Latest / The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories / True Crime Documentary - Violence in a Quiet Town The Colts Neck Attack That Shocked Everyone
Transcript
- 0:15Speaker 1: It is farm country, horse country, bucolic, upwardly mobile, wealthy
- 0:30Speaker 1: type of community, a fluent It's a quiet place.
- 0:40Speaker 2: Tiny, unassuming house, just a simple farmhouse.
- 0:47Speaker 3: Cold Snack has a lot of these.
- 0:50Speaker 1: Yes, this beautiful little farmhouse with this beautiful farm star
- 0:55Speaker 1: you know, in the middle of it.
- 1:03Speaker 4: In July of twenty thirteen, I was an assistant prosecutor
- 1:06Speaker 4: in Mammoth County, New Jersey. Donna in Shacko was alone.
- 1:14Speaker 4: She had just gone to bed for the evening.
- 1:18Speaker 2: An intruder came into her house and attacked her, stabbing
- 1:21Speaker 2: her repeatedly.
- 1:25Speaker 5: I'm on one word's emergency.
- 1:27Speaker 6: Oh my name is Dona on shack I get that stabbed?
- 1:30Speaker 6: Or are you really bad? Kid? Just came in and stabbing?
- 1:38Speaker 4: Okay, out of my heart.
- 1:39Speaker 6: I'm poor in cushion.
- 1:40Speaker 7: Gloved, some losing consciousness.
- 1:46Speaker 5: Keep your eyes open with Donna. Donna.
- 1:55Speaker 8: I was driving home. There was maybe like three'clock in
- 2:00Speaker 8: the morning, three thirty. As I pulled up closer, I
- 2:07Speaker 8: saw big SUVs, cop cars, lights flashing everywhere. I was like,
- 2:16Speaker 8: where is my mom? And they were like, well, she
- 2:22Speaker 8: has been attacked and she's on her way to the hospital.
- 2:29Speaker 8: They couldn't tell me whether she was alive or she wasn't.
- 2:37Speaker 2: That I was new into major crimes. I didn't have
- 2:40Speaker 2: the experience at some of the older detectives, so I
- 2:43Speaker 2: had never seen that much blood before.
- 2:48Speaker 8: Why would somebody do this?
- 2:49Speaker 9: Who did this? What did she ever do to anybody?
- 2:53Speaker 9: You know?
- 2:56Speaker 2: On that night, in the early morning hours, we got
- 2:59Speaker 2: a nine to one one call from a worker from
- 3:01Speaker 2: this restaurant.
- 3:03Speaker 10: About how far from Donna's house are we standing right here?
- 3:08Speaker 9: This is about an eight minute drive.
- 3:11Speaker 2: They called because they saw a subject walking through their
- 3:15Speaker 2: drive through.
- 3:16Speaker 6: Already touch police.
- 3:17Speaker 8: One of my.
- 3:17Speaker 10: Customers were in drive through, were approached by a man
- 3:20Speaker 10: with no shirt but had a.
- 3:21Speaker 2: Knife in his hands, knocking on windows carrying a knife.
- 3:26Speaker 2: One of the witnesses who saw the young man, she
- 3:30Speaker 2: agreed to come in and give us a sketch.
- 3:34Speaker 4: Everybody was asking about the police question. It was in
- 3:37Speaker 4: every store. People were frighted.
- 3:42Speaker 3: Can you tell me about the tip?
- 3:44Speaker 9: I get a call.
- 3:46Speaker 2: The woman on the other end says that she's calling
- 3:48Speaker 2: about the stabbing in Coltsnack.
- 3:51Speaker 9: She said, I think my cousin may have something to.
- 3:54Speaker 6: Do with that.
- 4:43Speaker 10: Tiny Coltsneck New Jersey sits just fifty miles from New
- 4:46Speaker 10: York City, but it might as well be a world away.
- 4:52Speaker 10: So in July twenty thirteen, this quiet community was rocked
- 4:56Speaker 10: by news of a violent home invasion with a victim
- 5:00Speaker 10: was stabbed repeatedly. The only thing more shocking.
- 5:06Speaker 11: My name is Donna. I'm Chako.
- 5:08Speaker 10: The victim survived.
- 5:11Speaker 12: I lost in total, close to three quarters of the
- 5:15Speaker 12: blood in my body. There's no earthly reason why I'm alive.
- 5:21Speaker 9: None.
- 5:21Speaker 13: If I had asked you at the time to give
- 5:24Speaker 13: me a list of one hundred things you're worried about,
- 5:27Speaker 13: where would have home invasion been?
- 5:29Speaker 11: Oh no, never.
- 5:34Speaker 10: Donna worked for a company that broke fuel for ships
- 5:38Speaker 10: on the nearby Jersey Shore. She and her daughter Kirsten
- 5:42Speaker 10: lived in this farmhouse on the edge of flower fields.
- 5:45Speaker 8: She was twenty when she had me, so we're only
- 5:48Speaker 8: twenty years and one day apart.
- 5:50Speaker 10: Friend Sharon Sharp hired Donna decades ago.
- 5:54Speaker 3: Kirston had just been born.
- 5:56Speaker 1: Yeah, Kirsten was a baby. I thought she was really bad,
- 6:00Speaker 1: being a single mom, very young.
- 6:07Speaker 8: I was by her side all the time.
- 6:12Speaker 10: Kirsten, who now works as a welder, recalls what life
- 6:17Speaker 10: was like just prior to her mother's attack.
- 6:19Speaker 8: We were going to the gym multiple times a week.
- 6:22Speaker 8: Not only was she like mentally strong, but she was
- 6:25Speaker 8: physically strong.
- 6:26Speaker 9: She was so fit.
- 6:27Speaker 1: She did tough mutters with Kirsten.
- 6:30Speaker 12: I liked that competition. I like to show strength, physical strength.
- 6:34Speaker 12: Things couldn't have been any better at that time.
- 6:42Speaker 10: That's when Saturday of July, fourth weekend rolled around. Mammouth
- 6:46Speaker 10: County Detective Andrea Tazzi says they were having a heat wave.
