Father, we are gathered here for this opportunity to share
a testimony
that Terry is given the privilege to speak
what has kept her imprisoned,
and that she has the opportunity to be set free.
I do have nightmares about Russell.
They're vivid nightmares.
He's trying to choke me
and get on top of me.
We thank you, Father God, for your holy spirit
to be in this place.
TERRY: Oh, Jeff's a man of God.
Jeff gives me strength.
He...
tries to help me remember.
I ask for your anointing to fall upon this place,
to be prevalent, and to be an anointed filming
of Terry's testimony.
In Jesus' name I pray it, amen.
ALL: Amen.
Prayer, for me,
uh, relieves anxiety.
No one understands
what I feel and what I felt.
I was a prisoner.
I have mental disabilities.
I blame Russell for my mental situation.
He took away my sense of being.
He took my mind.
I just feel like I'm a nobody emotionally,
mentally.
I lost everything.
I lost my own person.
I lost me.
That's when I learned that
he is a monster.
[The Paper Chase's "What's So Amazing About Grace?" plays]
[strings continue playing sinister tune]
[static crackling]
[knock at door] [creaking]
-[banging on door] -[creaking]
[water dripping]
[banging on door] [creaking]
[sinister chord strikes]
God.
That was my life.
Pieces.
Pretending that everything was okay.
To see his face just
triggers in my mind.
You know, he did this to you. He did this to you.
You know, some people, they say,
"Why can't you just let go and let it be?"
Nobody understands why I can't.
To look at him brings back memories.
I met Russell in 1987 while I was working
at a doctor's office.
Excuse me.
TERRY: Russell came in to have a tattoo removed.
Russell would tell me how pretty I was.
He made me feel very, very special.
He made me feel like a person,
because I had a hard family growing up.
It was very volatile.
The first time I saw Russell was, oh, my God, he's the bomb.
He's nicely dressed,
hair is all, you know,
manicured and clean cut.
He asked me if I would go on a date with him.
You got any plans this weekend?
TERRY: I promptly said yes,
and I gave Russell my telephone number.
He would open doors,
send me flowers, and I just thought
he could take care of me.
I thought Russell would be my knight in shining armor.
AS TERRY: Call me.
Not knowing behind those
baby blue eyes was the enemy.
On my first date with Russell, we were walking around.
Someone behind us
grabbed my bum.
Hey!
TERRY: I told him somebody touched me.
Russell just turned around and knocked him out cold.
And he asked his partner, did he want
to be knocked out like that, too?
And the guy's like, "No, I didn't do anything wrong."
He's claimed that he loved me,
and he just did it to protect me.
I had mixed emotions about Russell and his demeanor
changing at a flip of a switch.
I was very shocked.
Part of me was scared.
That should have shown a trigger to me.
But I was so stupid.
I wasn't looking at that.
I was looking at him and his feelings for me.
I let it go,
because I still wanted him in my life.
I just thought I found my -- my mate, and it just...
just all spiraled down from there.
He enticed me to come live with him in his little home,
and that's when all the...
weird stuff started spilling out.
Yeah, everything's good.
When my family would call to talk to me,
Russell would tell them that I did not want to talk to them.
I couldn't talk to them.
Don't call here anymore.
Russell didn't want anything to do with my family.
My parents did not like Russell at all,
and he didn't like them,
because he thought that they were trying to control me.
Russell liked to have me all to himself,
just me and him.
One day, he came home and he told me
that he had a marriage license
for us to be married.
Got a marriage licence for us.
We talked about this.
TERRY: I was like, I'm not ready for marriage right now,
and he told me it had a 30-day expiration date.
I felt like he was pushing me to do it.
You want to get married or not, it's as simple as that.
You know, now or never, now or never.
Well, at that time, I found out we were gonna have a child.
Okay, well...
TERRY: I grew up in a Catholic church.
Can I see that?
I felt pressured.
You do the deed, you gotta
make a family out of it.
I did go ahead and get married,
because we were expecting.
But the only persons he invited to
our wedding was his mother and father.
My family didn't even know I was getting married,
because I wasn't allowed to talk to them.
Russell thought that I was his property.
I thought it would change Russell to have a family,
to have children.
I just wanted that love,
but that was the starting point of things just
going to hell.
My biggest regret
was to marry him.
To this day, I don't know why I didn't see the signs.
I was celebrating
our first Thanksgiving dinner as a family.
I wanted the dinner to be perfect, for me and for him.
I lit candles, and we had China, nice silver spoons,
and I asked him, how did he like it?
