August 23, 2002 (Ohio, USA)

It has been a rough life. The week before I let him take me, I  had been to court about custody for my son. My son, Jason, was three years old. There was an accident a few months earlier, and his arm was broken. I tried to tell the Dr. it was an accident, but he didn’t listen. 

He called DFACS on us. A social worker came to our house, to evaluate the situation. She was friendly, but they always are. Judging, and evaluating if I was good enough to raise my son. My son!

She inspected our house, looking in all the rooms. She went through the kitchen cabinets and even looked in the fridge. She talked to me, and to Jack. Jack was my boyfriend; he was playing too rough with Jason, that is how his arm got broken. 

The social worker didn’t even give us time to try and fix the things she found wrong. She just called the police and took my son away the same day. I'll never forget that, the way it looked when that woman picked up Jason in her arms and carried him out of my house. 

I know I wasn’t the best mom, but it was an accident. They have no right to take my kid because of an accident!

A week later I went to the courthouse on Ontario Street. The case went put in front of Judge Miller. I wish I could tell you what happened in the courtroom, but I don’t remember. I just remember hearing Judge Miller grant custody of my baby to the state, and he would go into foster care. 

I thought my life ended at that moment. I had no idea how much more hellish it would get. 

The first two or three days after the court case, I just stayed at home crying. Asking myself over and over why this was happening to us. On Friday, August 23 I went to visit my cousin Laura. 

Laura lives at 2890 Fulton Road. I don’t have a car, so I walked there from my house on Castle Ave. I got there around 4 in the afternoon. Laura and I sat inside, and I was telling her about what was happening with Jason. 

We had dinner around 6 pm. Laura made meatloaf and mashed potatoes. I remember she made it real good when I was locked up in that basement I often dreamt about Laura’s meatloaf and mashed potatoes. 

Around 830 pm I hugged Laura goodbye and started walking east on Wade Ave to go home. I took a right on W25th and noticed Alan’s car pulling out of Caribe Grocery. He drove an old blue Buick. He waved at me, and I waved back. 

We didn’t know each other that well, but I know his daughter Carrie. I guess he waited for me to get to the shop, cause when I was close enough he said hi to me and offered me a ride. I didn’t want to be alone, and the idea of walking the rest of the way home wasn’t appealing, so I said yes and got in the car. 

I would never have gotten in the car with a complete stranger but since I knew Carrie it wasn’t that strange to take a ride from her dad. 

Alan was kind; he was very sympathetic to my situation with Jason. He told me he had heard about it, and just felt awful for me.  The empathy he expressed made me feel better. Alan had just been to the grocery store. In the backseat, there were four bags of groceries. I remember that the smokes and the ashtray was full, so it stank of old cigarettes in the car. 

We were just driving south on W25th when all of a sudden Alan said he had ice cream in the grocery bags. He asked if we could stop at his house so he could put it in the freezer. I didn’t have anywhere to be, so that was ok with me. 

Alan turned right on Walton Avenue. We just kept talking like old friends. It was nice to have someone being so sympathetic to me.  We took another right, this time on to W32nd, and then a left on Erin Ave. 

He parked the car on the street and got out. He asked if I'd help him with the groceries. So I got out of the car as well and got two bags out of the back seat. We walked up to the house, he unlocked the door and went inside. I followed him.

I thought we’d take the groceries to the kitchen, but then he told me he had a freezer in the basement where he kept most of his food. So I just followed him through the house to the basement door. 

We walked down the stairs, and I could see a big, poorly lit room. In the corner was a freezer, and there were three other doors in the basement. I assumed for storage rooms or something.

I walked over to the freezer, Alan was in front of me, he opened the freezer and bent over to put the bags inside it. 

Before I understood what was happening, he came up real fast out of the freezer and hit me over the head with a frozen block of something. At first, I didn’t fight back; I was confused. 

But then I realized he was grabbing me, and holding me tight. I tried fighting back, but he was too strong. He is a 200lbs man, and I'm not even 5ft tall. I was biting and kicking, but it didn’t seem to have any effect on him. 

I don’t know where he got the rope from, but he had it. He tied my hands behind my back. All I could think was this can't be happening. After everything I've been through now, this guy is gonna kill me?

I guess I was fighting too much because he hit me again and when I woke up I was in a small,dark, windowless room, laying on the floor with my hands tied behind my back. 

Sincerely, 

Megan Kelly