To Hell and Back
48 Hours
Two teenage girls, Jackie Maris and Tamara Brooks, survive a harrowing kidnapping, sexual assault, and attempted murder by fugitive Roy Dean Ratliff in California's Mojave Desert. After days of terror, they fight back wi
Key takeaways
- Survival through unity and quick thinking
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) Yeah, there's no way. There's no way it wasn't going down without a fight. Because that would just be stupid of me. You know, how can you not fight for your life? It was a carefree night out. When it began, these two teenage girls had never met. When it was over, they shared an unbreakable bond of survival. Kidnapped at gunpoint. kidnapped at gunpoint, terrorized during a summer of fear. The latest highly publicized child of kidnapping in California this year. We're pleading for our lives. Please don't kill me. Please don't shoot. Peter Van Sant has their personal story. Do you realize today just how close to death you were? Split second decisions, facing the fear, daring to fight back. Because your intent at that moment is to do well. To kill him. Time was running out. He was hunting for us to kill them and bury them. This is the real deal. We have to take action. 48 hours investigates. If you don't open a door by three, I'm going to kill both of you right now. One, two. To hell and back. I've been kissed by the sun each morning. Just soaking up the day. We do have breaking news to tell you about the two girls who were kidnapped this morning at gunpoint have been found safe. This world is a beautiful place. In this case, the latest highly publicized child of kidnapping in California this year. I have been blessed. Thank you. It's a welcome home party unlike any other. Just days earlier, Tamara Brooks and Jackie Maris, spent a night in hell, kidnapped, abused, terrorized, but they somehow made it back. I was alive. I had my life back. And the bad guy was dead. We'll never have to deal with this suspect again. The girl's triumph, says Sheriff Carl Sparks, gives every mother and father something to hold on to. It gave them some hope that just because, somebody takes one of their children it doesn't have to be four days later in a grave. Do you realize today just how close to death you were? Yeah. Every second. Every second of what we went through was a chance for him to kill us. but he didn't for some reason. So, yeah, I know how close I was to death. Jackie's incredible story of survival begins here on Quartz Hill, a popular hangout overlooking the city of Palmdale, California. It's after midnight, and Jackie is nearing her curfew, enjoying the view with Frank Malera. It's fun, you know. It's something different to do, you know. It keeps you out of trouble, I guess you could say. Or you thought. That's what I thought, yeah. At Quartz Hill, they talk, listen to music. Then, out of nowhere, Frank feels cold metal against his head. Okay, this is serious, you know, it's something in my head. He has a gun. He has a gun. A gun gets your attention pretty fast. Holding that gun with his finger on the trigger is Roy Dean Ratliff, a fugitive wanted for rape. He demands money and orders Frank and Jackie to put their heads down. They smell alcohol on his breath, and hear duct tape unwinding. One second, he was calm, and then out of nowhere, he just starts getting mad. Freaking out. Yeah. He was like, you think I'll kill you? I was like, yeah, man, I think you'll kill me. And he was like, you think I'll kill you? And I was like, yeah, you'll kill me, man. You got the gun, you'll kill me. He made me put my head to the back of the seat rest and started taping my head and then putting tape all the way around my arms, taping my lip, taping my eyes. I was like, you know, he's going to duct tape me and then shoot me. Ratliff starts wrapping up Jackie, but the tape runs out. Blindfolded and hobbled, she's led to a Bronco park nearby. So he picked me up and he placed me in the back, and that's when I saw Tamara's legs, and they weren't moving. And I didn't know if it was some dead body or... or white, you know. Lying still in the back seat is Tamara Brooks, a 16-year-old honor student. The two girls have never met. When the Bronco disappears, Frank manages to free himself and calls for help on his cell phone. And I see this other guy and I'm like, who's this? You know, what happened to him? And he has duct tape on him and I'm just like, oh man, this happened to him too. I heard him undoing the duck tape. The other guy is Eric Brown. He was on Quartz Hill with his friend Tamara. He told me he was going to kill me, but he didn't want to. He actually just wanted to tie me up. He just wanted the truck. Ratliff carjacked Eric's Bronco, with Tamara held hostage. I just turned 18 today. Asked up about two hours ago. I was brought up that when you take a girl out, you see that she gets home. And how was I going to take her home? you know oh what if something does happen to her I would never be able to live with myself ever what police don't realize is Ratliff is just a few miles from Quartz Hill he pulls over and Jackie can see the lights from nearby homes through a crack in her blindfold the houses had to be like maybe 15 feet from us and like some of the lights are on and like you get here like dogs barking and like people you know without warning Ratliff sexual assaults her. Imagine your worst nightmare? Did you say anything to him? Hmm? And no one in these houses that were nearby, nobody noticed, nobody heard anything. That's a surprise me because they were so close to him. But... And this is where he attacked Jackie. That's what we think. That's what we think. Now, this whole thing took place inside the car. Detective Fred McNutt retraces the route Ratliff took that night. Why would this man pull over on a pretty busy street right next to a residential neighborhood to do this sexual assault? He just played it out that way for his own experience. maybe some kind of sick excitement he got on being on the edge this way. Found in the Bronco were restraints that were used to hold the girls, and here's the tape that was used. Ratliff also carries two guns, ammunition and sexual paraphernalia. Viagra. He had quite a few packages of Viagra. This is just a scaled photograph of the rope, and that was described to us as being used around one of the girls' necks. After the assault, he promises to take the girls back to Quartz Hill. I could see out of the bottom of my duct tape that was on my eyes, and so I saw some of the signs. And he wasn't taking you back to the top of the hill. Mm-hmm. No. They drive 30 minutes or more in the dead of night. When they finally stop, they are allowed to remove their blindfolds. The scene is surreal. Dozens of windmills reflected in the moonlight. He would become very caring and compassionate, and then seconds later he might be holding a gun saying, I'll kill you if you don't do this. After another brutal rape, Ratliffe carefully tucks his shirt around the girls to protect them from the chilly night air. At one point, Jackie's door is left open a crack. It's a chance for her to escape, but she refuses to leave Tamara behind. I didn't know what he was going to do to Tamara. I didn't know if he would hurt her more than he already had. How do you explain that bond that had formed between you and Tamara and the fact that you felt protective of her, this total stranger in the