Original subtitles

[Janine] The Cook brothers were a pair of serial killers

who terrorized Toledo, Ohio,

in the early 1980s.

The crimes this year had more suffering and more torture.

[Janine] Together they brutally murdered

and raped victims as young as 12 years old.

[reporter] Twelve-year-old Dawn Backes

was found dead in an abandoned theater.

[Ofc. Harold] They really are monsters.

In this case brothers.

[Janine] They stalked young couples

to depraved and bloody ends.

She was repeatedly stabbed with an ice pick.

[Sgt. Keefe] They were clubbed with a baseball bat.

These guys are definitely animals.

[Janine] They tried to leave no witnesses.

[gunshot]

But this is the story of one survivor

who cheated death.

I don't know how she survived...

but she did.

[theme music playing]

[Cheryl] This is the south end of Toledo

I'm okay till I get over, um, this side of the town

and then I just still have bad panic attacks,

but my husband Danny is my rock.

He helps a lot.

[speaking]

-[Danny] Yeah. -Yes, we're right here.

We're, um...

Field Street and down here's an alley,

and I was like half a block from home...

and then,

it's like my life blew up in my face.

[Danny] Now, you listen here,

you don't have to do this you don't want to.

[exhales softly]

[exhales]

[Cheryl exhales]

[Danny] Okay.

While I was growing up in Toledo

and going to school at Waite High School,

I was living a normal teenage life until I met Bud.

He was kind, funny

and then he asked me out.

Um, my 16th birthday we were going to a movie theater

and then we ate at Pizza Hut.

After that we were together and then we found out we were pregnant.

I was a little surprised as I was only 16

but then being madly in love with him,

I was okay with it.

Eric was born in 1979.

When I'd first seen Eric

couldn't believe that he was mine

and I loved him beyond

what I knew what love was.

It was just awesome.

For almost two years we lived with my parents.

We had a lot of good times as a family.

Eric adored his father.

He was a daddy's boy.

And... just I would love watching them.

But we had no privacy.

So when I turned 18 years old,

we moved out.

Bud worked at a grocery store on the south end

of Toledo,

and because we didn't have a car,

we had no choice but to live by his work.

The area where they were wasn't great crime-wise

but they were thrilled to have their own place.

[Cheryl] My parents said, "Please don't go."

They were afraid something's gonna happen,

'cause there was lot murders and rapes

and everything going on.

[Janine] By January of 1981 the citizens of Toledo, Ohio

are well aware of an emerging problem within the community.

Two unsolved attacks on young white women

has left one woman

and another one's boyfriend dead.

[Det. Terry] Sandra Podgorski and Tom Gordon

were sitting in their car

and they were abducted at gunpoint

by two Black males.

[gunshots]

[Det. Terry] Tom was shot dead,

put in the trunk,

and Sandra was then

sexually assaulted.

[Baker] After this horrific rape

they had her redress.

[Det. Terry] At this point she repeatedly stabbed

with an ice pick and left for dead.

Although she was unable to identify the suspects,

she actually survived.

[Janine] Connie Sue Thompson

was not so lucky.

Abducted near her home,

she was found raped and murdered

in January of 1981.

Investigators recognized that although she was raped

she was dressed,

and that she had been

stabbed repeatedly

with what seems to be an ice pick.

So investigators believe that

she was killed by the same men

who attacked Sandra Podgorski and Thomas Gordon.

[Sgt. Keefe] It was a edgy time.

Women were being careful where they went,

and everybody was in a... in a panic.

[Cheryl] I knew about what was going on

but I was 18, I had Bud

and I thought I knew world,

I was gonna be okay

and I could take care of myself.

Our house was a two bedroom on Segur Street.

Bud's brother Danny lived with us

to help us to get on our feet.

Bud was a meat cutter at the grocery store,

and he worked from 2:00 to 12:00 o'clock at night.

