'The day my nightmare came true,' child rape survivor speaks out
A kidnapping victim, who was raped and left to die in a deserted field in the US almost 30 years ago, has spoken out about the night she was snatched from her bed as an eight-year-old.
Jennifer Schuett was taken from her Texas bedroom in 1990 by a man police would later discover was Arkansas father-of-three Dennis Earl Bradford.
Ms Schuett, an outspoken advocate for victims, has told the CBS crime program 48 Hours of the terrifying night she almost lost her life.
In 1990, Jennifer Schuett was an eight year old who was scared of the dark and often slept in her mother's bed.
But one night in August, she slept in her own room and woke up to find her worst fears realised.
She was being carried down the street by a man who clasped his hands over her mouth and nose to muffle her screams before bundling her into a car.
Ms Schuett told 48 Hours of her panicked journey around the streets of her home town, Dickinson, with a man called Dennis who told her he was an undercover police officer with a big gun.
Eventually Bradford drove her to a deserted overgrown field. He choked her, raped her, tried to break her neck and slashed her throat from ear to ear.
"He held a knife to my throat and said: 'Am I scaring you, little girl? Am I scaring you?' Then he choked me as hard as he could. I blacked out for a while,' Ms Schuett told 48 Hours.
"I woke up to him dragging me by my ankles.
"He dropped my legs. I realised I couldn't scream and I couldn't figure out why.
"I had just enough strength to throw my right hand on top of my neck. That's when I felt this gaping wound."
The near-dead little girl was found nearly 12 hours later, still laying in the field, when children playing hide and seek stumbled across her.
She was told she may never speak again, but even in her injured state helped police build a sketch of her attacker. It would prove eerily accurate when he was finally found nearly two decades later.
Handwritten notes also told the tale of a little girl who managed to soak up an incredible amount of information despite her panic.
She described what the man looked like, the brand of cigarettes he smoked and the brand of a six pack of beer found in his car.
But it was DNA evidence that eventually found Dennis Earl Bradford. New technology allowed
investigators to track Bradford down in Little Rock Arkansas in 2009.
He confessed but would rob Ms Schuett of justice again, committing suicide in his prison cell in 2010.
Jennifer Schuett has survived though, and has done so better than most expected.
An infection stemming from the attacks left the only child with the belief she would never have children but the intervention of Houston fertility specialist Dr Craig Witz changed that, as the US Today program reported in 2012.
Dr Witz provided expensive IVF treatment for free and helped Ms Schuett start her own family.
Five years later, she continues to be an outspoken victims' rights advocate and told 48 Hours that, while she still bears the scars from that night in 1990, she has also gained incredible strength through her survival.
