house? MARY: Yes. 911 CALLER: You need to get
out of the house, ma'am, if you can't breathe. MARY: I can't breathe. 911 CALLER: You need to get
out of the house, ma'am. Our next option was
to go down and see what the situation looked like
down at the road crossing. Well, we drove down all
the way up to the tracks-- what was left of the tracks. Still couldn't see. And there was this terrific fog. I go up, walk up
as far as I can. I see a locomotive
laying on its side road across the middle of the street. MARY: There was two
cars of the train. One was standing straight
up on top of the other one. And it was just horrible. There was no way that we could
get through the road because of the train. SAM WORTH: Sam Worth? 911 CALLER: Sam, this is
April at the Sheriff's office. We got a lady on the line stuck
in the middle of the chlorine spill.
SAM WORTH: Right. 911 CALLER: There's
three of them. She's on the phone having
a hard time breathing. Is there any type of
pre-arrival instructions you can give her
to try to help her. We have an officer
trying to get to them but due to the
chlorine, everybody-- SAM WORTH: No, we don't-- we're not sending anybody
in there right now. Ma'am--
MARY: Oh, yes? [mary coughing] SAM WORTH: Can you get
away from the train? We have people in the area
that are trying to help you, but you just need to try
to get away from that train as far as you can. I don't know what's wrong. Something's bad wrong. I had all kinds of confidence
in the volunteers, but I don't-- I don't understand what's wrong. Why don't they do something? Party was rather dull. Not a whole lot going on. So we decided to leave, just
go take a walk to the railroad tracks that were
about two blocks away. And actually, two of our
other friends came with us. We were planning to go put
quarters on the railroad tracks to flatten them. Our friends actually decided
to go back to the party when after about an hour
no trains had come by. And so Chris and I stayed there
for a little while and talked. And then when we
got up to leave, that's when a man approached us. And we were actually walking
on the railroad tracks. And the man came from
behind an electrical box, like he had been hiding
behind an electrical box. We never saw a gun. He had some kind of ice pick or
screwdriver or some something sharp. That was his weapon. He just automatically
was asking for money. And when you're
confronted with someone that is wanting something
from you that you can comply and that you-- especially if a
weapon is involved-- that you just comply and give
them what they want. And they'll leave you alone. Really the first thing that
we said to him was, you know, we don't have money. And when he started going
through the backpack, we said would you like
us to go get money? You can have our credit cards. You can have anything
you want here. He was only about five six, but
Chris was very skinny and very tall, but very skinny. So they probably weighed
close to the same. You know one thing if I
could describe about Chris is that I don't know if
he had ever killed a fly. I don't think he'd ever
been in a fight in his life. And you know with Chris feeling
threatened and complying, that made me feel afraid. It was like having
a pack of wolves attacking me and trying to
defend myself from every side. I couldn't understand
why they were doing this. I didn't really feel in danger. Oddly enough, I
didn't feel in danger. I felt I could talk my
way out of anything. And this very large
Native American man with long greasy hair who
I later called greasy man, cause he smelled
bad, and his face was just totally pockmarked. And he-- he just was wild
and he kept screaming. And he had a knife. And he put the
knife to my throat. And he grabbed me
out of the car. And I had bare feet
because I drive barefooted. And he pulled me around the back
of the car and I kept saying, I don't have shoes on. Please, slow down. You're hurting my feet. And he pushed me into the
passenger side of the car, into the passenger
seat in the front. And all this time I kept
saying, why are you doing this? You know, stop. You're hurting me. You're hurting me. And he got in the driver's side
behind the wheel of my car. And greasy man reached
up his knife to my throat and I grabbed his
knife with my hand and pushed it away and cut all
the fingers of my violin hand. The other man yelled "we've
got to get her car off of the freeway." And greasy man, who is
in the driver's side-- driver's side of my car-- he started my car off and
he followed the other car. And while he was doing that,
he was reaching over at me with his knife and stabbing
me just randomly in the chest. And he stabbed me 5 times. And so by that time
my hand was bleeding, my chest was bleeding. And they drove to
