She Survived Read online

  Highest Praise for M. William Phelps

  THE KILLING KIND

  “In this true crime book, Phelps focuses on unrepentant killer

  Danny Hembree . . . [who] seizes the chance to take center stage with lurid confessions of a decades-long career of violent robbery, assault, rape, and murder.... Fans of the author’s Discovery TV series, Dark Minds, will be rewarded.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  OBSESSED

  “True-crime junkies will be sated by the latest thriller from Phelps, which focuses on a fatal love triangle that definitely proved to be stranger than fiction. The police work undertaken to solve the case is recounted with the right amount of detail, and readers will be rewarded with shocking television-worthy twists in a story with inherent drama.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  BAD GIRLS

  “Fascinating, gripping . . . Phelps’s sharp investigative skills and questioning mind resonate. Whether or not you agree with the author’s suspicions that an innocent is behind bars, you won’t regret going along for the ride with such an accomplished reporter.”

  —Sue Russell

  NEVER SEE THEM AGAIN

  “This riveting book examines one of the most horrific murders in recent American history.”

  —New York Post

  “Phelps clearly shows how the ugliest crimes can take place in the quietest of suburbs.”

  —Library Journal

  “Thoroughly reported . . . The book is primarily a police procedural, but it is also a tribute to the four murder victims.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  TOO YOUNG TO KILL

  “Phelps is the Harlan Coben of real-life thrillers.”

  —Allison Brennan

  LOVE HER TO DEATH

  “Reading anything by Phelps is always an eye opening experience. The characters are well researched and well written. We have murder, adultery, obsession, lies and so much more.”

  —Suspense Magazine

  “You don’t want to miss Love Her To Death by M. William Phelps, a book destined to be one of 2011’s top true crimes!”

  —True Crime Book Reviews

  “A chilling crime . . . award-winning author Phelps goes into lustrous and painstaking detail, bringing all the players vividly to life.”

  —Crime Magazine

  KILL FOR ME

  “Phelps gets into the blood and guts of the story.”

  —Gregg Olsen, New York Times best-selling author of Fear Collector

  “Phelps infuses his investigative journalism with plenty of energized descriptions.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  DEATH TRAP

  “A chilling tale of a sociopathic wife and mother . . . a compelling journey from the inside of this woman’s mind to final justice in a court of law. For three days I did little else but read this book.”

  —Harry N. MacLean, New York Times best-selling author of

  In Broad Daylight

  I’LL BE WATCHING YOU

  “Phelps has an unrelenting sense for detail that affirms his place, book by book, as one of our most engaging crime journalists.”

  —Katherine Ramsland

  IF LOOKS COULD KILL

  “M. William Phelps, one of America’s finest true-crime writers, has written a compelling and gripping book about an intriguing murder mystery. Readers of this genre will thoroughly enjoy this book.”

  —Vincent Bugliosi

  “Starts quickly and doesn’t slow down.... Phelps consistently ratchets up the dramatic tension, hooking readers. His thorough research and interviews give the book complexity, richness of character, and urgency.”

  —Stephen Singular

  MURDER IN THE HEARTLAND

  “Drawing on interviews with law officers and relatives, the author has done significant research. His facile writing pulls the reader along.”

  —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

  “Phelps expertly reminds us that when the darkest form of evil invades the quiet and safe outposts of rural America, the tragedy is greatly magnified. Get ready for some sleepless nights.”

  —Carlton Stowers

  “This is the most disturbing and moving look at murder in rural America since Capote’s In Cold Blood.”

  —Gregg Olsen

  SLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE

  “An exceptional book by an exceptional true crime writer. Phelps exposes long-hidden secrets and reveals disquieting truths.”

  —Kathryn Casey

  EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE

  “An insightful and fast-paced examination of the inner workings of a good cop and his bad informant, culminating in an unforgettable truth-is-stranger-than-fiction climax.”

  —Michael M. Baden, M.D.

  “M. William Phelps is the rising star of the nonfiction crime genre, and his true tales of murder are scary-as-hell thrill rides into the dark heart of the inhuman condition.”

  —Douglas Clegg

  LETHAL GUARDIAN

  “An intense roller-coaster of a crime story . . . complex, with twists and turns worthy of any great detective mystery . . . reads more like a novel than your standard non-fiction crime book.”

  —Steve Jackson

  PERFECT POISON

  “True crime at its best—compelling, gripping, an edge-of-the-seat thriller. Phelps packs wallops of delight with his skillful ability to narrate a suspenseful story.”

  —Harvey Rachlin

  “A compelling account of terror . . . the author dedicates himself to unmasking the psychopath with facts, insight and the other proven methods of journalistic leg work.”

