Caitlin Van Mol 0:00 This episode contains descriptions of sexual assault and violence. Listener discretion is advised.

Sheri 0:08 I'd never known fear and right that I just got the biggest education of my life.

Caitlin Van Mol 0:17 Sherry ball Garcia grew up in Southern California. But her childhood wasn't at all typical. I started because

Sheri 0:25 on a playground and elementary school, we had races at recess. The yard lady who, you know, was in charge of the playground at the time, her daughter was on attracting Well, I beat every all the boys except for one boy. So she had spoken with my mom and said, Wow, my daughter's on our track team and, and cherries really talented, you know, can you bring her by practice and that was La Jolla track club back in 1971. And my coach Tracy Sunderland, he was manager of the US Olympic team in Rio. Very incredible coach. He got Wilt Chamberlain, involved, and he became the sponsor of our track team. And then we became well to under women. It was tough. You know, I came home a lot crying, you know, I want to quit.

Caitlin Van Mol 1:26 How old were you? I was eight when

Sheri 1:28 I started. And I was a child prodigy. So at 10 years old, I ran a 508 mile, which is I was a little 68 pound child. You tiny, tiny in, and I was third in the nation. performing

Caitlin Van Mol 1:47 at this level was a lot of pressure for a child. But Sherry found running practice to be a respite from her home life.

Sheri 1:57 My mother, she was great. She took us to the track meeting was a chaperone. But she had some issues drinking problem, my mom was an alcoholic. And so my track was my safe place every day to go when I got the attention and the nurturing. And even if it was a difficult type of attention, and, you know, there was some yelling and screaming going on, if we weren't performing well, but it was all in our best interest. It really, really was. By

Caitlin Van Mol 2:31 the time she was in high school, the Amateur Athletic Union where Sheree could compete on a national level had been disbanded. Her only alternative was the regular high school track team. And

Sheri 2:44 there was no competition. There was there was really none. And so I gave up the sport until my senior year and then then I ran for a couple years had a knee injury. And then I got married and had kids and by 1992. And then after my children were born, I started running again and ROAs road racing and then Mr. Sunland started coaching me again. And we were training for our Olympic Trials marathon. I was training a lot, I working full time mother and running around 50 miles a week.

Caitlin Van Mol 3:23 That's more than seven miles per day,

Sheri 3:25 get up in the morning, do my runs in the dark by myself. And never, never even blinked.

Caitlin Van Mol 3:37 In September of 1992. Sherry accompanied her husband on a work trip to Maui. But when you're training to qualify for the Olympics, running doesn't take a vacation. We

Sheri 3:50 got there. On Tuesday night and Wednesday morning I got up and said I'm gonna go for a ride. I'm just going to do a half, you know, quick little half an hour. There was about 5am Well, the interesting thing that morning my husband said to me, honey, no, just wait. And I'll get on a bike. He'd never ever offered a ticket on a bicycle and go with me for a run ever. I just told him no go back to sleep, you know, and then when I get back, they will go go. And that was that. And it was dark when I left the hotel. It started just I could see a little light behind the mountains as I was running pre Dawn, you know where it's not complete pitch black. And then so I could see the horizons of the mountains. I thought on the main highway I always would feel safe because commuters you know there's always somebody commuting to work at 5am paper voice or out that back in the day. There's so I got into my journey, too. towards the town of Lahaina like this about 20 minutes into my run 17 minutes, little under three miles. And as I was running, you know, just relax. I had headphones, but they were lightly on, you know, so I could hear the birds chirping. It just wasn't loud music. There was a guardrail on the side of the road. And it had like railroad tie post with metal in between, you know, supporting that guardrail is the old, you know, right along the waterfront. And so he grabbed my arm he was crouched down, I couldn't see him.

