Murder With My Husband - 84. Alison Botha - The Inspiring Story

Episode Date: November 1, 2021

On this episode of MWMH, Payton and Garrett discuss the abduction and attempted murder of 27-year-old Alison Botha in South Africa, 1994. LIVE ONLINE SHOW TICKETS HERE! https://www.moment.co/murderwithmyhusband Case Sources: Alison Documentary on Amazon Prime https://allthatsinteresting.com/alison-botha https://www.alison.co.za/assets/content-page.php?id=home Links: Petition - https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/petition-against-the-release-of-alison-bothas-attackers.html https://linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband  Ads: HelloFresh: HelloFresh.com/Husband14 and use code husband14 for up to 14 free meals, plus free shipping! Ritual: That’s 10% off at ritual.com/MYHUSBAND. Betterhelp: www.betterhelp.com/husband Best Fiends LightStream: www.lightstream.com/HUSBAND Amazon Music: www.amazon.com/husband Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This summer, go to the movies, projected on the side of a mountain. Discover a new favorite restaurant, your campsite. Find yourself when you lose your signal. Discover a new playlist, Mother Nature. Make your summer special at the Kia Summer Sales event with a dependable Kia SUV or powerful sedan. Kia, movement that inspires. Call 800-333 for Kia for details. Always drive safely, a Venn N7523. Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast.

This is Murder with My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. I'm the husband. Well, that's it. We are officially done with October. Our set is back to normal.

I'm kind of sad. I love spooky season, but I also am like ready for Christmas too I skip Thanksgiving because my birthday's on Thanksgiving So it's true, but I'm ready for Christmas. It's fun. It's it's sparkly. I love it and here we are another week another case Yeah, do you have your 10 seconds ready? Yeah for my 10 seconds Well, Peyton actually I convinced her to go watch a dune with me. Oh my gosh, it was awful. It was, it was pretty good. I do like Sunday and Timothy.

So I mean, that wasn't, I mean, they're fun to watch. But it depends if you read the books or not, but the movie is, it's good. It's definitely, I guess a little slow. There wasn't as much action as I expected, but it was a good movie. Peyton and I also just finished the latest episode of you. Season. Season of you.

Which is interesting because as much as I hate true crime, I kind of like you. Oh my gosh, I love you. I love the psychology behind Joe and I think people who don't love the criminal mind aspect are like, this is so weird and I'm like, no, they, I just want to watch a criminal psychologist watch it and dissect it for me love the criminal mind aspect or like this is so weird and I'm like no they I just want to watch just like a criminal psychologist watch it and dissect it for me as they're going it's a crazy show so if you're looking for shows you should watch

that I loved it the last thing is Peyton and I went to these I surprised her and we went eight dinner at this inside a globe I don't know how to explain it it's like a snow globe type thing like just the little round glass part. So we like got there and it's warm inside the globe but outside it's cold. And then you just go and sit in this like glass bubble, there's lights all around, there's like music in there. It was kind of fun.

Yeah, it was fun. Other than that, I've just been hanging out, haven't been playing golf anymore. It's starting to get pretty cold here. Pickleball, I'm still playing. I know a bunch of people ask us what pickleball is. Maybe a picnic will post a video of me on Instagram and Facebook, and so if you're curious.

It's like a smaller version of tennis and a bigger version of ping pong. It's pretty fun. Other than that, just hanging out. All right, let's get into this. This case was suggested by Tina Frazier from Scotland, Ren, Liz White, Andrea, and Desiree Fox. So I went through our whole entire thing

and that's how many people had suggested this case. That's crazy, okay. So our case sources are a documentary on Amazon Prime called Allison. And this just is such a great documentary for this case. One of the best as far as a true crime case goes. All this interesting dot com and then Allison dot co dot Z a. So our case begins in the year 1994 in South Africa. Alison Bada lives in poor Elizabeth and is unsure of what she

