she underwent three of her five surgeries. Nevertheless, she returned home.
“He never physically mistreated me again after that, and he seemed to enjoy my dependence on him,” she stated. My right eye had to be surgically closed,
and I lost sight in both eyes for seven months. My retina is still intact, but I don’t have a cornea to see through because it had scarred over.
“We must ask you a question.”
The doorbell rang on May 24, 2023, six months later. Her spouse stepped outdoors. He never returned.
He had been carried away by two members of Heather’s Coast Guard squad. She couldn’t see. She had no idea what was going on with her children. She was also experiencing what she now refers to as “Stockholm syndrome.”
A draft email she had composed but never sent, alerting her mother that she feared for her life, was discovered by authorities in her work inbox. It was sufficient to spur action.
