Original subtitles

I felt embarrassed. I felt ashamed.

I felt weak that I couldn't get him out of my life sooner.

Living with him was a nightmare.

I felt like I was in prison.

He's already broken in once.

Who's to say he's not gonna do it again?

These are our last moments. There's no escaping this.

I truly thought

we were going to be dead.

When desire overtakes reason,

the human mind can unleash deadly obsession.

These are true stories told by the victims.

I've been a nurse a very long time -- since 1971.

I love helping people. I like that emergency-room life.

It was something different going on every day.

I have a lot of Patience

when it comes to taking care of patients.

I wish I had that with my children.

The relationship with my husband -- I didn't think

that things were gonna work out,

and I didn't like the way things were at the house.

It just wasn't comfortable.

We weren't interested in the same things.

When the divorce happened, myself and my younger brother

and my older brother,

we remained with my dad at the family house,

and my mom moved out of the house.

I don't remember that being a very good year.

I met Norman through a mutual friend.

He's got three dogs of his own, and he loved my dogs.

And my dogs thrive on company.

Norman was an excellent cook.

He liked to have every hair in its place.

We laughed a lot.

We would go out and listen to bands,

and we did have a really nice companionship.

Norman and I kept talking about moving up to Maine,

and then a friend of Norman's said,

gee, I was looking on craigslist.

I saw another property,

and it's not far from your cabin.

Norman and I moved in together.

He was a sales contractor.

He didn't work for anybody. He worked for himself.

I can't believe I actually own it.

Well, I hope you're gonna share.

Norman and I both loved it up in Maine,

and it was a totally different environment

than living in Rhode Island.

I wasn't on the best relationship

with my children at that time.

So I decided I needed to move on.

Are you okay?

Yeah.

When my mom made the decision to move up to Maine,

I think that that may have been during a time

where I had really distanced myself from her.

I don't think that I really had too much emotion to it.

I was, I guess this is the path that she's choosing.

Since I've been up in Maine,

I got a job working for a private agency,

and I'm a private-duty healthcare nurse.

Norman didn't have any jobs.

His health wasn't that great.

He started having a lot of sciatica pain, foot pain

with neuropathy.

His joints were collapsing in his foot.

That was causing a lot of pain for him to walk.

It was extremely difficult

to watch Norman, you know, who I loved,

go downhill like that.

He would drink alcohol to get rid of his pain.

That was the only way he could think to get rid of it.

Norman was drinking pretty heavily.

You know, it wasn't at suppertime.

It was during the day.

And it just kept escalating.

Did you take your meds?

His health started to go downhill.

He had diabetes.

Being the nurse I am,

I tried to keep him out of trouble.

I tried to keep his drinking down.

But it didn't work.

You might want to take it easy. You're gonna make yourself sick.

Stop with your whining, woman.

It's hard to say when I really stopped loving Norman.

Just the way his behavior was,

his being disrespectful, the drinking.

We had no relationship whatever

as far as intimacy or anything like that.

It just -- I was a caregiver to him.

Even though I didn't have feelings for him anymore,

I was taking care of him.

And I wished I hadn't now.

Where have you been?

The store.

Norman was so controlling.

If I went anywhere, I'd get, well, where were you?

And this and that.

We were out of bleach.

I wanted to clean the cabin this weekend.

We got renters next week.

Were you seeing your boyfriend?

I think he just wanted to give me a hard time.

I got the receipt.

You can see where I've been and when I left.

When I first saw it, I says,

I don't want any part of any gun here.

I really don't want to live with anybody

that has a gun in the house.

I would ask him where it was. He wouldn't tell me.

And I would look for the gun in the house.

I never found it.

If I call the police,

they're gonna say, well he's been living here.

He's made a home here.

You can't evict him.

I'd go to bed at night, crying.

And I'm like, why is this happening to me?

You know, my -- I have no contact with my kids.

And it was horrible.

It really was horrible.

I thought about them all the time.

And I just came to realize

that I needed

to get out of this relationship.