wants next in life. She spent some time traveling and studying, but really she has no direction as far as her future. She's currently working as an insurance broker, but it's not her dream. It's not what she wants to do long-term. Alison was born on September 22, 1967, and her parents divorced when she was 10. Alison is 27 years old now at the time of our story on December 18th, 1994, which would actually be summer in South Africa. Okay. And so this day she spent the day at the beach and then she ended it back at her house

with her friends playing games and ordering pizza. Honestly, the perfect summer day if you ask me. So towards the end of the night, as things were wrapping up, Allison actually offered her friend a ride home. Allison had been doing her laundry at this friend's house and so she could drop her off for the night as well as pick up her clean laundry kind of hit two birds with one stone type thing. It was presumed by Allison's friends and family that she had made her way back to her

apartment safe and sound after picking up her laundry that night. But that was not the case. Allison's reality was drastically different. What she was going through while the rest of her friends and family slept peacefully in their beds would go on to haunt them forever. Oh, no.

It was in the middle of the night when 20-year-old T.Anne alert, a veterinary technology student was on holiday in poor Elizabeth. He was actually studying at the Technicon in Pretoria, but he was here with friends celebrating. They were making their way down an almost deserted road on the outskirts of town when they saw something in the middle of the road. They pulled over to check what it was, maybe a dead animal, but it was awfully big. Once Tian got out of his car, he was horrified at what this roadblock was. A person.

Oh my. Lying in the road with no clothes on. He ran up to the person who he now realized was a girl. She was covered in blood and her stomach was cut open. Tian realized that not only had her stomach been cut open, she had a large gash wound on her neck. One of his friends surprisingly had a cell phone, which was a super new, you know, technology at the time, but he had one.

So his friend called the emergency services, and although the hospital was only about a 15-minute drive away, it took almost 40 minutes for the ambulance to arrive. The girl was non-responsive, and that girl in the middle of the road was obviously Alison Bada. The girl we had been talking about who had just picked up her laundry hours earlier. So what happened to her from the time that she picked up her laundry until now she's being found in the middle of the road? When Alison picked up her laundry that night, she actually did make it home.

When she pulled onto her road, she realized that all the parking on the street was now taken, so she made her way further down her road to she realized that all the parking on the street was now taken. So she made her way further down her road to find a spot, which I can totally relate to this in college. I had a park on the street. And if you got home like past 10 p.m., you were parking blocks away. You're walking like 15, 20 minutes home. Yes. And we mentioned this because I would do this every night that Peyton and I hung out.

Yeah. While we were dating, he would stay over so late and then go home and have to park a mile away and trudging the snow, cracking in the snow. And we think about all the time we're like, why? Why did you just not go home at a reasonable time so you could get parking? So funny. Okay. So anyways, as Allison was getting ready to get out of her car, she was reaching over to grab her laundry. She felt the cold metal of a knife against

her neck and an unknown man standing at her door. The man told her to move over into the passenger seat or else he would kill her. The intruder identified himself as Clinton and told Allison that he didn't want to hurt her, he just needed to borrow her car for an hour or so. Scared and panicked, Allison sat in the car as Clinton began driving. He asked her if she had a boyfriend. And as the conversation continues, Allison actually begins to feel a little more secure. Maybe Clinton really did just need the car. I mean, he was making casual conversation with her or he wasn't being very, like, forceful. So she starts to like, okay, maybe he really just

just need my car. But eventually Clinton pulls over the car and sits there, leaving Allison to wander and panic again as they sit there in silence. It wasn't long before the silence was broken by the back door of Allison's car opening. She turned around and sees another man climbing to her vehicle. Oh my gosh. Allison's last glimmer of peace left as soon as she locked eyes with the man in the backseat through her rearview mirror, he had the kind of eyes that can make anyone uneasy.