- 6:51Speaker 2: It was humid, but we had no rain or anything
- 6:53Speaker 2: like that. I mean, it was a dry night. So
- 6:56Speaker 2: Donna had our windows open. Yes, the windows open, just
- 7:01Speaker 2: to circ obviously, to circulate air.
- 7:05Speaker 12: Kirsten was out at a party, so I was home
- 7:12Speaker 12: doing laundry. I'd say about eleven eleven thirty, I decide
- 7:17Speaker 12: I'm gonna get ready for bed.
- 7:19Speaker 11: I let the cat out. I went and brushed my.
- 7:21Speaker 10: Teeth, But just as she was drifting off to.
- 7:27Speaker 11: Sleep, I heard what I thought was the cat.
- 7:30Speaker 12: I heard something, and I remembered, oh, I forgot to
- 7:33Speaker 12: let the cat.
- 7:33Speaker 10: In without turning on any lights. Donna headed downstairs to
- 7:40Speaker 10: open the front door for her cat.
- 7:42Speaker 12: But instead, when I opened the door. I saw someone
- 7:46Speaker 12: standing there. In the split second after seeing this person
- 7:52Speaker 12: on my porch, I saw the knife he was trying
- 7:57Speaker 12: to cut into the screen of the window that was
- 8:00Speaker 12: right next to the front door.
- 8:02Speaker 10: She says she didn't recognize the young white male standing
- 8:05Speaker 10: right in front of her holding a large knife.
- 8:08Speaker 12: I tried to slam and shut the door. My fingers
- 8:13Speaker 12: were protruding out. He stuck the knife through the opening
- 8:16Speaker 12: and hut my finger so that I immediately let go of
- 8:20Speaker 12: the door, and then he pushed his way in, backing
- 8:25Speaker 12: into my kitchen.
- 8:26Speaker 11: We're face to face.
- 8:29Speaker 12: It didn't register to me that he was actually going
- 8:32Speaker 12: to stab me.
- 8:34Speaker 10: But without a word, that's exactly what the stranger did.
- 8:39Speaker 12: He slashed my cheek and you can see that here,
- 8:43Speaker 12: and actually it starts back here.
- 8:46Speaker 11: There was no way to process that that happened.
- 8:52Speaker 10: Donna's attacker came at her with the knife again.
- 8:55Speaker 12: He then slashed three times on this side of my neck.
- 9:00Speaker 10: She tried grabbing the knife, but only cut her own
- 9:03Speaker 10: hand in the process.
- 9:05Speaker 14: Did you feel like you were dealing with somebody who's
- 9:06Speaker 14: really strong.
- 9:08Speaker 12: No, But I felt like he was very sure, like
- 9:13Speaker 12: he was very in control of himself.
- 9:16Speaker 10: Donna was starting to weaken from the injuries, so.
- 9:21Speaker 12: I felt like my legs were going to give out,
- 9:24Speaker 12: so I braced myself against the corner of my bathroom,
- 9:28Speaker 12: right next to the front door.
- 9:30Speaker 10: Sure enough, she slid down to the floor.
- 9:33Speaker 12: I was in fetal position and I'm bleeding, and he
- 9:37Speaker 12: came over and it was kind of like he was playing,
- 9:39Speaker 12: you know, with the knife and just started jabbing at me.
- 9:41Speaker 12: So that's when he caught me here and he got
- 9:47Speaker 12: me in the back of my neck.
- 9:48Speaker 5: Here.
- 9:49Speaker 10: Finally, Donna's attacker spoke to her.
- 9:52Speaker 12: This was when he decided to ask me for my
- 9:56Speaker 12: car keys and if I had a lighter, a lighter.
- 9:59Speaker 12: I just answered him, there's a lighter in my purse,
- 10:03Speaker 12: and my purse was on the table back in the kitchen.
- 10:05Speaker 12: So he went over and was rummaging through my purse
- 10:08Speaker 12: and got the keys, got the lighter.
- 10:12Speaker 10: Donna's assailant ended up taking her entire purse with him,
- 10:16Speaker 10: but not before returning one last time to Donna, still
- 10:20Speaker 10: bleeding on the floor.
- 10:22Speaker 12: He said, you dead bitch, and plunge the knife into
- 10:25Speaker 12: my chest.
- 10:28Speaker 3: Once he plunges the knife in and then removes it.
- 10:31Speaker 3: What does he do?
- 10:32Speaker 11: Then he just walked out the door, with.
- 10:36Speaker 10: No neighbors in earshot. Donna knew she must get help somehow.
- 10:41Speaker 3: Your phone is in reach.
- 10:44Speaker 12: No, my phone was upstairs in my bedroom charging.
- 10:48Speaker 10: Donna had no landline in the house. But even as
- 10:51Speaker 10: the blood was draining rapidly from her body, she had
- 10:55Speaker 10: one pressing concern above her own survival.
- 11:00Speaker 12: Pearston could come home and find me. I just didn't
- 11:03Speaker 12: want her to have to experience any level of the
- 11:05Speaker 12: horror that I had just gone through, or any other
- 11:09Speaker 12: levels in finding me there dead.
- 11:11Speaker 14: So this is a mother's instinct as pure as it gets.
- 11:17Speaker 12: Yes, absolutely, yeah.
- 11:21Speaker 13: You know you have to get upstairs if you're going
- 11:23Speaker 13: to be able to make a call for help, Right,
- 11:26Speaker 13: how do you get up those stairs?
- 11:30Speaker 12: So that I don't know, there was divine intervention that
- 11:36Speaker 12: helped me up those stairs, no doubt, no doubt in
- 11:39Speaker 12: my mind.
- 11:54Speaker 7: She's a tiny little woman.
- 11:57Speaker 4: You have to imagine that many stairborn, and she just
- 12:01Speaker 4: willed it. She was not going to die there.
- 12:05Speaker 10: Former Mammoth County Assistant prosecutor Lorie Gerhardt says Donna Angshaka
- 12:10Speaker 10: was determined her daughter Kirsten would not come home to
- 12:13Speaker 10: find her death. She knew she had to get to
- 12:16Speaker 10: her cell phone upstairs.
