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The Sun
3 days ago
- The Sun
Paedo kidnapped me & kept me prisoner for months – I was tied to a bed, beaten & raped until tip-off saved me
AGED 13, Jessyca Mullenberg was abducted by a man who had been secretly abusing her for years. Now, 30 years after a TV show led to her rescue from his evil clutches, Jessyca, 43, reveals what happened during her months in captivity – and the lasting impact of her ordeal. 6 6 6 Waking up, 13-year-old Jessyca Mullenberg looked down and was gripped with fear. 'I realised I was tied to the front seat of the car by brown rope,' she remembers. 'I was terrified.' She'd been abducted by Steven Oliver, a 39-year-old paedophile obsessed with Jessyca and who had been abusing her for years before kidnapping her. Over the next 105 days, Jessyca would be subjected to multiple rapes, beatings and brainwashing. The nightmare would only come to an end when the FBI discovered her whereabouts after a tip-off. Today, 30 years on from finding herself at the centre of a kidnapping story that rocked America, Jessyca is a mum-of-two and a sexual abuse awareness advocate. She has dedicated herself to stopping any child going through what she did. Jessyca was eight years old when unmarried Oliver, then 34, came into her life. He was a neighbour in the small town of Altoona, Wisconsin, where she lived with her mother Monica and stepfather Jake. Oliver worked as a teaching assistant at her school and was the father of one of her classmates, Ryan. 'Oliver would invite me, my brothers and all the neighbourhood kids to his house to play football,' she says. 'Almost immediately, he started grooming me, first by making me sit on his lap.' He would make up a reason why Jessyca was in trouble and would tell her to go and stand in his kitchen, while everyone was still outside. 'In the kitchen, he'd touch my breasts and bottom, and get me to touch him. If I did it wrong, he'd punch me,' she says. Over the coming months, the abuse in the kitchen escalated to forced oral sex and rape. 'I was eight, so I had no idea what he was doing to me,' explains Jessyca. 'He said if I told anyone, he'd kill my brothers and the rest of my family. I was so young that I totally believed him.' In the summer of 1993, after two years of abuse, Jessyca's family moved 100 miles across state because her stepfather had a new job. 'I was so relieved, because I thought the abuse would stop,' she says. But Oliver was determined not to lose his grip on his young victim, so he began renting a trailer with Ryan close to her father's home – her parents had split when she was four and her father lived around 100 miles from Jessyca's new home. 'I stayed with my dad every weekend, and couldn't believe it the first time I visited and saw Oliver. His trailer was right across the road. I felt sick knowing he was so determined not to let me go.' Oliver, still working as a teacher's aide, found a new way to be alone with Jessyca, in order to continue abusing her. 'He told all the parents in my dad's neighbourhood he'd been selected by a publishing company to start a weekly writing workshop for kids. We'd all submit poems and short stories, we even did a play,' recalls Jessyca. 'He'd single us out for one-to-one tuition, and mine was always longer, so the abuse just continued without anyone knowing. I was so scared of him.' In September 1995, when Jessyca was 13 and she'd been going to the 'workshop' for a few months, Oliver told her that one of her short stories had been chosen for publication, and they needed to travel 200 miles for a meeting at the publishing company's office. She says her father agreed to the trip, unaware he was handing his daughter over to her abuser. 'Even with everything that had been going on, I still believed the trip was real. Why would I not? Oliver had even fooled the adults,' she says. They left early in the morning, and Jessyca fell asleep, but when she woke up and discovered she was restrained, she realised there was no meeting – she'd been kidnapped. Oliver used the journey to ensure she memorised their cover story. 'He told me he was my father 'Dave Johnson', and I was his daughter 'Cindy', and we were moving to start over our lives after my brother and mother had died in a car accident.' Oliver repeatedly told her what he'd do to her and her family if she tried to alert anyone to the kidnapping. 'We stopped on a bridge to take a break,' remembers Jessyca. 'He threw a rock over the bridge and told me that what happened to the rock would happen to my lifeless body if I said anything to anyone or tried to get away from him.' After a nine-hour drive, they arrived at Kansas City airport in Missouri, where Oliver forced Jessyca on to a plane to Houston at knifepoint. 