SIOUX FALLS, SD (Dakota News Now) – On a summer morning, Shaina Fertig, then Streyle, and her brother Nathan played in her baby blue tent under a watchful eye. of their Mother, Piper Streyle. Everything changed in a heartbeat when the killer arrived at their door.
“Actually, I remember my mother’s abduction. It’s a horrible memory that I remember,” said Fertig.
Through therapy, she was encouraged to write a trauma-handling report.
“Sometimes I wrote it very angry. And sometimes I wrote it as if it was a strange thing. Ignoring the pain, like I was literally just writing it and I hadn’t been through anything,” Fertig said.
The newspaper began to write the story of his life in “A Call to Remember, the Girl Who Will Not Testify and the Woman Who Will Testify.
“I felt called, and I felt like I had words. And it was a healing process for me to write it,” said Fertig.
Retired DCI Agent Jim Severson remembers finding young Shaina and her brother alone. The prosecutor, now retired Judge Larry Long, remembers the ordeal. They both ordered his book.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t think about this case, one way or another,” Severson said.
During the interview, he looks at a picture of 26-year-old Piper Streyle in front of him. Severson said: “The picture is still staring at me.”
And the thoughts are heavy for him, when he pauses to find stability.
“You just have to put up with me,” Severson said. “I got down on one knee, and he came over, introduced himself, and sat on my knee. And I think he was he felt safe, which made me feel better.”
Shaina told him what she saw. He also tells us in his book that when he was four years old, he was called to the witness stand, quietly hiding under a blue blanket. Although he had no evidence, the murderer was convicted and eventually hanged in prison. The years went on.
“Rejection, which is the subject of my childhood. I had an amazing childhood, but of course, the trauma was there inside,” said Fertig.
His past life continued into the present. In her school assignment to “google herself,” she found what she believed the world thought of her: a little girl who refused to testify in the trial against the man who killed her mother. That was part of the growing pressure over the years.
“And that’s my breaking point. That’s when I start having anxiety attacks. I’m starting to feel very stressed,” said Fertig.
“China feels guilty. I mean, that hurts me,” Severson said.
“It’s okay. That hurts me too,” said Long.
But the men considered him a hero.
“The information he gave us was invaluable,” Severson said.
“And we continued based on what he said. The investigation went that way. ”
“I did not appreciate until this conversation today the level of responsibility that he must have carried for a long time,” said Long.
On Thursday, Shaina tells us how the overwhelming feeling of guilt, grief and trauma she experienced became a turning point in finding help and healing. He also tells us about his mother and the rest of his family.
Fertig’s book is published by Westbow Publishing, where you can purchase the book from their website. Available anywhere books are sold online and in print.
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