- 12:19Speaker 12: I don't remember my feet or my hands actually touching
- 12:23Speaker 12: the stairs. The energy that it took for me to
- 12:27Speaker 12: get up off the ground and up those stairs, I
- 12:31Speaker 12: was definitely guided.
- 12:34Speaker 8: The amount of strength that goes into that is just unimaginable.
- 12:39Speaker 3: But the motivation was you.
- 12:40Speaker 8: Yeah, yep, maybe I was there guiding her in spirit.
- 12:49Speaker 10: Once Donna made it upstairs, she faced a new challenge.
- 12:53Speaker 10: After peering out her bedroom window, she had a car.
- 12:56Speaker 9: Sitting right here, and she had a car sitting right
- 12:58Speaker 9: in this area.
- 13:00Speaker 12: I could still see the car was there, and I
- 13:01Speaker 12: could see the car was on and he was in it.
- 13:04Speaker 12: If I take my phone off the charger, it's going
- 13:06Speaker 12: to light up. He's going to see the light.
- 13:09Speaker 10: Afraid or attacker would come back for her, Donna did
- 13:12Speaker 10: her best to hide the light of the phone. Then
- 13:15Speaker 10: just getting it to work became the next hurdle.
- 13:19Speaker 12: My hands are covered in blood my touchscreen. I was
- 13:21Speaker 12: trying to swipe and swipe, so I ended up having
- 13:24Speaker 12: to wipe my hands off, wipe the phone off, wipe
- 13:27Speaker 12: it down on the bed, and then I was able
- 13:29Speaker 12: to do the touch screen and get through to nine
- 13:31Speaker 12: to one one.
- 13:32Speaker 6: Oh, my name is Dona Jack I get that stabbed.
- 13:35Speaker 6: It's really bad. Kid just came in and stabbed me
- 13:37Speaker 6: and he saw my car.
- 13:38Speaker 5: Okay, okay, okay, just stand up on me. Okay, where'd
- 13:40Speaker 5: he gets stabbed.
- 13:41Speaker 6: In the next blood it's cushing out.
- 13:43Speaker 10: And in the chest. Detective Andrea Tazzi says Donna's ability
- 13:48Speaker 10: to place that call despite her injuries was amazing, but
- 13:52Speaker 10: then Donna did something even more extraordinary. She gave a
- 13:56Speaker 10: detailed description of her attacker.
- 13:59Speaker 6: Oh you know what he looked like. Yeah, he was
- 14:01Speaker 6: probably about seventeen, white, real skinny, curly hair, blonde, jerdy
- 14:09Speaker 6: blonde hair. About that.
- 14:11Speaker 2: It was pretty chilling to listen to Donna and be
- 14:14Speaker 2: able to hear her accurately talk about this is what happened,
- 14:17Speaker 2: this is what he looks like. I'm losing consciousness, and
- 14:21Speaker 2: then hear her fade out.
- 14:24Speaker 5: Donna, Donna, Hello, Donna, Donna us, ma'am all right, I
- 14:34Speaker 5: just sat down for a minutes.
- 14:37Speaker 10: Police in paramedics arrived less than eight minutes after Donna
- 14:41Speaker 10: dialed nine one one, but her attacker had already fled
- 14:45Speaker 10: Donna was rushed to Jersey Shore University Medical Center and
- 14:49Speaker 10: didn't trauma surgery. It would be a few more hours
- 14:53Speaker 10: before Kirsten arrived home from her party to a house
- 14:56Speaker 10: surrounded by flashing lights.
- 14:59Speaker 8: I saw the caution tape and that her car was gone.
- 15:02Speaker 10: Police told Kirsten what happened to her mother?
- 15:06Speaker 3: You were deeply shaken.
- 15:08Speaker 8: Oh yeah, I remember at one point my knees buckled.
- 15:11Speaker 8: They had the SUV, the undercover cop car. The trunk
- 15:15Speaker 8: was open, So like, can I sit here because I
- 15:18Speaker 8: feel like I'm going to pass out.
- 15:19Speaker 10: As Kirsten was processing the news, an all out manhunt
- 15:24Speaker 10: had already begun for Donna's A Salad Detective Tazzi says
- 15:28Speaker 10: another nine to one one call had come in shortly
- 15:32Speaker 10: before Donna's attack.
- 15:33Speaker 15: I was going to pick up my daughter and there
- 15:35Speaker 15: was a hitch hiking.
- 15:37Speaker 10: From a driver who saw someone walking along the road
- 15:41Speaker 10: near Donna's house.
- 15:42Speaker 2: They saw a young man with a backpack and khaki pants.
- 15:46Speaker 2: He was walking close to the fog line and kind
- 15:49Speaker 2: of stepping into traffic, and she felt that he was
- 15:52Speaker 2: kind of a hitchhiker.
- 15:53Speaker 5: He was on the north down side, walking south down
- 15:58Speaker 5: and I'm afraid you're gonna hit by a car.
- 16:01Speaker 11: How old about I'm going to say like.
- 16:03Speaker 5: Eighteen nineteen twenty from something like that.
- 16:07Speaker 2: She was concerned because she just thought that maybe he
- 16:10Speaker 2: needed help in some way.
- 16:12Speaker 3: And was a car dispatched.
- 16:13Speaker 9: Yes, yes, they didn't find.
- 16:15Speaker 10: Him, though still the Good Samaritan driver had inadvertently given
- 16:20Speaker 10: the investigation its first leave.
- 16:23Speaker 2: I felt that the hitchhiker was my person. It was
- 16:27Speaker 2: too coincidental for that time of the night in that
- 16:29Speaker 2: area for somebody to be walking. And then fifteen minutes later,
- 16:34Speaker 2: Donna's calling said that she was stabbed and there.
- 16:37Speaker 10: Was about to be another tim Not long after Donna's
- 16:41Speaker 10: nine won one call from a fast food restaurant five
- 16:44Speaker 10: miles from her house.
- 16:46Speaker 2: They saw a subject walking through their drive through, knocking
- 16:50Speaker 2: on windows, carrying a knife and it looked like it
- 16:53Speaker 2: had blood on it.
