After years of living with the haunting memories, the girl who was once 9 years old, now a young woman still remembers how she gained the predator’s trust to escape.
Terrifying memories
In 2003, Jeannette Tamayo, a 9-year-old girl living in the U.S., endured a horrifying ordeal. She was kidnapped, assaulted by a predator, and held captive for two weeks. By 2011, the once-young girl had grown into a young woman and appeared on ABC News to recount her daring escape from the vile man.
On June 6, 2003, Jeannette was walking home from school when she noticed a man following her. As she arrived at her house, the man forced his way inside. Shortly after, her mother and older brother returned home. Jeannette hoped their arrival would be her lifeline, but the attacker violently overpowered them both. To take Jeannette away, he handcuffed her mother and brother, leaving them behind in the house. He then stuffed Jeannette into a box and placed it in the backseat of his car.
Jeannette has grown into a young woman, but she still hasn’t forgotten the memories of what she went through.
While the family was worried and the police searched everywhere for her whereabouts, Jeannette was taken to a house by a strange man. She was handcuffed and locked in a bedroom. The kidnapper said that he would sexually abuse and kill Jeannette in 2 days. For a 9-year-old girl, such terrible threats were truly a nightmare and certainly left psychological trauma.
Gaining the Predator’s Trust While Waiting for the Right Moment
Fear consumed Jeannette, but she knew that with her small frame, she couldn’t resist or fight back against the man who had taken her. Instead, she devised a plan to earn his trust and wait for the perfect opportunity to escape.
However, getting close to and talking to her abductor was no easy task. She was locked in a room, handcuffed, and repeatedly assaulted. “I really just wanted to punch and kick him,” Jeannette later recalled in a television interview. But she didn’t act recklessly. Instead, she treated him as if he were just another person, carefully planning her next move.
Slowly, the predator began to trust her. Once he believed she wasn’t a threat, he removed her handcuffs and allowed her to move freely around the house without strict supervision. Yet, Jeannette didn’t rush to escape. She continued to build his trust, talking to him about her dreams for the future and her love for her family making herself seem more human in his eyes.
Then, while watching a television program together, Jeannette had a sudden idea. The show was discussing asthma research, and she immediately claimed that she suffered from the condition. She told her captor that without her medication, she would die.
Believing her, the predator panicked. Instead of risking a medical emergency, he took her to a random street and abandoned her. Soon after, the police received a report about Jeannette, found her, and took her to a hospital for a medical examination. Once cleared, she was finally reunited with her family.
When she later recounted her experience on television, Jeannette vividly remembered every detail from the moment she was kidnapped to the drive in the car and the critical role she played in leading the police to her captor’s house.
Authorities soon tracked down the suspect, 26-year-old David Montiel Cruz, just as he was preparing to flee. After his trial, he was sentenced to 100 years in prison.
Though the predator was locked away, Jeannette’s struggles were far from over. The trauma left her nearly unable to leave her house. She poured her painful memories into a diary and underwent psychological therapy to overcome the horrors she had endured, working tirelessly to find balance and rebuild her life.
