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 Podcast, 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.

And now onto the show.

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

Listener discretion is advised.

I'm slipping in and out of consciousness.

I'm freezing, not knowing what he's going to do next.

Real people.

I believe that I was looking down to see where I was going to die.

Who faced death.

It was inexplicable, the sheer terror.

And live to tell how.

That sense of regret that you'd do things differently if you had

another couple of days.

This is I survived.

It's January 2004 in Wind Lake, Wisconsin.

Terry and her ex-husband David share custody of their daughters, aged four and six.

Terry is on her way to David's house to pick up the girls.

I drove to his house and it was very cold that day in snowing. He came to the door and he's like,

they're not ready yet. And then shut the door. Knocked on his door again. And he opened it and he said,

oh, the girls are hiding and they want you to come and find him. Terry had divorced David after

enduring three years of domestic violence.

You know, I thought to myself, I don't want to go in his house, but I'm very much a mom.

...