And Russell said, "It tastes like prison food."
All I wanted was a good meal, and you couldn't even do that!
TERRY: He really hurt my feelings.
He was being critical of how I did it.
I just felt like I didn't do it good enough for him.
I was mad then.
I first thought, well,
you don't wanna eat it?
I'll put it in the garbage.
And that's what I did.
He got in the car and left.
Later, I wondered why or how
Russell had known that it tastes like prison food.
Looking back on it now,
I could tell that he'd been in prison before,
because he distinctively knows
prison Thanksgiving food.
If I had known the truth of Russell being in jail,
I would have broken it off.
I should have left then, but I didn't.
I look back,
and I wonder...
why I didn't go.
I had the perfect chance, but I missed it.
This is a picture of my husband, Russell,
myself, and our daughter.
This is a happy picture.
I remember when, uh, I had my daughter.
Right before he left.
Told everybody, oh, it's a girl.
It's a girl.
It strikes me, uh --
he looks like a loving father.
It was just another lie.
It's like my marriage never had a chance.
Little did I know what my life was gonna spiral
down into.
[Bleep] just hit the fan.
In that picture is a hidden monster
that didn't come out yet.
I just wanted him to love me is all.
That's all I want.
That's all I wanted, was someone to love me.
[sobbing]
I'm so sorry.
Russell had a dark side,
and I never knew about it.
It's a sexual thing with Russell.
Russell liked to have sex when he wanted sex.
One night, when Russell came home,
he was getting all goosey, touchy feely.
He told me he had a little surprise for me.
I got something for you.
And I said, "Well, okay, what is that?"
And that's when he brought out the handcuffs.
No wasn't a word in his book.
He didn't care if you said no.
If I said no, he would hurt me.
It was easier to do what he wanted
than to fight back.
He took the handcuffs, put the handcuffs on my wrist,
attached it to the head post of the bed.
He was very aggressive.
I just wanted Russell off of me,
and I couldn't
get him off.
I was just laying there,
afraid of the repercussions.
I'm telling him no.
I just felt like a nothing.
I was a nobody.
I was just his...
piece of...
just a piece of meat.
When I looked into Russell's eyes,
I can tell that he was satisfied,
because he got what he wanted.
No means no.
I don't care if you're married.
Rape is rape.
When you say no or get off of me,
that means get the [bleep] off of me.
You feel dirty, you take a shower,
you scrub yourself till your skin's raw.
I'd scrub myself
till my skin bled, just to get that [bleep] [bleep]...
out of my mind.
Russell would spend all the money we had
and money we didn't have to buy drugs.
We're broke. Do you get that?
He stole very precious jewelry from me.
He pawned a diamond heart from my parents.
I was given a diamond heart, 16th birthday present.
And he just pawned it away.
Russell stole a necklace, my class ring,
my diamond ring and diamond earrings and pawned them
so he can get drugs.
I really tried hard to get him into rehabilitation.
I told him, "You need to get rehabilitated
if you're gonna come back to this family."
He's like...
"You talk too much.
"You get into my business.
Just shut up, shut up."
I said enough!
And he...
grabbed me by my throat and lifted me off the floor.
Everything went black.
The next thing I remember, I was on the floor.
When I woke up,
he was just standing there.
Repeating,
"I told you to shut your mouth. I told you to be quiet."
You don't listen.
I realized this is not gonna be a good situation.
I need to get out.
Well, I snuck out with my daughter,
and I went to my parents' house, and they told me,
"I told you so."
I was just beside myself.
Why did I let myself get into this?
And I asked God, "Why? What did I do?"
Love is not supposed to hurt.
A lot of times, Russell would leave without telling me
why or where or how long, and he'd be gone,
like, one or two days.
[phone ringing]
The police would call my home.
Russell was
arrested for doing drugs,
having prostitutes.
They gave him probation.
Russell would tell me stuff like, "No, it's not true.
They're lying to you."
When Russell got out of jail,
he, uh, gave me little trinkets and bracelets,
uh, day planners.
When Russell brought me gifts, he told me, "Here,
I found this for you."
These were used items.
They weren't brand-new gifts.
I knew they were stolen.
I knew they weren't bought from a store.
I believe Russell stole these items from women's purses.
I felt like my life is starting
to unravel more and more
each day that passes,
each lie he told.
Knowing what I know now, it's possible
that he was already raping and killing
other women.
TERRY: He was in and out of prison a lot.
That could have been my chance to leave,
but I didn't.
I couldn't afford it at the time,
and I thought he loved me.