'He held a pocket knife to my back and told me that if I screamed or shouted, he would kill me and then kill my family,' says Jessyca. 'He wouldn't have been able to do this today with all the security checks, but back then you could get a ticket under any name and didn't need proof of identity.' Once they landed, Oliver found them a cheap hotel to stay in, and he went about changing Jessyca's appearance so she wouldn't be recognised. 6 6 'He cut my hair short and dyed it from blonde to brunette,' she remembers. 'He also went clothes shopping and came back with lots of baggy clothes, which made me look like a boy.' After two days, they moved to another hotel near Houston airport, and as they checked in, Oliver wasted no time telling staff his cover story about the fatal car accident and that they were a father and daughter down on their luck. The hotel staff took pity and asked if he'd be interested in a vacant position as a painter and decorator for the hotel. Agents kept asking me if I was Jessyca Mullenberg, but by then, that name didn't mean anything to me. Jessyca after being freed Oliver jumped at the opportunity, particularly because the position included free accommodation in a block of old, abandoned rooms that were separate from the rest of the hotel. Jessyca's heart sank as Oliver marched her towards one of the small, windowless rooms. 'I was locked inside day and night, there was no way to escape. We were in a part of the hotel where no one else was staying, so no one would hear me banging on the door or shouting,' she remembers. When Oliver got back at night, he'd rape her, as well as hit her and tie her to the bed. In the first week of her captivity, Jessyca tried to call her home using the phone in the room while Oliver was working, but the calls never connected. 'It was an old rotary phone, and he'd switched all the numbers around, so I just kept dialling wrong numbers. 'I started to believe that my old life was slipping away, and I couldn't even remember my home number,' she says. Oliver tormented Jessyca psychologically, too, repeatedly telling her that her parents had given up searching for her. But in fact, her desperate family had never stopped looking, and when they were told by the FBI that Oliver might have taken her out of the state, they printed thousands of missing person posters that were then attached to trucks travelling nationwide, in the hope someone might recognise her. In the end, it was an episode of prime-time TV show America's Most Wanted that would save Jessyca from Oliver's abuse. The show had featured her abduction earlier that year, but a repeat episode aired on the evening of December 28, 1995. One of the hotel staff was watching at home and recognised Oliver as the maintenance man staying in the hotel with the young girl he claimed was his daughter. The next morning, FBI stormed the hotel room, arrested Oliver and took Jessyca to safety. By that point, Oliver had completely brainwashed her. 'Agents kept asking me if I was Jessyca Mullenberg, but by then, that name didn't mean anything to me.' Dr Darrel Turner is a forensic psychologist who specialises in predatory behaviour and has consulted for the FBI. He says: 'The more an offender can diminish the child's frame of reference of what's normal and what's not, the more impact they will have on the victim and their ability to appreciate what's happening to them.' Darrel adds: 'It's similar to the abductions of Jaycee Dugard and Elizabeth Smart, who were also just children when they were removed from their family homes and isolated so that the perpetrators could exploit the power differential that exists and exert their terrible influence. "This and the trauma Jessyca had experienced explains her lack of memory.' After hours of talking and them showing photos of my family, I finally remembered what my real name was. Jessyca after being freed 'After hours of talking and them showing photos of my family, I finally remembered what my real name was,' recalls Jessyca. By the time her mother's plane had touched down in Houston the following afternoon, she was beginning to comprehend just what had happened to her during those 105 days in Oliver's clutches. 'It's pure ecstasy,' said her mother Monica when the pair were reunited at the airport. 'We waited so long for the nightmare to be done. We've waited for the miracle to happen.' Bravely, Jessyca agreed to testify at Oliver's trial in 1996, and gave a graphic account of what had happened to her in the time she'd been kept captive. Oliver was sentenced to 40 years in prison for kidnapping and interstate transportation of a minor for illegal sexual purposes. He's still in jail to this day, aged 68. Unfortunately, Jessyca's trauma didn't end with Oliver's imprisonment, and as well as the mental scars he'd inflicted, there were physical ones. 