I just had my first chance to listen to the victim statement / testimony given today by a woman who DS attempted to kidnap in 1992 when she was 13. I'd read about that case when DS was first identified as a suspect in Cherish's murder. Once again, I am awestruck by how brave this woman is - both then and now.
When I was in my mid-20s in Jacksonville, I had a stranger pursue me in a car and attempt to grab me while I was speed-walking on a Saturday in an office park that was about 4 miles from my home. He'd tried to approach me and convince me to get in his car and got furious when I refused to get close or talk to him. I could tell from the look in his eyes that if he got me into his car, I might never be seen again.
This was long before people had cell phones, so I could not phone for help nor was there anyone around the office park who might have seen what was happening. He aggressively pursued me in his car, attempting to block me while I tried to run from the empty office park to nearby residential communities, but doing it subtly enough at first that I thought I was over-reacting until he got more aggressive as I got closer to a residential neighborhood with greater traffic. I was hoping to find someone in their front yard who could help me and call the police. I was terrified to stop at a stranger's door because I knew the man would be able to catch me if I paused long enough and there wasn't anyone to answer the door.
I finally shook his pursuit by running through deep ditches between neighborhoods until I knew I was at a place where I could sprint home through other ditches before he'd be able to find me and catch me by car. By the time I got home I was still scared and exhausted, I didn't have a good vehicle description (white small car, really that was all I could recall?!) and I had no gauge of the man's height, just that he was Caucasian with dark hair and empty, hollow, evil eyes - couldn't even say what color, just how evil resonated from them. Since my description was so pathetically vague and since I knew he wouldn't find me again, I didn't call it in to the police, which I regret to this day.
That being said, my personal experience makes me have even more respect for the absolute terror that I know this woman experienced and has overcome twice in her life now to speak out against the monster that DS is - at 13 and now decades later. She has bared her soul and shared the absolute terror that being pursued like this by a complete stranger brings - and she spoke out as a child and again today as a woman. She is another one of Cherish's local angels, working to ensure that the only way this pathetic and evil man leaves prison is in a pine box.