Cold dead eyes that sent a shiver down her spine. Allison knew at this moment that she was in trouble that these two men did not just want her car. They wanted her. How far away was she from, I know it was dark, I guess other houses or other people? So at this point, they are still in town. So like, I mean, she's still around other people

like they picked up his friends. So the panic runs through Allison's veins as Clinton drives them further and further away from civilization. Far enough that eventually there were no more street lights to stand as a beacon of hope for Allison. So yes, far enough away that now they are no longer in town. The three of them keep driving when finally Clinton stops the car in an alcove. The silence is deafening as they sit there. And then Clinton calmly turns to her and says,

are you going to fight? Oh my, I can't. Like, can you imagine the reality sinking in for Allison? Like, she doesn't even know if she can fight, should she fight? I don't know, how do you answer that question? Horrible. But before she could even make the decision, it was made for her. The man in the back seat stepped out of the car,

leaving Allison alone with Clinton. The next part could be disturbing for some listeners, so discretion is advised and trigger warning. We will be discussing sexual assault. Allison was forced to perform oral sex as well as have it done to her by Clinton. And this whole time Clinton was talking to Allison, saying things like, does your boyfriend do this to you

and just really gross, traumatizing things. Yeah. Clinton then raped Allison in the car. And it was after this, that Allison heard the other man call Clinton by his name, and it wasn't Clinton. It was France. And that's when she realized, okay, his name isn't Clinton. He's lied to me.

His real name is France. She heard France then called dead eyes, the guy from the backseat, to Eunse. And now she knew both of their names. So she knows that Clinton is actually France and the guy with dead eyes in the back is actually to Eunse. France asked to Eunse if he wanted a turn having sex with the lovely lady. So that's how he went on. And when to Eun tunes responded with some rather crude words of what he actually wanted to do, he didn't want to have sex, he wanted

to do something else. And I'm not going to repeat it. France got mad at him, which confuses Allison. France told tunes that he couldn't talk to Allison that way. So the man who just raped her told his friend that he couldn't talk about her that way that she's a lady and he must speak properly to her almost like he's already getting protective of her. Yes. Interesting. And Allison doesn't really remember much about the next parts. It kind of started with the men trying to suffocate her, but as we know this is a lot harder than it looks on TV. And so although losing consciousness,

Allison was still alive. So next, she just remembers the stabs starting and them taking turns. Oh my god. France and Teens were using a knife to stab her to death. She was unsure how much time had passed when she woke back up, but she came to as they were finishing. Allison watched in a blur as they got back in their car and threw her clothing out the door. Then they drove away, thinking she was dead, leaving her there alone in the night. But as we know, Allison was not in fact going to die at that time that night. Allison laid there, and although she couldn't fill any pain, she could hear herself gurgling air through her severed throat. So all she can like realizes that her breathing is making a gurgling noise.

So she had been cut on her stomach, her throat, anywhere else, or where she just stabbed all over? That's all she knows right now. She remembers them sobbing, but then she blacked out. So she, but she wakes up and she's not in any pain. All she can focus on is the fact that her breathing is labored. Yes. Allison at this point was overcome with sadness. She knew that she was injured beyond repair

and that she had, you know, she was having a horrifying realization that she was dying, that she was laying in the middle of nowhere in the darkness alone dying. So Allison actually says at this point that she remembers leaving her body, like literally having an out-of-body experience as she's laying here dying, all the noise stopped and she looked down on herself like at herself dying on the ground. And it was during this like weird out-of-body experience that she realized that she could either leave or go back, that she could go back to her body

if she wanted, like she physically remembers having that choice. And so she decided that she wanted to. So with all of her fight, she says she made it back to her body and she can't explain the logistics of it. This is just what she's experiencing. So she says with all her fights, she makes it back to her body.

And when she did, she could hear herself breathing through her throat again. So she finally makes it back. I think she wakes up and realizes, oh, I'm just back to gurgling through my throat. She lay there in the dirt, unable to move, and unsure of what to do. If she was going to die,

she didn't want france and tunes to do this to anyone else. That's all she could think about. So she was going to die, she didn't want friends and tunes to do this to anyone else. That's all she could think about. So she reached her bloodied arm out, like as she's laying there, and she can't really move anything else. So she barely moves her arm out and attempts to write their names the best she could in the dirt that she's laying in.

And she just writes their names beside her. Superwoman. That's crazy. Yes, she just decided that if she died, she wanted them caught. She didn't want them to be able to hurt anyone else like this. She then wrote in the dirt under their names, I love mom because this is also what she wanted people to know in this moment. Holy crap, this is heartbreaking.

