Throughout history many storytellers have declared their works as being "Based on a true story" when in fact, we later learn there was never a word of truth and that it was just a clever marketing ploy.

That is NOT the case here.

Sometimes life can be more strange than fiction, no matter how unbelievable the following may seem, THE EVENTS HEREIN ARE ACTUAL.

On May 9, 1988 the tragic assault on a young girl named Tara Henderson in Long Island, Shirley NY, starts for her the most frightening of all rides; the roller-coaster ride of reality.



"Free Of Fear"

Her heart beats faster as she approaches the school. Instead of actually going into the building to attend classes, Tara meets Jeff at the field by the bleachers as planned. She arrives a bit early and after waiting a few minutes, Jeff eventually appears. His demeanor is soft spoken and quiet, the same as usual, nothing different in his personality. With little to no conversation they walk about thirty minutes to Jeff's house. Tara comes from a strict family and skipping school is not something that is to be taken lightly. In fact, this is her first time cutting classes and all she can do is think about how much trouble she'll be in if she gets caught.

The walk makes her thirsty so Tara asks for some water after arriving at Jeff's house. They exchange few words while casually walking to his room. As they enter she notices on the dresser, some knives and a military jacket hanging on a chair. Tara shows an interest because she's in the NJROTC program. (Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps)

Her father served in the Army and her grandfather in the Navy so following in their footsteps is her biggest aspiration. She wants nothing more than for her family to be as proud of her, as she is of her father and grandfather for their contributions. Tara tries making conversation by asking questions regarding the jacket, she mentions she too has a similar one but Jeff appearing to have absolutely no interest in conversation, quickly dismisses everything in a non caring manner by telling her it all belongs to his brother.

Making her way to the night stand, Tara sets the glass of water down and sits on the edge of the bed. Without any provocation Jeff suddenly lunges toward her and holds her down. Growing up with two younger brothers makes this behavior seem almost normal at first. It reminds her of when she used to wrestle with her brothers when they were all a bit younger. That all changes when Jeff starts getting rough, more rough than she could ever remember her brothers getting.

While slapping her, Jeff holds Tara down by her hair and sometimes by her throat. She fights off her attacker the best she can considering the size difference between them, Tara's a petite fifteen year old girl and Jeff is a stout sixteen year old boy gone mad. While holding Tara down and tearing at her clothes, he manages to break open the button on her pants and slide them down. She now realizes the person she thought she could trust, her classmate, her friend, was no longer the same person, he had changed before her eyes and was now raping her. She struggles and fights back to no avail as the attack goes on for about fifteen minutes but seems to last about fifteen hours.

Immediately following, Jeff demands that Tara get dressed.

Tara being so terrified obeys his command and makes herself look as she did. Aggressively grabbing her he says, "I want to take you somewhere and you'd better not scream or you'll definitely regret it." Holding her tight by the wrist as they walk quickly, he pulls and almost drags her along like a parent angry with their child.

Shaken up by the incident, Tara never wanted to be home more than at this moment, she just wants to go home, she wants to scream but can't, she wants this to all end but it won't.

Feeling dirty while a numbness takes over her body, Tara continues to be led to a place unknown.

They end up at a blocked off section of the Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge.

"You go in front of me." Jeff tells her and continues to explain, "I want to show you something."

Doing as she's told Tara walks in front of Jeff as they go deeper into the woods.

From behind Jeff covers Tara's eyes and quickly pulls the blade of his knife across her throat. All Tara can see is the silhouette of a cold sweaty hand covering her eyes. Before ever realizing that her throat is slit, what feels like she's being punched in the back turns out to be a seven inch blade repeatedly penetrating just about every organ; except for Tara's heart. Jeff continues his assault and stabs her two more times severing nerves in the top of her right leg and buttock, this paralyzes Tara rendering her unable to walk and barely able to stand.

It's all happening so quickly as Tara turns and yells, "Why are you doing this to me? Why are you doing this...?" The blade cuts into her fingers as she instinctively raises her hands to deflect the knife. Like a scene from a horror movie only this is no movie, and this is no ordinary day in the woods either. Within seconds Jeff somehow grabs a log and bludgeons her to the ground. It was then that Tara knew she had to do something to save herself, she has to try something, anything.

Playing dead is her only option. When falling to the ground, Tara turns her face into the dirt to hide her eyes as she lays completely still. She hopes that if Jeff believes her to be dead he would go on his way, and he did just that. But not before checking for a pulse, she's lost so much blood that although she still has a faint pulse, he's unable to find one and actually believes her to be dead.

The resourceful young girl lays there bleeding to death with her face buried in the dirt for approximately ten more minutes. Not sure if he's watching or well on his way, she continues her charade until the moment she feels that she's waited long enough.