Caitlin Van Mol 5:44 This is live to tell the podcast where I talk to some of the bravest people who have been through the most horrifying things and lived to tell the tale. I'm Caitlin van mol Cherie wasn't oblivious to her surroundings. But the man was crouched behind the guard rail on her right. So it was a complete shock when he jumped out and grabbed her. There

Sheri 6:13 was a retaining wall, where I wasn't it was a lava rock beach right there. So there was no sand even on that beach. And so when he jumped up to grab me, I mean, I just I didn't hear him. I did not see any movement period. It was just a grab on the arm swung me around, and then he took his fist and just as fierce as he could punched me, you know, I had seven fractures to my nose with one blow. It was in pieces, there was a piece sticking straight out and it was crushed. Just the bridge of the nose was completely crushed. Your adrenaline at this point? You know, it was already working for me because he was just like, you know, I am down. He's got a hold of me by my pressure points behind my elbows. I can't feel my hands. So he was good. He knew what he was doing this. I know. He was he knew to disorient me straightaway. And then when I got up, my brain went into flight or fight you know, immediately it was just slow motion. I could see it wasn't light light, but I could see what was you know, facing me. I couldn't see I can't see his face still to this day. It's locked. It's just locked in there. I blacked it out. If he got me over this guardrail, my knees were buckling I was trying with all my leg strength to prevent him from pulling me over that guard Well, guard rail and then the wall was about eight feet down where he would have me off of the road if he threw me over. And so I with all my mind, I just and I couldn't whip out with my hands because of the pressure points that he had. Behind my elbows, I had no arms you know, it was just down and he got me down that wall. And then I had pretty long hair. It was in a ponytail which is another great thing for a predator to grab a hold of. So when he got me down, face down, he took a lava rock and crushed the back of my skull how pounded my face with my ponytail took me here pounded me into the lava rock continuing as I was still screaming and he told me to shut the fuck up. I'm going to rape you and I'm going to kill you. He didn't say right, he said I'm gonna fuck you. I'm gonna fuck you in the hours and then I'm going to take your time and I knew I knew he was telling me the truth. And so then I just begged I said please please do anything you want Don't kill me I have two young boys that need me I tried to get some compassion but the way the beating you know when I screen you know it's just shut the fuck up. And the beating got harder but I knew my only chance was to be either to reach him through pleading somehow some way God willing. A miracle in the beating just got harder and harder and harder and and in all the beating those you know, I'm trying to think I can't climb up that wall he'll grab my leg. There's no No way. I can't run down the lava rock beach. I've seen too many movies where women, they fall and they try and get out, you know that it's just wasn't a situation where you could run, you know, safely It was dark and the lava rocks were big and the ocean was right there, you know about feet from me. My my main focus right then was I was trying to move my head so when he would pound it in that I wouldn't lose my eyes. Because my eyes were my only real way to get out to see see where I could which way I could escape. And so I kept maneuvering it. So I took a lot of my frontal lobe area was fractured on both brows. The orbit was fractured under this eye, and then several fractures to the back in high school, which I still at this point, I really didn't feel pain. I mean, I know it hurt but it really wasn't. The adrenaline was just so amazing. And then you know, I just kind of quiet it down for a moment. And as he fisted me vaginally, and rectally, then his pants dropped. And I could see, he had to let go of me to get his pants up. And I had a brief moment when he undid his pants. And I dove into the ocean. I took two steps and dove into that water and swam as hard as I could. And that was my I mean I just had that that one half of a second. My brain was thinking the whole time how am I going to get out and there were some some boats nearby in Lahaina, there's a little harbor which had just everything burned in in Maui in Lahaina. And so there's some boats that aren't in the harbor Marina, they were free anchor,

Caitlin Van Mol 12:07 though the boats were close enough to swim to Sherry decided not to seek safety there.

Sheri 12:13 The first of all, I felt I could see the bone sticking out of my face, you know, my nose in it, I'm like, What are they gonna do? You know, there's blood all over, you know, I'm still just squirting oozing blood. And I'm like, who's gonna help me they're gonna just like, flip out. Or they could be friends with this guy. In this small town, you know, one another, I just this point my brain was, was really think I'd lost trust in human being done game over. So I decided no, on the boat. It was just like, Okay, I'm gonna swim to the island of Lanai, which is seven miles. I've decided this is the safest thing for me because he's going to be on the beach waiting for me. I can't swim in. And I just was I just didn't know where to go. You know, because he could see me. But I wasn't looking back at this point. New did he did he come in the water after me. I'm still swimming. And then I got fatigued. I am my running shoes on still. So all of a sudden, I'm getting fatigued. And then I just there was a buoy. And I was hanging on to the buoy and my favorite running shoes. You know? Like, I didn't want to get rid of them. Something so bizarre. It's like my teddy bear. Then so I had to lose the shoes because I realized, you know, they're weighing me down. I'm not gonna make it, you know. And then I is I'm holding on to the buoy. I just string God helped me it was turbulent. In a stream, you know, as long as I could God helped me. It was just like, I know, I realized I don't think I can make it to the island of Lanai. It seemed as though the water became completely calm. And then I heard sirens. Not a very religious person at the time. But something spoke to me pretty loudly in that moment, that there was something saying it's not your time. And when I heard the sirens this pain came like, you know, I knew I was going to be safe. And the adrenaline went Ooh. And it was just like, oh my gosh, my head is gonna explode. Okay, you've got to start swimming back in and until there were five squad cars that came in they came from different directions. And so I I saw the flashlights than I used to started screaming, I'm here, I'm here and I kept swimming. And then one of the officers was right at the guardrail where I was thrown over. And so I'm climbing up towards him, and he pulls me up. And he proceeds to fate. And so then I'm like, this is like a movie. I mean, and then I'm, you know, just staggering to the next police officer that I just went, it's that bad, huh.

