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I'm backing into my kitchen we're face to face it didn't register to me that he was
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actually going to stab me for Donna unshako being attacked with a knife during a home invasion was something
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that would have never occurred to her Donna lived in a quiet Farmhouse with her daughter Kirsten in Colts Neck New
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Jersey I was new into Major Crimes I didn't have the experience at some of the older
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detectives so I had never seen that much blood and before Donna's life changed on
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4th of July weekend in 2013. she was drifting off to sleep when she was awakened by someone trying to break into
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her home the attacker slashed Donna once on the cheek and three times on the side
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of the neck before she collapsed to the floor I was in fetal position and I'm bleeding
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and he came over and it was kind of like he was playing you know with the knife and just started jabbing at me so that's
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when he caught me here um and he got me in the back of my neck here after grabbing Donna's purse the
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attacker returned one last time he said you dead and plunged the knife into my chest once he plunges the
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knife in and then removes it what does he do then he just walked out the door Donna was
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miraculously able to reach her cell phone to call 9-1-1 I lost in in total close to three quarters of the blood in
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my body there's no earthly reason why I'm alive none surgery was seven hours I believe trauma surgeons saved on his
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life but at a tremendous cost I pretty much looked like a living cadaver I had 37 Stitches on my face and neck 38
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Staples in my chest seven stitches in my hand and now internally my sternum is wired shut
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and that final stab to Donna's chest right before the attacker left it missed my heart by the edge of a dime
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is what I remember them telling me Kirsten recalls as soon as her mother was able to talk she had one simple
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request I remember her saying all I smell is this blood in my hair can somebody please wash my hair
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Donna's friend Sharon sharp and two of Donna's family members did their best to wash her hair as she lay in the hospital
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but Donna's hair was the least of her concerns she was sure her attacker would find her and finish the job
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she was convinced that he was in the hospital and we kept telling her no you're here under an alias I survived I
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stood face to face with him I could 100 percent positively identify him he's coming back for me she was released
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from the hospital four days after the attack it's an amazing thing you were out in four days
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but as you leave the hospital you are also walking back into a world where whoever did this to you is still
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out there right but also I wasn't going back to the farm I wasn't going back to my house
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no there was no way in addition to her physical recovery Donna had to search for normalcy in her
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everyday life I lost everything that night I lost my home had nowhere to go I lost my car
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they took it into evidence Donna you lost more than half your blood I exactly I lost I lost a lot
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Donna would soon face other challenges symptoms a PTSD started to show up I'm not eating I'm not sleeping I don't care
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about anything I'm angry I'm sad I'm happy I'm you know every emotion Under the Sun at any minute I felt like I was
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going crazy I was always thinking I don't know who this kid is but he climbed through the window in that
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second that I fell asleep and now he's hiding in the closet you know kind of crazy thoughts Sharon says Donna's fear
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meant even friendly visits required a new protocol including announcing her arrival every step of the way so as not
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to trigger Donna I'm gonna come around the hedges now and I'm going to enter the backyard I'm going to be touching
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the gate in three two one I would shake my keys first which had bells on them say it's me Sharon I'm coming Donna had
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found PTSD in domestic violence support groups but she says there were none for the victims of random attacks so in 2015
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she decided to create a her own survivors of violent crimes reason we took to the support group was to help
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each other cope Donna connected with fellow survivors Tiffany Ott and Dana Richards they held meetings and felt
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gratified they could help when more survivors join they are finding relief and knowing that they're not alone
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Donna says the physical scars that remain are a reminder of the surgeons who saved her life this is artwork
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they're beautiful artwork you could either get sucked into the darkness or you just keep going