So when he would come home in the evening

Eric would be in bed

but we always made sure

we had morning breakfast together with Eric.

Most of the time, we had maybe

two dollars in our pocket,

but we were happy because we had

everything we needed.

The house that we lived in was right here

where there's a vacant lot.

I'm sad that the house was gone

because we did have good times in it.

It was the first apartment that Bud and I had

and then his brother moved in,

and we were laughing and joking and cuddling up and...

It was all short-lived.

Life is not fair.

[Janine] Bud's older brother Danny proves to be a real help

to Cheryl and Bud.

Not only does he help with the bills,

he's helpful with Eric.

And on the night of January 27, 1981,

he happily babysits his nephew

so that Cheryl can surprise her boyfriend.

[Cheryl] That night I told Danny

that I wanted to get dressed up

and surprise Bud at the grocery store

when he got off at 12:00,

so he didn't have to walk home by himself.

Just to spice things up, I did my makeup,

and around 11:45

I put the covers over Eric

and I kissed him on his forehead

and I told Danny I'll see him later

and we're just joking

and I said if I'm not back in

half hour, come looking for us,

and he just chuckled and said "Oh, you'll be fine."

And I left the house.

From where we lived on Segur

up to the grocery store that he worked at

was about six blocks.

I was feeling happy thinking about our future,

but when I got up to the grocery store

Bud was very, very upset with me,

for walking up there by myself,

and I said, "I just wanted to come up and surprise you

and walk home with you

so we could talk about the wedding

and another child and Eric.

Then he calmed down a little bit,

and we walked home.

We're a block from the house.

Black man with a full beard,

wearing a army jacket and a ski cap

came towards us.

He pulled out a gun,

and I lost it.

[softly]

[softly] Yeah.

[sniffles]

-Don't cry. -Yeah. I'm okay.

[exhales, sniffles]

Buddy and I were walking this way

and we were, uh...

standing about right here

when he pulled the gun out.

It just...

all happened so fast.

We offered my wedding rings,

his wallet.

All we wanted to do is go home.

[clicks]

And I kept looking at his face,

he said, "Don't look at me."

He pointed gun right at my head.

He handed us two ski caps.

He said, "Put these on,"

and, "I'll be behind you."

And then he had us walk.

We were brought right here,

and I started panicking

and then he took us down this alley.

[exhales]

I haven't been back here ever since.

This is the first time.

[exclaims softly]

We were taken down this way.

There was no light.

Couldn't see in front of you.

We tried to slip a couple of times.

We tried to see if we could...

get on.

[dog barking]

But he had the gun pointed at Buddy's head.

I was pretty sure he was gonna kill us.

All I could think about was what was gonna happen to Eric.

Bud whispered, "I love you."

And I did back.

We just held each other's hands tighter.

I kept lifting my ski cap up

to see where we were at,

and the man kept telling me, "Put it down."

In the process, I'd seen a guy on the other side of the alley

coming over towards us.

Couldn't see his face,

but he was tall, husky-built Black man,

and he had a knife.

I was hoping he would help us,

but to my surprise

this man put the knife to my throat...

and then together

they forced us into a garage.

-Here's the garage. -[dog barking]

-[Danny] Mmm. -This is the garage.

[gasps]

Oh, I think I'm gonna throw up.

[Danny] Mmm.

-You okay? -Yeah.

[gasps]

When we stepped inside the garage,

we were stepping over things

and I was tripping

and it smelled of grease,

and just a... a bad odor.

I wanted to run as fast as I could,

but they had the gun on Bud and the knife on me.

Bud kept saying, "Nothing's gonna happen to you.

I'll make sure of it."

And that's when one of them grabbed me...

I was so hysterical,

crying and screaming and they told me to shut up,

and then I heard the click of the gun go back

so I shut up,

and that's when they made me get undress.

Bud was probably about three feet from me,

and they took the ski cap off his head so he could watch,

and then one raped me

and then the other one raped me.