But that was another lie to myself.
I...
just wanted to be loved.
I just wanted to be with somebody,
but I stepped into an alligator's mouth,
and he just chewed me up.
One day, Russell told me to
dress up and undress.
He took pictures of me.
[camera shutter clicking]
It's humiliating, knowing someone that you love so much
could you just do that,
treated me like a prostitute.
[camera shutter clicking]
As Russell was taking the photos,
uh, I could not see him.
I couldn't see him, but I heard the camera flash,
and he would tell me, you know,
"Oh, yeah, that's a nice pose. That's a nice pose."
He told me how beautiful I was,
that I was special.
[camera shutter clicking]
He told me to smile, so I did.
Turn around.
I felt...
dirty,
ashamed, ugly,
disgusted,
[camera shutter clicking]
but that's the way Russell's mind works.
Russell often humiliated me
with the photos.
The photos told the story.
Come on, look happy.
One day, I was at home, and I received a phone call
from Russell.
He told me that he was incarcerated.
Russell asked me to come and bail him out of jail.
I thought it was drugs or prostitution charges
and like a dummy, I went and picked him up.
I found out that he was
being charged with attempted rape
and, uh, kidnapping.
As it turned out, Russell went to work
on his, uh, welding job.
There was a girl having car troubles.
Russell stopped to help her.
He gave her a ride by coaxing her into his car.
Russell tried to rape that woman.
He didn't get that far, because two men walked up
to Russell and saved the girl from being raped and kidnapped.
I felt angry.
I felt disgusted at him.
I just wanted to get in the judge's chambers
and tell them,
just keep him so I can get away.
The judge only gave him probation,
which I found sickening to my stomach.
When we got home from picking up Russell from jail,
it was like life as usual.
Russell would often take my daughter
on a ride late at night,
and he'd be gone for a couple hours.
I stayed awake till 2 or 3 in the morning,
just waiting on him.
I had so many times to leave him,
I just don't know why I didn't.
I guess I just did not want to be alone.
By this time we were expecting our second child.
I had two kids to take care of.
I needed my children to come with me.
When my little son came into the world,
Russell and I was ecstatic.
But then he accused me of affair with my employer,
which was not true.
I know you're sleeping with him.
TERRY: I mean, I couldn't go anywhere unless he knew.
And I had to tell him who, what, where, when.
How could I possibly go do that?
I felt like a hostage.
Russell had a gun in the house,
and he made sure that I knew where it was.
Russell told me that if I ever left him,
that he will hunt us down.
I was too scared to run.
I felt like a prisoner in my own mind and body.
Russell wanted to show me that he was powerful.
Russell wanted to show me how to kill a person.
He brought out the knife.
It was a medium-sized, flat blade.
Russell said, "I want you to do
this in case something ever happens to you,"
and he put it up to my stomach.
He said, "You push the blade in
"and then lift it up
"so it'll tear the contents of your --
your heart and your chest."
-That's what he told me. -You understand?
I wondered if he had done this to somebody else.
It did make me scared, because...
if he knows how to do that, is he gonna do that on me?
One time, when Russell was in prison,
I did move
to a one-bedroom apartment with my two children.
Being away from Russell, I finally felt free.
It felt good. I could breathe.
But I knew he could find me,
and he did.
Are you running home from school?
TERRY: One day I came home,
and there was a note, a yellow piece of paper note, on my door.
It was from Russell.
He stated that I'm a no-good mother.
I'm unfit. I'm gonna turn you over to DCF.
You'll never see them kids again.
When I saw the note,
I got scared, because I knew he knew where I lived now.
-Are you all right, mom? -Yeah, um...
Go ahead.
I don't know how Russell found me,
and I could not get away from him.
And he followed me everywhere.
I couldn't escape Russell.
The memory of Russell
frightens me,
and I heard Russell calling my daughter's name.
AS RUSSELL: Jennifer.
Honey, are you there?
TERRY: It gave me more anxiety.
I was at my wits' end.
At times, I felt like committing suicide,
because I just couldn't take it anymore.
I would cut...
I'd cut my wrist.
I sliced open my leg.
Why I did it was to release the anxiety.
I might get upset, but...
I don't wanna cry.
It's not going right.
Terry, focus on me, okay?
I'm right here.
You are not doing anything wrong.
It's going fine.
I promise.
At one point, Russell started to disappear.
He was in jail, uh, for drugs and prostitution.
With Russell being behind bars,
I feel a little bit safe.
It was December.
I obtain an attorney to get a divorce from Russell.
