Gaining His Trust
At just 14 years old, Elizabeth Shaof was abducted by Vinson Filyaw, a man posing as a police officer. After being forced into his car, she was taken to a remote bunker where she was held captive for ten days.
During her captivity, Elizabeth cleverly built a rapport with Filyaw, gaining his trust to the point where he allowed her to use his phone to play games. While playing Candy Crush, she secretly texted her parents, who contacted the authorities. When the police arrived, Filyaw, trusting Elizabeth, asked her for advice on what to do. She told him to flee, and he did, leaving her to walk to safety.
Film Producer
It’s easy to dismiss moral justice from someone like Larry Flynt, a renowned adult film producer. However, when Flynt was paralyzed by a neo-Nazi who had killed eight people and targeted him over interracial content in his magazine, Flynt took an unexpected stance. He actively fought against the death penalty for his attacker.
Flynt, a lifelong opponent of capital punishment, believed that the government should not be in the business of executing people. Despite his controversial public persona, Flynt's perspective offered surprising moral wisdom, challenging preconceived notions about justice and human rights.
Fourteen
At the age of fourteen, Rois Atmar entered into a marriage that would trap her in an abusive relationship for five years. The situation escalated to the point where she was severely burned when her husband set her on fire during a violent outburst, leaving her hospitalized for three months.
With the support of a social worker and the police, Atmar was able to escape the toxic environment with her children. Today, she works for a non-profit organization dedicated to providing victims of domestic abuse with safe housing and community support, helping others break free from the cycle of violence.
Olympic Gold
Winning Olympic gold is a remarkable achievement, but in 2016, some of the U.S.'s top gymnasts made headlines for a far more important reason. They bravely spoke out about the abuse they endured at the hands of Larry Nassar, a trusted team physician.
Nassar served as the team doctor for over 20 years, using his position to exploit and molest more than 200 young athletes. Thanks to their courageous testimonies, Nassar was sentenced to life in prison, ensuring that he would never harm another athlete again.
The Chameleon
Stephen Morin earned the nickname "The Chameleon" after taking the lives of over thirty women across the United States. However, in 1981, he abducted Margaret Palm, and her influence would alter his path. Held captive for ten hours, Margaret insisted they listen to the sermons of Rev. Kenneth Copeland, an act that profoundly affected Morin.
Moved by the experience, Morin decided to release Margaret. Shortly after, he planned to confess his crimes and seek Rev. Copeland's blessing. Before he could reach the preacher's home, Morin was arrested by police. He was sentenced to death, and his final words were a prayer.
Erratic And Violent
One night, Tracy Edwards was invited by an acquaintance, Jeffrey Dahmer, for drinks and a movie. Edwards had no reason to suspect anything was wrong until Dahmer's behavior turned erratic and violent. During a tense moment, Dahmer brandished a butcher knife and exhibited rapid mood swings before handcuffing Edwards’ wrist.
In a desperate bid, Edwards managed to overpower Dahmer, striking him before escaping the apartment. He quickly flagged down a passing police car, leading to Dahmer’s arrest. Despite saving many others by helping bring Dahmer to justice, Edwards suffered immense trauma from the ordeal, living on the streets for years. He was later arrested in 2011 after a violent altercation with another homeless man, a reflection of the deep scars left by his past.
Brutally Attacked
In 1991, Dahmer brutally attacked 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone, even drilling a hole in his skull and injecting hydrochloric acid into his brain to create his own personal zombie. During a brief moment when Dahmer left Sinthasomphone unattended, the boy managed to escape and attract the attention of two police officers.
When the officers arrived, Dahmer convinced them that Sinthasomphone was his drunk boyfriend, and they left, allowing Dahmer to return with the boy. After the police departed, Dahmer ended Sinthasomphone's life with a second injection. This tragic event highlights how narrowly Edwards escaped Dahmer's grasp and the horrifying extent of Dahmer's manipulation.
