Fetal Abduction Survivor: Teka Adams

One of the most intriguing cases I've covered is that of Teka Adams, a survivor of an attempted fetal abduction. Teka Adams was coaxed into an apartment under the false pretense of being able to pick out baby items for her unborn child. In the days following, she was held against her will, stabbed, and underwent a botched attempt to remove her baby from her womb.

The Profile of a Fetal Abductor

"Fetal abduction is usually perpetrated by a woman after organized planning. The abductor may befriend the pregnant victim. The abductor is so determined to impersonate a pregnant and puerperal mother that she may use weight gain and a prosthesis to fake a pregnancy and cut herself internally to make it look as if she has given birth. She may take the neonate to a hospital. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s spokesperson, Cathy Nahirny, stated in 2007, “Many times the abductor fakes a pregnancy and when it is time to deliver the baby, must abduct someone else's child”. Criminal motives include delusions of fulfilling a partner relationship, child-bearing and childbirth..."

— Source: Fetal Abduction Wikipedia

In Washington DC in 2009, a woman named Teka Adams lived on the streets.

She described herself as very rebellious, saying she created her own rules and didn’t want to live by anyone else's.

She decided she needed to try and turn her life around and moved into a shelter. She ended up meeting a man named PJ, falls in love, and gets married. This story starts when Teka is seven and a half months pregnant with their first baby.

Teka starts getting phone calls from an unknown number. She picks up the phone and a woman name Stephanie introduces herself. She informs Teka that she works for a company that assists homeless women who are pregnant. Her company provides baby clothing, baby supplies, etc. to women who are in need of items and cannot purchase them on their own. She tells Teka that they have a warehouse that is full of baby gear and Teka can come to the warehouse and choose items for her soon-to-be baby.

Teka is beyond excited because this is a break she could use. She had worried about how to properly provide for her baby and this seems like a golden ticket. She tells her husband, PJ, and he’s immediately nervous and feels off about it. But she’s super excited and thrilled and tells him not to be so distrustful.

She mets up with Stephanie and gets inside her car. It's unknown why exactly things went down like this, and why Teka didn't think it was odd, or perhaps she did. Stephanie starts driving towards the warehouse and asks Teka all about her life. Teka explains how she lived out on the street but wanted to turn her life around and tells her the story of meeting PJ and becoming pregnant. Teka gushes about how excited she is to be a mother and that she finally feels as if her life really is going right for the first time in a very, very long time.

Somehow, while driving to the warehouse, the women end up at Stephanie’s apartment...

Stephanie leads Teka into her apartment and into a bedroom with no furniture in it, sits her down and puts a movie on the television.

Immediately, Teka is like...what the actual hell is going on. However, she needs the baby gear and she just assumes this woman is a little weird and she's going to have to deal with it and then she will be on her way.

PJ ends up calling Teka while she’s sitting there and asks where she is and how things are going. Teka told PJ not to worry and that all was fine. She later said that she told PJ this because she had no idea where she was, so how would she even go about explaining things to him? His nervousness kind of rubs off on her and she starts to have doubts.

The two women finish watching the movie, yes they sat there and watched an entire movie...and Stephanie puts on a second movie.

All of a sudden, a blanket is thrown over Teka and she starts being punched multiple times in a row. Teka stands up and puts her hands and arms up to defend herself and all she sees is blood everywhere.

She runs. It's all she can think to do. She realizes she has to get out of the situation. She makes it to the door but there’s three locks on it. A chain, a bolt, and a door handle lock. She can’t get all of them open before Stephanie reaches her and overpowers here. Teka and Stephanie start wrestling and Teka is trying her damndest to fight her off of her at 7 ½ months pregnant.

Teka has head wounds and can’t see from blood in her eyes. Stephanie picks up a poker, from a fireplace, and hits Teka around roughly 40 times with the blunt object. Teka passes out at some point during the duration of the attack. When she comes to, she realizes she's being dragged down the hallway and towards the kitchen by her ankles. She can hear Stephanie opening drawers and doing something, maybe looking for something. Teka says that Stephanie kneeled down next to her and all of a sudden there was a very sharp pain in her side and she sees that Stephanie is holding a box cutter. Teka now has a head wound and a torso wound and there’s just blood everywhere.

Stephanie goes back to what she was doing, digging around in the kitchen, and Teka hears her start to pray.

"Lord Forgive Me. I’ve Sinned. Forgive Me."

-Teka's Attacker

Teka tenses up and can't move. She’s lost a bunch of blood, she has no energy. Stephanie starts cleaning the blood up, kneels down and asks her to get up. Teka says she doesn’t think she can so Stephanie picks her up and puts her back into a room with a mattress on the floor.

Stephanie takes Teka's cell phone away and Teka starts trying to figure out what she can say and how she can talk to her to make her let her go and get out of there alive. The bleeding stops, it still isn't known how or why it stops, it may have just slowed enough for Teka to not notice it...or she was so out of it that she didn't realize she was actually still bleeding.

Teka starts trying to remember the conversation they were having on the ride. She tells Stephanie that she won’t tell anyone about what happened if she let her go. She knows Stephanie has a family and kids, something she found out during the ride, so Teka says she doesn’t believe in breaking up families, so she won’t say a word.

"Please...just let me go!"

-Teka Adams to her Attacker

Stephanie starts pacing around the apartment and Teka knows that talking is helping her situation because she’s kind of planting these little seeds inside Stephanie’s head.

Three nights pass.

Three nights of the same things over and over again.