I stayed silent because they had a gun at Buddy's head

and I feared if I started screaming and fighting back

that they would've shot him

or they would've jabbed the knife in my throat.

I was numb.

I wanted to put myself somewhere else.

All I did was focus on Eric.

What was gonna happen with him?

Then, what he'd grow up to be?

And would he have more siblings?

After they got done,

they made me get up and get dressed.

I was wobbly because of everything that had happened.

I felt...

ashamed of myself.

Like it was my fault. "Did I do something?

Or did I say something?"

[speaking]

I felt that way because it was...

I've never been with anybody else.

Bud was the only one I was ever with

and then here these two men

took advantage of me and my body

and they had no right doing that,

but then I blamed myself and thought,

"Maybe I wore the wrong clothes?

Or I did something wrong?"

I stood up and they told Bud to hold me

'cause this will be the last time he holds me

and Bud held me tight.

He was so tight I couldn't even breathe.

Bud told me, he loved me,

and that he was sorry he couldn't protect me.

The next thing I knew I heard the gun go off.

[gunshot]

I started screaming real loud

and they went to fire again and it was stuck.

[clicks]

And then the next thing I know

they hurry up and ran out.

[exhales]

I was raped in that garage

by those two monsters.

I was hoping that it was tore down by now.

I can even smell it.

I can't even walk. I can't take this smell.

[producer] What does it smell like to you?

It's a greasy, dirty garage... [sniffles]

pukey smell.

[exhaling, gasping]

And after the two men took off,

I took off the ski cap and dropped it.

I had so much adrenalin going.

I just wanted out of there.

We just started running for our lives.

We ran around the front of the house

and then we lived

where there's a vacant lot right there.

So we were that close from here,

to home.

I didn't realize how close we were.

There were street lights on on Segur.

All I remember is Bud pulling at me

because I couldn't

focus.

So we stopped in our tracks,

and Bud told me to turn around,

and when I turned around I had a big puddle of blood

under my jacket.

And then I started hyperventilating

'cause I realized I was shot.

Then I started going down.

[siren blaring]

I was starting to wake up

and then all of a sudden

I was arriving at the hospital.

Bud was there and I was looking around

and everybody was rushing.

Then next thing I knew my mom was by my side.

She was hysterical,

and I thought it was a dream,

and I was begging Bud to wake me up.

[Janine] The damage to Cheryl's insides is devastating.

After entering her body the bullet fragmented

and ricochet collapsing her lungs

and significantly damaging her bladder and pancreas.

Over the course of nine hours

the surgeons frantically worked to save Cheryl's life.

[machine beeps]

[Cheryl] After I got out of surgery,

I was in the ICU unit

because they had to cut my breast line

all the way down my stomach.

It was...

bad.

They thought for sure that

I was not gonna make it through it.

[machine beep continues]

I was out of it for about a week and a half.

When I was finally awake,

they sent in the detectives to talk to me.

The detectives said they went to the garage

and they didn't-- There was no evidence there,

and that they didn't have a lot to go on.

And I was confused

-because when they... -[gun clicking]

-...shot me... - [gunshot]

...and left, we both dropped the ski caps.

So they must have came back and got 'em

before the police got there.

And at that point I told them as much as possible.

I told them the first attacker had a full beard,

beady eyes.

He was nasty.

That's when they showed me the pictures.

[Janine] Cheryl picks out a picture of Anthony Cook,

but second guesses herself.

It was like everything was still fuzzy,

and I was nervous.

Then when Bud looks at the pictures,

he picks out another person.

So, they don't know what to think.

[Cheryl] The detectives asked if I could identify the second attacker,

but I wasn't certain about the second attacker

because I didn't see his face.

[Baker] This is really frustrating,

but police realize that

the people who attacked Bud and Cheryl

could be the killers they're seeking

because the MO is very similar.