Quick Thinking
Pilot Ahmedou Mohamed Lemine demonstrated quick thinking and courage when hijackers attempted to take control of Air Mauritania's flight. Realizing the hijackers couldn't speak French, Lemine cleverly used the PA system to communicate with passengers, warning them to prepare for turbulence.
Seizing the moment, Lemine deliberately rocked the plane, creating chaos that allowed the crew to subdue the confused hijackers. His swift actions not only saved his life but also protected the passengers and crew from a potentially disastrous situation.
Bomb
Some people face misfortune, but Mason Wells seems to have encountered more than his fair share. In 2013, while cheering for his mother at the Boston Marathon, a bomb detonated nearby. Miraculously, both Mason and his mother survived the explosion, an experience that led him to dedicate himself to missionary work with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
However, Mason’s run-ins with danger didn’t end there. Despite surviving the bombing, his life would soon take another perilous turn, further proving how unluckily his path seemed to unfold.
Missionary Work
Wells' missionary work took him across the globe, but it often placed him in dangerous situations. Two years after the Boston attack, he was in Paris during another terrorist incident. Although he was farther from the epicenter this time, it's likely he still received plenty of concerned messages about his safety.
Just a year later, Wells found himself in Brussels during yet another bombing. He sustained minor burns and shrapnel injuries but miraculously survived. In total, Wells has been present for three terrorist attacks and lived to tell the tale. It raises the question: Is he the luckiest unlucky person or the unluckiest lucky person?
Late Night Visitor
Sherione Johnson had a visitor on Christmas Eve, 2016, but it wasn’t St. Nick—a burglar broke into her home and demanded her car keys.
When the burglar aimed his gun at one of Johnson’s grandkids, she sprang into action and snatched her own shotgun. Johnson held her burglar at gunpoint until her children came home. They dutifully roughed him up and sent him packing. The family that kicks criminal butt together…
Thrown Down A Well
In 2007, Alexander Pichushkin threw 19-year-old Maria Viricheva down a well. Viricheva, three months pregnant, fell nearly 30 feet, but she managed to use her whole body to wedge herself in place and keep from being sucked down a drainage pipe.
She was not the only victim of Pichushkin, and curiously, not the only survivor, although the terrifying serial killer had managed to rack up 48 victims in his time. When Viricheva reached the top of the well, her screams and attempts to budge the 40kg (88lb) iron cover startled a passerby, who quickly fled. Viricheva thought that was it, and that no one would ever help her. Luckily, the woman had run to a nearby garage, and two security workers were able to come back and pull Viricheva from the well.
Getting Out
Things weren’t working out between Marcin Kasprzak and his fiancée (and the mother of his four-year-old child) Michelina Lewandowska, so he tasered her and buried her alive in a cardboard box.
Fittingly, Lewandowska used her engagement ring to cut through her restraints and dig her way out. Kasprzak was sentenced to 20 years in prison, while his accomplice was sent to a young offender’s institution. Lewandowska said that “The thing that saved me was thinking of my little boy, Jakub. If I died I would never see him again and he would be left without his mother.”
Survivor
As they were sitting and talking on some railway tracks, Holly Dunn and her boyfriend were attacked by Angel Resendiz. After killing the boyfriend, Resendiz brutally beat and stabbed, leaving her to die in a ditch.
However, Dunn did not die, and she managed to drag herself to a nearby house and receive aid. Dunn is the only woman to have survived an encounter with “the Railway Killer,” and her testimony was crucial in sending him to jail.
The Sympathetic Talk
Seventeen-year-old Lisa McVey Noland was working the night shift at a donut shop in November 1984. At the time, there was an active serial killer in the area, and she had heard about it, but never expected that she would come face to face with him one night while leaving her job. The man knocked her off her bicycle and pulled her into his car. What transpired next was a brutal and relentless 26-hour attack on McVey Noland by the man. McVey Noland already had a survivor’s instinct—she’d been the victim of childhood sexual abuse.
She began speaking softly to her attacker, drawing him out of his shell, sharing her own life experiences, and listening to him. The man grew so sympathetic that he let McVey Noland go. The time she spent with her attacker allowed her to give a very thorough description to the police, and he was apprehended shortly after.