- 16:55Speaker 10: Employees from the Taco Bell quickly called police.
- 16:58Speaker 6: I having a description of him.
- 17:00Speaker 12: He was wearing, you know, like still army pants and
- 17:02Speaker 12: he had no shirt.
- 17:03Speaker 8: He's white, but like really like bushy hair, but it
- 17:06Speaker 8: was like long, like the.
- 17:08Speaker 16: Skater type hair.
- 17:10Speaker 10: How old was he?
- 17:10Speaker 2: I don't know.
- 17:11Speaker 4: He looked like he was the eighteen.
- 17:13Speaker 10: Police rushed to the Taco Belt and started canvassing the
- 17:17Speaker 10: nearby shopping center. They didn't find their suspect, but they
- 17:21Speaker 10: did find something else.
- 17:24Speaker 2: So there had been a bolo put out on Donna's
- 17:27Speaker 2: vehicle being able to look at right and in the
- 17:30Speaker 2: process of looking for this person here they found the.
- 17:33Speaker 10: Car Donna's stolen car. This BMW had been ditched behind
- 17:38Speaker 10: a movie theater.
- 17:40Speaker 2: It was lights on and it was running, so it
- 17:43Speaker 2: clearly was an abandoned vehicle.
- 17:47Speaker 10: Tazzi says the car would become crucial.
- 17:50Speaker 2: There was blood all over it, and so we were
- 17:53Speaker 2: hoping that we would get some kind of DNA evidence
- 17:57Speaker 2: of our suspect.
- 17:59Speaker 3: Did you we did.
- 18:20Speaker 10: Sharon Sharp will never forget the dread she felt when
- 18:23Speaker 10: she arrived at the hospital to see her friend Donna
- 18:26Speaker 10: on Shako, only to be told she wasn't there.
- 18:30Speaker 13: I'm picturing the color draining from your face and the
- 18:33Speaker 13: air leaving your lungs late.
- 18:34Speaker 9: Totally, No, this cannot be. There's no way she has
- 18:37Speaker 9: to be here.
- 18:38Speaker 3: Did you think maybe she hit? Yes?
- 18:40Speaker 10: Yes, it turned out with her attacker still on the loose.
- 18:44Speaker 10: The hospital had admitted Donna under an alias to protect her.
- 18:48Speaker 10: Sharon was allowed to see Donna the next day.
- 18:52Speaker 7: An intensive care room I've never seen before.
- 18:55Speaker 1: It looked like an enlarged, massively enlarged cockpit wall because
- 19:00Speaker 1: there were tons of machines behind her, and she looked
- 19:04Speaker 1: almost like a puppet.
- 19:06Speaker 11: Surgery was seven hours, I.
- 19:08Speaker 10: Believe, despite losing three quarters of the blood in her body.
- 19:13Speaker 10: Trauma surgeons had saved Donna's life, but at a tremendous cost.
- 19:18Speaker 10: You may find the pictures you're about to see disturbing.
- 19:22Speaker 12: I pretty much looked like a living cadaver. I had
- 19:28Speaker 12: thirty seven stitches on my face and neck, thirty eight
- 19:32Speaker 12: staples in my chest, seven stitches in my hand, and
- 19:36Speaker 12: now internally my sternum is wired shut.
- 19:39Speaker 10: And as for that final stamp to Donna's chest just
- 19:42Speaker 10: before her assailant left.
- 19:44Speaker 12: It missed my heart by the edge of a dime,
- 19:48Speaker 12: is what I remember them telling me.
- 19:51Speaker 3: The edge of a dime.
- 19:54Speaker 13: When she talks about the margin that the knife missed
- 20:00Speaker 13: her heart, buy.
- 20:02Speaker 8: Yeah, if she was any slouched over anymore, that would
- 20:07Speaker 8: have been.
- 20:07Speaker 10: At Kirsten says, as soon as her mother was able
- 20:12Speaker 10: to talk, she had one simple request.
- 20:15Speaker 8: I remember her saying all I smell is is blood
- 20:19Speaker 8: in my hair. Can somebody please wash my hair?
- 20:25Speaker 10: Sharon says they got permission, and then she and two
- 20:28Speaker 10: of Donna's family members did their best to wash Donna's
- 20:32Speaker 10: hair as she lay in her hospital bed.
- 20:35Speaker 1: We were determined to see if we can make her smile,
- 20:38Speaker 1: so we turned it into an ridiculous idiot session with
- 20:42Speaker 1: three of us like.
- 20:43Speaker 9: A factory light.
- 20:45Speaker 1: We laughed through our tears, and anytime anybody would get
- 20:48Speaker 1: too serious, we would make it funny.
- 20:51Speaker 10: But her hair was far from Donna's biggest concern. She
- 20:55Speaker 10: was sure her attacker would find her and finish the job.
- 21:00Speaker 1: She was convinced that he was in the hospital, and
- 21:02Speaker 1: we kept telling her, know you're.
- 21:03Speaker 9: Here under an alias.
- 21:05Speaker 11: I survived. I stood face to face with him.
- 21:08Speaker 12: I could one hundred percent positively identify him.
- 21:12Speaker 11: He's coming back for me.
- 21:14Speaker 10: Detective Tazzi says they were pretty sure the young man
- 21:17Speaker 10: knocking on windows at the Taco Bell drive through shortly
- 21:21Speaker 10: after Donna's attack was their suspect. Within two days, a
- 21:26Speaker 10: customer who saw him met with a police sketch.
- 21:29Speaker 2: Artist and was able to provide pretty great details on
- 21:35Speaker 2: the person she saw that night.
- 21:37Speaker 10: Investigators then took the sketch to the hospital.
- 21:40Speaker 3: What did Donna say when she saw that sketch?
- 21:43Speaker 9: She said, Yeah, that's was incredibly accurate. She tweaked it
- 21:47Speaker 9: a little bit.
- 21:47Speaker 2: She said that, yes, that looks like the person who
- 21:50Speaker 2: stabbed me.
- 21:53Speaker 11: His curly blonde hair. He was like a surfer kid
- 21:57Speaker 11: or a skateboarder or something like that.