So after this, sometimes goes on and she has just kind of decided to lay there and die. But then as the time is going on, she's becoming more aware of what happened and the physical state that she was in. Just before, she couldn't feel much, but the feeling was starting to come back. And with it came a wet filling by her legs. And trigger warning, we are going to have graphic description

of her wounds as she's realizing what has happened here. So it took a moment, but Allison realized that her intestines were outside of her body and laying down between her legs. No frickin' way. And this was the wet feeling that she could feel. So she moved her hand down there, started feeling what it was,

and then realized it was connected to her stomach, and then realized, oh my gosh, the inside of my stomach is on my legs. Hold, I did nothing to say. And she's just laying here. So she is like, oh crap, oh crap, like this is not good. And she remembers her clothes nearby

that they hid through out of the car. So she reaches over as best she could. I mean, as now I just described you, the graphic wound that's her stomach, it's not just a gash in her stomach. Her stomach is completely cut open. Very severe. So she's not moving right now,

but she reaches her arm over and grabs her denim shirt. That's the thing that she could reach. And she gathers her insides and she gathers her insides and places them back into her stomach the best she could with her shirt holding them in place there with her hands. I can't even comprehend this. I can't either. It's so crazy. Allison knew at this point that she needed to move. Like reality had set in like, okay, I'm not dying and I'm in big trouble and I need to get out of here.

I need to somehow try to find some help. She could see headlights from the road a bit away as cars were like passing by. She was not safe here and her chances of being found were low here because she's off the road a bit away as cars were like passing by. She was not safe here and her chances of being found were low here because she's off the road. If she wanted to make it, she would need to try and move. So, she is like, okay, I'm gonna try. So she like gathers up, she pulls her knees into her chest,

she rolls over onto her stomach, still holding the hole on her stomach, trying to hold her insides in. So this is all with one arm and she begins awkwardly crawling with one arm, but it's more like a drag. Like she's more like dragging her body with one arm. And after doing this for a minute, she realizes, I'm getting nowhere.

I'm not making any progress. I'm not going to make it doing it this. It's too slow. And she was losing strength with every pull, like she was starting to black out again. So she's like, I'm exerting too much energy. I'm not going to make it to the road. So with all of her effort and will,

Allison attempted to hoist herself onto her feet, all while holding her insides into her body with her hand. Oh, that would, that sounds impossible. Right. So I do just need to say here, like, the will to survive. Yeah. I just, I'm proud of her because this is such a scary fight that she's about to do to try to move.

You know what I mean? But she's nervous as she's trying to get onto her feet because she can tell that she's breathing out of the slashes in her neck, which is losing blood. Because as she started to realize, okay, be more aware of her body, she can tell that the reason her breathing is sounding labored is because she's breathing through a hole

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And she's like, what the heck is going on? She's like, okay, I'm obviously not blacking out. I can't feel anything, but I'm obviously not blacking out because I'm still thinking, but everything is black. Allison instinctively throws her arm up to her eyes. She can't see anything. To try to figure out what's going on. And as she's putting her arms up to her eyes,

she starts filling down and starts filling her neck, trying to assess the wound on her neck. Because I think at that point, she's like, oh, I can touch this and try to figure out what's going on. And as she puts her hand up to her neck to fill the cuts, her hand is inside of her throat. There's literally no... There is nothing there.

Her hand goes inside of her neck, yes. So whatever had been done. Like how holy crap. Whatever had been done to her neck, there was not much left there. Her hand was inside of her neck. Allison shockingly realized that the reason everything was black was because her head had fallen backwards

by her shoulder blades. She didn't have neck muscles to keep her head upright when she stood up. So she was staring up at the sky. How was she alive right now? Right. So I don't even know. I don't even know.