'In my early 20s, I needed jaw surgery, because he had hit me so hard in the face, so many times, that my bones began to deteriorate, making it very hard to talk or eat, and I was suffering from non-stop headaches every day,' she says. Jessyca also suffers from severe PTSD and experiences flashbacks of her ordeal. 'I have a fear of flying after being forced to board the plane in Kansas City,' she says. 'I also can't stand the smell of cigarettes or coffee, because he constantly smelled of those things.' However, Jessyca's determination not to let Oliver hold any further power over her has been a constant in her life since. She went on to study at college and graduated with a degree in psychology, criminal justice and law enforcement. And then, in 2018, she was given the prestigious Hope Award by the National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children. Jessyca is now married to tech manager Curt, 48, and despite fears she may not be able to conceive due to the unrelenting sexual assaults she suffered at the hands of Oliver, she defied the odds and has two children of her own. However, as she explains, being a mum can also bring its own terrors. 'When they were growing up, I was waiting for my five-year-old daughter at the school bus stop, but she never got off and the bus driver didn't see her get on. "I called my husband, panicking, and rushed to the school in tears. "Thankfully, she was at a school event and there had been a misunderstanding about what time she'd be home, but it was a harrowing experience for me.' But Jessyca is determined that Oliver won't take any more from her life than he has already and is passionate about continuing her advocacy work. 'I speak about what I went through to educate people about the signs of abuse, so it can be stopped early and perpetrators can be caught. "I simply won't let Oliver win. I want to devote my life to preventing another little boy or girl from going through the hell that I did.' 6
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Sheetz opens rebuilt Schuylkill Haven store
SCHUYLKILL HAVEN — A 'Welcome Back' sign over the entrance greeted customers Friday, opening day of the new Sheetz convenience store on Route 61 and Manheim Road. Customers flocked to get a glimpse of the new 6,130-square-foot store, about 13% larger than the previous store at the same location. Sheetz demolished the old store in February, and replaced it with a ground-up reconfiguration of the original. Within minutes of opening people began filling up their tanks at the reopen Sheetz on Route 61 near Schuylkill Haven, Friday, July 25, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR) 'It looks fantastic,' said Virginia Giamarino. 'It's definitely an improvement.' Not being able to get her morning coffee for six months was a huge inconvenience, said Giamarino, tapping a brew at one of Sheetz Coffeez machines. Truth be known, on occasion she defected to the Rutter's store a few miles south on Route 61. Sheetz did not have a ribbon cutting to mark the opening of the new store, though a district manager was onsite. The Altoona-based company considers stores put on the location of a previous store as rebuilds, not new stores. Still, the word got around, and by midmorning Friday the store was busy. Lured by $2.69-a-gallon regular unleaded, the new gas pumps were getting a work out. All of the 10 lanes were busy, and sometimes there was a line of vehicles awaiting service. The price of gas reads $2.69 at the reopened Sheetz on Route 61 near Schuylkill Haven, Friday, July 25, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR) Actually, Sheetz reduced the size of its fueling operation. The previous store had 12 filling lanes. The new setup, however, offers diesel fuel at every pump. Hailey Skelly said the store was nice inside, but would have liked a drive-thru. Unlike its renovated store at Route 209 and Gordon Nagle Road, Sheetz did not install a drive-thru at the Schuylkill Haven location. North Manheim Twp. officials ruled that the lot was not big enough to accommodate a drive-thru. Jeni Betancourt would have liked a drive-thru, but she can live without one. What she really wanted was a car wash. 'I'm originally from the Lehigh Valley, and the Sheetz down there has a car wash,' said Betancourt, a Pottsville nurse. No car wash is no deal breaker though, and Betancourt will stop at Sheetz on the way to work as she had before. 'I normally stop in for an MTO and coffee,' she said. 