- 22:00Speaker 10: Former Assistant Prosecutor Lori Gerhardt says the sketch of the
- 22:03Speaker 10: suspect was soon plastered all over Mammouth County and on
- 22:08Speaker 10: law enforcement social media.
- 22:10Speaker 4: So people are obviously talking and trying to figure out,
- 22:14Speaker 4: do we know where is he from?
- 22:16Speaker 7: Who is this kid? And it's scary.
- 22:18Speaker 4: Because you like to have a sense of security in
- 22:22Speaker 4: your community.
- 22:24Speaker 10: Investigators reviewed the cameras of stores in the shopping center
- 22:27Speaker 10: near the Taco Bell to see if they'd get lucky
- 22:30Speaker 10: and spot their suspect, hoping the more images they had,
- 22:35Speaker 10: the more likely the chance of identifying him.
- 22:38Speaker 2: We were trying to go back and look at video
- 22:40Speaker 2: from various businesses to see the description and really to
- 22:44Speaker 2: put out the bolo like this is who we're looking for.
- 22:48Speaker 10: Security cameras had captured the suspect. Once again.
- 22:51Speaker 2: The surveillance we got from the store over there was
- 22:54Speaker 2: from the inside the store, but it was pointing outwards.
- 22:56Speaker 3: I see, and it definitely caught him.
- 22:59Speaker 9: Oh yeah, you could seeking.
- 23:00Speaker 14: Wow.
- 23:03Speaker 10: As police kept looking for the suspect, Donna was turning
- 23:06Speaker 10: a corner, at least physically. Amazingly, after just four days,
- 23:12Speaker 10: Donna Anghako was released from the hospital. Sharon says that
- 23:17Speaker 10: was all due to the training Donna had done prior
- 23:20Speaker 10: to the attack.
- 23:21Speaker 1: Clearly, she's very physically fit. She wouldn't have survived this
- 23:25Speaker 1: if she wasn't.
- 23:26Speaker 14: What's an amazing thing. You were out in four days, But.
- 23:33Speaker 10: As you leave the hospital, you are also walking back
- 23:36Speaker 10: into a world where whoever did this to you is
- 23:40Speaker 10: still out there.
- 23:41Speaker 3: Right.
- 23:42Speaker 12: But also, I wasn't going back to the farm. I
- 23:45Speaker 12: wasn't going back to my house. No, there was no way.
- 23:50Speaker 10: In fact, Donna would never step foot in her house again.
- 23:54Speaker 10: She and Kirsten moved in with family living in New Jersey.
- 23:58Speaker 10: Then just eight days after the attack, not long after
- 24:02Speaker 10: the police sketch began circulating, Detective Tazzi's phone.
- 24:06Speaker 2: Rang I take the call and the woman on the
- 24:09Speaker 2: other end says that she's calling about the stabbing in.
- 24:12Speaker 9: Coltsnack I said, okay, I said, how can I help you?
- 24:16Speaker 2: And she said, I think my cousin, Brennan Doyle may
- 24:20Speaker 2: have something to do with that.
- 24:23Speaker 10: It was the first time Tozzi had heard the name
- 24:26Speaker 10: Brennan Doyle. He was just sixteen years old. His cousin
- 24:31Speaker 10: told Tazzi word was going around her family that Brennan
- 24:35Speaker 10: was involved in the Colts Next stabbing. The cousin had
- 24:39Speaker 10: seen Brennan just days prior to Donna's attack.
- 24:43Speaker 2: Between July third and sixth, because he was up in
- 24:46Speaker 2: Connecticut for her wedding with his family.
- 24:49Speaker 3: He had attended her wedding.
- 24:50Speaker 2: He attended her wedding, and she was able to provide
- 24:54Speaker 2: us a picture of what he looked like during the
- 24:57Speaker 2: time he was up there for the wedding.
- 24:59Speaker 4: The photo sh he sends is Brennan with long curly hair,
- 25:02Speaker 4: wearing camouflage shorts, looking very much like the kid in
- 25:07Speaker 4: the sketch and more importantly, on the videotapes.
- 25:11Speaker 10: Brennan's resemblance to the sketch. All around Town was about
- 25:14Speaker 10: to become even more important because of what the cousin
- 25:18Speaker 10: told detective Tazzi happened a few days later.
- 25:21Speaker 2: She was staying at Brennan's family's lake house in New
- 25:26Speaker 2: Hampshire as a wedding gift, and Brennan, his brother, and
- 25:30Speaker 2: the mother showed up there unexpected.
- 25:32Speaker 3: Hang on, this woman is in Lake Winnipeesake. She's on
- 25:36Speaker 3: her honeymoon.
- 25:37Speaker 13: Yes, and all of a sudden there's Brennan, Brennan's mother,
- 25:42Speaker 13: Brennan's brother crashing her honeymoon.
- 25:44Speaker 9: Yes, and the dog.
- 25:47Speaker 10: But what was even more surprising was Brennan's appearance.
- 25:51Speaker 14: Brennan's hair was cut and next time she sees him,
- 25:56Speaker 14: he's cut his hair.
- 25:57Speaker 3: Yes, so that's a big red flag.
- 25:59Speaker 10: Yes, Brennan. Doyle's cousin told investigators that Brennan showed up
- 26:16Speaker 10: just days after Donna's attack, hundreds of miles from home,
- 26:21Speaker 10: with his hair suddenly cut short.
- 26:23Speaker 3: Similar to this.
- 26:25Speaker 10: Like Donna, the Doyle family resided in colts Neck. Former
- 26:29Speaker 10: Assistant prosecutor Lorie Gerhard.
- 26:31Speaker 4: We lived in a very nice house, two sons, a
- 26:35Speaker 4: mom and a dad. The life of a typical colts
- 26:37Speaker 4: Next teenager. It's a life of wealth, It's a life
- 26:40Speaker 4: of privilege.
- 26:42Speaker 10: Doyle was a student athlete on wrestling and hockey teams.
- 26:46Speaker 10: Detective Tozzi started digging into his background.