[Sgt. Keefe] In the previous attacks,

after the suspects raped the victims,

they would make them get dressed,

before they would actually kill 'em.

So, we got Cheryl's clothing

for processing for physical evidence,

even though there was nothing

you can do with semen if it was found

other than type their blood back in the '80s.

[Cheryl] They took all my clothes,

and they did the rape kit,

and then they said "Okay, thank you," and they walked out.

I was in the hospital for three and a half weeks.

During that time, Eric was staying

between Bud's sister Cathy's house and my parents

because after the attack

doctors had to sedate Bud because he

lost his mind over it.

To know that I couldn't go home,

it was really hard

'cause all I want to do was pick up my son and hold him.

[Janine] Unfortunately, while she was still in hospital,

Cheryl's attackers strike again.

[reporter] Twelve-year-old Dawn Backes

was found dead in an abandoned theater.

[Ofc. Harold] On February 21st, 1981,

Dawn Rene Backes was abducted.

Three days later someone unfortunately

found the remains of this little girl

and she had been struck in the head with a cinder block.

That's evil.

How could someone do that to a child?

It was a very brutal scene.

She had been raped and redressed

before she was murdered.

[Ofc. Harold] At that point the general consensus

among law enforcement

was that we had serial killers

loose somewhere in Toledo, Ohio.

[Cheryl] The day I left the hospital, I went back to my parents.

I didn't wanna stay at the apartment.

I was slit all the way down

with staples on my stomach.

Thank God for my parents

because they helped take care of Eric.

Bud was there every once in a while,

but Bud didn't wanna cope with what happened

and knowing that he was right there and he couldn't defend me,

he said he felt so worthless as a man,

and Bud left Eric and I in March of '81.

I felt worthless.

I felt, I didn't ask for this.

It's not my fault,

but he's taking out on me,

and he's taking out on Eric by leaving us,

and my life was turned upside down.

After that when the police would come to house and give updates,

I would tell 'em, "Tell my parents."

I wanted them caught,

but I didn't wanna see no more pictures.

I just wanted it to go away.

[Janine] As Cheryl tries to move on,

the detectives on her case cannot,

when these two killers strike again.

[Det. Terry] Denise Siotkowski and Scott Moulton

were another young couple

found in the trunk of their car.

[Ofc. Harold] Ms. Siotkowski was raped multiple times

and they were both killed execution style.

[Baker] In rapid succession yet another couple.

Daryl Cole and Stacy Balonek are found beaten to death

in the trunk of a car.

There was a baseball bat in there, too

and it was the weapon that was used.

It was very brutal, animalistic.

An autopsy determined that she had been raped

but she had her pants on.

So she was made to get dressed

before they, they clubbed her to death.

[reporter] Police report the crimes this year

have been of a more heinous nature,

more suffering and more torture.

[Janine] Detectives are dreading the next attack.

But in September of 1981,

at least one of their killers makes the fatal mistake.

[Ofc. Harold] Leslie Sawicki and Todd Sabo

were seated in their van

when they were accosted by an unknown assailant.

[Sgt. Keefe] The attacker was a single Black male

armed with a pistol and he tied up Sabo

and began to sexual assault her.

But Todd escapes, and he's able to take the gun

away from the suspect.

Leslie runs for help

and calls her dad and then the police.

[Ofc. Harold] Her father, Peter Sawicki

arrived before any police arrived

at the scene.

[Sgt. Keefe] Somehow the suspect

recovers the firearm...

-[gunshots] -...and fires on

Peter Sawicki and Todd Sabo,

and then flees.

Todd was shot but he survived,

but, uh, unfortunately Mr. Sawicki did not survive.

Unlike Cheryl's attack, Todd and Leslie

were never forced to cover their faces,

so both were able to get

a sustained view of their attacker.

From the descriptions of Mr. Sabo and Ms. Sawicki,

we were able to get a sketch.

This is one of the first big breaks they've gotten,

and they broadcast it to the community

in hopes that somebody

would recognize the attacker.