Tara's barely able to move as she lifts her face up from the dirt and slowly feels her neck. She feels what reminds her of a wet, jelly-like texture.

Grabbing onto the tree she attempts to pull herself up. Not realizing that her right leg is paralyzed and she no longer has any feeling in it, Tara tries to stand which breaks her ankle as she falls back down to the ground.

Still of conscious mind, Tara knows she has to find help; that somehow she must get to a hospital. Her left lung is collapsed but she tries to scream anyway. As blood flows from the open wound in her neck, a low muffled cry for help is all that can be heard. Laying there helpless as thoughts of her family start to enter her mind. Instead of thinking about herself she begins thinking about how her mother is going to feel, and hopes she's found so at least she can have a proper burial. She wants to live and hopes to live but knows she's facing the real possibility that this might be it, that this might really be the end. Images of herself as the missing girl on the side of the milk carton consume her mind. Tara cares very much about what her mom thinks, and the thought of disappointing her mother hurts Tara perhaps more than the pain of what she had just endured. She loves both parents, but because her father works quite often to provide for the family and isn't home as much, naturally she's a bit closer with her mother.

As she comes in and out of consciousness Tara prays to live, she prays that someone will find her, anyone. Traumatized and totally exhausted her body begins to shut down.

Although it's May and very unusual for this time of year, she can feel a light hail falling as she drifts off to sleep, the most peaceful sleep. Feeling as though she's beginning to leave her body and never once giving up, or giving in, just accepting death's arrival and no longer being afraid.

Stabbed about twelve to fourteen times, Tara lays bleeding, helpless and exposed to the elements for the next twenty-five and a half hours.

About twelve-fifteen the next afternoon, a planner for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is releasing a Canada gosling that had strayed from its mother. In the distance he hears a low, barely audible call for help. Tara is woken by the park service, she manages to muster up enough strength to be heard which leads to her being found.

Once in the ambulance they clear traffic with much urgency and rush her to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital. The intravenous fills her veins as tubes are slid into her nose that extend down into her stomach, doctors and nurses are swarming all around her and eventually Tara's sedated and brought into surgery. After many hours, the surgery is a success. Tara's eyes eventually open to see her mother by her side, someone she thought she'd never get the chance to see again. While in her mothers arms, tears fill Tara's eyes as she apologizes for cutting school, she cries hard because she feels that she had in fact let her mother down, but also because she knows she's finally safe.

Tara notices in the days following that there's no mirrors in her bathroom or anywhere in her room. They removed all the mirrors to keep her from seeing what had been done to her throat. Tara tries to use the shiny reflection on the reverse side of the balloons to see herself but doesn't have much luck. Requiring a tube for breathing and being hooked up to many machines, she spends the next month in the hospital recovering. Two of those weeks are spent in intensive care where only her mother can visit. During this time she's unable to give an official statement to the police allowing the press to run wild with lies from Jeff's attorneys. The press of course paints a picture as though Tara is the aggressor.

On a stop sign a cartoon image is drawn of a naked girl being chased by a guy with a knife, It becomes a story that kids in the neighborhood would mock. Tara knows that sometimes kids can be cruel but she's still hurt by this.

Tara's mother learns how to clean and dress her wounds enabling her to leave the hospital and go home early. A year after the attack Tara becomes friendly with Joe, the boy next door. His friendship helps greatly with her recovery and from that friendship, on March 28, 1989 a relationship develops and seems to be exactly what she needs. Throughout the next couple years of recovery, Tara's bond with her mother gets even stronger as she deals with some side affects from the attack. She becomes withdrawn and loses trust in all except her own family. During the night she talks in her sleep and in the day Tara becomes very jumpy, a simple kitchen knife will bring back the memories that continue to haunt her.

One morning in '91, Tara goes into her mothers room and is horrified by what she sees. Her eyes are rolling back as her mom chokes and shakes uncontrollably on the bed. Trying to do whatever she can to help, in a panic Tara turns her mother on her side, she inserts her fingers into her mother's mouth to clear her airway. Tara shouts out to her brother Sean to call the ambulance which takes their mother to Stonybrook Hospital. After waiting patiently for test results, Tara and her family are given the worst news imaginable; they're told she has only two weeks to live. Tara's mother is diagnosed with a form of cancer called melanoma.

For the first couple of days after her mothers diagnosis, Tara's still able to speak to her mom before she slips off into a coma-type sleep. It's not an actual coma but such a deep sleep that she seldom comes out. While holding her mother's hand so tight, hoping to never let it go, Tara assures her mother that she's there for her.

