This is one instance that sticks out in my mind almost above everything else. And this may be a longer post than normal because of what’s involved in explaining it to you. After the one failed attempt to escape the situation I was in, all I could think about was getting out. The tension had been building, listening to those screaming kids every day and being treated like a piece of crap.
I was tired of trying, things had gone from bad to worse and I wanted out. There was a door in the basement but it was blocked off. With Jesse and Caleb in that room where the door was, it would be impossible to get out that way. Jesse would have hurled me across the room.
My plan was to take Cameron and casually walk to the van, which meant I would need to go upstairs and through the kitchen to the garage to get out. However, what I envisioned in my mind didn’t go as smoothly as I imagined.
I picked up Cameron from his crib, not even wrapping him in a blanket so not to seem like I was actually taking him somewhere. Climbed the stairs and walked down the hall to the great room adjacent to the kitchen. Leon and Jesse were on the sofa, a couple of the kids were playing on the floor and Janice was in the kitchen.
As I started from the end of the counter into the kitchen, Leon yelled, “she’s trying to get away, grab her!”. Everything started happening so fast. Before I could make it to the door, Jesse and Leon grabbed me. Leon told Janice to “get the baby”. She reached and took Cameron from my arms as I was being tackled to the floor.
There was a butcher knife laying on the counter which Jesse grabbed. Leon had both my legs, one under each of his arms holding me. Jesse had my upper body, one of my arms, a knee on my chest and with his other hand put the knife to my throat. I was struggling with all my might until that point but once he laid the knife to my throat I got very still.
I couldn’t believe what was happening. Janice was standing right in front of the door with Cameron in her arms crying profusely. As if she was blocking the door. Jesse told me I could go, but I was not going to take that baby anywhere. He told Janice to move away from the door. Jesse took the knife away and he and Leon slowly released their grip. I got up and ran for the door throwing it open and running to the safety of my van.
Running From The Abuse
All I had were van keys in my pocket, nothing else. I jumped in the van, cranked it and drove away. I wanted to get as far away from that house as I possibly could. But I didn’t have any idea where to go.
The money I had was gone. So it wasn’t like I could just go get a motel room somewhere. I don’t recall specifically, but I’m sure there wasn’t much gas in the van and nothing to eat. Like I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, the van became my saving grace. I really don’t know what I would have done without it. It served as my living quarters more than once.
I drove around until I found a secluded pond. Not a large lake connected to a bigger body of water, but just a small average size pond. The kind you would find in the woods somewhere. The ground around the pond was level on one side, it was away from everything and everybody. I drove to a level spot on the side that was in the sunshine and parked. It was warm weather, so I opened the side doors and laid down on the van floor and went fast to sleep. The anxiety of what I had been through was finally catching up with me.
I stayed parked in that one spot for a couple days and didn’t move. I felt safe there. Know one came around, no body bothered me. For some reason, I had shampoo in the van. During the day, while it was so warm, I dove in the pond to wash off and wash my hair. But I was getting super hungry. Luckily there was a pack of nabs in the van (some people call them cheese crackers, I call them nabs – made by Lance). But it was only one pack and that didn’t last very long. I don’t remember what I did for water. Probably drink some of the water out of that pond, knowing me.
I apologize for this being such a long post. I knew it was going to take longer to explain what happened. After a couple days and knowing I couldn’t stay parked beside that pond forever, I decided to drive back towards the Hartman house. There was a strip shopping mall within a couple miles and a service station with a bathroom.
I waited until dark, so the van wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb as bad. Drove to the service station and washed off in the bathroom. Yes, I dried my hair using one of those hand blowers. Then, drove across the street and parked about in the center of the shopping mall parking lot. Locked all the doors on the van and laid down on the floor.
Help Found Me
About 2am I was awakened by flashlights and voices. Two police officers were looking in the van. I tried to hide, but that’s hard to do when the van has those scenic windows on the side. They saw me and I climbed up in the driver’s seat and rolled the window down. Having to explain why I was there and that I had tried to get my baby out of that house. I didn’t have money for a room or gas for the van but sleeping in that parking lot until the next morning.
The officers were pleasant and said their shift would be over soon but that they would alert the officers on the next shift and I would have an escort to the house to get the baby. No ID, no nothing, they took me at my word.
I waited the next morning, and sure enough, two different officers showed up to escort me to the Hartman house. The three of us went to the front door, knocked, and Janice came to the door. She was as friendly as a person could be. The officers explained they needed me to get my identification and they wanted to see the baby. Janice smiled and explained there was no baby except for her son Randy. But she allowed the officers inside to look around.
They went all over the house, but there was absolutely no sign of Jesse, Cameron, or Caleb anywhere. They questioned Janice about what happened when I was tackled and she took the baby from me. She acted like she didn’t know what they were talking about, and of course, she didn’t know where Jesse had gone.
I had shown them all around downstairs, our bedroom, Cameron’s crib, Jesse and Caleb’s party room. But everything was peacefully quiet. Nothing going on out of the ordinary. One officer and myself were almost back to the top of the stairs, with the second officer just starting back up, when he heard something and said “wait”. It was a faint whimper but it was definitely downstairs. The stairs came down in an “L” shape with a landing where you make the turn. The door to the crawl space for the house was located at that landing.
The officer opened the crawl space door and shined his flashlight back underneath the house. Way back in the corner was Cameron laying on a blanket in the dirt. The officer crawled on his belly in the dirt and retrieved Cameron. Bringing him out, they took me and the baby and got us a motel room nearby and something to eat. I was told not to leave that room, which I had no intentions of doing anyway.
I’ll stop this particular post for now and pickup with it in my next post. Jesse was no where to be seen during all this with the police officers at their house. I was never so thankful for the help the officers gave me. It still wasn’t over, but during all this time I never once thought to reach out for help from the police.
Leave a Reply