Good afternoon. Toledo Police are intensifying

their search for the slayer of an Ottawa Hills man.

Here's the latest story when...

[Cheryl] I remember my dad was watching the news

and I just happen to come in the room

when they said there was another white couple

that was attacked.

[reporter] ...they were accosted by an armed man...

[Cheryl] And then they started showing a sketch

asking anybody to identify him

and in that moment

everything comes flooding back.

Told my dad, "That's him.

That's one of my attackers."

[reporter] The assailant is still at large.

[Cheryl] When I'd seen the sketch on TV,

I felt sick. I had to go in to the bathroom and throw up

and then I called the police department.

Then they sent a detective out.

When the detective came in he bring the photo album

and he said, "Can you point him out?"

And I said, "Right there."

And I pointed to the same man

I had picked out at the hospital.

There was no question.

I knew for sure then.

[Janine] Cheryl isn't the only one who recognizes the sketch.

Someone who says he knows the killer personally

says he overheard the man

talking about shooting Sawicki.

-[gunshot] -[Janine] What's more, he says he saw the man

handing a gun to his neighbor,

and this leads detectives

directly to a .22 caliber revolver

and 32-year-old Anthony Cook.

Anthony Cook was a convicted felon.

He was employed and married

and apparently during the course of his incarceration

developed an issue with the white people.

[Baker] Anthony Cook had served seven years for armed robbery.

He alleged that while he was in prison,

he was mistreated by white prison guards

which fostered his hate for white people.

When he's released in 1979,

he returns to Toledo, Ohio, where his family lives,

seeking revenge for what he endured in prison.

[Sgt. Keefe] It was also found out that he had a brother

that he was very close with, uh, Nathaniel Cook,

and apparently they were always together.

Nathaniel was over six foot

and very large person.

You know if you looked at them as a pair,

they fit the physical description of multiple cases,

and so Nathaniel came on the radar.

[Janine] Aside from appearance

there is nothing else that ties Nathaniel to a crime

but ballistics tests do confirm

that the bullets removed from Peter Sawicki

and Todd Sabo were fired

from Anthony Cook's .22 caliber revolver.

[Det. Terry] Anthony was arrested

and charged with aggravated murder,

attempted murder, attempted rape,

aggravated robbery,

a number of very serious felony charges.

[Ofc. Harold] Unfortunately, in the case of Cheryl Bartlett

in 1981,

there was no test to see if his DNA

could be recovered from the rape kit

and no fluids or blood were recovered from Miss Bartlett's clothing.

And because the .22 caliber bullet that entered Cheryl's body

exploded on impact the fragments can't be tested

to determine if it was fired

from Anthony Cook's revolver.

This lack of physical evidence prevents the possibility

of any charges being filed in Cheryl's case.

In fact no charges are filed

for either of the Cook brothers

in several other suspected attacks

because those cases also lacked physical evidence.

When I first found out that Anthony was captured

I was happy

that they had found one of my attackers,

but when they told me they couldn't take Anthony

on my case, I was furious with them.

They said that they didn't have enough evidence.

Which I understood that,

but I just wanted to be heard

saying, "This is what he did to me."

I felt like I was just shoved to the side.

[Baker] On March 13th, 1982,

Anthony Cook is convicted of murder, robbery,

an attempted rape and murder.

He's sentenced to 15 years to life in prison,

with the possibility of parole.

This is because back in 1982,

the state of Ohio didn't offer a life term in prison

without the possibility of parole,

nor did they offer the death penalty.

[Janine] Cheryl knows that he's one of her attackers

and is glad he's being locked up,

but there's not much relief

knowing that her second attacker

is still walking the streets of Toledo.

[Cheryl] I was afraid

that he would find me and kill me.

I was in the house all the time,

and I definitely didn't go out at night.

I was in a lot of pain,

reliving the attack every day.