Caitlin Van Mol 15:32 She told the officers her name, her husband's name, and where they were staying. Her husband was retrieved and brought to the scene of the attack.

Sheri 15:41 That was in the back of the ambulance, he came up and just collapsed. Oh, the police asked him if I'd been if we were having marital problems. If I'd been out all night, and I was in my running bra, some running shorts. I was out for a run. And they they you know, it's just I know, it's police protocol that they ask these questions, but it's just really, you know, like, I

Caitlin Van Mol 16:14 think we can put two and two together here, unnecessary,

Sheri 16:16 you know, and completely unnecessary.

Caitlin Van Mol 16:21 The nearest hospital was across the island. But Sherry wanted to see a doctor. Now. I

Sheri 16:28 wanted them to find the local doctor that could sell up my face right then and there. I worked in oral surgery. And so when you're putting things back together tight time is of the essence before there's swelling. So the scars would have been much worse. And so we did some cosmetic surgeries in our oral surgery office, just little minor things. But that was just something that, you know, it's ridiculous. They should have made me go I had concussions. But the doctor at Whalers Village, you know that the ambulance dispatched, and he said, I'll be there in, you know, 10 minutes, bring her on in and in there, you know, I was comfortable. I had no insurance. That was another reason. I didn't want to spend time in the hospital. I didn't want to be there for a week being poked and prodded and I just wanted to be with my husband, I wanted to go home. Right then and there. And then I was advised I couldn't fly because of my head injuries. So the doctor did his best and sewed me up and did a beautiful job.

Caitlin Van Mol 17:44 With what what kind of a doctor was he? He usually

Sheri 17:47 took care of tourist who had he was a general practitioner. And he was not a specialist at all. But was his kindness could be to to take care of me.

Caitlin Van Mol 18:02 Do you have a sense from the doctor of perhaps how close you were to being murdered? Oh,

Sheri 18:10 you know, 13 skull fracture so this flowing in the bleeding it's just you know, my drill and kept me alive and my will you know to fight. But it could have been the first blow with the rock could have killed me I was just lucky in how I move things around to try and you know, salvage, you know how I was impacted. I wanted I wanted my forehead to take the brunt. But the orbit was was hanging on by like three millimeters. You know, just in that your eyeball would fall down. And so there would have to be a whole major surgery there. Then then sometimes you have a paralysis there with your movement. So I was I was really lucky on uncertain things. Hey, you know how healed up then we'll deal with my two front teeth were knocked into my palate. I didn't notice any of that until like five days later when I tried to eat some yogurt because they were jaw fractures as well. Very small, and didn't have to be wired chat or anything. But when I took that spoon of yogurt and I was like, oh boy, because my mouth was was very swollen lips were just a mess. The doctor was very sensitive as he was sewing me up and then he had to have a nurse practitioner come and do my vaginal exam because he broke down. He literally had just a meltdown about it. I think he was scared though, because I was assaulted. And I think it made him uncomfortable being a man And then I think he really wanted her to do it to make me more comfortable. But I'm grateful it was, it was just what I needed. The thought of a hospital room, maybe somebody else being in a room with me, I know they would have kept me in there, I wouldn't have been released for days. I know that with all certainty. In this way, I still had a control over, over what was going to happen to me here on out and in that I didn't want to have to pay for, you know, these huge hospital bills, which, I mean, I had a sense for that I'm okay. I'm gonna be okay.

