![]() ![]() ![]() “I whispered to Melissa that we had to go.” But Dugan “grabbed me by the neck,” she said, “and threw me through a window into the car, like a ball through the window.”Īfter she ran, she testified, she hid in a tractor tire at a nearby John Deere dealership until she heard a car take off. ![]() When Dugan got out of his car, “he walked closer, saying he couldn’t hear us,” Horton testified. Michael Wolfe, who was questioning her, paused twice to keep his emotions in check. She broke down in tears as she walked to the witness stand and struggled to regain her composure. Last week, Horton told her story in court for the first time. His sentencing for the Nicarico crime is underway, with a death penalty hearing continuing Tuesday. Two years before Dugan grabbed Opal and Melissa, he had abducted, raped and killed 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville, Ill. ![]() I still don’t talk to the Ackermans as much as I should because I always feel like, ‘Do they look at me and feel awkward or sad?’ I just don’t want them to feel uncomfortable.” “When Mike Ackerman hugs me,” Horton said of Melissa’s father, “it’s not just a normal hug. For others, she is a chilling reminder of danger and an example of fragile perseverance. For parents whose children could not escape, she is the wrenching image of what might have been. Brian Dugan was apprehended and pleaded guilty.ĭugan took something from Opal Horton that day, and has never really left her, even as she tries to deny his presence. ![]()
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