I was drinking really heavy.

I was smoking weed.

I was doing some drugs

and I wasn't caring about life.

The turning point came when I went to visit my friend in Asheville

and I loved it there, I felt safe

and I decided it was time to move there

and stop the downhill spiraling of my life.

[Danny] When I met my wife Cheryl,

she had just come to Tennessee

and she got an apartment

and I lived in the same building

and me and her started dating

and one thing led to another

and we decided to move in together.

Okay, she woke up-- We woke up this morning

and she said that the trip down the alley

was really hard on her.

There's the garage.

I was raped and shot in that garage

by those two monsters.

She said, "I don't wanna go if it's okay with you."

I said, "You don't have to go. I can go."

Okay.

After Cheryl and I started living together,

I learned about what happened to her.

Of course you know, we can't understand something like that,

but I still tried my best,

and on November 26th, 1988,

that's when me and Cheryl was married.

Life in Tennessee suits Cheryl.

She often joins Danny on his trucking jobs,

and together they raise four sons.

And for nearly ten years

the events of January 27, 1981,

take a back seat in her new-found happiness.

That all changes in 1997.

[Det. Terry] The Toledo Police Department Cold Case Unit

began in the late '90s

to look at all of the cases

connected to the serial killing crime spree

that happened in 1980 and '81.

Although we had long suspected Anthony Cook

and his brother Nathaniel as a potential suspect,

there was no physical evidence

that could link the two of them

to all of these other cases,

and so we pulled all of the physical evidence

in all of these cases

and examined them for potential DNA evidence

to attempt to link these two suspects

to these victims.

[Baker] Of all the evidence examined,

one piece of clothing seems promising.

[Sgt. Keefe] After her boyfriend Thomas Gordon was murdered,

Sandra Podgorski was raped by two Black male suspects

that had made her get dressed afterward

and the semen went down into her pant leg

and that's where we found it.

[Ofc. Harold] At that point the Cold Case Unit collected that evidence

and sent it to the Bureau of Criminal Identification

and there was a hit.

When the DNA results came back

on Podgorski's pants,

we had a positive match

to Anthony Cook.

[Janine] The results also reveal a second profile.

It turns out, it's someone closely related to Anthony.

[Sgt. Keefe] At that point we got a warrant

to collect DNA samples from Nathaniel Cook.

[Janine] After 17 years, it takes less than one week

to determine that Nathaniel Cook's DNA

is a match to semen found inside

Sandra Podgorski's pants.

[Sgt. Keefe] Nathaniel Cook had been scot-free

for all these years but the gig was up

and he was going down with his brother.

[Cheryl] When I found out that they had my second attacker,

Nathaniel Cook in custody,

I was ecstatic

and I thought finally I can breathe a little bit

because now I... I don't have to worry so much about him trying to find me.

I wanted to face them in the court room

and tell them what they had done to me,

what they had done to my life, what they took from me.

[Baker] Unfortunately, Cheryl finds out

that her case will not be part of the trial

because they don't recover any DNA evidence

to link the Cook brothers to her case.

This is like history repeating itself.

I couldn't believe it and I was furious.

I was crying. I couldn't stop.

Back in '81, they performed a rape kit. They took all my clothes,

so I don't understand why they couldn't get any DNA.

I felt like they had enough to prosecute them on my case,

and I just wanted to be heard,

and have them admit what they did to me.

[Janine] Many of the victims family members

feel the same way

with their loved ones rapes and murders

being excluded from the new indictment.

But then a potential solution for closure arises.

The defense ask for a plea deal.

In exchange for confessing

to all the crimes they committed,

including Cheryl's,

Nathaniel will only serve 20 years

and will become eligible for parole in 2018

at the age of 59.

[Cheryl] I told the prosecution

I don't agree on the plea agreement

because I know 20 years would've been done in fast, real fast,

and they said the majority of the families agreed on it

and we have to go with that.

