Stacy Howard jolted awake to bloodcurdling screams and the sounds of a fight upstairs—shattering glass, heavy thuds, and frantic movement. She called to Carissa Brooks in the darkness, but Carissa did not answer from the basement. Then a woman cried out “Stacy! Help me!”, and Stacy realized Carissa was upstairs with the captor.

Chained and unable to move far, Stacy yelled encouragement and tried to break free while listening to the struggle intensify above. She slipped on a sandwich wrapper and realized she always passed out after eating, concluding the captor had been drugging their food, which explained how Carissa had been taken without waking her.

The noise gradually subsided; a final heavy thud and then intermittent sounds followed, before Stacy heard boots and the distinct drag of a body across the floor overhead. A door creaked open and slammed shut, and then there was silence. Stacy forced herself to regulate her breathing to avoid panic.

With basement lights suddenly buzzing on, Stacy examined the cellar: Carissa’s mattress and chain position were empty, the cuff open, with an empty water bottle, a sandwich wrapper, and a large bloodstain nearby. Terrified for Carissa’s fate, Stacy continued scanning the room.

She spotted a metal object on the floor near where Carissa had been chained. Reaching it required painful stretching against her ankle cuff, so she used her sleeping bag, first alone and then weighted with broken pavement chunks, to drag the item closer. After several attempts, she pulled it within reach.

Stacy picked up a revolver, cold and heavy in her hands. She checked the cylinder and saw two of six chambers loaded. Relieved, she understood she finally had a potential means of defense or escape.