But how?

I was determined not to leave my own house.

When things came to a head for me

was on July 1st.

It was on a Friday.

And I came home from work.

His eyes were all glassy.

He just --

I could tell he'd been drinking all day.

Living with him was a nightmare.

I felt like I was in prison.

I hate to say it that way, but I owned the home.

But, yeah, he felt he was entitled,

and he constantly said, this is my home.

I am not leaving. You leave.

I didn't say anything.

I had to get a few things ready 'cause I had renters

coming in for the July 4th week.

And I decided, I'll just stay there for the night

and leave when the renters come in the morning.

And I went down into the bathroom.

Sat on the toilet to pee.

He's standing there facing me,

and he's only 6, 7 feet away from me.

And he had this awful look in his eyes.

Just a cold look.

It was like he was looking through me.

He started to make some sexual demands to me.

Please, just leave me alone.

I want to smash your glasses.

I took them off. I sat them down on the floor.

And I'm still sitting on the toilet

because there was nowhere for me to go.

He just looked at me.

I should tie your wrists and your ankles together

and burn you in this house...

...then shoot myself.

I didn't dare say another word.

I didn't say one word to him.

Norman was drinking pretty heavily.

His eyes were all glassy.

I could tell he'd been drinking all day.

I should tie your wrists and burn you in this house...

Then shoot myself.

I didn't reply to it.

I could just tell that something was not right

with him at all.

So, I'm standing in there, and I could hear him

on the other side of the door,

and he had his hands on the doorknob.

I was on the floor, and I waited.

And I'm thinking in my mind,

what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?

It was probably five or six minutes went by,

and then I heard him walk away.

And I could hear him go in the refrigerator.

He was making another drink.

So I got out of the bathroom really quickly.

I went in the bedroom.

I got the few things I needed to bring over to the cabin.

And I decided that I wasn't gonna go back that night.

I decided I'll just stay there for the night.

I really felt like he meant it.

My renters came the following morning.

I think that's everything you need to know.

Here's the keys, and everything you need to know is in there.

Just give me a call if you have any question.

It was my first rental of the season,

and I actually sat and talked with them for two hours

just to get to know them.

I was trying to process where I was gonna go

because I didn't want to go back to the house.

I didn't know what I was going to do then.

I get a phone call from the renters.

I could hear yelling in the background.

And I could hear the dogs barking.

And she says, there's somebody here.

Slow down. Just tell me what happened.

She said he won't tell me his name,

but he said he's your husband.

And I said, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute.

I says, he's not my husband.

Well, he said he's your husband

and he owns the property,

and he told US to get the off the property,

that he was gonna be here all weekend.

Let me speak to Norman.

No. Norman, you need to leave.

You have no right to be there.

He finally got in his car.

And he drove away.

The husband said to me, he says, I can't stay here.

He says, I really don't know if he'd come back here with a gun.

You know, he was right.

So I had to give them all their money back for that week.

The police came, and they said I could serve him

with a no-trespassing order.

I decided that was the wisest thing to do.

The deputy went with me back to my house.

He was gonna give Norman the no-trespassing order.

Norman wasn't there.

Norman ended up staying with a friend that he knew

just down the street from where I lived.

There just was no getting rid of him.

Always in the back of my mind

I knew that there would be retaliation against me.

I knew he would show up.

But the when is...

I just had to be on my toes.

Woman: At the tone, please record your message.

I know things have been tricky between US, but...

I really need your help.

Things between Norman and I have gotten really bad.

Please call me.

She was very frantic in the message.

I could tell that she was scared by the tone of her voice

and to, please call me immediately.

Hello?

When I received that voice message,

I was pretty terrified,

and my anxiety went through the roof,

and the social worker in me popped out and was like,

we gotta do something. We got to get into action here.

I finally told her some of the things,

what was going on.

I felt embarrassed. I felt ashamed.

I'm so sorry.

I felt weak that I couldn't get him out of my life sooner.