I don't know how mentally she's aware of what's going on. Like it's insane. So Allison then uses her hand to pull her head back up right so that she could see. This is a movie. This feels like a movie. I just, I can't. I can't even understand it. So she pulls her head back up and she's like, I, how am I supposed to walk right now? I can't even hold my head up right and I'm holding my stomach, like the insides of my stomach,

with my shirt right now. So Allison doesn't remember this next part. She doesn't remember walking. She doesn't really remember, she feels like maybe she blacked out, but the next time that she comes to, she was at the road. She had somehow blacked out

and made her way to the road on her feet. She doesn't remember walking. She doesn't remember moving. She doesn't remember ever having the ability to. It seemed impossible. But as she came to, she realized she was on the road. And when she came to, she immediately fell down. Yeah. She was like, I had nothing left. There was nothing left to hold her up. She couldn't go on. She was dying in the road. And she had no more fight physically. Somehow she made it to the road. And now she's collapsed in the road and can't move.

So as Allison is laying in the road holding on for dear life, a car miraculously began approaching her. And the slight hope that Allison felt was crushed by fear when she realized that the car could be France and Teons coming back for her. So she's like, oh crap, did I just make a mistake by like laying here? The car stopped for just a second and then sped off. And I know this seems wild like how could a car stop and not help her. What? But the site of Allison was horrifying. She was naked. She was bloodied. Her insides were on the outside of her body. Her head was almost severed off. I'm not saying that this makes sense.

I just, I want to put the moment in perspective for everyone of what these people just came across in the road. So when the next car pulled up, they too slowly came to a stop, but this time they got out. And it was the young man and his friends that we talked about at the beginning of this story. Thank goodness.

They ran up to her and tragically observed her condition. Allison's eyes were open, but she couldn't talk to them and she wasn't responsive, but they could tell she was alive. She laid there holding the young man's hand while he used his shirt to try and stop the bleeding. And they sat there for 40 minutes until the paramedics arrived. 40 minutes, it seems like such a long time. I mean, I'm sure it's a whole other conversation, but...

We're in a whole other country. I don't, it doesn't work this day, unlike it does here. So maybe there's more logistics to an ambulance coming. Maybe it doesn't. It doesn't make sense to us, but yes, it was only a 15-minute drive away, but it took 40 minutes.

It had been only an hour and a half since the abduction of Allison. Everything had moved so fast. She had been attacked and left for dead in such a short amount of Allison. Everything had moved so fast. She had been attacked and left for dead in such a short amount of time. Tiana let go of Allison's hand as she was taken into the hospital. This is the kid who found her and stayed with her

to protect her the whole time. And this moment actually changed him forever, finding her, holding her hand, trying to keep her alive until they got to the hospital, not even sure by the time They arrived if she was alive. I mean, that's such an intimate moment Right. Yeah, I mean, you're just looking at the you're you know, you're just looking at the last moments of someone so crazy So when doctors finally got to look at Allison in the hospital

They were stunned by the share brutality of the attack. The severe cruelty that this attack held. You know what's kind of, which, I mean, none of it makes sense, but that he was just defending her, right, for certain sexual acts. And then a minute later, just goes and stabs her severely brutal, like as many times as possible, it just doesn't make any sense. Nearly decapitated her. Like what? Yeah, I don't know. Nearly decapitated her. Like what?

Just, yeah, I don't know. I don't know that. It's just crazy. Right, I don't understand it. I don't think we can. So we are now going to describe the wounds that were observed by the doctors. So this is no longer what Allison felt.

This is what the doctors are observing once they get here here. So this could be graphic for some listeners as well. The wound on Allison's neck was large and expanded from ear to ear. Her trachea had been cleanly cut through and her neck muscle was severed completely through. There were around 17 slashes to her throat along. Oh my gosh. Allison's lungs were actually only receiving air through a gaping hole above her collar

bones. So like you know when someone stabs a, and that's how they breathe, this is what's happening to her. She's not breathing through her mouth. The only reason that she was able to keep breathing was there was a hole big enough by her collar bones to get air to her lungs. Wow, that's insane. Yes. The extent of Allison's injuries were astounding.

Tunes and France had stopped her in the abdomen and pubic area over 37 times. And she had been completely disemboweled, which means her insides had fallen through the holes. If you stop someone at the same spot, the hole's only going to get bigger, which is why it was a big enough hole for her insides to come out.