a dark farm road. There was no lights. It was a beet field. And so it was out in
the middle of Idaho, in the middle of nowhere. I kept looking at them. And the thing that
struck me about the woman was she was so young
and she was beautiful. And these men were older and
they were greasy and dirty. And I couldn't understand
why she was with them. And at that point, I turned
to the woman in the back. I turned and looked
over my left shoulder. And I said to her, please,
please don't kill me. I have a family. I want to live. And at that moment, the man
who was sitting behind me grabbed my hair and pulled my
head back and cut my throat. We drove down by the river to
see if we could find a way out. There was a steel gate
across the street-- a tall gate 8 or 10 feet high. Heavy steel. Couldn't get through. We went back and went down
a neighbor's long driveway as far as we could. We encountered another gate. So I turned the suburban
around backwards so as not to set off the airbags
and I ran that gate, I mean, pedal to the metal. I hit it hard. And I didn't think
anything happened. I got out of the
suburban to look. Nothing did happen to the gate. The suburban folded
up like a beer can. And it would have helped
anyway, because there was a truckload of logs
directly behind the gate stuck in the mud. We couldn't have
got through anyway. 911 CALLER: Yes, ma'am
EMS is on their way. They are going to get to you
and they will take you safely to the hospital, OK? MARY: I can wait much longer. It's been over two
to three hours. We gotta get out of here. 911 CALLER: OK, don't go
back to your home, OK? Don't go back to your home. We're trying to
get to you, ma'am. Hold on. Ma'am? MARY: What? 911 CALLER: If you want to go
back to your home, go ahead. Well, once we got
back at the house, neither Mary nor my
brother-in-law could walk. I had to help them both
get back into the house. All of our clocks quit running. All the watches, all
the time pieces-- everything just died. We had a stainless stove,
stainless refrigerator, you know, all the
trappings in the kitchen were stainless steel. The stainless steel
would melt. It would flow down, down the
walls, onto the countertops, off onto the floor. I thought all of my life
that stainless steel was impervious to anything. Wrong. It will not stand that-- that strength of chlorine. I told Mary I'm going to
get Gene and Lois, my step mom and step sister. I'm going to get them. And she had 911 on the phone. And I told them that I was going
to attempt to rescue my step mom and my step sister. And they told me that,
oh, we already got them. They're OK. I was terrifically
relieved when I was told that they were rescued,
because I'd been worried about them all along. I kept calling 911,
trying to get them to come, tell me to do something. All they would tell me is
turn off your air conditioner. Stay in the room. Stay in the house. Mary and my brother-in-law
were both in bad, bad shape. We had no chance of walking out. Because they couldn't walk, I
couldn't carry both of them. HOLLY: Really, you know all the
time he was controlling Chris, he wasn't really controlling me. I was just following
along because I thought, you know, maybe I can
stop, you know, stop something from happening here. I just-- there was
no way I was going to try to run away
or leave Chris there. He tied up Chris's arms first. And he even pulled
Chris into the grass beside the railroad tracks. And I saw that that was painful
and so I just sort of crawled along and did the same thing. We were on our
knees at that point. And he had actually
taken my belt and tied up my
arms with my belt. You could tell that he
had done this before. He knew how to control us. He knew he needed to tie us up. He knew that he needed
to disable Chris. And so everything that
he did you could tell he had done it before. He had a bag with him that I
saw that he kept going back to. And he actually went
back to that bag and I heard him ripping a shirt. And that's what he
tied up our legs with was with a ripped
shirt, and that he gagged us with a ripped shirt. And when he gagged us, I
actually stuck my tongue out so that the gag wouldn't work so I
could continue talking to him. And I did. I was just asking him questions
like, why he was there? And he was telling crazy
stories, like he had just broken out of jail, and he
was waiting on his friend, and his friend was
going to be coming back with some food for him. And just nothing
really made sense. We were sort of on a hill. So we were down kind of
at the bottom of the hill. And the railroad tracks were
up from where we were laying. So he would go back up to a bag
or whatever he had with him. And so anytime he'd go
back up, I would try-- that's when I would