I knew that things were escalating

and things were getting worse

and really getting to an unsafe place.

Well, I was thinking of getting a protection order.

It was a turning point in our relationship

because it became a bond between,

let's be safe together,

and let me show you how to be safe.

I love you, too.

I was so happy that she was finally taking the right steps.

However, the other part of me

knew that these are just pieces of paper,

and is this actually going to protect her?

I don't think I slept too much the night

before the court date.

I got up a little bit before 7:00.

And all of a sudden, I heard my two dogs barking.

I could just tell that somebody was in the yard

and they couldn't see who it was.

I looked out the window.

And I saw Norman's car.

My nerves were shot then.

I was a nervous wreck, and knowing that he was there

and we had to be in court in two hours.

I decided I was gonna file a protection order.

I got up a little bit before 7:00 on the court date.

And I saw Norman's car.

What do you want?

You're not supposed to be here.

I went and got my phone.

I put it on so I could take a picture.

And I did that because I wanted to have proof

that he was there and what he was wearing at the time.

I should have called 911.

I didn't because I knew

that they would arrest him immediately and take him away.

And then I wouldn't get my permanent protection order.

My heart was pounding at the time

when I realized I had no control over the situation now

because I couldn't see Norman.

I had no idea where he was hiding.

I couldn't see every single spot.

But I knew I could move a lot faster than him.

I went out the front door.

I quickly looked in his truck there.

He wasn't in the truck. I don't see him anywhere.

I pulled out of the driveway and drove to the courthouse.

To this day, I don't know where he was hiding.

He was in jail for five days until July 25th.

I knew I had to watch my back.

Mediators at the district attorney's office told me

that, for good behavior, he gets out early.

I told the neighbors in the surrounding area

next to my house of what was going on.

If they saw him, I felt I needed to know.

A neighbor saw Norman over here,

and he was there for a little while.

He was rearrested,

and this time, he was going in for a long time.

I know they were trying for 120 days,

and I figured, well, that's gonna put them

into maybe the end of the first week of December.

Once Norman was out of the picture and not living with me,

I felt I could get my relationship

with my daughter back on track,

'cause she was helping me a lot emotionally

just over the telephone.

And we talked very frequently.

Definitely. It's Thanksgiving.

I would love to spend it with you.

With your boyfriend?

Of course he can come.

I'm desperate to meet Jason.

I was really happy

that Jason and Alyssa were coming up for Thanksgiving.

Alyssa told me a lot about him.

He's very outgoing, very outdoorsy.

Just liked being outside.

Snowboarding. Hikes up the mountains.

He just seemed to make her really, really happy.

Well, this was devastating news to me

that he was getting out before Thanksgiving.

Alyssa had planned to come up with Jason.

I hadn't spent a holiday with her in years.

A long time.

And I was excited about it.

But now Norman was out of jail.

It was just high anxiety for me.

On Monday, I get home a little bit before 8:00.

And I remember looking at the clock

when the phone rang, and it was 8:20.

And it was Norman.

I picked it up.

Norman: Hello?

I actually didn't say anything.

And everything was quiet. My dogs didn't make a peep.

Hello?

Are you there?

I just pretended that there was nothing there,

and I think he might have thought he had a bad connection.

So he hung up.

He called me 30-plus times.

I called the deputies.

They had to put out a warrant for his arrest,

and they're asking me, where do you think he went?

I says, I don't know where he is.

I quickly went to the store to get groceries for Thanksgiving.

By the time I got back to my house, it was

quarter of 10:00 at night.

Ginger?

Maren? Where are you?

Usually the dogs greet me.

Where are the dogs?

Ginger.

And I called them.

They didn't answer.

Went do the dead bolt, and the dead bolt wasn't locked.

And i'm, like, thinking, geez, did a door get left open,

and they got through a gate or something?

And, I mean, this all happened in a matter of

probably 10 seconds, and panic mode set in.

I see some screws on the floor, pieces from the dead bolt,

the latch on the floor.

The door had been broken into.

Norman was out of jail.