Her insides, so her intestines, her organs, everything were covered in dirt and debris from the ground, as they were laid on top of her stomach, which is how doctors realized that at one point she had been laying in the dirt with her insides out of her, and then she had put them back into her. Dr. Demetri Angelove was called in and everyone was worried about how they could handle this. Like at this point, Alison was barely holding on. She was lucid and her mind like it has been this whole story is somehow working, but physically they're like, she's not working. Like how are we going to fix this?

They needed to act fast and correctly or else they could kill her. Like she might not survive. So they scrubbed and cleaned her intestines. They rebuilt and replaced and sewed her up in this long surgery. And by the grace of God or whoever it is that looks over us, Allison made it through surgery. Do you know how long the surgery was? I don't know exact timing, but they made it seem like it was lasting almost 20. Yeah, like they didn't let anyone come see her for 24 hours.

Okay. So she because she was being worked on. And I don't know if that was like one constant surgery or just sure is multiple. Yes. Yes. But she had survived an unsurvivable attack. At the hands of pure evil, she had somehow gotten through this mind over matter, right? And everyone in the room truly understands that Allison is a miracle. Like they're looking at a miracle. There was absolutely no

reason she should have been alive when Tiana and his friends found her. There was no reason that she should have been able to walk to the road from where she was attacked. There was no reason she should have survived and been as lucid and mentally there as she was in the hospital. And one doctor who actually doesn't believe in miracles showed up and worked his way through Allison's injuries to explain her survival. And this is what he came up with.

Allison's blood vessels in her neck were somehow untouched despite everything else being obliterated. And this meant that a continued blood supply to her brain was going on while the whole rest of her neck was non-existent. How is it even possible to have your blood vessels entouched by everything else's cut open? The you and the doctors and everyone else

are asking the same question. The nerves that moved down her neck to supply her organs in her stomach were also untouched. Oh my god. So the two things that you absolutely need are untouched despite being slashed 17 times her trachea being completely obliterated and her muscles. Yeah. And out of all the stab wounds to Allison's chest, none of them penetrated her heart or lungs, narrowly missing them somehow, which means that she could still keep working.

You know what I mean? And in the lower stomach, the major gash underneath her belly button, which is the hole that her intestines fell out of, this was somehow not infected, despite being laying in the dirt and debris and then her putting them back in. This is like, you're breaking all the hippo rules by doing this. And somehow she didn't get one infection from it, which could have killed her, right? If she had like started an infection, that would easily kill her. And somehow she didn't get any infection from doing this.

From man handling with 30 hands, her insides and pushing them back into her stomach. There were many stab wounds around the major gash around the abdomen, which were not deep enough to damage her internal organs. So basically, this doctor says the miracle here is that most of the injuries, although painful and brutal, were not devastating. She had been stabbed and slashed in all the right places, like somehow, if you will.

And this unbelieving doctor admits that this is the miracle in her case. So crazy. The chances of that are just that is in saying unimaginable. Right? just that is. In saying. Unimaginable. Right. So the police were obviously called in and informed about an attempted murder and rape. Because Allison survived and she knew the name's France and Tunes, police already had something to work with.

And they already knew a man by the name of France detoy from a previous rape. They gave Allison a book with pictures, one of them being France. And when Allison came to his picture, she frantically scribbled his name on the paper. She couldn't talk obviously because she literally doesn't have a trachea,

but she can write. Police knew France had a friend named Tunes, and so when Allison scribbled his name, and then also pointed out Tunes' picture, they were like, This is yeah open and shut case right here. And that Monday police brought France and his friend Tunes Krueger in for questioning although, you know, they were Satisfied by Allison's IDs, but the chief prosecutor told police that although they too acknowledge Allison's, you know, written IDs of these guys, they would feel more comfortable taking on the case if she would verbalize the idea.

