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Before we begin, just a trigger warning. The following episode does include mentions of graphic physical violence.
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>> I survived a violent home invasion after everything was said and done. Um, it was
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I lost in in total close to 3/4 of the blood in my body. There's no earthly reason why I'm alive. None. There is
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none. As you heard, that is Donna Anakaco, who miraculously survived a random attack in
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her Colts Neck, New Jersey home back in the early morning hours of July 7th, 2013. Donna lived with her 21-year-old
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daughter, but she was home alone that night. And after opening her front door to let her cat back in the house, Donna
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then encountered an intruder attempting to cut through the screen of the window by her front door. He proceeded to stab
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her multiple times on her face and in her chest before leaving with her purse and her car keys. As Donna lay on the
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floor bleeding, she somehow found the strength to crawl upstairs where her cell phone was and she called 911 while
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her attacker then escaped in her car. >> Okay. Okay. Okay. Just stand up on me. Okay. Where did you get stabbed?
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>> In the neck. Blood is gushing out and in the chest. >> Okay. I can feel my heart. I'm pouring
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gushing blood. >> Then before briefly losing consciousness, she was able to describe
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her attacker in great detail. >> He was probably about 17. White, real skinny, curly hair,
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blonde, dirty blonde hair, a little bit long hair in the backpack. I'm losing consciousness. Okay, so stay
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with me. Okay. >> Yeah, I could feel the water's just the blood is just water. It's like water.
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After paramedics arrived, Donna then was rushed to the hospital. And as you heard
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her say, she lost close to 3/4 of the blood in her body. But thanks to Donna's detailed description of her attacker and
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additional tips and DNA evidence, police identified 16-year-old Brennan Doyle as
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a suspect. He was arrested nearly 4 months after stabbing Donna. And Doyle claimed he was under the influence at
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the time of magic mushrooms. In 2015, Doyle pleaded guilty to attempted murder and carjacking, and he was sentenced to
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15 years in prison. And while Doyle is in prison, Donna is still struggling to recover from the trauma of her attack.
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I'm Natalie Morales of 48 hours, and this is It Could Have Been Me. [Music] Welcome, Donna. It is so good to have
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you here with us and thank you so much for being willing to share your story with us. Thank you for having me. I know
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what you went through was so traumatic physically, emotionally. How are you doing today?
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>> Um physically all of my injuries have healed. I have some, you know, nerve damage, uh pins and needles in my left
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arm. Um but other than that, physically I'm okay. you know, psychologically, um, it's I'm still working on that. Um,
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I can go places by myself now, >> but do I like being in the dark, in the night, by myself? No. Still, it um is it
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it is difficult for me. Your your physical scars have healed so beautifully as well. You don't see them
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as much anymore, but um, as you said, the emotional trauma is still something that you live with. And um I know that
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has to be so difficult to go through as you said the nighttime and the darkness because that's when the attack happened.
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Um you've moved out of that house though and um I know that area of New Jersey. I
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lived in New Jersey for many many years. It's a beautiful peaceful area, horse country. Something like this though, you
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never expect something like this to happen in Colts Neeneck, New Jersey, right? >> No, never. I felt very safe there. Never
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in my wildest nightmares would I would think this would happen there. >> Take me back to that night. Your
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daughter Kirstston, she was out at a party. You nodded off, but then you went to open the door to let your cat back
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in. What happened then? Right. So, when I opened the door, I saw a kid standing on the porch. That's what I zoned in on.
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Um, and then like a millisecond later, I saw the knife that he had and he was cutting into the screen and the window
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and my response kicked into, "Oh, I got to shut this door, you know." So, as I was shutting the door, he charged out
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the door and the knife, it stuck through just a a tiny little opening um before I
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could actually shut the door and it cut my finger, the tip of my finger, and I pulled my hand off the door. You know,
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that was like that was the most painful moment. Uh was that knife cutting the tip of my finger
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>> because my body hadn't shut down yet at that point. It was just sliced into my
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hand. Um so when I pulled my hand off the door, he pushed the door in and was face to face with me in my kitchen. I
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could not think far enough ahead to say he's going to cut me with that knife. M >> um but sure enough, he was standing just
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straight in front of me and he just started slashing me. Uh my face, you could see this part um here, but it
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actually goes all the way back here. So, he just took the knife and, you know, slash that way. And I could not
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process again that he would actually cut me. So, I'm holding my my face like this
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and he's slashing my neck. um you know and then so now I'm like oh you know like what's h you know what's
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happening and he stabbed me straight into my chest >> um and still even with the sla you know
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the slashes and the stabs I couldn't process that he was actually like another stab was going to come another
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slash was going to come like I couldn't process that um gosh it is unreal hearing you describe all of this and
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it's still so clear as day to you in your memory I can see that. I'm sure that's so hard to relive that moment,
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the pain you were feeling in that moment. >> And as I understand, this is this is a
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young man that you'd never seen him before. It's not somebody you recognized, right?