I knew I had to watch my back.

Ginger?

Maren?

Where are the dogs?

I see some screws on the floor, pieces from the dead bolt.

The door had been broken into.

I realized he broke in, stole the dogs.

And I was so upset.

I mean, there was big escalation

right there from the time the warrant was out,

till two days later, when he broke in.

He knows how I love those dogs,

and he knew how it would hurt me

that he would take the dogs.

I know he felt like he was in somewhat of control still.

Now nobody knew where he was.

Norman: How do you like being alone now?

Where are the dogs?

Don't you worry.

They're eating steak.

And he just was very sarcastic.

Wasn't a long conversation -- a couple of minutes,

and he hung up.

Alyssa called me when she was getting close.

I started to tell her,

I says, please go up to a friend's house.

It's five miles up this windy, hilly road.

I says, Norman would never go up there.

And she said, no, ma. Jason and I talked about it.

We're adults. We made our decision.

We want to stay at the cabin.

And the last thing I remember her saying

was, we're not gonna let Norman ruin our weekend up here.

Yeah, I'm really looking forward

to spending Thanksgiving with you.

I love you.

I hadn't heard from Norman since he broke in

and stole the dogs.

We went to the cabin, and we had a bunch of stuff to heat up.

It was a nice dinner.

It was a regular Thanksgiving dinner.

After Thanksgiving dinner, there wasn't any fears

that I was having.

I really didn't think

that Jason and I were in harm's way.

So I went to bed like it was any other night.

I didn't think that we were a target.

I didn't think that norm was after US.

I thought that norm was after my mom.

So there was concern over her safety.

My mom booby-trapped the house to protect herself.

She didn't have the dogs to be able to let her know

someone was coming into the house.

He's already broken in once.

Who's to say he's not gonna do it again?

I just moved all kinds of furniture that he would have

had to climb over, trip over.

Just a regular friggin' obstacle course.

We ended up dropping my mom off at her house,

and she had planned to make US a chocolate cream pie

because Jason had been waiting for, like, years

to try her chocolate cream pie.

So, I'm gonna stay with a friend tonight, okay?

So relax. Okay.

I wasn't really too nervous.

I knew that she had the booby traps.

I knew that she had her phone on her.

I wasn't too anxious about her going back in there.

I had heard Jason whispering to her, your mom

hasn't made me the chocolate cream pie she promised.

And so I told Alyssa I would make a pie

and come by later with it.

So, by the time I got it made and cooled a little bit,

it was getting close to 9:00.

Jason and I got back to the cabin.

We set up for a nice, cozy evening.

We put the fireplace on.

And we set up a board game.

Hey, honey.

I just brought the pie I promised.

We had expected her, and she just popped in,

dropped off the pie,

and she headed out for her friend's house.

Good night.

I was only there from 9:00 to 9:30...

...just having a bit of a conversation.

I'll see you later. See you soon.

I left, went back to my friend's house.

I shut my phone off because I just didn't want

to hear that phone ringing with him again.

I shouldn't have shut it off.

Man: Sheriff's department!

Open the door -- now!

My mom did say that the sheriffs could come by.

They know that you're here.

They may want to do a well-being check.

Hello?

Hello?

Immediately my heart starts beating like crazy,

and I'm thinking the worst at this point.

I called my mom.

She didn't answer.

Woman: At the tone, please record your message.

So I immediately called 911,

and I'm still on the phone with 911.

At this point, I see a figure in the window.

It's Norman strobel.

You have to get here now.

When he began firing, I just dropped to the ground.

I just immediately ducked behind the counter in the kitchen.

I thought that we were dead.

I didn't know how we would survive something like that.

We were trapped, and we had nowhere to escape.

I was looking across the kitchen at Jason, like,

these are our last moments.

There's no escaping this.

I truly thought

we were going to be dead.

Jason I looked at each other and knew that

we had to get into the bedroom, which was behind me.

As Jason ran across the kitchen, he was shot.

He slowly tumbled onto me, saying, I was hit. I was hit.