Caitlin Van Mol 20:43 Sherry couldn't go home immediately due to the swelling from her injuries. So she and her husband made use of the time,

Sheri 20:52 because we went my husband and I went back to the site. About five days later, I had to go back. And just, I just had to see, you know, the, the area in daylight with him. And I, you know, I made it, I said that one thing, I'm not going to let this take away my running. Take away my life, you know, I felt like Superwoman at this point, you know that I was so grateful to be alive. When we got down there in I coincidence or not, my husband and I, and one of his co workers, wives came with us. And there was this young man, and I didn't know who you know, a little girl with him. And it was his niece. And when my husband and I came up, and he looks at me, and he says, Oh, my God, you're hurt. That was the first thing out of his mouth. And he said, I called the police because I heard you screaming. And he's Then he said to me, he goes, Is this your watch, by the way? And I said, Oh, my God. I mean, I can't believe the police didn't find it.

Caitlin Van Mol 22:15 The more Sherry saw of the scene, and the more she learned at the police investigation, the more frustrated she was with how things were handled. There's

Sheri 22:25 a lot of still questions on things how the police handle things. There was no rocks taken from the area after that had my blood all over them and I'm sure that his knees were torn up by the lava rock. They had to have been my my wrist watch my Ironman Triathlon watch was found by the young man who heard me screaming. They didn't look for anything. They didn't take any of the rocks. You know, usually you take evidence for the whole area should have been taped off. No, it wasn't. You know, they said this kind of thing doesn't happen in Hawaii. Well, it did.

Caitlin Van Mol 23:03 Yeah, let's talk about that. So initially, the police show up, you tell them what happened. You're taking the Doctor, what are your interactions with them after that?

Sheri 23:15 So they came and questioned me and I was made to feel like I was asking for it. You know, why were you out running at that time in the morning? Why were you wearing what you wore? They knew what I was wearing. They had my shorts, they had my running top. They said you know what I was wearing and should I have been wearing you know as turtleneck and ski pants. I wasn't asking for I should be able to run down the street Barris naked. And not have anybody touched me. Why wasn't your husband with you? Just you know, and went out for a run. End of story. Do you have any suspects? The kid who had called said he saw a green convertible Mustang was parked on the side of the road. So it was though he drove in that's like the number one rental car at the time. There's rental car, lot at the hotel. And he could have been valet or dropping off a rented car there at the hotel for customers. I don't know why they didn't start going down that route. There was a coincidence that a woman the police told me that they question you know, hotel employees if they saw anybody leaving that morning after me. And then it came up that one of the waitresses at the hotel used to run every day, that same route where I was and she did not run that morning. So he may have been after her After her, and I, the next best thing came along. Blonde hair. Also the girl was she was so upset. She didn't go into work that week. Because I sure as heck wanted to talk to her. My brother had called me and, you know, back called the hotel back and he said, You know what, be sure and get some photographs have Bobby take some photographs of you. Lo and behold the police when they took their photographs, somehow that film got exposed. This was back in the day of, you know, no digital was all film exposure.

Caitlin Van Mol 25:38 Sherry and her husband had to stay two weeks before she was able to fly home. And that meant two weeks away from her two boys who was taking care of your children at the time. And how did you talk to them about what happened? Was

Sheri 25:55 my mother in law, and I asked her to fly over bring the children. And everybody reminded me of Do you want them to see you like this? And so I didn't, there was no way to explain to my youngest was two and a half. So when the oldest was five and a half. So

Caitlin Van Mol 26:17 what did you tell them happened? And have you ever talked to them about like the full extent of the story?

Sheri 26:25 As adults? Yes. We eat my youngest. We didn't. We didn't. We just said Mommy had a bicycle accident. My oldest was not wanting to wear his helmet riding a bicycle. So this just made the perfect sense. Mommy crashed her bicycle. She didn't have a helmet on. This is what happens. So that's what I told him, you know, five, and I thought he could grasp that. And then when when you know, he would wear his helmet from now on and he did. So the younger one, you know, he, he could barely talk it or you know, just learning to talk at two and a half. So he was just like, Oh, um, you know, Mommy got Ally's.

Caitlin Van Mol 27:09 Once Sherry was finally able to return to California, she was desperate to get back into her regular routine.