The 911 Operator
Jennifer Morey, a 25-year-old lawyer, had purposely chosen her apartment building because it offered 24-hour security with an on-premises guard, giving her a sense of safety as a young woman living alone. But shortly after she went to bed, she was attacked by an intruder in her dark apartment, who forced himself on her at knifepoint and cut her throat before forcing her into the bathroom and leaving.
She held the bathroom door shut for so long that it jammed, and she was unable to open the doorknob with blood all over her hands. When she got out, her phone and lights were dead, but she was able to find her cell phone and call 911. It was Richard Everett’s first night as an operator, but he tried to keep her calm. Minutes into their call, there was a pounding on her door—but Morey wasn’t safe just yet. The man at the door said he was building security, but Everett felt that something was off, and advised her not to open the door. The building’s security had not contacted 911 or the police, and vice versa. How could the guard know what was happening in the apartment?
The Danger Continues
When police did arrive, they found the guard bloodied, with a hand injury. He claimed that he had been attacked by an intruder, but they knew something was off. He didn’t have any underwear on, and his Pinkerton Security cap was missing. You can guess where they found both items—in Morey’s apartment. The guard had gone back and knocked on the door so that he could retrieve the evidence and finish the job. Without Everett on the phone guiding her, Morey might have fallen victim to the guard twice.
During a lawsuit against the Pinkerton Security company, negligence seemed rampant, including a case where another guard had used his badge to coerce a girl into his car, where he assaulted and shot her. Morey eventually accepted an undisclosed settlement from the security company, The guard was sentenced to 20 years in prison. After years of dealing with the trauma of her attack, Morey opened her own family law practice. And the cautious 911 operator? He went to Morey’s wedding and they remain close friends to this day.
Against All Odds
There are stories of people who survive against all odds, and then there’s Mary Vincent. When she was just a 15-year-old runaway, she was picked up while hitchhiking by 50-year-old Lawrence Singleton. After driving for a while, she was repeatedly abused and assaulted, before being drugged. When she woke up, she begged for her life and freedom, and he responded by cutting off both her forearms, using just 5 blows with a hatchet.
As she lost consciousness, he shoved her naked, dismembered body into a concrete culvert. But Vincent woke up, realized her dire condition, and walked three miles, following car sounds to a freeway, holding up what was left of her arms into the air so that she wouldn’t bleed out. While the first car that saw her sped away in horror, a traveling couple stopped and took her to an airport to call an ambulance. The teenagers in the next story refused to be silenced by the tragedy that claimed the lives of their friends.
School Tragedy
In 2018, the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkside, Florida suffered an unthinkable tragedy when a gunman shot seventeen of their classmates. Refusing to be silenced, the teenagers took to social media, challenging politicians to make changes to gun laws that would ensure such a tragedy would never happen again.
Their movement quickly gained speed, causing many corporations to sever ties with the National Rifle Association, and proving that, together, even the youngest members of a community can cause major social change.
The Great Escape
Erica Pratt was just seven years old when two men snatched her from a Philadelphia sidewalk. There was one witness present, a 6-year-old child named Rani Byrd. Rani tried to help Erica but was pushed to the ground before two men pulled off. When Erica's grandmother called for Erica and her sister, a crying Rani stated that Erica had been kidnapped, but her sister was around the corner
The men brought her to an abandoned building where they tied her up, but Pratt was able to chew through her restraints and sneak out a window. Her bravery and composure earned her a National Courage Award in 2003.
The Last Attack
Between 1980 and 1982, residents of Minneapolis were terrorized by a sadistic serial killer. He was known as the 'Weepy-Voiced Killer' due to the fact that following his murders, he would call the police and wail in a high-pitched town down the phone. The first victim of this serial killer was 20-year-old Karen Potak, a University of Stevens Point student. She was walking home from a nightclub at approximately 1 AM on New Year’s Day of 1980.