try to untie myself. But he never left our side
longer than just a few minutes. So anytime, you know, I was
trying to strategize on what we were going to do, it was
only a few minutes time before he would come back. Well, I'm not really sure how
much time passed before he came with a rock to hit Chris. And it was a 52 pound rock. So he was not carrying
it-- carrying it easily. But he hit Chris, you
know, on his head. I mean, it was
just like a dream. It was-- you know,
I didn't know really what was going to happen to me. And I remember thinking,
this is not good. I mean, it was a very
rational thought. I was still very, very rational. I still felt that I could
talk my way out of this. And the man who was sitting
in the driver's seat said "give me your money. Give me your money." And he put his greasy
hands in my pockets. And he took my wedding ring
off of my bloody finger. And I had given him my wallet
and it had my driver's license and $40 in it. And he was furious
that I only had $40. And I turned back to the woman
and said, please don't kill me. And she says "we'll go ahead
and beg me for your life." So I opened the passenger
side door and I got out and I got on my knees
and I looked into the car at these three people and
I put my hands like this and I said, please,
don't kill me. Just take everything. I have-- I have children. I have a family. And I want to live. And at that moment, the other
man who had driven their car came around from
the back of the car. And he had a baseball bat. And it was a metal baseball bat. And he said, OK, we're
going to kill her now. And I remember just
being so angry at her and saying you said you
weren't going to kill me. And she said-- she said "well,
we're going to do you a favor. We're going to
knock you out first. And then we're
going to kill you." And so I put my head on
my arms on top of the car and the third man bashed my
head in with the baseball bat. And I fell on the
ground face down. And I was face down in the
dirt and I felt like someone was pounding on my back. And I found out later that
I'd been stabbed 17 times in my back. And that was the first
moment where I really thought if I don't pretend
to be dead, they're going to really kill me. I had an old work truck
that we'd been using there. And I started it up
and moved it around to the other side of the house. And I climbed on top of it. And my head was out of the fog. I could actually breathe. I could see over
to the Southeast there was no gas at all. No burned vegetation. But I was getting
mighty, mighty nervous because I'm watching those
guys try to come right through the middle of that wreck
where the gas is the worst. There's twisted
metal everywhere. So they could come
150 yards either way and come through
with no obstructions. I knew my dogs were
getting sicker and sicker. And the one, she
just dearly loved me. She would not leave
me for a second. The one dog that would
not leave Mary's side is lying in the bedroom dying. She's coughing up stuff, just
like I'd been coughing up. It just looked like bloody
hamburger or something. I told the other
dogs to go outside. I'm going to open the gate. I told them, you know, you
guys run to the Southeast as far as you can. Well, Mary was coughing
so bad she couldn't talk. So she grabbed my sleeve
and kept pulling it. Well, finally when
she could talk, she says "a dog doesn't
know Southeast from up." We received a phone call from
some group of volunteers. And he told me there's
no gas to the Southeast. We'll be coming in that way. We'll have four ATVs and
four hours of oxygen. They said it would
be 25, 20 minutes. And so that really
gave me some hope. And finally the phone rang
and it was one of these guys. And he told me, he says the
deputies turned us back. They threatened to
arrest us or fire on us. And they won't look
at our credentials. They won't let us talk
to who's in charge. They don't even know
who is in charge. Yeah, I was out of options. Everything I had
tried did not work. I actually heard Chris
gurgling after he had hit him. So I asked him to go and
turn Chris's head to the side because I didn't want him
to choke on his own blood. And he actually went and did it. And he said "don't
worry about him. He's gone." I remember a lot more of talking
to him after he had hit Chris, because I think that I
went into a survival mode after he had hit Chris. I didn't even think
about the fact that he wanted-- that he was
going to rape me until he actually climbed on top of me. And I tried to fight him. I basically was, you
know, screaming and trying to hit him. And that's when he
stabbed me in my neck and said "look how
easily I could kill you." I felt like I was
floating above my body. I did not feel anything. He had just stabbed me in my
