“The day my nightmare came true,” says a child rape survivor

A kidnapping victim who was raped and left to die in a deserted field in the United States nearly 30 years ago has spoken about the night she was snatched from her bed as an eight-year-old.

Jennifer Schuett was kidnapped from her bedroom in Texas in 1990 by a man later discovered to be Dennis Earl Bradford of Arkansas, a father of three.

Ms. Schuett, a dedicated victim advocate, recounted the terrible night she almost lost her life on the CBS crime show “48 Hours.”

In 1990, Jennifer Schuett was an eight-year-old girl who was afraid of the dark and often slept in her mother’s bed.

But one night in August, she was sleeping in her own room and woke up to find her worst fears realized.

She was carried down the street by a man who covered her mouth and nose to muffle her screams before dragging her into a car.

Ms Schuett told 48 Hours about her panicked drive through the streets of her hometown of Dickinson with a man named Dennis who told her he was an undercover police officer with a large gun.

Eventually, Bradford drove her to a deserted, overgrown field. He strangled her, raped her, tried to break her neck, and slit her throat from ear to ear.

“He put 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 was unconscious for a while,” Ms Schuett told 48 Hours.

“I was woken up and pulled on my ankles.

“He let go of my legs. I realized I couldn’t scream and I didn’t know why.

“I had just enough strength to put my right hand on my neck. Then I felt this gaping wound.”

The almost dead little girl was found almost 12 hours later, still lying in the field when children stumbled upon her while playing hide and seek.

She was told she might never speak again, but even in her injured state she helped police make a sketch of her attacker, which proved uncannily accurate when he was finally found nearly two decades later.

Handwritten notes also told the story of a little girl who, despite her panic, was able to absorb an incredible amount of information.

She described the man’s appearance, 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 finally found Dennis Earl Bradford. New technologies made it possible
Investigators tracked down Bradford in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 2009.

He confessed, but again robbed Ms. Schuett of justice by committing suicide in his prison cell in 2010.

However, Jennifer Schuett survived and coped better than most expected.

Due to an infection resulting from the seizures, the only child believed she would never be able to have children. But the intervention of Houston fertility specialist Dr. Craig Witz changed that, as the program US Today reported in 2012.

Dr. Witz carried out the expensive IVF treatment free of charge and helped Mrs. Schütt to start her own family.

Five years later, she is still a committed campaigner for victims’ rights and told 48 Hours that while she still suffers from the scars of that night in 1990, her survival has also given her incredible strength.