To Hell and Back

**Peter Van Sant** (0:00)
Thank you for subscribing to 48 Hours Plus. Enjoy this episode of 48 Hours on Interrupted.

**Jacque Marris** (0:13)
MUSIC Yeah, there's no way.
There's no way I 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?

**Peter Van Sant** (0:23)
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, terrorized during a summer of fear.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:40)
The latest highly publicized child kidnapping in California this year.

**Jacque Marris** (0:44)
We're pleading for our lives. Please don't kill me.
Please don't shoot.

**Peter Van Sant** (0:51)
Peter Van Sant has their personal story.

**Peter Van Sant** (0:55)
Do you realize today just how close to death you were?

**Peter Van Sant** (0:58)
Split-second decisions, facing the fear, daring to fight back.

**Peter Van Sant** (1:03)
Because your intent at that moment is to do what?

**Jacque Marris** (1:07)
To kill him.

**Peter Van Sant** (1:08)
Time was running out.

**Carl Sparks** (1:10)
He was huntin for a place to kill them and bury them.

**Larry Thatcher** (1:13)
This is the real deal. We have to take action.

**Peter Van Sant** (1:16)
48 Hours investigates.

**Jacque Marris** (1:18)
If you don't open the door by three, I'm gonna kill both of you right now. One, two.

**Peter Van Sant** (1:23)
To hell and back.

**SPEAKER_7** (1:28)
I've been kissed by the sun each morning. Just soaking up the day.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:36)
We do have breaking news to tell you about the two girls who were kidnapped this morning at gunpoint, had been found safe.

**SPEAKER_7** (1:43)
This world is a beautiful place.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:47)
This case is the latest highly publicized child to kidnapping in California this year.

**Tamara Brooks** (1:51)
I have been blessed. Thank you.

**Peter Van Sant** (1:59)
It's a welcome home party unlike any other. Just days earlier, Tamara Brooks and Jacque Marris spent a night in hell, kidnapped, abused, terrorized, but they somehow made it back.

**Jacque Marris** (2:15)
I was alive. I had my life back.
And the bad guy was dead.

**Carl Sparks** (2:21)
We'll never have to deal with this suspect again.

**Peter Van Sant** (2:26)
The girls triumph, says Sheriff Carl Sparks, gives every mother and father something to hold on to.

**Carl Sparks** (2:33)
It gave them some hope that just because somebody takes one of their children, it doesn't have to be four days later in the grave.

**Peter Van Sant** (2:52)
Do you realize today just how close to death you were?

**Jacque Marris** (2:57)
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.

**Peter Van Sant** (3:17)
Jacque's incredible story of survival begins here, on Quartz Hill, a popular hangout overlooking the city of Palmdale, California. It's after midnight, and Jacque is nearing her curfew, enjoying the view with Frank Malera.

**Frank Malera** (3:35)
It's fun, you know. It's something different to do, you know. It keeps you out of trouble, I guess you could say.

**Peter Van Sant** (3:40)
Or you thought.

**Frank Malera** (3:41)
So I thought, yeah.

**Peter Van Sant** (3:43)
At Quartz Hill, they talk, listen to music. Then, out of nowhere, Frank feels cold metal against his head.

**Frank Malera** (3:53)
Okay, this is serious, you know. Something in my head. He has a gun. He has a gun.
A gun gets your attention pretty fast.

**Peter Van Sant** (4:01)
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 Jacque to put their heads down.
They smell alcohol on his breath and hear duct tape unwinding.

**Frank Malera** (4:19)
One second, he was calm, and then out of nowhere, he just starts getting mad.

**Peter Van Sant** (4:23)
Freaking out.

**Frank Malera** (4:23)
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.

**Peter Van Sant** (4:43)
Ratliff starts wrapping up Jacque, but the tape runs out. Blindfolded and hobbled, she's led to a Bronco park nearby.