neck and I didn't feel that. You know, I wasn't feeling pain. I wasn't feeling anything. He took off my pants,
but that was all. He didn't completely undress me. Even after he raped me, I
asked him to put my pants back on because I thought,
you know, if I'm going to-- if he's going to
kill me, I don't want to be found laying here naked. So he even put my pants back
on after he attacked me. So you know at that point,
he was doing things. And I really thought he
was going to let me go. At that time, like I asked
him what his name was. And he asked me
what my name was. I was just trying to make
him know that I was a person. I was trying to get to-- if he had an emotional side,
I was trying to get to it. And I was saying,
you know, I really want to see my family again. I really want to see my friends. And you know, I
won't turn you in. I'll just, you know, leave. And I won't tell anybody
that you did this. So my mind was trying to do
anything to just make him stop. I could tell their
car was leaving. I saw lights leaving. And I was left in the
dark, in the beet field. The moon was full, so I could
see that I was in a beet field. And at that point, I sat up
and leaned against my car. And I looked into my car to
see if the keys were there. I don't remember if
I saw them there. I somehow had the thought
that I could get in my car and drive away and save myself. At that moment, I
saw a car coming. I saw headlights
approaching my car. And I waved my hand. Come help me. Please. And it was these people. They'd come back. And the greasy man came up
to me and he said "oh, so you think you're strong?" Because he was surprised
that I was still alive. And he took his knife and
he slashed open my shoulder. And they beat me with the
metal baseball bat again. And I fell face
down on the Earth. My body was on the ground. My legs were under the car. And then I heard
this whoosh sound. And they had set
the car on fire. They'd use some kind
of flammable liquid and set the car on fire. And they drove away. And I thought I may
be going to die, but they're not going
to burn up my body. And the firemen roll that
they teach us in school-- drop, and roll. I rolled out into
the beet field. And the thing I remember
about that, it was June. The beet field had just
been freshly furrowed. The beet shoots were
about three inches high. And beet shoots are like sticks. And I remember rolling
over these sticks and thinking how much that hurt. And I remember
smelling the Earth and just smelling that
rich loam of fresh dirt. And I gathered the dirt under
my head and I made a pillow. And I consciously thought
I'm going to prepare to die. At this time, I thought
I'm probably dying. But I'm not going to. No way I'm going to die. And I'm starting to cough up
nasty looking bloody stuff. Mary was pretty bad
off at this time. And barely breathing. 911 CALLER: Yes. Yes, sir. Yes. Did you-- did you close your
windows and shut off the air? 911 CALLER: OK. 911 CALLER: Yes, sir, 911 CALLER: Yes, just that
the train is in the way. And that's the reason
why it's taking long. In fact, I looked
in the yellow pages. And I found the-- I found there are such things
as professional rescuers. I did talk to two of
the potential rescuers. And one of them
told me, he said, it'll take us two
hours to get there. Are you sure you have two hours? I said, no, I'm not. I'm not sure that
I have two hours. Can't you do it faster? He said "no, we have to
go in by helicopter." And I said, well, the Sheriff's
Department won't let anybody in. He says "we don't
care about that." He says "if we come to
rescue you, we'll rescue you. But if you're going to be
dead, who's going to pay us?" I said, well, let
me call you back. And I'm still running
around left and right trying to come up with just one
more option, just some way to get us out of there. And I could go in the kitchen
and watch the appliances melt down, or go outside and hold my
breath, or stay in the bedroom and hold my breath. I did all those things. One of our sons who
was a volunteer fireman in another county, was in route
somewhere and just happened by and heard this on the radio. CHARLES HILL: This
is Charles Hill. 911 CALLER: Yes, sir. CHARLES HILL: Mom
and dad, are they OK? 911 CALLER: We are having a
hard time getting to them. CHARLES HILL: Well,
can't they just land a helicopter
in the backyard? 911 CALLER: No, sir. Due to the chemicals
that are involved. CHARLES HILL: Well, can't
they just put a gas mask on and go in there like a fire? 911 CALLER: Our officers, our
fire department, and our EMS personnel are aware
of your parents. And as soon as we can extricate
them from the situation, we'll get them out. CHARLES HILL: Well, if I go over
there can I just get a gas mask and I'll go for myself?