Sheri 27:17 Before I came home, I had to, you know, call my boss and tell him I'm gonna need a little bit more time. Yeah. Yeah. And, and then I came back a little bit early. And he was like, I'm not sure. This is a good idea. Because I was so you know, black and blue. And I said, Please, please, please, this is where I need to be. I just need to resume my normal daily life. patients aren't going to have to know what happened to me just that that I had an accident.

Caitlin Van Mol 27:53 But it wasn't just an accident. And sharing now how to deal with the emotional aftermath. I

Sheri 28:00 couldn't go out in the dark. I couldn't even take the trash cans out in the morning in the dark. I mean, they tried in a bird flew out of a bush and I dumped the trash can and I ran back in and the heart rate was just and it still can happen to me in certain situation. If somebody were to come up in the dark and tapped me on the shoulder, shoulder, you know,

Caitlin Van Mol 28:21 how much has this like colored your decisions for your life. Every

Sheri 28:27 decision I make includes safety and an awareness completely. There's never a time I'm not aware of my surroundings. Simple things like going to go into the city and going to you know, a mall shopping mall. And when I leave that mall, I've got my purse clutch keys ready for the truck. I took care of a co workers pets, she was out of town yesterday. So after work, I had to go over and let them out and then she goes in then you have to you know feed them and then go back and let them out a second time. So this is at eight o'clock at night. And I had to tell her, you know, I hadn't told everybody at work about my, my attack. You know, I've got to have my headlamp on I've got to have your key in my hand. And I say you know I brought my dog with me I have I have a Cane Corso Mastiff, and Italian Mastiff. Very big, big, big guy 120 pounds. Brendel with cropped ears that looks like she'll eat someone.

Caitlin Van Mol 29:45 Since Sherry didn't feel comfortable being in the dark, her Olympic hopes are dashed. Because

Sheri 29:52 I was struggling, I couldn't train. I had to get a treadmill. You know, you just can't do all your training on a treadmill and expect To compete, like, you know, as far as me achieving that dream of qualifying for the Olympic trials in the marathon, you've got to be out on the roads, but I worked full time. So, my coach had said to me, it'll never happen again. And I said, Tracy, you don't understand. I know, it probably will never happen again. But my anxiety level, my heart rate, it's going to, it won't work. I can't do it. The discomfort I have, I'm not, you know, I feel like somebody's behind me. It's very uncomfortable, and it defeats the purpose of my run. You know, it's all quit running before all. I'll live like that, you know, I mean, I just, it's not, there's no switch when you when, you know, no fear to knowing fear, the

Caitlin Van Mol 30:50 attack and its impact, also negatively affected Sherry's marriage.

Sheri 30:55 My ex husband, you know, he was so comforting, but you know, I'd fall asleep and he'd wake wake me up holding me, you know, rubbing my back, just adding me It's okay. I'm here. What he had to go through because he felt he should never have let me go by myself. It wasn't his fault. It was mine. I know. It wasn't, you know, the sick person. To

Caitlin Van Mol 31:26 be very clear. This was a no way Sherry's fault.

Sheri 31:30 I became just a different person. I, my husband was the sweetest man provided, you know, beautifully for our family. We, we were happy. But it just changed. We I didn't like being touched. I just wanted my children. That's all I just wanted the innocence of these two boys. It was enough. I just didn't feel like I was going to be a good wife that I was dirty. Just mentally, that I was never gonna get well. No, my fear and trust in people and in the whole thing I didn't. It was just strange, where where I went from there. It was so hard for me to you know, get to work and, and just function and be a mom. You know, I just didn't feel like I could be a wife and that's a that's a really hard part of my life still today. I wish I could have done better managed to trust Him through through it. Let him see me raw and because he sure as heck didn't want to abandon me, then never would have

Caitlin Van Mol 33:02 think you did the best you could? Yeah, everyone is doing the best they can. As part of their Victim Services Fund, Hawaii paid for Sherry's therapy for six years.

Sheri 33:16 So for six years, you know, I had the therapy and it was a place I went to sometimes three times, you know, when people didn't talk about didn't talk about I knew never heard of any woman sharing about assault and rape. And they weren't the TV shows like dateline and and all these, you know, that nowadays can be beneficial to some people when they hear other people sharing their stories and in the recovery options that you have and different types of treatments that there are available today.