Why? I have no idea. I have no idea. That makes no sense. So Allison, at this point, had a tube running down her throat and into her lungs to supply air while her trachea healed. Obviously, she can't breathe through that right now. So in order for her to attempt to speak,

the tube would have to be removed, the big tube would have to be removed. But removing the tube might jeopardize the work, the doctors had just done, like they had successfully patched everything up and now they might ruin that. So when they told Allison, like, hey, the prosecutor might not take this case on

if you don't verbalize it, she's like, she wrote down take the tube out. Take the tube out and all get their names out. I will try my hardest. So the doctors removed the tube and Allison clarified that her attackers were in fact, France and Tunes. The morning after Allison's attack, those in her life began being informed about her attack,

friends and family were asked to wait a couple days to come see her because of the surgery and the recovery that she needed. And then once friends were able to come, they actually remember that it was such a distressing sight. Like, oh yeah, I can imagine. Even though she's in the hospital, think of what's happened to her. They remember when like Allison woke up and looked at them. There was only blood in her eyes because all of the vessels,

the blood vessels in her eyes had burst. So when she opened her eyes, it was just like blood and they were like, oh my gosh, she didn't know it did. Yeah, she's not okay. Allison actually remembers filling worried in the hospital that she wouldn't be able to thank everyone who cared for her, who had heard about her,

who had sent their condolences. So she decided to release a blanket statement in the newspaper to show her things. And although she had survived the attack, she knew that she would have recovery and a court case coming up for years for years. And so the tragedy about victims who survived their attacks is that the attack is never truly over. The ache is never over. They sometimes have to face their attackers

afterwards, even if they don't want to. And they have to heal from their injuries, which is painful. And it's just unfair. Like it's unfair what happened. And then it's unfair all the recovery that has to come from it. For Alison, the physical recovery was so painful. She says that to this day. She still has ongoing pain because of the attack. She also remembers having to document her injuries as they healed. And so that meant that she would go into the hospital and take her clothes off all over again for different people to look at and for different people to take pictures of. And she was like, and that hurt. It just never ending. Yeah. She's like, as I was trying to heal. And I had these stitches and scars. and my throat

is literally being held together by stitches and I just had to go and take my, because majority of her injuries were in her pubic area. And so actually one of the sad things is that the attackers while they were stabbing her said that they were purposely attacking her reproductive organs. That's so horrible. Yes. So two other women were attacked and raped before Allison. And during those attacks,

France and Tunis had threatened these women that if they went to the police and reported it, they would kill them. But both women, although scared, decided to come forward and report it despite France and Tunis' threat. Were they not stabbed or injured at all? No, they were just

raised weird to the white allison well so at this point france and tunes decided that the next victim that they would rape that they would they would kill her why they just wanted to well because the last two went to the police oh and so they were like we told her not to and she still did so the next one work we're going to kill to ensure that it doesn't happen. But Allison was a survivor, so they still failed. Yeah, they still failed. Police remember breaking the news to France.

They told him he was being charged with attempted murder. And he went, why the lesser charge, like why are you reducing it from murder to attempted murder? And they said, because Allison survived, the girl that you attacked survived. That's kind of annoying that they're only getting a charge with attempted murder. Right. Just because she survived. Yes.

I feel like it should be more, I mean, that's a whole new. It's such a hard, yeah. It's, yeah, it's very hard. But France told him at this point, well, there's nothing to hide from you because she's going to tell you everything we did. And he took a ring off of his pinky finger and handed it to the police. And he said, this is Allison's, you can give it back to her. You just admitted it basically. Yeah. And they actually matched blood on that ring to Allison's. Oh my God. So there's like a ton of DNA, a ton of friends that yes, yes. And you know,

although France and Tune's agreed to plead guilty, the police knew, well, at any point they could change their minds and try to make this difficult for us So they did collect this DNA. They did go back to the scene just to ensure that they had a solid case And the case was actually the first in South Africa to use one-way glass as the way to identify the attackers out of a lineup Previous to this case the victims would actually have to walk up and physically touch their attacker. But police learned that it was obviously very traumatizing to the victims, so they changed this method and they haven't gone back since. And even though it was behind one way glass, Allison remembers still being petrified. Like I don't think we can understand how scary that would be to look at these people who