'I'm glad they're open again.' Sheetz stores undergo regular renovations. The Pottsville store was demolished in November 2022 and the new one opened in April 2023. Sheetz has 788 stores in seven states, about 39% of which are in Pennsylvania. * People walk under the 'Welcome Back' sign at the reopened Sheetz on Route 61 near Schuylkill Haven, Friday, July 25, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR) * People walk into the reopened Sheetz on Route 61 near Schuylkill Haven, Friday, July 25, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR) * The Sheetz on Route 61 near Schuylkill Haven is open again, pictured Friday, July 25, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR) Show Caption 1 of 3 People walk under the 'Welcome Back' sign at the reopened Sheetz on Route 61 near Schuylkill Haven, Friday, July 25, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR) Expand Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
06-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Former Godolphin Runner Cornishman Picks Up Initial Stakes Victory In Cornhusker
Former Godolphin Runner Cornishman Picks Up Initial Stakes Victory In Cornhusker originally appeared on Paulick Report. Joseph Schumer's Cornishman took the overland route to victory under Glenn Corbett in Saturday's Grade 3, $300,000 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap emerging narrowly best over Heroic Move and odds-on favorite Gould's Gold in a three-horse driving finish in the Altoona, Iowa, track's marquee race for older horses during the annual Festival of Racing. Advertisement Cornishman was three wide most of the way in the 1 1/8-mile Cornhusker, a race that originated in 1966 at Ak-Sar-Ben racetrack in Nebraska, which closed in 1995. The Dan McFarlane trainee covered the distance in 1:50.10 on a good track and paid $30.40 for the upset win. He carried 115 pounds under the handicap conditions, three fewer than Heroic Move and Red Route One. Heroic Move finished a neck behind in second, with Gould's Gold coming up the rail to challenge but ending up another neck behind in third. They were followed by Jokestar, pacesetter Unload, and stretch-running Red Route One, who won this race in 2024. Unload looked to be a possible pace-setting rabbit for Red Route One – both horses are Winchell Thoroughbreds homebreds trained by Steve Asmussen – but set extremely slow fractions over a good track: :24.31 for the opening quarter mile, :49.64 for the half, and 1:13.72 for six furlongs. Heroic Move tracked Unload throughout, taking the advantage with a quarter mile to go, but Corbett moved Cornishman into contention while racing wide into the stretch. Hernandez, aboard Gould's Gold, had to wait for racing room on the inside, but made a menacing move that he was unable to sustain. Heroic Move held a slight advantage at the furlong pole, the mile in 1:37.90, but Cornishman wore him down for the victory. Cornishman, produced from the graded stakes-winning Bernardini mare Penwith, was bred by Godolphin and raced for the stable under Brad Cox's conditioning until late 2024 when he was entered in the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale as a horse of racing age prospect. Schuler bought the horse for $80,000 and got an immediate return when Cornishman won his first start for new connections at Turf Paradise in December. He scored another victory at the Arizona track in January, then after three off-the-board finishes ran second at Prairie Meadows in a prep for the Cornhusker last month. The $180,000 first-place money in the Cornhusker exceeded his earnings from his first 15 starts and it was the gelding's first stakes victory. This story was originally reported by Paulick Report on Jul 6, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Jaffa Shrine hosts annual ‘Walk for Love' despite rainy weather
ALTOONA, Pa. (WTAJ) — Sunday's rain couldn't stop people from supporting children who need medical care. Despite the rain, the annual 'Walk for Love' took place inside the Jaffa Shrine. The 1-mile walk usually starts on Broad Avenue and turns onto 29th Street. The walk supports Shriners Children's Philadelphia who provides care for children with fractures, sports injuries, orthopedic conditions, scoliosis, spinal cord conditions and spine injuries. 'Every dollar we raise, you know, it goes to the Philadelphia hospital and allows them to buy equipment and that kind of thing. So it is hugely important that we get a big support for this and the hospitals, they so much appreciate everybody that comes out here,' Gary Smith, 2025 Potentate for Jaffa Shriners said. This year's walk saw a decline in attendance, but Smith said they're looking to raise just as much as last year. Johnstown community walks to raise funds for cancer patients Children from all over the Commonwealth are transported to Shriners Hospital in Philadelphia, including children from Blair and surrounding counties. 