As she walked down the street near Pierce Butler Road and Syndicate Avenue in St. Paul, Minneapolis, she was attacked by a man with a tire iron. She was left clinging to life under the cool winter air. At around 3 AM, police received a phone call from the woman’s attacker. His voice quivered with emotion as he directed police to the crime scene, stating: 'There’s a girl hurt here…' Miraculously, Karen survived the attack but was left without her memory.
Twenty-Six Hours Of Hell
Lisa didn’t know but the man who had abducted her was Bobby Joe Long. By the time he abducted Lisa, he had already murdered at least ten women along the strip of Tampa. Lisa was determined to survive this ordeal and she knew that she needed to earn her abductor’s trust. She started to speak to Long as though he were her friend, asking him what had happened in his life. Long complained that he had gone through a bitter breakup and was taking revenge on women.
After a 26-hour ordeal, Long decided that he would let Lisa live. When Long let Lisa go, she managed to catch a glimpse of his face and gave a detailed description to the police, who apprehended him shortly thereafter. Following his arrest, he confessed to ten murders and received a death sentence. In 2019, that death sentence was carried out. Lisa was in the front row of the execution witnesses.
The Grim Sleeper
In 1989, 30-year-old Enietra Washington was walking to a friend's home in South Los Angeles when she reluctantly accepted a ride from Lonnie Franklin, Jr. after he repeatedly offered to give her a lift. Not wanting to seem rude, she got into his vehicle. Franklin - without warning - shot Washington in the chest. When she tried to flee the car, Franklin told her he would shoot her again.
Franklin simply opened the door of his car and pushed Washington out into the street. Struggling to remain conscious, Washington managed to get to a friend's house and eventually received the medical attention she needed to survive the attack. Nearly two decades later, Franklin was apprehended with the help of familial DNA and was later convicted. Washington was a star witness at his trial, and her powerful testimony undoubtedly helped put the serial murderer, who was dubbed the "Grim Sleeper" by the press, behind bars for the rest of his life.
The Millionaire
On June 13, 1983, Robert Hansen abducted 17-year-old Cindy Paulson and took her to his home in Anchorage, AK, where he chained her up and subjected the teenager to terrifying acts. Then, Hansen forced Paulson into his vehicle and drove to a nearby airport. Hansen attempted to make the 17-year-old board his private plane. However, the teenager, certain her captor would kill her if got onto the aircraft, managed to escape. With handcuffs still on her wrists, she flagged down a car that took her to safety.
Paulson immediately reported the abduction and rape to law enforcement - even providing them with information that led them right to Hansen's door - the local business owner managed to convince police the teenager was trying to extort money from him. Months later, the authorities finally arrested Hansen for committing multiple murders. Hansen was given life in prison for his crimes and ultimately died of natural causes in 2014 while in police custody.
The Night Stalker
In the early hours of July 5, 1985, Richard Ramirez entered 16-year-old Whitney Bennett's bedroom through an unlocked window. He attacked the teenager with a tire iron and strangled her in the Sierra Madre, California, home she shared with her parents. When she regained consciousness, Bennett screamed for her parents who promptly got their daughter the medical help she needed to save her life.
While Ramirez - who was dubbed the "Night Stalker" for the brutal murders he committed in and around Los Angeles and San Francisco - stole some of the teenager's jewelry, he left behind a bloody footprint law enforcement used to link the attack to his other crimes. The following month, Ramirez was apprehended and, in 1989, Bennett testified at his trial. She provided valuable testimony against the man who tried to murder her. Ramirez was convicted of multiple counts of murder, sexual assault, and attempted murder, and while he was sentenced to death, he passed away in 2013 due to complications secondary to B-cell lymphoma.
The Yorkshire Ripper
Around 4 a.m. on the morning of May 9, 1976, 20-year-old Marcella Claxton was viciously attacked by Peter Sutcliffe - a serial killer who had already murdered two victims and would go on to kill several more - as she was making her way back to her home in Leeds, England. Sutcliffe hit Claxton in the head multiple times with a hammer, knocking the young woman to the ground.
