CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Emmy-nominated HBO documentary "Private Violence" follows Deanna Walters as she emerges from a living hell.
Walters was involved in an abusive relationship for eight years.
It finally ended in 2008 with a beating that lasted six days and nearly killed her.
“If God hadn't been there, I don't think I would have made it through it,” Walters said.
She said the relationship started out well when the two first met in Jefferson, North Carolina, until a few weeks in - when the beatings began.
“He would cry and say that he would never do it again, so I guess I wanted to believe him - and so I stayed,” Walters said. “I was just 18 years old.”
She said he isolated her from friends and family.
The abuse was mental, physical and sexual. She kept it all a secret.
Walters said he even forced her to get married. A year later, their daughter, Martina, was born.
Finally, Walters found the courage to leave for good.
On Halloween 2008, Walters agreed to meet her estranged husband to take their daughter trick or treating.
Instead, he kidnapped the two of them and took them on a trip across the country in his tractor-trailer that he used for work.
Walter said he repeatedly accused her of cheating on him, and he was enraged.
For six days, as his cousin drove the tractor trailer, Walters was nearly beaten to death in the back and 2-year-old Martina saw it all.
At one point, Walters said that her ex-husband bludgeoned her with a heavy-duty flashlight and urinated in her face.
“He would slap me, hit me and pull my hair and choke me, and Martina was sitting there watching,” Walters said. “She would ask him why he was hitting me and he would tell her it was OK. He said, 'It is OK because mommy doesn’t love you and mommy doesn’t love me.'”
Back at home, concerned family members called for help and police finally pulled the truck over.
An officer who responded to the scene said that in his 15 years in law enforcement, he had never seen anyone with injuries as serious as those sustained by Walters.
Although Walters’ case is extreme, it’s a fact that domestic violence is much more common than most people realize.
There is no typical victim or abuser. Police told Channel 9 that they respond to calls in all types of neighborhoods, in all types of families.
“I tell everybody that you don’t know what the world looks like behind closed doors,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said.
Putney has been affected personally by domestic violence as well. He prefers to keep the details private, but it's the reason he wears a purple bracelet.
“You're a grizzled veteran and you think you've seen everything and then it touches home. It really made me recommit myself to doing everything to prevent anyone else from having that experience,” Putney said.
Putney said for all domestic violence victims it is critical that they keep records.
- CLICK PLAY: CMPD Chief Kerr Putney explains how to strengtehn their case
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“Take notes and take pictures of injuries sustained,” Putney said. “Unfortunately, you have to approach it as if you are building a case that will be tried in a court of law.”
That evidence can be critical to get a 50B, or protective order.
Counselors like Jacquie Shields can help victims navigate that road secretly, before there is a crisis, to identify the best steps to safety.
“We want it to be individualized to the needs of that client because they know the perpetrator better than anybody else,” Shields said. “And with the help of a DV specialist we can implement a plan.”
- CLICK PLAY: Jacquie Shields talks about the cycle of violence
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It’s a process that Walters now wishes she’d followed.
With her abuser serving more than 20 years in prison, she spends time sharing her story with domestic violence victims and male batterers.
She admits that she should have talked to her domestic violence advocate the first time that she called.
Walters said that before the brutal crime a concerned co-worker had anonymously asked a domestic violence advocate to contact Walters.
Walters said that the advocate called her at least three times, but she refused to talk to her.
<strong>"I feel like if I had just talked to her and told her what was happening to me - how my life was - I know that she would have and could have helped me," Walters said. "Women just need to know that people are out there and that they are willing to help, but you have to speak up. There is definitely hope."</strong>
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