'Without that need for that hospital, these children would be handicapped for life. So, it's a lifesaving experience for those children. And we really need the community to support us and what we're doing for these children in the area,' Lawrence Maasaro, a Road Runner for the Jaffa Shriners said. For future events at the Jaffa Shrine click here. To support or donate to Shriners Children's Philadelphia, visit their website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CNN
05-06-2025
- Health
- CNN
New documents give insight into Luigi Mangione's state of mind in the months leading up to the murder of UnitedHealthCare's CEO
Diary entries written by Luigi Mangione reveal the now 27-year-old's detailed thinking ahead of the alleged killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last year, a new court filing shows. A red notebook was recovered by police at the time of his December 9 arrest at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania. In diary writings contained in that notebook, Mangione vents about his frustrations with the health insurance industry and his intent to carry out an attack. The entries also shed light on Mangione's focus on the court of public opinion and how he intended to gain widespread support through the alleged killing. The new filing from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office is a response to a motion filed last month by Mangione's defense team seeking to stay or dismiss the New York case against him. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all federal and state charges against him. In August 2024, roughly four months before he allegedly shot and killed Thompson in midtown Manhattan, Mangione wrote in his diary: 'I finally feel confident about what I will do. The details are coming together. And I don't feel any doubt about whether it's right/justified. I'm glad-in a way-that I've procrastinated bc it allowed me to learn more about [UnitedHealthcare].' 'The target is insurance. It checks every box,' he continued in the August 15 entry. That summer, Mangione – who had an active social media presence for years – appeared to stop posting online, prompting worried messages from some of his friends. In October, another diary entry reads, '1.5 months. The investor conference is a true windfall. It embodies everything wrong with our health system, and-most importantly-the message becomes self-evident. The problem with most revolutionary acts is that the message is lost on normies.' He then goes on to explain his reasoning for not targeting the health care industry through a bombing, writing that 'innocent' lives would be unaffected by his attack. At the time of that writing, Mangione – the privileged scion of a well-to-do family, high school valedictorian and Ivy League graduate – had reportedly vanished from view of his loved ones. 'Nobody has heard from you in months, and apparently your family is looking for you,' one user posted on X in October, tagging an account belonging to Mangione. 'I don't know if you are okay,' another posted. Mangione allegedly gunned down Thompson on a busy sidewalk as Thompson walked toward a Manhattan hotel hosting his company's investors' conference, authorities said. The suspect appeared to be driven by anger against the health insurance industry and against 'corporate greed' as a whole, according to an NYPD intelligence report obtained by CNN. The previously unreported writings lay bare Mangione's plans to target the insurance industry. Prosecutors argue in the filing that his actions motivated a barrage of threats against health insurance workers and made them worry for their safety. CNN has reached out to Mangione's attorneys for comment. In the months since the fatal shooting of Thompson, Mangione has become a cult-like figure. There has been a massive outpouring of support on social media and at his court appearances from people with deep frustration and anger at the American for-profit health care system. They see the American health insurance industry as broken, overly expensive and quick to deny coverage. The majority of insured US adults had at least one issue with their health insurance within the span of a year, including denial of claims, according to a survey released in June 2023 by nonprofit health policy research group KFF. A legal defense fund in support of Mangione has raised more than $1 million as of Wednesday. In the diary entries, Mangione – who allegedly used a ghost gun to carry out the killing of Thompson – criticizes bombers: 'They commit an atrocity whose horror either outweighs the impact of their message, or whose distance from their message prevents normies from connecting the dots.' In the October 22 entry, Mangione went on to ask, 'Do you bomb the HQ? No. Bombs=terrorism. Such actions appear the unjustified anger of someone who simply got sick/had bad luck and took their frustration out on the insurance industry, while recklessly endangering countless employees.' Instead of carrying out a bombing, targeting the CEO at the conference is 'targeted, precise and doesn't risk innocents,' adding that it would bring light to the event and the 'greed' of its attendees. He also appears to reference the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, calling such attacks 'counter-productive' because they would lose public support. 'Normies categorize him as an insane serial killer, focus on the act/atrocities themselves, and dismiss his ideas,' Mangione writes. 'And most importantly—- by committing indiscriminate atrocities he becomes a monster, which makes his ideas those of a monster, no matter how true. He crosses the line from revolutionary anarchist to terrorist-the worst thing a person can be.' Mangione's intentions to target the insurance industry were made clear by the writings, which prosecutors say prove that he committed first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism, the Wednesday filing states. UnitedHealthcare became a symbol of the health insurance industry that Mangione aimed to abolish, prosecutors said. He was not insured by UnitedHealthcare from 2014 to 2024, prosecutors say, but at the time of his arrest, Mangione allegedly had a handwritten notebook that expressed 'hostility toward the health insurance industry and wealthy executives in particular,' according to a federal complaint. 'Having no business relationship with them, he chose UHC solely because they were the largest health insurance company and one of the country's largest companies by market cap,' the new filing said. Notably, three 9mm shell casings from the crime scene had the words 'delay,' 'deny' and 'depose' written on them, the NYPD has said, an apparent nod to a 2010 book critiquing insurance industry tactics. Mangione hoped the alleged killing would intimidate health insurance employees, cause the public to focus on greed in the health insurance industry and prevent investors and financial analysts from investing in the industry, according to the filing. The killing of the husband and father of two struck fear in C-suites across the country, as an NYPD intelligence report obtained by CNN warned online rhetoric could 'signal an elevated threat facing executives in the near-term.' Mangione inspired some individuals to partake in a 'broader campaign of threats of violence' against UnitedHealthcare employees and other health insurance workers, the document says. In the aftermath of Thompson's killing, threats had been aimed at other UnitedHealthcare executives and employees also reported feeling unsafe, prosecutors said. UnitedHealthcare doctors sending out denial letters to customers feared for their safety, requesting that they not be required to sign their names to the letters, prosecutors said. Some physicians quit their jobs out of fear of retribution. The company advised employees not to wear company branded clothes, and online threats prompted it to pull pictures of senior executives from its website, the filing states. Meanwhile, the company's call center received a slew of death threats, the filing said. 'You are gonna hang,' one caller said. 'That means that the killing of Brian Thompson was just a start. There are a lot more that are gonna be taken out. The only question is whether you're gonna be their collateral damage when its done or not.' Police were hired to protect the company's headquarters in Minnesota. Threats were also made to employees at the company's New York City office. Forty company executives received personal security, with one executive who received threats dying her hair and moving into another home out of fear for her safety, according to the filing. Other health insurance executives, including Emblem Health's CEO, were also targeted. Posters were put up outside the company's headquarters with the CEO's picture that read 'Health Care CEOs should not feel safe. Deny, Defend Depose.' The killing 'demonstrated his concerted effort to broadcast his message of ideological intimidation as broadly and loudly as possible,' prosecutors said. CNN's Kara Scannell, Zoe Sottile, Lauren del Valle and Michelle Watson contributed to this report.