And I closed the door behind US, and he collapsed into my lap.

I knew that I needed to stop the bleeding.

But I also knew that I couldn't leave the bedroom.

I thought that if I left the bedroom,

I would be shot, too.

I took the comforters. I took the pillows off the bed.

And I surrounded them around Jason,

and I used the pillows to put pressure on him.

My mind was going crazy.

I was envisioning

all the things we'd talked about our future.

Our future plans to get married, to have a family.

And it was like, they're not gonna happen.

He's not gonna make it.

How could he make it?

I did the best I could.

I thought that these were his last moments,

and that he shouldn't be alone.

He should be with me.

The first thing that I heard was from the sergeant.

He informed me what had happened.

And I was, like, in complete shock.

I actually felt numb.

I felt like I had no reaction at all

to what they were telling me.

I kept thinking, Jason can't die. He can't die.

Well, where's Norman?

Norman was nowhere to be found,

so that they were gonna send patrol cars over

to where I was to protect US.

I don't know how long it was, how long a period it was.

And then...

...the phone rang.

I could see it was Norman.

Norman: I done a bad thing.

I killed Alyssa's boyfriend.

Well, I knew we had to keep him talking

'cause they had to find where he was.

So I knew they only could find him by his phone.

You don't sound too good.

I think we should talk.

I don't know. It might have been five minutes.

I'm not really sure.

And he hung up.

The sheriffs finally located him around 4:00 in the morning.

They tried talking over the intercom

to get anybody to come out.

They could hear the dogs barking.

All I know is, they they went in.

The dogs were okay.

Norman was in the hallway at the time

when the police came, and...

Alls I know is, you know, the gun was there,

Norman was there, and the shooting began.

And Norman was killed.

My feelings when Norman got shot

were...

I guess I was glad I wouldn't have to deal with him anymore.

But then I was so angry at him.

'Cause I really wanted to give him a piece of my mind.

I was broken when I saw Alyssa.

I couldn't believe that this happened.

Just trying to get my relationship back with her.

Meeting Jason. Having a holiday with them.

And it all just was ruined.

And Jason, we didn't know if he was gonna make it.

If Jason dies, I just want to die because...

I really didn't want to live

knowing what my ex-boyfriend did to my daughter's boyfriend.

Jason was shot four times,

and he received five different surgeries.

The trauma doctor came to check in with US

probably about every 15 minutes,

and you could tell by his facial expression

and him looking at the ground that it was not looking good.

His blood pressure was horrible.

His oxygen was 40%, his oxygen saturation.

It should be over 90%.

And I began preparing

and trying to accept.

Trying to accept that Jason wasn't gonna survive,

and that our future wasn't gonna happen.

Almeida: I'm extremely lucky to be alive.

None of the surgeons or the medical team

or the rescue teams from that night expected me to live.

The homicide detective actually came to the hospital that night

because I wasn't supposed to make it,

so he was gonna be interviewing Alyssa and her mom

and to see what happened.

My injuries from the attack are, I lost half my stomach.

My spleen is gone.

I had liver damage. I had broken ribs.

I have honestly struggled with why I survived since then.

I don't -- I don't know why I survived

when I shouldn't have survived.

It's something that I've questioned often and often.

I'm very proud of Alyssa.

I just -- she's done so much

in her life,

and she just is a wonderful person.

I'm just hoping my relationship with Alyssa

will continue to grow

and be like mother and daughter should be.

Almeida: As all of US healed, Sandy, Alyssa, and I

started building that relationship up

and having the communication again, and present day,

I think we all get along very well.

Alyssa and I now are stronger than ever.

I don't think two people could be

closer or stronger than we are.

And I feel like we were extremely close and strong

before this happened, and this has just

magnified it tenfold, if not more.

I believe right now my relationship looks bright

with my new boyfriend.

Yeah, I'm happy in it.

I've never really had a relationship

quite like this before.

He respects me.

He would do anything for me.

And I'm glad I have him.