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>> Right. Totally random. >> You saw though, he seemed to be young. You got a good feel for what he looked
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like. I mean, you were staring at him as he's doing this to you. You wouldn't take your eyes off him.
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>> Absolutely correct. Yep. Without a doubt. >> So, he's attacking you multiple times.
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He stabbed you at this point. >> In that time, what's going through your head? Are your survival instincts
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kicking in? >> Yes. I s well I started to think um you know, I have to get that knife like I
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have to get it out of his hands. Um so, as I was backing away from him, um I tried to grab the knife from him. You
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know, I you know, in my head, I'm going to grab that knife and I'm going to get it away from him. But um it literally
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just cut my hand open. I ended up on the floor um you know when he came over to me on the floor. He asked me um for my
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car keys and for a lighter. So I directed him to that to my purse and uh he went through my purse and got what he
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needed. And and I know that you were wanting to figure out get get to your cell phone, right? That was part of the
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whole thinking at that moment. Yeah, my cell phone was upstairs once he left with the car keys, the lighter. That was
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your opportunity. You had to get upstairs. How'd you do that? I mean, in the condition you were in.
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>> I have no idea. I have no idea. I always say that there was definitely divine
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intervention that helped me get up and get up the stairs. And I feel like I floated up those stairs um and to my
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phone. >> Almost like an out-of- body experience. Really? >> Yes. Yes, absolutely.
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>> And I know part of your motivation was your daughter. She was out, but you knew
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she would come back. You knew she would find you. >> I could just imagine Kirsten coming in,
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you know, walking in through that door and finding me laying there. Um, and that couldn't happen. That just um
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wasn't something I was prepared to let happen. You got to your phone yet incredibly you were still with it enough
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to look outside and notice that your attacker was still there in the car. So you had to be really careful once you
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got your phone, right? What did you do? >> Yes. I I picked up my phone and it was
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still on the um attached to the cord and I you know I knew that if I unplugged the cord from it, you know, it was going
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to light up and he would see like that light um in the dark. And I was so terrified that he was going to see that
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and he was going to come back in. And so I kind of just, you know, slunk down to
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the floor with it and tried to be as careful as I could. Um, and it was hard just trying to swipe on
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the phone just to unlock it. Um, cuz I had so much blood on my hands. Finally, I just wiped it off, wiped it off on the
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side of the bed and, uh, was able to dial 911. >> Do you remember that call at all now?
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>> I remember feeling so panicked, just just desperate, and trying to get all of the right information out, all
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the right words out. After the criminal trial was done, I went back to uh the prosecutor's office and I asked them if
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I could hear my 911 call um because I wanted to make sure like did I actually speak clearly? Did I actually give them
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all this information like they said I did? And um that was really empowering for me to go back years later and and
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hear that recording. >> You you give me goosebumps, you know, just imagining you hearing that for the
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first time after having gone through what she went through um you made it out of that house. Incredible. And then you
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had to undergo 7 hours of surgery um when you're in the hospital. Is it true that you were worried that your attacker
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might come back for you? >> Oh yeah, without a doubt. Um, you know, in every scary movie that you see or
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every, you know, type of slasher movie like that, you see, the killer comes back dressed as a doctor, dressed as a
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nurse, or they slip in and um, you know, as an orderly or something like that. >> But they I kept telling them, you know,
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like like, is there a guard out, you know, asking them, is there a guard outside my door? Um, you know, and they
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kept trying to assure me that it was a secure floor. Um, I was under an alias. Nobody was getting on on this floor into
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my room unless uh they knew my alias. Yeah. Absolutely terrified. >> Your alias was Sarah Reese.
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>> Yeah. It was shocking actually to see that on my wristband. I I know you describe feeling like you almost lost
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your identity because the attack it's like it took so much away from you. I completely do not identify with who I
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was pre-attack there. I feel like there's not a stitch of me left from, you know, before the attack.