  —Lowell Cauffiel

  Also By M. William Phelps

  Perfect Poison

  Lethal Guardian

  Every Move You Make

  Sleep in Heavenly Peace

  Murder in the Heartland

  Because You Loved Me

  If Looks Could Kill

  I’ll Be Watching You

  Deadly Secrets

  Cruel Death

  Death Trap

  Kill For Me

  Love Her to Death

  Too Young to Kill

  Never See Them Again

  Murder, New England

  Nathan Hale: The Life and Death of America’s First Spy

  The Devil’s Rooming House: The True Story of

  America’s Deadliest Female Serial Killer

  The Devil’s Right Hand: The Tragic Story of the

  Colt Family Curse

  The Dead Soul: A Thriller (available as eBook only)

  Kiss of the She-Devil

  Bad Girls

  Obsessed

  The Killing Kind

  SHE SURVIVED: MELISSA

  M. WILLIAM PHELPS

  PINNACLE BOOKS

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  http://www.kensingtonbooks.com

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  Table of Contents

  Praise

  Also by

  Title Page

  Author’s Note

  CHAPTER 1 - BAD FEELINGS

  CHAPTER 2 - COLLISION COURSE

  CHAPTER 3 - LITTLE PRINCESS

  CHAPTER 4 - SAFETY IN SELF

  CHAPTER 5 - INSTINCT

  CHAPTER 6 - WHITE LIGHT APPROACHING

  CHAPTER 7 - SECOND WIND

  CHAPTER 8 - DAYLIGHT FADING

  CHAPTER 9 - WHAT JUST HAPPENED?

  CHAPTER 10 - MY FRIEND

  CHAPTER 11 - SERIAL HOME INVADER

  CHAPTER 12 - OFFICIAL REPORT

  CHAPTER 13 - BLOOD SPORT

  CHAPTER 14 - HOME

  CHAPTER 15 - LUCKY TO BE ALIVE

  CHAPTER 16 - ANDREW

  CHAPTER 17 - EVOLUTION

  CHAPTER 18 - OU
T FROM THE SHADOWS

  CHAPTER 19 - PEEPING TOM

  CHAPTER 20 - GREAT SCOTT, WE’VE GOT HIM

  CHAPTER 21 - THE ANGUISH OF THE FIRST RESPONDER

  CHAPTER 22 - DEAD RINGER

  CHAPTER 23 - FINALLY

  CHAPTER 24 - CHAMBER OF HORRORS

  CHAPTER 25 - AFTERMATH

  CHAPTER 26 - FRESH MEMORIES

  CHAPTER 27 - MOMENTS OF GREAT DESPAIR

  CHAPTER 28 - SERIAL OFFENDER

  CHAPTER 29 - FINGERPRINT MAN

  CHAPTER 30 - REALITY CHECK

  CHAPTER 31 - PLEA

  CHAPTER 32 - OLD DOG, SAME TRICKS

  CHAPTER 33 - LAUGHTER IS A GIFT

  CHAPTER 34 - PACKING UP THE PIECES

  CHAPTER 35 - SAVING GRACE

  CHAPTER 36 - BACK TO THE BEGINNING

  AFTERWORD

  Teaser chapter

  About the Authors

  Copyright Page

  Author’s Note

  What you are about to read is a true story of intense, brutal violence, how the victim in this story survived, and how she went on to overcome the obstacles and challenges left behind after the attack, albeit medical and emotional. This short e-book will be, at times, written in the first-person voice of the survivor, but also built around the context of a third-person narrative I have constructed to give context and foundation to the overall story. If you are familiar with my work on television or in print, you’ll know I am an investigative journalist by trade and will often dig deep into the stories I cover, interviewing hundreds of sources and sifting through thousands of pages of documents in search of exclusive, new information connected to those cases. This “She Survived” series I have developed for Kensington Books, with my longtime editor Michaela Hamilton (who had the original idea for the series), is in no way meant to be perceived as one of those detailed, investigative pieces of journalism for which I have become known. In this new series of exclusive e-books, I aim to showcase survivors’ stories from their point of view. Even the perpetrator will play a smaller-than-usual role in what you’ll see are truly inspiring and empowering stories of emotional and physical endurance. Law enforcement, as well, will have a much smaller role than normally speaking. My goal is to allow surviving victims of brutal sexual assaults and rapes and attempted murders the space and the opportunity to tell their stories in an unencumbered fashion, without judgment and/or hindrance. This space is here for victims to explain how they were able to overcome adversity and horrible life-changing injuries in the face of great evil. Their stories will be moving. You will hear testimony of great strength at times when many of us might otherwise curl up into a fetal ball and descend into the clutches of the demons plaguing many post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) survivors. I am humbled by these stories—and especially by these strong women who have entrusted me to tell their stories. I have a great amount of respect and admiration for crime victim survivors and consider myself as a staunch victims’ advocate. This series is one more way for me to explore that role and bring readers and viewers of my television series more in-depth stories of survival. It is these survival stories that prove there can be sunshine on the other side of the mountain; people can come back from a harrowing, violent experience and not allow the crime to consume their lives, thus taking the power back from the perpetrators.