911 CALLER: No, sir. You will be thrown
off the scene. And if you fight
with the officers, you will most
likely be arrested. He told the deputy,
I'm going in anyway. And the deputy says "if
you do, we'll arrest you." Arrest all you
too, I'm going in. He said "we'll shoot you." He just gave up. I gathered the dirt under
my head and I made a pillow. And I consciously thought
I'm going to prepare to die. And at that moment, a very
bright white light surrounded me and it felt like I was lifted
up in the arms of my Heavenly Father. It felt like he had rescued
me and lifted me up. And I felt at peace. And I wasn't thinking about
my family, or my children, or my husband, or anything. I was thinking how
peaceful I felt and how ready I
was to go with Him. And I heard voices again. And I had the thought, oh,
they've come back again to make sure I'm dead. And something told me, no,
these are teenage voices. These aren't the same voices. And these two teenage
boys had been driving home from watching videos. And they'd seen the car
fire out in the field. And so they'd called
the fire department. And then as teenage
boys do, they wanted to come down
and see the fire. They thought it was cool. And I heard them and I
yelled, help me, help me. I'm out here. And they came out in
the field and found me. And they each grabbed an
arm and a leg and they dragged me probably 50 feet away
from the car before the gas-- before the fire hit the gas
line and the car blew up. And in pulling me away, they
dislocated my shoulders. But they saved my life. The sheriff's department,
we had some nice lady on the telephone. She told us get in the shower
and decontaminate yourselves. The rescuers will be there
just within a minute or two. 911 CALLER: Can
you do me a favor? Can you go into the shower? MARY: What am I supposed to do? 911 CALLER: Spread the
water on your body. That's the best thing so you
can decontaminate yourself. So in sheer
desperation, I knew better than to get in the shower. I knew better than that. I knew better than to turn
off the air conditioner. I was so desperate,
I did it anyway. Big mistake. Big time mistake. I drug Mary to the shower. I just turned water
on and got her soaked, and climbed right in behind
her and soaked myself. My brother-in-law, I
didn't even disturb him. Because I'm thinking this is the
stupidest thing I've ever done. I can't believe
I'm stupid enough to do it, because with the
introduction of that moisture to that room and no
AC to pull it out, within one or two
minutes, all the mirrors, all the windows start
getting a green haze on them, and a different odor--
hydrochloric acid. Oh boy, this is really
the end, you know? All the pale areas of
my skin were all burned. In some cases,
the skin came off. I know my husband, he was
trying to keep me awake. And I was real sick. Well, Mary stopped breathing. Just gave up, wouldn't
breathe anymore. I had to force her to
breathe, to give her CPR. This must of gone on
for maybe 45 minutes. I'm not sure. And all of a sudden here's a
city fireman in his space suit. He walks in the
bedroom and he says "it's turned to hydrochloric. Everybody out." And drug us all outside
and hosed us down again and called in a helicopter and
finally got us out of there. One of the firemen
asked me "does anybody live in this
house down the road here?" And I said they've
already been rescued. He said "nobody has been
rescued from that house." At that point, I knew
they had to be dead. And I was-- I was begging for my life. I was telling him that I wanted
to see my friends and family again, that I did
not want to die. The moment before
he hit me, I really thought that I had convinced
them that he wasn't going to hurt me. That he was going
to leave me there. He hit me in my face. And I think what I did was
I turned over to stop him from hitting me in the face. And so he hit me about five
times in the back of my head. I thought I remembered him
covering me up with branches and grass and things. And then I thought I
even remember saying, like, thank you because I
knew that I was still alive. And that I was saying thank
you for leaving me here alive. But you know, I don't think he
knew that I was still alive. I think he definitely
tried to kill me. Really the next
memory that I have was appearing in
someone's front yard. You know, I was
covered in blood. And I didn't knock. I didn't ring a doorbell. I just walked into
this person's house. I remember saying, you
know, I've been hurt. My friend is still out
at the railroad tracks. We need help. And I don't really
remember exactly, but I said to call 9-1-1. And you know, I definitely
was going into shock. When they finally
told me about Chris, it wasn't-- the
hospital didn't tell me. My parents had arrived. And I turned to my
dad and I said-- I didn't say is Chris dead? I just said Chris
is dead, isn't he? Because I knew it. The attackers setting the car
on fire was what saved my life. Because if I had just been
out in the beet field, I would have just bled
to death and died. And nobody would have
ever known what happened. And those people would
have never been found. Well, see, they
pronounced me dead twice. And I didn't even know it. When I got to the hospital,
they said I was dead. And then they revived me. My wife and myself
and that one dog are the only living things
that survived in that area. I'm sorry, I get upset. But thanks to God that I
had my husband with me. And if it wasn't for him,
I don't think any of us would be here. I survived because I
was too angry to die. Here I'm watching my
loved ones die off and there's nothing I can do. I survived because
I was supposed to. I think that, you know,
I just wasn't finished. I believe that there are
several ways that a tragic event like this can change you. I really felt like
I had two options. I could crawl in a
hole and be angry and live my life that
way the rest of my life. And then my other option was
to try to do the best I could with my second chance at life. And I survived to
dedicate my life to assisting victims of rape
and sexual assault and tragedy. I think that's my purpose.
