In a harrowing tale of survival, a 25-year-old woman was forced to physically hold her own head in place after a vicious assailant slit her throat and shot her in the head. Jennifer Morey's nightmare began in 1995 when an intruder broke into her apartment in Texas, USA.
A Night of Terror
After going to bed, Morey awoke to find a man on top of her, his body weight pinning her down. She immediately felt a knife against her throat. "I reach my hands up, and I feel this knife that’s being held against my throat," she later recounted. "And it was the clearest thought that went through my brain and woke me up: 'Oh, I’m being raped.'"
She fought back with every ounce of strength, screaming and kicking. In retaliation, her attacker stabbed her in the right side of her face. She described a sudden "explosion of blood, like a hot waterfall." The worst was yet to come. "I didn’t think of what the next step could be, not until my throat was slit," Morey shared, believing she would die in that moment.
The Fight for Survival
Despite her horrific injuries, Morey managed to escape to her bathroom. She barricaded the door and used toilet paper to try and stem the bleeding from her neck. Realising she could not simply wait, she forced the wedged door open to find a phone. The attacker, Bryan Wayne Gibson, had cut the power to her apartment, disabling the lights and landline.
Fortunately, Morey possessed a mobile phone—a rarity in 1995—which proved to be her lifeline. She dialled 911 and was connected to dispatcher Richard Everett. While on the call, she heard a knock at her apartment door. Thinking it was help, she moved to answer, but Everett urgently instructed her not to open it. His advice was crucial; it was Gibson on the other side, attempting to regain entry.
Justice and a New Life
Police later that night arrested Gibson, a 26-year-old security guard who worked for Pinkerton Security at Morey's apartment complex. An investigation revealed a disturbing pattern. Gibson had a history of complaints, leading Pinkerton to repeatedly reassign him rather than dismiss him. Reports indicated that between 1991 and 1995, 130 Pinkerton guards were convicted of felonies in Texas alone.
In 1998, Morey filed a lawsuit against Pinkerton Security and received a substantial, though undisclosed, financial award. That same year, she used her resilience to open her own practice, becoming a highly accomplished family law attorney in the Fort Worth area.
Morey remains eternally grateful to Richard Everett, the 911 dispatcher. "Having instinct, intuition and a big heart, [Richard] saved my life," she said. He later attended her wedding. Bryan Wayne Gibson was released from prison in 2015 and is now a registered sex offender, believed to be living in Texas.