The officer
went to the jail, served him the paperwork.
Getting a divorce from Russell was
the best Christmas present I can get.
I thought it would be done.
I thought I'd be rid of him.
I kept using my phone and my computer
to track him down,
just to make sure that he's still where he is.
But in 2012, when Russell got out of jail,
he went to my dad's house looking for me.
[phone ringing]
I received a phone call from my dad,
and he notified me that my ex-husband,
Russell, came to his house looking for me.
What did you say?
TERRY: He asked, "Well, do you know where she lives?
My dad said, "No,
you don't know what you've done to her."
And he says, "I'm sorry, can I please go see her?"
And he said no.
My dad told me that Russell was not in his right mind.
"He's out of jail, and I don't want him finding you."
I knew he'd find me. I knew it.
One day, I was outside.
My son was in the backyard,
and this car pulls up and parks.
Russell pointed at me.
Here I am.
Oh, [bleep], he found me.
I'm back.
So I immediately went to the back gate
and locked it from behind so he could not get in.
And then Russell left.
After that, looking over my shoulder was an everyday thing.
One day, I had an eye doctor appointment.
After my eye doctor appointment,
I got into the car and turned on the radio,
and they had a news flash.
The news flash was Russell Tillis has been arrested
for murder,
kidnapping, dismemberment of a body.
I wanted to see it on the news to make sure that it was true.
The second I walked in my front door, it was on.
REPORTER: The remains of 30-year-old Joni Lynn Gunter
were found in the backyard of this Jacksonville home.
The man accused of this brutal murder, Russell Tillis.
Disgusting.
What did she ever do to him?
She did nothing wrong.
She didn't deserve what Russell did to her.
I'm so sorry
my ex-husband did that to you.
[sniffles]
I heard on the news
that, um...
he was talking to another inmate,
and he stated that I, Russell Tillis,
killed that woman and held hostage
five other women.
REPORTER: Tillis paints a vivid picture
of what he did to multiple women, saying, quote,
he didn't mind if they were there locked up in the room.
REPORTER: Tillis described raping multiple women over
and over and allowed friends to rape the women, as well.
I was watching the news constantly
just to make sure that he was,
yes, still in jail.
He didn't escape.
I watched the news, you know, 24-7,
three different channels.
The more I watched, the more I learned of what happened.
It was just craziness,
and his trial went on for years and years.
And those years and years I wasted, wasting my mind on him,
not being connected with my family,
my husband,
my children.
The authorities call the house a house of horrors.
And, you know, to me,
that was scary.
There's more than one Joni out there.
Me and those other girls,
we were just sex toys of Russell.
Is that not disgusting or what?
That's what I married.
REPORTER: Russell Tillis, sentenced to spend the rest
of his life in prison without parole.
When Russell was found guilty,
I felt...
release.
[voice breaking] I can't look at him.
Why did he do this to me?
I don't understand it.
I did nothing wrong.
[sniffles]
Why, Russell? Why?
You just hurt me so bad.
He just looks like an old man
that wouldn't hurt anybody.
Looks like a monster to me.
I'm hoping that Russell Tillis
never gets releases.
May he die in jail
for the sin, the horrific sin,
not just on one person,
not just on one female.
I don't know why Russell spared my life.
I just got lucky, I guess.
I do not know how many victims Russell had
and what he did to them.
With Russell being behind bars,
I feel a little bit safe,
but there's always something in the back of my mind.
He's gonna get out,
because he always did before.
I would feel better if Russell was dead.
Yes, I would.
I want to finally get some sleep.
I wished
that we had a family,
a normal family,
but it wasn't to be.
I had plenty of chances to leave.
But I just...
I felt sorry for the guy.
He played on my mind and my heart.
How many women are still out there,
fighting the way I'm fighting?
You put the blame on yourself.
I put the blame on myself,
for letting myself get entwined with this person.
It'll be with me for the rest of my life.
I want people to know
that there is a way out.
I got set free.
I prayed for strength
before I did this program.
JEFF: We thank you, Father God, that
her story will touch another soul.
Just give them hope that they can escape
the prison in which they feel that they are trapped in.
It's about saving souls.
It's about setting souls free.
TERRY: We prayed for it to be a release.
We prayed for it to be a strength within me
and how it would affect the rest of my life.
And Jeff is that for me.
He has totally, totally
twirled my mind around for the better.
Jeff and God are both my source of strength,
especially God.
When you give Him your weakness,
He'll reveal your strength.
I'm a victor, I'm no more a victim.
And that's what I want people to know.
You can be a victor.