had done this to you, even if it is behind glass. You know what I mean? During the trial, Allison remembers not feeling very traumatized, like the trial wasn't that traumatizing for her. She was actually grateful for a trial because she knew that not many victims get one. So she was like, I'm glad that I can be here and that this can actually be happening. After court, France and Tunis were sentenced to life in prison. The death penalty in South Africa at this point

was deemed unconstitutional, so that was not on the table. And life in prison was even pretty rare at this time. So it was even pretty surprising that they were sentenced to that. In October 2015, they became eligible for parole. What? Right. And what happened? From what I can gather, they have not been released.

Okay. Nor have they been not been released. Okay. Nor have they been granted very many parole hearings. But Allison actually has started like a petition that we will link in the bio, that we will link in the episode. So you can go and sign to try to just get a whole bunch of people behind the fact that these guys should not be released. Yeah, they should not be living with other people. Yes.

Allison says that the sentence and justice is still really not a celebration for her because they took something from her that she can't get back. No matter what happens, there is no finality to her case as far as the attack goes. She wants it to be over, but a piece of her died that night. And although time helps, it doesn't ever make it go away.

Yeah. She tried to be strong for everyone after, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't keep going. She moved back in with her mom and worked on physically healing, but mentally healing was hard and she fell into a pretty deep depression. She blamed France and Tunes for her depression.

But then she remembers one day sitting there and taking herself back to that moment when she was having that out of body experience and she actively chose between life and death in that moment. And when she was slipping away from her body, she decided to fight and to make it back and to survive. She said that she realized in that moment that she was allowing France and Tunes to continue hurting her to continue taking her life. She was not choosing life like she once had. Who is this? Who is this girl?

Amazing. She's awesome. And it was around this time that she received her first invitation to tell her story in front of people at an event. And although nervous, she didn't want to disappoint everyone. So she said yes, like she was hesitant. She didn't want to do it. But she said yes because she was like,

I think this is what people want out of me. So awesome. So she pulled herself up and she went and she talked about it. And to her surprise, talking about it made her feel better. And she hasn't stopped sharing to this day. She shares her story, she says her story gave her a purpose, a direction, and healing. It allowed her to begin healing. France has since come out and requested that Allison give him a written letter of forgiveness and also pay him a percentage of her

profit from her book sales and speaking engagements because I quote, her success is all because of what I did to her. If that, I don't even know what to say about that. What a peer just evil person, right? Evil person. Evil. Tionne Ellerd, who is the guy who rescued her, decided to actually become a doctor after discovering Alison on

the road. That's so cool. Alison is truly a light. She was unexplainably able to have two beautiful boys after being told that she would never have kids. Because remember, they attacked her reproductive organs. Tiane, who held Alison's hand while she clung on to life that night was actually the assisting doctor for the birth of her second child. She says that coping with her trauma has given a dream to the younger Allison who didn't have one coping with her trauma and being a mom is her wealth. That's what she says.

That is so awesome. According to Danielle Tinning with all that's interesting.com in 1995, Alice in one, the prestigious Rotarian Paul Harris award for Courage Beyond the Norm and Feminine of the magazine's Women of Courage Award. She was also honored as Port Elizabeth's Citizen of the Year, which she deserves. We like you, we give her the Nobel Peace Prize at this point. She's amazing. She has traveled all over the world sharing and meeting people and loves every minute of

it. She is so inspiring and beautiful. She shares her story in hopes that people will feel inspired to overcome their obstacles. And a lot of this is from her own mouth. She says that her story might allow healing and growth, that the practices she's used to get herself out of holes doesn't have to be for huge trauma like hers. They can be for small trials that we all experience every day, each of you listening. Allison says that we can't always control what happens in our lives,

but we can always control what we do with what happens in our lives. And that you guys is why Allison has inspired me. She has taken this tragedy and made it something better, which is all we can do. Allison Bada gives me hope, and I think you guys can fill it too. We love all of you, and this was for Allison Bada. We will see you guys next week with another episode.

I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye. you