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. And now onto the show.

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

Listener discretion is advised.

I walked through a field with my back broken with a gun on my head.

Real people.

Both legs were just basically a sack full of broken bones.

Who faced death.

Once he says, stop there, don't move, I'm like, okay, this is execution.

And live to tell how.

I remember thinking if I make it out of this whole life, I have to remember every detail about these men.

This is I Survived.

It's October 1995 in Aurora, Colorado.

16-year-old Brandy is a junior in high school.

I met a kid at school that was deaf that was in my chemistry class. He was my chemistry partner, and so that's how we became friends.

I did not know sign language, but I befriended him anyway.

And he seemed really cool, and so I wanted to get to know him better.

We communicated by writing back and forth.

Brandy invited Jeff over to her home one evening.

He was over at my house and we just kind of hung out all night,

wrote back and forth, took a really long time to have conversations with him.

We went to his car to go smoke a cigarette and I remember looking at the clock.

It was 120 in the morning.

...