While it was a deal with the devil and it was made,

it was definitive.

[Baker] In total, Anthony Cook confessed

to nine murders and multiple rapes.

Nathaniel Cook confessed to three murders

and multiple rapes.

[Sgt. Keefe] Doing that has cleared

all these cases up from the '80s.

There was actually one from back in '73,

that we didn't even know.

And through their confessions the prosecution believe

that the older brother Anthony

was leading the younger brother Nathaniel

during these crimes.

[Det. Terry] In fact when Anthony was arrested in the Sawicki case,

Nathaniel never got in any trouble after that.

So there is no doubt that Nathaniel was influenced

by Anthony. He was a follower,

but just as guilty.

[Ofc. Harold] They are monsters. They really are monsters,

and in this case brothers,

because they didn't just

kill people.

These were crimes of opportunity,

where they could select victims

without fear that they would be discovered,

so they could take pleasure

in the torture of young white people.

[Cheryl] I was glad that they confessed,

but when I heard how they attacked

everybody that they attacked and killed,

I felt bad,

and then I would sit and think,

"How would their life been had they were lived?"

Then you start feeling guilty 'cause you lived

and they didn't get a chance.

And Dawn, she was 12 years old,

and never got a chance to go to a prom,

or have a boyfriend or, or know what life was about.

Twenty years ain't enough.

[Sgt. Keefe] Was justice served?

Not to me.

These serial killers should have been taken off the Earth.

I mean they were evil,

but that was not my decision

and these victims and their loved ones needed closure.

For Cheryl the fact that

she no longer has to look over her shoulder

mean she can live for a while in peace,

but as predicted, 20 years fly by.

[Cheryl] I was notified that

Nathaniel Cook was going out for parole,

and so I finally went to court and faced him in 2018,

and he just looked at us

with a smirk on his face, like,

"I'm getting out. There's nothing you can do."

I was crying.

I couldn't stop.

I'm angry because I feel like I was failed.

I never got to speak at either one of the trials.

I never got to speak when he was released.

I wanted to get up there and I couldn't do it.

When Nathaniel Cook first got out,

somebody went to his door and he said,

"Oh, that's in the past. I wanna forget about it."

I probably had about 15 to 20 surgeries

over different things that's happened in my inside.

I live with a scar for the rest of my life since I've been 18

but he wants to walk around, forget about it.

I wanted to tell my story

so more people will know how...

[deep breath]

...how these people are and what they've done

and how they have affected many lives

and there one's walking around now

and the other one goes up for parole in 2024.

People need to be aware

of the Cook brothers being on the loose in Toledo.

They're not gonna change.

It's just a matter of time

before they go back to it.

Buddy and I would bring Eric here and take long walks.

Really great memories.

After 40 years, I'm starting to live life.

I have four boys.

I have 14 grandchildren, five great-grandchildren.

I have a husband that I love tremendously of 35 years.

I'm grateful to be alive.

[Danny] Cheryl to me is nothing but muscle...

strong.

She don't back down from nothing

and that's a fact.

[Cheryl] A lot of people say I'm a victim,

but I think I'm a survivor because I went through it.

I ordealed with it

and I'm still living.

Just going back to where I was attacked was hard.

I went through heck and high waters

for couple of days of crying

and I was not in a good place

and I started now

seeing a therapist.

I think when you've been through what I've been through,

getting help is the best thing for you.

Waiting as long as I did,

um,

over 40 years,

doesn't do you no good to hide it.

You need therapy right after it

and I wish I would've done it, now.

[Danny] How are you feeling today?

Just in general.

-I feel good because I'm with you. -All right.

That's good.

Yeah. It's nice to remember the old memories,

but it's even better when I'm with you.

That's right. Thank you.

-I love you. -I love you, too.

Maybe we can get us a camper and just live like this?

[chuckles] Yeah.

-[Danny chuckles] -That would be nice.

[dramatic music playing]