She Survived (5 page)

CHAPTER 13

BLOOD SPORT

As Melissa recovered
from the first of what was to be several additional operations, the investigation moved over to her apartment. There was plenty of evidence to sift through. And with that evidence came a few answers that told investigators a little bit more about the guy they were looking for.

One of the first clues that emerged became a good possibility that Melissa’s attacker scaled a utility pole conduit running up alongside her balcony. The electrical boxes were bulky enough, sticking out of the outside apartment complex sidewall far enough, and also low enough to the ground, where Melissa’s attacker could have jumped up on one of them, grabbed hold of the conduit, and easily pulled himself up and onto Melissa’s balcony. In fact, along the pole was a bloody smudge, which gave the indication that he had possibly exited this same way.

Inside Melissa’s apartment investigators found a kitchen drawer open—and realized her attacker had likely used a knife he took from Melissa’s apartment to stab her. He hadn’t brought his own weapon with him.

Upon further checking the apartment, investigators uncovered a serrated steak knife on the floor near streaks of smeared blood.

The assault weapon!

Investigators uncovered fingerprints and blood smears, spatter and blood droplets, all over Melissa’s apartment. The amount of blood and how ransacked the apartment appeared displayed the horror of the attack. Whoever this perp was, he had come into the apartment on a mission to cause as much harm to Melissa as possible—maybe even murder her. There was no doubt he had planned to hurt her as bad as he could. And if that was the case, the Marion County Sheriff ’s Department knew it had a crazed, bloodthirsty maniac on the loose—an assailant willing to do whatever was necessary to get inside an apartment and attack females.

The other questions that came out of this early part of the investigation at Melissa’s apartment were: How did her attacker know she was alone? How could he know that inside her apartment wasn’t a 250-pound linebacker sleeping next to Melissa? If he was simply just taking a chance, it was quite a gamble. Seasoned investigators knew that skilled serial rapists and serial attackers don’t take chances like that. They did other things in order learn about potential victims, instead.

So, had he stalked Melissa? Had he known her every move? Had he known, for example, that her male roommate had moved out recently?

CHAPTER 14

HOME

There was no
way Melissa could go back to her apartment. The horror of what she left behind would be too much to endure, especially so soon after the attack.

“When I finally left the hospital after four days, I went to my grandmother’s in Anderson, Indiana,” Melissa recalled. “I thought that would be my safe haven. But my grandmother really didn’t grasp how afraid I was to be alone, especially at night. She, unfortunately, was [not completely healthy herself] and would sometimes leave the house and leave the keys in the front door.”

Melissa found comfort in television. She still “refused” to fall asleep and would generally drift off during the daytime, taking extended naps when she felt safe.

“I decided to watch a lot of TV, but couldn’t stomach watching anything dramatic.”

Thus, Melissa turned to Comedy Central, which was on twenty-four hours a day.

After a few weeks of working and answering what became countless questions from customers and friends regarding what had happened, Melissa realized she couldn’t stay in Indiana. She needed to get the hell out; that scene was weighing heavily on her. She’d have to go somewhere else to recover and truly pick up her life again. Part of this was, obviously, an unconscious desire to get away from the memories of where her attack had taken place and the fear of this guy still walking the streets, roaming around. Melissa did not have a good picture of what he looked like, so he actually could be stalking her still and she would never know.

For all intents and purposes, he could be a customer. Or a coworker? Maybe the guy at the local drugstore she saw from time to time? Perhaps the guy standing next to her at the supermarket? The mailman? The clerk at the dry cleaner’s counter? A former boyfriend? A former roommate?

Mr. Anybody.

“I wanted to go home,” Melissa said.

Originally from Florida, she decided to head south and stay with her father, at least for a while. Her parents had Melissa later in life. Her brother had been eighteen, her sister sixteen, and both her parents in their forties when Melissa came along.

“So at this point they are already in their sixties and my grandmother is almost ninety,” Melissa explained. “I went. But my dad became even more overprotective than usual under the circumstances, which made it hard to go to the beach or mall.” These were two normal things Melissa looked forward to doing while back home in the Sunshine State.

As Melissa figured out her place in Florida, under the watchful eye of her father, something was happening back in Indiana that would change everything eventually.