  —M. William Phelps

  CHAPTER 1

  BAD FEELINGS

  It was Valentine’s Day. Melissa Schickel found herself in a rough spot. She and her boyfriend weren’t getting along. The last time they talked, the conversation had not gone well. Melissa was thinking he wanted to end the relationship.

  Melissa had a profound stubbornness about her that she’d learned to embrace—as opposed to grappling with—over the years. She understood who she was and did not fight it. On Valentine’s night, 1992, Melissa had gone out to a hockey game. As she sat and looked on, not paying too much attention to the play, she contemplated the idea of going out to one of the bars she and her boyfriend generally frequented. Maybe she’d run into him. They could talk things out.

  “Don’t go,” said a little voice in back of Melissa’s mind.

  Her fear, deep down, was hitting the local hot spots and then running into the guy as he sat with his arm around another girl. It would be uncomfortable, to say the least. There would no doubt be a scene.

  The guy had money. Melissa later described her socioeconomic status at that time as being “from the wrong side of the tracks.” In this way, she thought, they were not compatible. It would never work. She thought the relationship was doomed from the beginning.

  “And I figured that was what came between us.”

  She never went out to the bars that night. To forget about the guy not calling and the silence between the two of them, pigheaded Melissa got up the next morning and took off to Florida for a few weeks to visit family.

  It was a nice little getaway in the middle of winter from a place—Indianapolis, Indiana—that could yield to snow piling up by the foot. In an age without cell phones and e-mail, Melissa never really considered not hearing from her boyfriend to be anything more than the two of them in a standoff. The time and space was good. She was hurt bad, but maybe this was the way it had to be.

  She had no idea, of course, that the news awaiting her at home, after that brief visit to Florida, would alter her perception of life and how silence on another person’s part is not always what it seems.

  CHAPTER 2

  COLLISION COURSE

  A life can be altered in an instant. Melissa would learn this firsthand as she arrived back home from Florida and went about her life.

  At “four feet, nine and a half inches,” Melissa knew how tall she was “exactly,” because she had recently auditioned for a spot at Disney. MGM Studios theme park had held open auditions to play various characters. Melissa made the cut. However, she was not tall enough to play the main “princess” character, so they offered her work at Disney World playing Mickey, Minnie, Chip, or Dale. Thus, exemplifying the word “petite,” at 105 pounds, Melissa was just a tiny little thing. Hazel eyes, a natural blonde, twenty-five year-old Melissa Schickel was pretty, smart, athletic, and eager to take on the world as a young woman of the ’90s. She had been going about her days just outside Indianapolis with a profound sense of not really knowing what she wanted to do with her life. Florida and Disney looked good on paper, but did she really want to stand around all day, giving high fives to little kids and posing for photos, sweating her ass off in a felt costume?

  Melissa was grateful for what she had, certainly. She never questioned the way things happened, and certainly never wondered about the course her life took. Yet, at this moment in time, she did find herself standing at a crossroads.

  “I had graduated Ball State University in 1988 with a BS degree in business (half in management, half in insurance),” Melissa said. “I had worked three jobs while going to school, so by the time I graduated, quite honestly, I was just burned out and wanted to find a job. Unfortunately, the economy was shaky, and even with a business degree I was finding it very difficult to find a job.”

  All she heard during the course of job interviews was “You don’t have enough experience.”

  When she returned from Florida, Melissa felt she could think through things a bit clearer. There were no messages from her boyfriend. As much as she might have hoped he’d called or asked about her, she had not heard from friends that he was wondering where she had run off to, what she was doing, or had been trying to track her down.

  But it was okay.

  “I still didn’t think anything about it when he didn’t call,” Melissa remembered. “I just figured he’d moved on.”

  In early March 1992, Melissa went out to one of the bars she’d gone to with her former boyfriend and other mutual friends quite frequently. As she sat, nursing a drink, every time the door opened and someone walked in, Melissa secretly hoped she’d turn around and see him. They could sit, chat, patch things up,
and maybe move forward. She did love the guy. She thought he had strong feelings for her also.

  The bar was in an affluent area of town, where her boyfriend lived. A friend of theirs moseyed over to Melissa and sat down next to her.

  They had a drink and talked about old times. At one point the woman looked at Melissa and said, “Isn’t it such a shame about Steven (pseudonym)?”

  The comment caught Melissa off guard. She had no idea what the woman was talking about.

  “Excuse me?” Melissa asked.

  “Wasn’t it such a shock about Steven?”

  “Steven who?” Melissa asked. She was confused. Was the woman referring to her Steven, the boyfriend she’d been thinking about now since that Valentine’s Day decision to take off to Florida and run from the memories of him?

  “Our Steven,” the woman clarified.

  “What are you talking about?” Melissa responded.

  The woman took a pull from her drink. “The car crash, Melissa.”

  “What are you talking about? What do you mean?”