It becomes very much a role reversal in the days to come, Tara has to now help out at home with caring for her three younger siblings, Erin, Todd, and Sean.

One morning Tara wakes up and goes to see her mom in the hospital as she's done for almost two weeks now. Her mother's somewhat conscious and barely awake when she arrives. Tara immediately gives her mother a hug and slides in next to her on the bed. As Tara holds her mother close, she can feel her body slowly becoming heavier and heavier. Her mother drifts away while lying in her daughters arms. She seems to not only have waited for someone to be there by her side, but she also seems to have waited for Tara to be past the initial and most difficult part of her recovery, on this morning their hug hello is actually their hug goodbye.

The doctor mentions that if her mother had said something sooner, that they might have been able to do something for her condition. Tara can only speculate as to the reason why she didn't say anything. Maybe her mother was completely selfless and put her daughter before herself, maybe she felt the tragic news might hinder her daughters recovery so she kept her pain hidden. This torments Tara for the days, months and years to come.

Great emotional agony follows her mother's passing along with great anger. Tara now blames God for taking her mother instead of her. She's plagued with so many questions. "Why did I live and my mother have to die? Why did I live to experience an even greater pain?  Even worse than the physical pain of the attack! Why...?" It's at this point that Tara loses her faith and abandons all beliefs regarding God and religion, when her mother died an atheist was born.

Extreme depression sets in as Tara now deals with the loss of the person she felt closest to. She now hates holidays, stays curled up in her bed for endless hours pondering what happened to her and to her mother, there's no longer anyone there for her to talk to; and later in the month she has her own high school graduation to attend. Without her mother there she has absolutely no interest in going at all.

It's the love and support from Joe that encourages Tara to attend her own graduation.

He helped her see that not all men are bad and that what happened to her was due to the actions of one troubled boy, and now he's helping her cope with the tragic loss of her mother.

Shortly after her moms passing, tragedy strikes yet again. It's about one year later and Tara becomes pregnant, she's told that her body isn't strong enough yet to carry full term, that if she did attempt to have this baby; it's possible that they both might die. The trauma that her body went through has the expected healing time of a few years at least, some more some less, depending on the individual. This news makes Tara think again and reconfirm what she had already established and that is that there is no God. "How can this be a good idea? First a violent attack, then the loss of my mother, and now I'm forced to deal with having an abortion; and I'm not even given any options. Great plan, no good God would justify such pain and suffering."

The guilt that follows makes Tara feel as though she's responsible for taking a life when in fact she followed the advice of her doctors. Joe is of course the unyielding support that helps Tara come to terms with the twisted hand that's been dealt to her yet again.

Time elapses and a few years go by, finally some happiness arrives. In '95 Tara becomes pregnant and gives birth to her daughter Nicole, then again in '98 with her son Joey.

As her children grow up Tara never forgets what she went through as a young girl. She maintains a line of communication with both kids unlike what she had in her family when she was young. There was plenty of love in her family, but clearly there was also a lack of communication, which she feels led to her looking for acceptance and wanting to skip school in the first place.

Tara knows what it's like being a victim and she refuses to let her kids become the same.

To teach them self defense Tara enrolls both Nicole and Joey in martial arts classes. What she feels while watching her kids embrace martial arts is so inspiring to her, she's so proud of her kids and she knows that neither of them will ever be victimized. Curious, inspired, and of course never wanting to feel vulnerable again, Tara decides to also sign up for some classes. After just a short time she feels so empowered, martial arts turns out to be exactly what she's looking for. Tara gains from martial arts the strength in both mind and body, that therapists and their so called therapy could never provide; Tara for the first time is totally free of fear. Surrounding herself with positive people proves to be contagious for Tara, this is the happiest she's been in a long time and she went from being a victim to becoming the victor.

After fifteen years of silence and smooth sailing, figuratively speaking there's been no waves, not even a ripple. On a girls day out in '07. Tara takes her daughter Nicole to get their nails done together. Not far from the house a car speeds through a red light and slams into the left side passenger door. Glass explodes as Nicole lets out a shrieking scream! They're struck with such force that their vehicle rolls six times and eventually lands upside down when it finally stops. Naturally shaken up, Tara's main concern is for Nicole who's upside down and still fastened in her seat belt. The ambulance arrives and takes them to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital. They determine that from turning her head during the accident to check on Nicole, Tara suffered a minor neck sprain. They were going to get their nails done and ironically, all Nicole suffers in the accident is a broken nail, It seems Tara's resilience is inherited by her children.

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Beginning of blocked off section

Down the path just beyond the blocked off section

The tree in the foreground on the right is where Tara laid for 25 plus hours.