Teka knows that there is no way that Stephanie is going to just let her go. Teka knows what she looks like and she knows where her home is, so there’s no way she's getting out of the apartment, not with Stephanie willingly letting her go. The longer time that passes, the more she knows it’s less likely she is going to get away.

Teka said later the first night she was held in the apartment, Stephanie played movies on repeat all night. Teka refused to sleep, she just stayed awake and watched Stephanie not knowing what was going to happen.

On the third night, Stephanie enters the room where Teka lays on the mattress. Teka later recalls that Stephanie carried with her a metal bowl full of ice that had a rag in it. She had a rag drapped over her shoulder, six towels, two box cutters, and a knife.

Teka immediately knows something very, very bad is about to happen.

Stephanie wraps Teka’s head in duct tape and Teka can no longer see anything that's about to happen, or know what Stephanie's next move is.

(This next part should probably have a disclaimer—it gets a bit graphic, continue on at your own risk...)

Stephanie starts to cut. She starts slicing Teka open around her pelvic area, using her knives and boxcutting tools. After a few minutes of trying, she can't seem to cut deep enough into Teka’s skin with her tools...

...so she starts physically picking at Teka's skin with her fingers. Tearing through Teka's muscle using only her fingers.

I think this next piece of information is a bit of a strange detail, and one I want to make sure to share. Michael Jackson’s, This is It, is playing in the background and Teka is feeling every single tear, rip, and stab. If the movie gets past one of the performance parts, Stephanie rewinds it back to the performance and then continues on with the assault.

Teka ends up passing out from the pain and the blood loss.

When she wakes up, Teka is on the bed and Stephanie is laying in front of the door to the bedroom curled up in a fetal position, sleeping. Teka tries to roll over on the bed and the metal bowl that is sitting on the bed with her clanks against her wedding ring on her finger. She immediately knows she blew it. She freezes...

But Stephanie is sleeping, no pun intended, like a baby.

Teka knows if she can just stand up and get past the initial shock, she can get out of that place, her version of hell.

Teka said later that she prayed, asking God to "please just give me the strength," and by some miracle, Teka is able to stand up.

She steps over Stephanie, her blood dripping onto Stephanie's skin, but she still doesn’t wake up. She makes it over her and out the door and starts making her way towards the entrance of the apartment.

Teka is struggling to make it up the hallway. As she’s walking, her insides fall out of her torso.

(I warned you things were going to get very graphic, but honestly, Teka Adams had to live through this and I think the least we can do as humans is to share her story).

She finally makes it to the front door and unlocks all three locks. She unhooks the chain, slides over the deadbolt, and turns the handle lock. Teka makes it out of the apartment and down the stairs. She tries to knock on other people’s doors, no one answers. She starts to panic, fear rising in her chest.

At the bottom of the stairs, she passes out.

Enter Stephanie. (Ugh. I know...)

Stephanie tries to pull her back up the stairs but Teka wakes back up, starts screaming bloody murder, and bites Stephanie. Finally, a man peeks his head out of his apartment door and asks what the hell is going on. Stephanie puts back on her I work for a company that supplies homeless woman and their babies supplies face and tells the man that her friend is delusional and she is trying to get her some help and she’s fighting against her. Stephanie keeps talking over Teka but finally, Teka looks the man dead in the eyes and says...

"Please help me, she’s trying to kill me. "

-Teka Adams

Teka is wearing a dark blue shirt and she realizes the man can’t see all the blood (and the literal guts) pouring out of her, so she lifts her shirt up and the man screams. He yells he’s calling the police and runs back into his apartment.

Stephanie then looks at Teka and runs away.

EMT’s make it to the apartment and ask Teka if she’s hurt, and Teka is just like...yes, obviously.

"I have been beaten, and I’m cut open, and I need help."

-Teka Adams

She pulls up her shirt and the EMT looked like he was going to be sick.

Teka is rushed into surgery and when she wakes up PJ is at her bedside. She asks if her baby is alive, knowing she doesn't want to even know the answer...

But right at that moment, a nurse walks in and tells her that she gave birth to a beautiful little baby girl; 8 pounds, 2 ounces.

The baby had balled herself up at the top of Teka’s womb, the very very top. Perhaps because the baby sensed the trauma? Or maybe it was just luck? Either way. Teka's beautiful baby lived.

Teka and PJ named their baby Miracle, and they both survived despite all odds.

Now, let’s talk about "Stephanie."

Her name isn’t Stephanie, shocker. Her name is Veronica. She actually ended up calling the police on herself. A trial is held and Veronica pleads guilty. In November of 2010, Veronica was sentenced to 25 years in prison on a plea bargain for first-degree assault.

On January 4th, 2010, Teka Adams, at 29 years old, stood up in court at the preliminary trial. Teka even brought Miracle with her. She looked at Veronica right in the eyes during the trial. Teka didn’t end up having to testify but she wanted to be there to show Veronica that she didn’t kill her. She survived despite everything Veronica put her through, and she had her baby at her side.

“I survived because I was coming to a point in my life where I started to love myself and respect myself and cherish life. I survived because of God and my support system. I know a lot of people love me and I know that God loves me,. And like they say, God looks after babies and fools. And I had a baby, and I was a fool.”

-Teka Adams on the show, I Survived

Teka and her family live together in an apartment in DC, no longer in a shelter, no longer homeless. Miracle is quite literally a miracle baby, and Teka Adams says she is stronger than ever for going through everything she went through.

SOURCES:

REDDIT

MFM

DailyMail

Wikipedia