- 26:49Speaker 9: He had never been arrested.
- 26:51Speaker 2: There was never any charges filed against him prior to
- 26:54Speaker 2: our investigation.
- 26:56Speaker 10: According to the prosecutors records, police had been called to
- 27:00Speaker 10: the Doyle house for what they referred to as family conflicts.
- 27:04Speaker 10: The location of the home would turn out to be
- 27:07Speaker 10: very important.
- 27:08Speaker 3: Where did Brennan live?
- 27:10Speaker 2: So if you make a right up here and you
- 27:12Speaker 2: go up maybe a quarter of a mile on the left.
- 27:15Speaker 10: So that's close. Yeah, the tea and his family lived
- 27:19Speaker 10: within walking distance of Donna's house, up the very road
- 27:23Speaker 10: that driver had reported seeing.
- 27:25Speaker 3: Someone she described as a.
- 27:26Speaker 10: Young hitchhiker just prior to Donna's attack.
- 27:29Speaker 5: I'm afraid you can get you by a car.
- 27:33Speaker 10: When does the Doyle family return to Coltsnack? Later in July,
- 27:39Speaker 10: with Brennan and his family back in town, Tazzi reached
- 27:43Speaker 10: out to the family, saying investigators were canvassing the neighborhood.
- 27:48Speaker 3: What happened when you went to the house.
- 27:49Speaker 2: We spoke with missus Doyle. She was nervous, her boys
- 27:53Speaker 2: was cracking.
- 27:54Speaker 3: And did this raise an eyebrow for you?
- 27:56Speaker 9: It did.
- 27:57Speaker 2: We asked if Brennan and his brother could come and
- 27:59Speaker 2: look look at the composite sketch and if they had.
- 28:02Speaker 9: Any idea who that person might be on the sketch.
- 28:05Speaker 3: Did Brennan come out?
- 28:06Speaker 9: He did.
- 28:07Speaker 10: Tazzi says she wanted to see Brennan's hair to confirm
- 28:11Speaker 10: what his cousin had told her that it had been
- 28:14Speaker 10: cut much shorter. It seemed the team tried to stay
- 28:18Speaker 10: a step ahead. When he came out to greet the detective, he.
- 28:22Speaker 9: Was wearing a hat. He was wearing a baseball hat.
- 28:25Speaker 4: I think wearing a baseball cat was a calculated move.
- 28:29Speaker 10: It might have been, but it didn't work.
- 28:32Speaker 9: You could tell his hair was cut short.
- 28:34Speaker 10: Next, Tazzi showed Brennan the police sketch of the suspect,
- 28:38Speaker 10: the same one Donna helped tweak to look just like
- 28:42Speaker 10: her attacker.
- 28:43Speaker 3: How did he react?
- 28:45Speaker 2: He looked away, He looked at it, looked away and
- 28:47Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't know. He was nervous and
- 28:51Speaker 2: he was scared, and he got very quiet.
- 28:53Speaker 15: There is a reaction. Eyes are down, no eye contact,
- 28:56Speaker 15: people are nervous. Mom starts redirecting the conversation.
- 29:01Speaker 10: Doyle's family, and his attorney denied our request for an interview.
- 29:05Speaker 10: We as CBS News consultant defense attorney Matt Troyano to
- 29:09Speaker 10: study the case file.
- 29:11Speaker 15: And I think that that probably confirms what they believed
- 29:14Speaker 15: going in.
- 29:15Speaker 10: Brennan's odd behavior and resemblance to the sketch and video
- 29:19Speaker 10: evidence may have been striking, but with nothing else to
- 29:23Speaker 10: go on yet, Tazzi thanked the Doyles for their time
- 29:26Speaker 10: and left.
- 29:28Speaker 3: Did you know that was your guy?
- 29:30Speaker 2: I was pretty confident that we were on the right
- 29:32Speaker 2: track with him, but we also have a duty. We
- 29:35Speaker 2: had other leads that were coming in, so we were
- 29:37Speaker 2: doing a lot of follow ups.
- 29:39Speaker 10: As investigators worked the case. Donna was struggling. Weeks after
- 29:45Speaker 10: the attack. The reality of what had happened to her
- 29:48Speaker 10: had taken hold.
- 29:49Speaker 12: I lost everything that night. I lost my home, had
- 29:53Speaker 12: nowhere to go. I lost my car. They took it
- 29:57Speaker 12: into evidence.
- 29:58Speaker 3: Donna, you lost more than half your.
- 29:59Speaker 11: Blood, I exactly, I lost I lost a lot.
- 30:04Speaker 10: Donna says. That's when, in addition to her physical recovery,
- 30:08Speaker 10: she faced a new challenge.
- 30:11Speaker 12: Symptoms of PTSD started to show up. I'm not eating,
- 30:15Speaker 12: I'm not sleeping, I don't care about anything. I'm angry,
- 30:18Speaker 12: I'm saying I'm happy, I'm you know, every emotion under
- 30:21Speaker 12: the sun. At any minute, I felt like I was
- 30:24Speaker 12: going crazy. I was always thinking, I don't know who
- 30:27Speaker 12: this kid is. But he climbed through the window in
- 30:29Speaker 12: that second that I fell asleep, and now he's hiding
- 30:33Speaker 12: in the closet. You know, kind of crazy thoughts.
- 30:37Speaker 10: Sharon Sharp says Donna's fear meant even friendly visits required
- 30:42Speaker 10: a new protocol, including announcing her arrival every step of
- 30:46Speaker 10: the way so as not to trigger Donna.
- 30:49Speaker 1: I'm going to come around the hedges now and I'm
- 30:52Speaker 1: going to enter the backyard.
- 30:53Speaker 7: I'm going to be touching the.
- 30:54Speaker 1: Gate in three to one. I would shake my keys first,
- 30:59Speaker 1: which had been on them. Say it's me, Sharon, I'm coming.
- 31:03Speaker 10: The investigation lasted through the summer of twenty thirteen. Brennan
- 31:07Speaker 10: Doyle remained the only likely suspect. Detective Tazzi says investigators
- 31:13Speaker 10: took the next step in September.
