A North Carolina woman is shot in the face, but still manages to survive.

This man is wanted in the attempted murder

Suspect:

Gender: Male
DOB: 1975 approx.
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 150 to 160 lbs.
Hair: Black

CASE DETAILS

“A lady walked out of the woods about 75 yards away and started towards us, staggering.   She had blood on her shoulders and she was coming in our direction… I laid her on the ground and the other trooper went to his car and called for an ambulance, and shortly thereafter an ambulance arrived, and transported the lady to the hospital.”

A woman stumbled out of the woods

The young woman had been shot in the face with a twelve-gauge, double-barreled shotgun.   Her left jaw was completely shattered and she was unable to speak.   She had no identification.   It was not until ten hours later, when her condition stabilized, that she was able to write down her mother’s name and telephone number.   Police discovered that the victim was from Winston-Salem, 120 miles away.   Detective Ken Bishop, of the Winston-Salem Police Department, worked on the case with Fayetteville investigators:

“We conducted probably, a thirty minute interview with her.   It was probably the most severe injury I’ve ever seen for a person that survived.”

Although the victim could not speak, she was able to write down a detailed description of the savage attack and the attacker.   Police fear that if the man responsible for this hideous crime is not caught, he could easily strike again.   The young victim who was attacked, courageously agreed to be interviewed.   Because she has requested that we not use her real name, we will call her Debbie.   This is Debbie’s story…

He shot her in the jaw with a shotgun

On the morning of March 22, 1990, Debbie made a large cash withdrawal from the First Union Bank in Winston-Salem.   When she left the bank at 9:40 AM, a gunman entered her gray station wagon and forced her to drive to a liquor store, three miles away.   The man went inside to buy whiskey, holding Debbie’s car keys and keeping a close eye on her.   Debbie was terrified because he threatened to kill everyone in the liquor store if she tried to escape.   The man then ordered Debbie to head towards Fayetteville.   For four agonizing hours, he threatened her life, drank heavily, and bragged that he had once killed a man in New York.   For Debbie, the journey was a living hell:

“A lot of the time, he just wouldn’t talk to me at all, and when he did, he was very abusive, very angry.   It got worse as time went on because he was drinking also, the liquor, and he would just get more angry and more irrational.   And I got more afraid knowing I could not reason with him.”

About three miles north of Fayetteville, the man forced Debbie to pull off the road. Debbie made an attempt to escape, but she was unable to flee from her kidnapper.   At almost that same moment, State Trooper Ron Knight noticed Debbie’s gray station wagon:

“I was going to cross over and check the vehicle and at just about this time I met a speeding vehicle traveling south on I-95 Business, so I turned, and pursued that vehicle.”

He wore a blue jacket and gloves

Debbie was beaten and sexually assaulted, then left for dead after being shot in the face.   The next day, Debbie’s station wagon was found abandoned three hundred miles away, in northern Florida.   Authorities in Fayetteville investigated the crime scene.   Their search turned up a dark blue pea jacket and brown cloth gloves.   According to Ken Bishop, both smelled like petroleum:

“We think we’re looking at a person that works around that type of a product, and could possibly be a mechanic, somebody who works with greasy grimy motors, that kind of thing.   Possibly even somebody who drives a… heating oil type truck.”

Debbie’s assailant was about five feet ten inches tall and weighed between 150 and 160 pounds. For Debbie, until her attacker is found she’ll never feel completely safe:

“I’m going to continually feel like he’s there, he’s out there… I know it’s an unlikelihood that he’ll… try to find me, but it’s that fear of him being there, and that he also might hurt someone else.”

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season three with Robert Stack and in season five with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.