By now we all know how this story ends.

It ends on a rooftop parking garage in Newport Beach where a serial predator named John

Mehan decides to exact vengeance on his estranged wife by going after what he thinks is the softest

possible target, his 25-year-old stepdaughter, Teran Newell.

It ends in broad daylight with a cascade of improbabilities.

Teran Newell happens to work in a dog kennel and she hasn't yet changed out of the thick

shredded rain boot she wears when she hoses down the dog cages.

And she happens to have her miniature Australian shepherd with her.

And when Mehan tries to abduct her at knife point, this small but fierce dog distracts

him by lunging at his legs.

And in her fight to survive Teran's boots happen to connect in just the right spot.

And by some fluke of physics, the long silver knife flies from his hand and lands on the

pavement handle pointed toward hers.

And though she has no combat training, she just happens to have privately rehearsed

for a confrontation like this one for years.

John Mehan, a hardened criminal who towers over her by a foot, a survivor of jail and

prison cells has every advantage but Teran wins.

I wouldn't call it a happy ending exactly, but it's an infinitely better ending than

it might have been.

I'm Christopher Gofford.

I'm the writer.

I'm the writer and host of the Dirty John series and podcast, which my newspaper The

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