- 31:15Speaker 2: We got a warrant to obtain his DNA, his fingerprints,
- 31:20Speaker 2: photographs of him, just things that are personal to him.
- 31:24Speaker 15: When the results came back, there's a fingerprint match then
- 31:28Speaker 15: ultimately there's a DNA match.
- 31:30Speaker 10: Brennan Doyle's DNA was a spot on match to unknown
- 31:34Speaker 10: DNA found in Donna's car in a number of.
- 31:38Speaker 15: Places, Eleven different DNA samples and pieces of evidence found
- 31:43Speaker 15: in that vehicle. And really, there's no reason why Brennan
- 31:47Speaker 15: Doyle's DNA should be in this woman's vehicle. He's a
- 31:51Speaker 15: stranger to her.
- 31:53Speaker 10: One more crucial piece of evidence was found in early
- 31:56Speaker 10: October in the most unexpected spot.
- 32:01Speaker 2: Repairmen were servicing an air conditioning unit that was on
- 32:04Speaker 2: the top of the Strip mall. They found the knife
- 32:07Speaker 2: on the roof right near the air conditioning unit.
- 32:10Speaker 10: A knife looking weathered as though it had been there
- 32:13Speaker 10: for months. Found on a bowling alley roof in the
- 32:16Speaker 10: very same shopping center where the Taco bell was located
- 32:20Speaker 10: and where Donna's car had been abandoned.
- 32:24Speaker 3: How important was the knife?
- 32:25Speaker 2: It ended up being very important because the knife was
- 32:28Speaker 2: from a set. We determined that that knife matched another
- 32:33Speaker 2: knife that we knew came from the Doyle household that
- 32:37Speaker 2: had been taken months earlier.
- 32:39Speaker 10: Through a twist of timing and fate, the Colts Neck
- 32:43Speaker 10: Police already had another knife from the Doyle home taken
- 32:47Speaker 10: after police were called to the house a few weeks
- 32:49Speaker 10: prior to Donna's attack following an altercation between Brennan and
- 32:54Speaker 10: his brother.
- 32:55Speaker 15: There's a knife that's apparently used by the younger brother
- 32:58Speaker 15: in a threatening manner. Police are called. Police take the
- 33:01Speaker 15: knife and the situation ends.
- 33:03Speaker 2: There was no charges or anything that came of it,
- 33:05Speaker 2: but they secured the knife in their evidence vault. It
- 33:08Speaker 2: was the same brand name, the same look. It was
- 33:12Speaker 2: a silver knife.
- 33:13Speaker 14: It was from the same collection, correct.
- 33:15Speaker 2: That was kind of the icing on the cake. To
- 33:17Speaker 2: get a search worm. They had moved during the course
- 33:21Speaker 2: of this investigation, so we got a search worm for
- 33:23Speaker 2: their new home.
- 33:25Speaker 10: The search of the new Doyle residents, also in Coltsneck,
- 33:29Speaker 10: turned up the rest of the knife set, matching the
- 33:31Speaker 10: one found atop the shopping center. In late October twenty thirteen,
- 33:37Speaker 10: Brennan Doyle was arrested.
- 33:40Speaker 14: What kinds of charges was he facing?
- 33:44Speaker 15: Serious ones? Attempted murder, carjacking, weapons possession. These are the
- 33:48Speaker 15: most serious of crimes that we have.
- 33:55Speaker 17: What do you make of the evidence against Brennan Doyle.
- 33:58Speaker 17: Take a look at the complete investigation at forty eight
- 34:01Speaker 17: hours dot.
- 34:01Speaker 10: Com months after Donna's brush with death, her alleged attacker,
- 34:15Speaker 10: Brennan Doyle, was in custody facing six counts, including a
- 34:20Speaker 10: tempted murder and carjacket. He pleaded not guilty, and you.
- 34:25Speaker 7: Have to look at the seriousness of the offense.
- 34:28Speaker 10: The prosecution felt the crime warranted trying Doyle as an adult,
- 34:33Speaker 10: even though he was sixteen at the time, and.
- 34:35Speaker 4: In juvenile court, Brennan is looking at four years maximum
- 34:39Speaker 4: in a youth detention facility. In adult court, he's looking
- 34:42Speaker 4: it up to thirty years.
- 34:45Speaker 10: A judge would rule an assistant prosecutor Gerhardt's favor, but
- 34:49Speaker 10: there was a catch. Doyle would now be entitled to
- 34:52Speaker 10: post bail, said at seven hundred and sixty thousand dollars,
- 34:57Speaker 10: which he did.
- 34:58Speaker 14: When you heard he was out, did all of the
- 35:01Speaker 14: fear come rushing back.
- 35:03Speaker 12: It wasn't so much fear as it was anger that
- 35:06Speaker 12: he was even allowed to be bailed out.
- 35:10Speaker 10: The thought of running into Doyle terrified Kirsten. She says
- 35:14Speaker 10: he even haunted her dreams.
- 35:17Speaker 8: I didn't realize how much it was affecting me. I
- 35:20Speaker 8: had no idea until it was like falling asleep and
- 35:23Speaker 8: all I say.
- 35:23Speaker 9: Is his face.
- 35:25Speaker 10: As prosecutors developed their case, the details of what happened
- 35:28Speaker 10: that horrific night began to emerge.
- 35:32Speaker 13: What does Brennan Doyle say happened the night of July
- 35:36Speaker 13: sixth heading into the morning of July seventh, twenty thirteen mushrooms?
- 35:42Speaker 15: He says he was under the influence of a hallucinogenic mushrooms.
- 35:48Speaker 10: According to investigative reports he examined. Matt Troiano says that
- 35:52Speaker 10: on the night of Donna's attack, Doyle claimed he was
- 35:56Speaker 10: losing touch with reality and had gotten into a fight
- 36:00Speaker 10: with his father.
- 36:01Speaker 15: He has a knife in his hand, Dad kicks him out,
- 36:03Speaker 15: and he kind of loses his mind, makes bad decisions.
- 36:07Speaker 10: Police thought it was likely that Doyle, who lived a
- 36:10Speaker 10: short distance away, approached Donna's home looking to steal her car.
