Hi, I Survived listeners. I'm Marissa Pinson. And if you're enjoying this show, I just want to remind you that episodes of I Survived, as well as the A&E Classic Podcasts, Cold Case Files, City Confidential, and American Justice, are all available ad-free on the new A&E Crime and Investigation Channel on Apple Podcasts and Apple Plus for just $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year.

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This episode contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners.

Listener discretion is advised.

When he laid me down, he laid me right in the middle of the grass,

and he shot two more times at my head.

Real people. I just kept thinking that she can't die. She can't die. The mother of my children, she can't die. Who faced death? They came

underneath a table where someone was and said peekaboo and then shot him.

And lived to tell how.

I think to myself, I need DNA evidence.

I need DNA.

I'm going to die.

I need them to find DNA underneath my fingernails.

This is I survived.

Okay. This is I Survived. It's May 2006 in Puyallup, Washington.

Stephanie has been dating her boyfriend, an ex-Marine, for two and a half years.

The couple, who each have children of their own are about to get married.

Our relationship was off and on. I had broken up with them a few times and it just

never felt right. Each time I just took him back. It was either he was upset or distraught or

he was outside my house and and it was just really bad situations and so I'd always

go back. A month before we got married, Cesar, and I were making plans. And he came and put his hand

up to my neck and put a gun to my head. He said, you're going to marry me whether you want to or not.

...