Remarkably, Claxton managed to crawl to a phone booth and call for help. She received more than 50 stitches and had to undergo brain surgery. Sadly, she was four months pregnant at the time of the attack, and she suffered a miscarriage following the horrifying event. After nearly killing Claxton, Sutcliffe - who was dubbed the "Yorkshire Ripper" by the media - went on to attack and murder several more women. He was finally captured in 1980, and he eventually told police about beating Claxton with the hammer and leaving her for dead. Thankfully, Sutcliffe was given a life sentence for his crimes, while Claxton, who reportedly suffers chronic headaches and blackouts as a result of the near-fatal attack, went on to become a mother.
The Green River Killer
On a rainy evening in November 1982, 20-year-old Rebecca Garde was walking home from work in Seattle when she accepted a ride from Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer. At her request, Ridgway showed her his employee ID for the company where he worked painting trucks before accompanying him to a wooded area to have sex. However, shortly after getting out of his truck, Ridgway attacked the young woman, forcing her to the ground and attempting to strangle her. Incredibly, Garde managed to get free from her attacker and ran to a nearby home for help, leaving Ridgway behind with his pants around his ankles.
While the young woman knew where her would-be killer worked, she didn't report the assault for two years, largely because sex workers are illegal in Washington state. Ridgway wasn't arrested until 2001 and he was eventually convicted of murdering 49 teenage girls and women and given multiple life sentences for his crimes. Garde - who could have easily been one of the Green River Killer's victims - later said, "I got lucky and I was able to get away and run for help."
The Lone Survivor
On July 14, 1966, Richard Speck broke into a Chicago townhouse shared by several student nurses, eventually murdering all of the women inside the home - except for Corazon Amurao. Amurao hid under a bed while Speck took eight of her fellow nurses, one by one, into another room where he strangled or stabbed them to death. After murdering Gloria Davy, Speck fled the crime scene, but he was arrested a few days later.
He tried to kill himself and was admitted to a Chicago hospital, where a doctor recognized the wanted killer from a sketch created with the help of Amurao. Amurao testified at Speck's trial in April 1967, and when she was asked to identify the person who murdered eight of her friends, she got up from the witness box, crossed the courtroom, and stood directly in front of Speck. Speck was convicted and sentenced to death for his crimes, while Amurao went on to become a nurse, wife, mother, and grandmother. Speck's sentence was eventually changed to life in prison, and he died of a heart attack in 1991 while in police custody.
A Quick Getaway
On November 9, 1986, 17-year-old Kate Moir was kidnapped by David and Catherine Birnie, a married couple who had already abducted and murdered four women and girls ranging in age from 15 to 31. Moir was taken to the Birnie's home in Willagee, Australia, where David repeatedly raped the teenager at knife-point as his wife Catherine watched. The following morning, David went to work, leaving Moir at home with Catherine. When a visitor came to the couple's home, the 17-year-old - who Catherine had failed to restrain - managed to force open a window in the bedroom where she was being held captive.
She knocked on the doors of three of the nearest houses, discovering the Birnies' neighbors weren't home until she found a man outside of a store who immediately drove Moir to the police station. Thanks to Moir's brave escape, David and Catherine were convicted of multiple murders, and they were given life sentences for their crimes. Moir has dedicated her life to advocating for victims' rights, demanding truth in sentencing, and asking the courts to deny parole for sex offenders and people who commit premeditated murder.
A Fortunate Escape
In the early morning hours of January 15, 1978, Ted Bundy broke into an FSU sorority house in Tallahassee, FL, and brutally attacked four young members of Chi Omega. He murdered Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy, two of the home's residents - Kathy Kleiner and Karen Chandler - managed to survive the violent assaults. At that point, Bundy was a full-blown serial killer, who took the lives of several women in Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Idaho, and Utah before traveling to Florida.
Bundy went on to kill his final victim, 12-year-old Kimberly Leach, in Lake City, FL, before he was apprehended on February 15, 1978. He was initially pulled over by an officer for driving a stolen vehicle. Bundy was eventually convicted of multiple murders and given the death penalty. Bundy was executed in Florida's electric chair on January 24, 1989.