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>> You're a different person now. >> Totally different person. And I'm uh still trying to figure out uh who that
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is. >> It's obviously a work in progress, but you're so strong and and you see you're
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such a survivor. Um I know your friend Sharon Sharp was was really important to helping you go through your recovery.
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She described seeing you in the hospital. those those very first few days and the stab wounds and you know
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how much blood even was in your hair at that moment and and she talked about that. Let's take a listen here. Her
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beautiful long hair was just caked. I mean caked. It was almost like it was almost like a thing you could pick up in
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blood and all she'd say was, "I want my hair washed. I want my hair washed." Everybody could smell it. You couldn't
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not smell it. It was horrible. It was horrible. >> And I love that in that moment, your
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friends saw what you needed and they took action. They washed your hair. They tried to be strong for you when you
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needed that. Um the washing of the blood out of my hair. Uh that for me was so it
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was almost ceremonial. Um that was a lingering ick factor for me was that smell, that
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smell of blood. I just couldn't shake it. >> Well, it it was it was just four days
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later that you were able to leave the hospital. And I mean, I think you had something like 37 stitches, am I right?
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And 38 staples throughout your body. >> Yeah. I think they would have kept me there longer, but every day I was like,
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I'm ready to go. I have to leave. I did not feel safe there at all. >> And of course, you didn't feel safe
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going back to the house, so you didn't go back there. Where did you end up going?
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>> Yeah. So, I ended up going back to my parents house. So, it was my mother and
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my father um and a brother that lived there and my sister lived there at the time with her three children. So, there
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was no room at at the end for me. >> Um so, they ended up just uh kind of putting me in my niece's room. It was
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chaos. Well, and and I know you were concerned because your attacker was still out there and it would take four
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months before 16-year-old Brennan Doyle was then arrested and you know your attacker, we said he was young. What was
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your reaction though when you heard I mean he was just 16 years old. I mean I stood face to face with him so I saw him
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and I knew he was young. I didn't realize he was that young. Um, and kind of shocked because I was in
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really good shape physically. And if you said a 16-year-old was going to, you know, force the way into your house and
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attack you, I would have said absolutely not. That is not going to happen. I was
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in the best shape of my life. Um, there was no way >> that that was going to happen. But, uh,
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fight, flight, or freeze. And I froze. >> Yeah. And he was then charged as an adult. Mhm.
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>> When you heard what Brennan Doyle was alleging, he said it was magic mushrooms
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that possessed him to do what he did to you. What did you make of that? >> Yeah, I thought that was just um a
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copout. He seemed very present and very sure of what he was doing. So, I don't buy the whole um hallucinogenic
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story. Did you see him in court? >> Yes, I went to every single court appearance there were throughout the um
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the two years between the time the attack and then the actual trial in 2015. I went to every single appearance
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even if it was just like a 10-minute like this is what's happening thing because I wanted him to see me. I wanted
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him to know that I was alive and um and and I was showing up, you know. >> And he pleaded guilty to attempted
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murder and carjacking. That was in 2015, then sentenced to 15 years in prison. What was your reaction when you heard
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that sentence? >> If we were to go to trial, I was told that he can maintain his innocence and
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there would be no guarantee of him of the amount of time that he would get. um if we went to trial, he could get
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four years, he could get, you know, 7 years, what have you. But if he takes a plea deal, they told me he has to admit
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his guilt to the court. So when they said he's going to take a plea deal for uh 15 years,
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I I wanted that as opposed to taking a chance that he could get four years and maintain his innocence.
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>> Mhm. So, the there was a a civil award after the criminal trial uh where I was
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awarded $5 million. I have not seen any money from that. >> He could be coming out soon, you know,
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in a couple of years. Have you come to the terms with the fact that he might be released?
