Free She Survived by M. William Phelps Page A

you’d understand how she could overcome this setback and, with her nose to the grindstone, take it on by herself.
    â€œI honestly don’t remember how anything got moved. I just know it somehow went to storage and I went to live with my grandmother.”
    An emotional blackout. Many violent crime victims have expressed this same sort of emotional amnesia when confronting traumatic events after the incident.
    â€œThe thing about that apartment complex for me today, and for many years since then, is that I view it as a Brigadoon —a place where I became lost in the woods. I used to have to drive by it every day on my way to work, but as I passed, it wasn’t there, or at least I couldn’t see it. It’s like a cloud or fog that sits along the highway, and I can never see the apartments I know are in there through the haze.”
    Back on that first day Melissa was released from the hospital, she had her mother drive her straight to see a woman who had been her longtime hairdresser and friend. She’d spent the past four days in the hospital with dried blood in her hair, her jaw wired shut, the functionality of her left arm in question (she could hardly move it), and not enough energy to stand in a shower on her own and even try to wash her hair. One wish straight out of the hospital was to have someone clean her hair of all the blood. A second was just to take a hot bath.
    These were simple, everyday things in life that all of us take for granted. For the victim of a violent crime, such as the one Melissa endured, these common chores we don’t even think about become a great challenge, both physical and emotional.
    â€œIt’s funny what you find to be your creature comforts in a situation such as this,” Melissa recalled.
    From the hairdresser’s Melissa and her mother headed to the store where Melissa once worked. She needed to shop for her new diet of baby food and soup.
    â€œI lived on baby food, milk shakes, and soup for ten weeks.”
    Melissa was so desperate for good food near the end of this period she actually put a Taco Bell Burrito Supreme in a blender, gave it whirl, and ate it.
    â€œI realized how limited my choices for eating out were. We didn’t have Steak ’n Shake in Anderson at the time. So I was pretty much limited to Dairy Queen (which, unfortunately, was seasonal) and Chinese restaurants, so I could order egg drop soup. Of course, I frustrated the hell out of my doctor when I kept asking, ‘But how am I going to brush my teeth?’ I was one of those people who never left the house without brushing my teeth. I probably brushed my teeth six times a day.”
    Even today, twenty years after her attack, Melissa still has issues eating solid foods. Every meal is a challenge.

CHAPTER 25
    AFTERMATH
    Scott Saxton was formally arrested on August 23, 1992. He faced charges of public intoxication, resisting arrest, and voyeurism. He was held while the MCSD ran his prints against the evidence it had in Melissa’s case.
    Detective Becky Buttram was in the office two days later, going through another day, waiting, watching the clock, wondering when the call with the results was going to come in.
    Her phone rang.
    â€œYup,” she said. “Uh-huh.”
    Hanging up, the detective screamed.
    â€œHoney, I will tell you what,” she recalled, going back to that moment, “that was the highest I have ever been in my life.”
    She jumped up from behind her desk, still screaming, running through the office, her arms flailing above her head. “We’ve got him! We’ve got him! We’ve got him!”
    She couldn’t say those three words enough.
    Her boss, Joey Davis, came running out of his office.
    â€œWhat’s going on here?”
    â€œWe’ve got him, Joey! I’ve got him.”
    Buttram’s partner, Earl Cooper, who had helped with the investigation, sat behind his desk, looking on. He gave her an