- 36:15Speaker 2: I don't know if his intent was to kill Donna.
- 36:19Speaker 2: Certainly when he started stating her, that became his intent.
- 36:22Speaker 7: To me, what he's doing is he's getting ready of
- 36:24Speaker 7: the witness.
- 36:25Speaker 10: Gerhart believes Doyle did not act like someone incapacitated by drugs.
- 36:31Speaker 10: Doyle drove five miles to that shopping center after leaving
- 36:34Speaker 10: Donna's house.
- 36:36Speaker 4: This kid manages to ditch a knife, he abandons the car,
- 36:40Speaker 4: and that's not a kid who's so high on mushrooms
- 36:43Speaker 4: he doesn't know what he's doing.
- 36:45Speaker 10: Treiano says, while a lot of the evidence against Brendan
- 36:48Speaker 10: Doyle was strong, the knife, the security camera videos, one
- 36:52Speaker 10: thing put this case over the top.
- 36:55Speaker 15: What is going to seal the fate of this boy,
- 36:59Speaker 15: this kid, is that there's DNA in her vehicle that
- 37:03Speaker 15: links to him.
- 37:04Speaker 3: It's indefensible, but as it.
- 37:08Speaker 10: Turned out, there would be no need for a defense.
- 37:11Speaker 10: In August of twenty fifteen, Brennan Doyle agreed to a
- 37:15Speaker 10: plea deal. In return, the prosecution dropped all but the
- 37:19Speaker 10: two most serious charges, car jacket and attempted murder.
- 37:24Speaker 11: It was very important for me that he admit his guilt.
- 37:28Speaker 12: If he took the plea, he would have to confess
- 37:31Speaker 12: his guilt to the court.
- 37:34Speaker 10: In October twenty fifteen, Brennan Doyle, now eighteen years old,
- 37:38Speaker 10: appeared in Mommouth County Superior Court for sentence. Sing Donna,
- 37:43Speaker 10: who'd attended every court appearance, was there to face him
- 37:48Speaker 10: one last time.
- 37:50Speaker 12: Even though I felt overpowered by fear, I wanted him
- 37:55Speaker 12: to see me as strong.
- 37:58Speaker 11: And as a survivor.
- 38:02Speaker 10: It was an emotional day for Kirsten there to support
- 38:06Speaker 10: her mother.
- 38:07Speaker 13: When you would look at him in court, what do
- 38:09Speaker 13: you remember feeling anger?
- 38:13Speaker 8: He's very angry.
- 38:17Speaker 16: Sorry, the drugs turned me into the monster.
- 38:22Speaker 10: That night, Doyle was permitted to address the court.
- 38:27Speaker 16: I pray and hope her wounds will lessen as she
- 38:29Speaker 16: will recover eventually. I am asking you to forgive me.
- 38:36Speaker 16: Going to prison will be the hardest thing I will
- 38:38Speaker 16: ever have to face my life. I'm afraid.
- 38:43Speaker 10: Brennan Doyle was sentenced to fifteen years in state prison.
- 38:47Speaker 10: The law requires him to serve at least eighty five
- 38:50Speaker 10: percent of that time.
- 38:52Speaker 4: Justice has to be done on both sides, and we
- 38:55Speaker 4: have to be sensitive to that. We have a sixteen
- 38:58Speaker 4: year old kid who, for the most part, had absolutely
- 39:00Speaker 4: no prior history.
- 39:02Speaker 7: The court has a balancing act to do it.
- 39:04Speaker 3: Did it feel like justice?
- 39:07Speaker 9: It did not.
- 39:08Speaker 3: What would have felt like justice to you?
- 39:11Speaker 12: More like thirty years, forty years, fifty years, if not longer.
- 39:19Speaker 10: Even with Doyle off the streets, Donna was still struggling.
- 39:24Speaker 10: She had found PTSD and domestic violence support groups, but
- 39:29Speaker 10: says there were none for victims of random attacks, So
- 39:33Speaker 10: in twenty fifteen, she decided to create her own Survivors
- 39:37Speaker 10: of Violent Crimes.
- 39:40Speaker 8: The reason we took to the support group was to
- 39:43Speaker 8: help each other cope.
- 39:45Speaker 10: Donna connected with fellow survivors Tiffanyot and Dana Richards. Together,
- 39:51Speaker 10: they held meetings and felt gratified they could help. When
- 39:55Speaker 10: more survivors joined.
- 39:57Speaker 4: Their finding relief and knowing that they're not alone.
- 40:01Speaker 10: But Donna says her work isn't done. Her future plans
- 40:05Speaker 10: include helping victims connect with trauma therapists and offering self
- 40:09Speaker 10: defense classes. As she grows her support group, she's also
- 40:14Speaker 10: educating others. She travels to prisons, meeting with inmates and
- 40:18Speaker 10: addresses police cadets so they can understand the victim's point
- 40:24Speaker 10: of view. I got up, I.
- 40:26Speaker 12: Made it up the stairs with my bedroom or my
- 40:28Speaker 12: cell phone, whiles I after the nine oh one.
- 40:36Speaker 1: She survives and she's building a life. How could anyone
- 40:41Speaker 1: not applaud that?
- 40:45Speaker 10: Donna says, the physical scars that remain are a reminder
- 40:50Speaker 10: of the surgeons who saved her life.
- 40:53Speaker 11: This is artwork. They're beautiful artwork.
- 40:58Speaker 12: You could either get sucked into the darkness or you
- 41:02Speaker 12: just keep going.
- 41:05Speaker 11: I did what I had to do to.
- 41:08Speaker 12: Be here today and go another day.
- 41:33Speaker 17: The heartbreaking case of Gabby Patito, inside her disappearance, The
- 41:40Speaker 17: story you haven't heard and hear from Gabby's close friend.
- 41:44Speaker 16: Love couples look nice on Instagram.
- 41:46Speaker 9: That's everything behind the scenes you don't know.
- 41:48Speaker 17: Forty eight hours, It's Saturday on CBS and streaming on
- 41:51Speaker 17: Paramount Plus.