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>> I have not come to terms with that. I am I have to work on that. I feel like he's
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not going to come out and come after me, but you know, you never know. There's there's that little part of me
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that you're not going to convince that he he doesn't want to hurt or harm me. [Music]
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You know, I it's it's hard to even ask the question, but what does closure look like for you? I mean, especially when
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you talk about this was such a random act of violence. >> Yeah. you know, um, hindsight is 2020, so looking back on
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how I came out of the hospital and everything was so chaotic and everybody was so traumatized, nobody knew what to
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do. Looking back now, um, had I been received into an environment that had created a safe environment for
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me, that is what I needed. Like I needed that foundation. I still need it. the foundation of safety. I have to figure
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out, can I live in a standalone house by myself >> or do I have to always live in a an
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apartment with other people around or a condo or, you know, something with other
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people around, >> you know? And I think what what you're doing now is so remarkable because
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you're trying to help people understand >> what it means to be a victim of a random
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attack and and the emotions, you know, the the post-traumatic stress that goes along with all of that when it comes to
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healing. Yeah. Uh well, when well, first of all, I didn't think maybe the first couple days when I was
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out of the hospital, I didn't think that I had post-traumatic stress. Like, I didn't I was just like, you know, this
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was a hor, you know, a violent, horrible thing. And um I'm going to calm down and
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things will be okay. I followed the steps of like what I was supposed to do, followed doctor's orders and things like
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that. It wasn't until things started happening to me that um it really set in like the nightmares and the not sleeping
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and um I couldn't be around people and the isolating and the >> um the emotions up and down like I could
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be sitting here um just like this and all of a sudden I wouldn't be crying but tears would be pouring out of me.
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>> I had all this tra trauma inside me and it had to be released somehow. Right.
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And Donna, what what are you doing now to help you know get through this? I mean, it's still it seems like it's very
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emotionally traumatic still to this day. >> Yes. So, I still am in therapy. Um, I
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was on anti-anxiety medications. I was on medication. Whatever the the doctors thought that I
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should be on, I I followed their protocol. Um I also uh started to do yoga and meditation and aroma therapy.
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Anything calming, mind, body, soul type calming things >> to help you heal though. I know that you
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created a support group specifically focused on victims of random attacks. Why was that important to you?
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>> You know, nobody could put together the the that random act. nobody could put
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together that I was alone in the night, in the dark, and barely escaped death. I
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knew I needed to talk to somebody else and um hear their experience, I guess, more for hope, right? Let me I want to
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hear from somebody who who got to the other side of this, who survived it and is doing well and is thriving and, you
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know, has all these ways of coping. So, I just wanted with the support group, I wanted to be able to be a safe place for
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somebody else to tell their story. >> Um, you know, hold space for somebody else.
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>> I I heard you saying that you have the same job and that you had before the attack that they've been very supportive
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and helpful. >> Yes. Yeah. Thank you so much for pointing that out because um having my
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job to go back to and having a purpose to get up and get out of bed and um go to work every day that was so important.
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It's the one thing that has not changed since the attack. It's the one constant.
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And what do you want people to know about victims of random attacks? How do we talk to people who've gone through
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what you've gone through in a way that doesn't also, you know, become triggering? I think you really have to
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meet people where they are and in hearing somebody talk about whatever they're experiencing or whatever they're
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going through. You don't have to fix it. You you don't have to offer advice. Just
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listen, you know, just just let let them release that. um without judgment. >> Um I know before the attack you competed
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in tough mutters and you know you as you said you were in the best shape of your
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life back then. Um I think though what got you through this is you're the toughest mother.
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I'm amazed again how you got up those stairs. You called 911. who gave that description. It really all came from a
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place of love knowing that you needed to protect your daughter. Um, how are you and and Kirsten doing today? Yeah, she's
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doing well. Um, she's building a life um of her own with her husband. There's still that uh there's like a wedge there
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from the attack. I feel like I'm there's always something in my everyday life that relates to the attack or something
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from the attack and I feel like I I don't want to put that on her because that then causes her to
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>> think about it and then you know so there's a wedge there where I kind of try to protect her from my stuff and she
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kind of tries to protect me from any of her stuff and it's not the healthiest thing but um we're going to get through
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it. I know you will and and I know it has to be so hard. I mean, you both have been through so much. So, it's it's
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understandable how, you know, in trying to protect one another, you end up sometimes putting, you know, blocks in
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the way in the path of allowing you to have, you know, a really open and honest conversation.
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>> But you'll get there. You'll get there because the work you're doing is amazing
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and >> sharing your story, helping others is helping you. And I could see that. So,
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Donna, you're you're incredible and it's such a privilege to get to know you and
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I know it wasn't easy having a conversation again about what happened to you, but we so appreciate you sharing
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it because perhaps in in helping us understand how best to talk to victims of random attacks, you're creating an
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opportunity as well to let us just understand people going through traumatic experiences as a whole. Thank
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you so much. We want to thank you for listening to It Could Have Been Me. I'm Natalie Morales
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and you can always find your latest podcast in the 48 hours podcast feed. It's free on the Odyssey app or wherever
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you get your podcasts. [Music]