Caitlin Van Mol 33:56 I was the kind of therapy that you were going to, I went to

Sheri 34:00 a psychologist and a psychiatrist. They were partners so he he medicated me in the beginning and she was my therapist that I would talk speak to and so he was just the one writing the prescriptions and at first they had me on Valium. And I couldn't run it just my legs felt drugged, poisoned. So it was like this isn't gonna work. And then if my house were on fire, I don't know that I would wake up if my kids needed me. You know, it's it's a it's a heavy duty drug. And so I think I took that for two or three weeks after I got back home. And then they put me on this anti depressant Paxil, I think it was and you had to up your dosage over a period of time and I felt like a zombie like people, friends of mine were like, lights on nobody home. Are you? Okay? Sherry, there was an emptiness in my eyes, which there was an emptiness in my eyes anyhow. From what I've been told you

Caitlin Van Mol 35:13 didn't find the drugs helpful.

Sheri 35:14 No, not at all. Didn't help my sleep at all the dreams were vivid, you know, every I go to sleep, and it would start right back up that he's chasing, you know, and this went on for years, you know. And then, when they stopped paying for the therapy, I went for a bit longer. And it was just a cost that I wasn't, I wasn't benefiting. I was getting angry that, you know, I was spending this time and I wasn't getting any results.

Caitlin Van Mol 35:49 So Sherry started self medicating. Then

Sheri 35:53 I went out with a friend of mine after work. And my ex husband had the kids for the weekend, and I had a cocktail, the shot of tequila and a beer, and now they got home tonight. They never slept so good in my life, post assault. And then to go, Okay, well, we can do this on the weekends, you know, you don't have to work and the kids have been gone with their dad. And then it, it just snowballed. Then it became a daily after work by medicated for four years, and started becoming blank mother. Dealing, you know, I finally saw it was like, Oh my gosh, this is what my mother was doing. She was medicating something, you know, how do people drink daily? So, you know, it wasn't taking, you know, you I finally, you know, realize this isn't it's just masking the problem, I'm still the same person during the day that he still has those trust issues. And I'm destroying my body, you know, I'm all about health, and fitness and being present as a mother, you know, because my kids said, when they they they said, Oh, my SIR alcohol in the refrigerator, and you don't drink. It's like, oh, that's for company. Then they started noticing, you know, long were you acting funny. couple glasses of wine. He you know, so that just, you know, it had to stop. Then I went into I put myself in rehab. And I thought that, you know, maybe I could have some better coping mechanism mechanisms with. And then I got kicked out of rehab because I wasn't sick enough. I wasn't like, you know,

Caitlin Van Mol 37:55 being rejected from rehab, Sherry was open to any alternative method to help her stop drinking.

Sheri 38:04 They ended up going back in like 2012, to some hypnotherapy and tried that. And I heard there were great results, like one visit, and you're done with this new treatment. And she said I was a difficult case. So I was probably going to have to go for six months. Well, after my third visit, my nightmares were back. And this is 20 years later after my attack, as bad as they were post attack. And I just, you know, and I'm paying out of pocket legislating, you know, I'm just, I'm, I can't do it. I have to sleep. Yeah, I'm not ready to open this. And now there are some new psilocybin guided treatments that they're using with veterans. And I, I've heard there's just amazing results, but I'm not, you know, I'm not ready to go there quite yet. You know, I'm actually in a pretty good place since I've lived here. I haven't had any dreams.

Caitlin Van Mol 39:09 For years after the attack. The Hawaii police contacted Sherry about identifying her attacker.

Sheri 39:16 They sent over a lineup. I got contacted when I was at work. And so my boss took me to the Encinitas Sheriff's Department. And that's where we went through that with another investigator. You know that so he had photos for me to look at and there was one photo that I just I just leaped out, like froze that I said, I can't I can't ID him because the face is blank. But everything else matched but give me a voice recording. And I will identify him in one second. Did I do that? Give me a voice line. No, but it's almost as though we had that one lineup sent over and then then nothing ever since. And what was the story? I said, why, you know, what, what? Why am I getting this line of what happened? Somebody must have been harmed. Deciding that wasn't entitled to any of that.

Caitlin Van Mol 40:23 Might Yeah, on the one hand, it's like they can't tell you, because you witness to your own assault. So they can't, like I got it. But it also it's extremely frustrating from your perspective that like, can you just tell me what's going on?

Sheri 40:38 Yeah, yeah, this is something you're tying to my case? Or is it another case that someone Now a woman was found dead half a mile north of where I was, and that was about a year before my attack? Possibly this same head injuries. So to me, I mean, the odds of it being someone else is very seems very unlikely to me. Right. Because of the location,

Caitlin Van Mol 41:07 her attacker is still unknown. And this just doesn't sit right with Sherry, while advocating for herself is a daunting prospect. Sherry has used her spare time to advocate for others.

Sheri 41:20 So when Chelsea King went missing while on a run out at Lake Hodges. They it was full forces immediate. And her body was located. I believe within two days, it was all over the news. And there was previously a young girl Amber Dubois, who was missing. And it was very interesting, the two girls came from two totally different, does two totally different types of family. One was a broken family, one was, you know, very prominent family in a well to do neighborhood. And the police went into this with Amber Dubois that she you know, could have been a runaway and unhappy team because of all this, and they really didn't even look It was so sad.

Caitlin Van Mol 42:17 Sherry was part of the search team that set out to find Chelsea King and

Sheri 42:21 you know, I was a little leery it was going to be so upsetting bringing back uncomfortable feelings when I may come across safety this this monster was out there. You know, if you bet within the the groups that showed up or hundreds of people so when she was found, you know, I had met the parents at the search and rescue and Amber do blahs mother was one of the volunteers heading the rescue, she became involved in search and rescue. The Kings, you know, started immediately when Chelsea was found immediately started looking into laws and changing and awareness and the whole picture of what can be done to change you know. And so I started gathering signatures, which you have to do in order to propose this bill. Every weekend I was downtown Carlsbad in the park where it's heavily trafficked with runners and walkers and along the boulevard. So push comes to shove, we finally got Chelsea's law passed.

Caitlin Van Mol 43:31 Chelsea's law was signed in 2010. And enacted longer sentences and longer parole periods for sex offenses to children. Chelsea and Amber's murderer had served five years in prison for child molestation before he took their lives. I

Sheri 43:49 felt you know, I just felt it's so I had to be involved in it. Part of my healing part of you know, just just making being that I'm a voice I survived. I'm their voice. You know, the least I can do is be the voice for for all those who do not survive these things. It's just, you know, until the day I die, I will be that that voice when you approached me, of course I have to do this. Sherry

Caitlin Van Mol 44:21 is using her voice to amplify the dangers of running alone and encourages runners to take safety precautions, even

Sheri 44:30 to reach one person. You know, with each sharing of my story and so many people that I know that their daughters would go out and you know they they're on a soccer team and their coach tells them to run during the summer and they're running alone and there's just no reason you know, that that should be happening. There's a buddy system I always speak of you know, and if you don't have a buddy you don't go you go to a gym in The safety and presence of others or you get your parents or your siblings or things can happen, you know, not to live in fear. But to be protected, you know, when you're, if you are going to go for a run, you know, just make. Make sure you have people who know where you are, because there's people that are still going to run alone. There's tracking devices for your phone, Find My iPhone, where you can be located, always have your phone set for your 911 you know that you can easily grab it. But you know, to me, it's just I advocate never run alone. That's, that's my message.

Caitlin Van Mol 45:42 Today, Sherry keeps herself busy with work and volunteering. I

Sheri 45:47 used to work in rural surgery, and then I worked for Rock and Roll Marathon doing several different things from their elite athlete to their wheelchair, elite athlete handler. And that's where I kind of found a niche dealing with Challenged Athletes Foundation and their athletes. And so I did a lot of volunteer work with them life rolls on was another in Chelsea's light foundation. So when I moved out here, I thought I was going to retire. And that wasn't good for my brain. That meant amount of time off, not being productive. So I'm working full time and it's called Borrego Outfitters. It's like an ar e i outdoor gear. I see my grandkids once a week. And just the light of my life. I have a grandson and granddaughter and I have one to any day. And then I run I run five days a week on my treadmill and continue that new toying with the idea of maybe another marathon. My last one was when I was 45. And I did really really well placed third in my age group so the talents still there.

Caitlin Van Mol 47:13 Just speak to someone at the Rape Abuse Incest National Network, call one 800 656 hope or 1-800-656-4673 You can also live chat with someone@rainn.org That's our A I N N dot o RG This is live to tell I'm Caitlin van mol. You can follow the show on Instagram and Tiktok at live to tell podcast. If you enjoy today's episode, please rate review and subscribe. It really helps the show. I'll see you in two weeks

Transcribed by https://otter.ai