Locked In A Bunker For 17 Days

Unfiltered Stories

On today’s episode of Unfiltered Stories, Katie Beers talks about a horrific story that happened in her life. She was sexually abused and then abducted by a family friend when she was just a little kid. Her survival story is unimaginably sad but to her luck, Katie managed to escape and continued her childhood with a kind family.   #KatieBeers #Survivor #UnfilteredStories   Thank you for watching Unfiltered Stories! We offer a platform for our guests to speak openly about their life stories and journeys, shedding light on the challenges they faced and the resilience they've shown.  Our mission is to raise awareness about survivors by delving into their stories, exploring the impact of their experiences, and how they've managed to heal and rebuild their lives.  By sharing these stories, we aim to break the silence surrounding those challenging memories and create a compassionate environment.    🌅 FOLLOW US 🌅  Facebook ➮ https://tinyurl.com/UnfilteredFB  Tiktok ➮ https://tinyurl.com/UnfilteredTT  Snapchat ➮ https://tinyurl.com/UnfilteredSN

Transcript

00:00My name is Katie Beers and I survived an abduction. So my biological father was not known to

00:07my biological mother Marilyn. The father figure that I had in my life was my biological half

00:15brother, my godmother's husband who was one of my abusers, and then the man that kidnapped me.

00:26My first abuser, Sal and Galeri, he was the husband of my godmother. I had known Sal and Linda

00:34basically my entire childhood. When I was a couple months old, Marilyn had a bad headache and asked her

00:42good friend Linda and her husband Sal to watch me for a couple of hours while she went and got

00:48some

00:48rest. And Sal and Linda would not allow Marilyn to take me back. So they, for lack of better terms,

00:57abducted me when I was a child. Linda and Sal and my biological mother all remained friends after that.

01:04It was from about maybe two years old until about eight years old that Sal was abusing me.

01:10Um, the abuse ranged from verbal and physical to sexual, um, with him inappropriately touching me,

01:21with him making me touch him, um, or with just complete penetration. John Esposito, like I said,

01:27is somebody that had been in my life really, I believe, since birth. My biological mother drove a taxi

01:34cab and John Esposito's mother was one of her fares. Marilyn told Rose Esposito that she had, that she

01:46was unwed, had a young son and didn't have any father figure or male figures in his life. And that's

01:53when Rose Esposito said, well, my son, John Esposito is in the big brother, big sister program. Maybe I

02:01could hook you guys up. And Esposito obviously was not affiliated with the big brother, big sister

02:06program, but Marilyn did not know that until maybe like the nineties, um, early nineties. So John Esposito

02:15would take my biological brother to, uh, Six Flags Amusement Park, all sorts of just, um, sporting events,

02:24concerts. They would hang out at John's house. So I didn't have very many encounters with Esposito.

02:30At this point in time, but I will say, um, Esposito actually was the first person that ever bought me

02:37a bike and tried to teach me how to ride it. He was somebody that I would absolutely have trusted,

02:44um, until I didn't. The spring that I was nine years old, I went and moved in with Marilyn.

02:53We lived in a town called, uh, Mastic beach. And the reason why I had gone to live with Marilyn

03:00at

03:00this point in time is because my brother, John had told Marilyn about the abuse that I was sustaining

03:09from selling gallery right after Christmas in 1992. I was living with Marilyn and my grandmother,

03:18Helen, and my, my half brother, John, this would have been the first Christmas that I had not spent

03:25with Linda since I was basically born. Linda asked her mother to drive out to Mastic and plead with

03:33Marilyn to see if Marilyn would let me go and spend a couple of days with her. Marilyn reluctantly

03:39said that that was fine. However, the stipulations that Marilyn had, Sal Inglary was not allowed to

03:46be under the same roof at any point in time. He was not allowed to be in the house, that

03:49there was

03:50a restraining order and that I was not allowed to spend any time with John Esposito. And she told me

03:57that I'm not allowed to see John Esposito. On December 26th, I went to visit my godmother,

04:04Linda, for a couple of days between Christmas and my birthday, which was December 30th. Linda wanted to

04:10have a birthday party for me because it was a big birthday. I was turning 10. Um, so she had

04:16a family

04:16birthday for me and to the family birthday, she invited John Esposito, even though she was told,

04:25um, in very many times that he's not supposed to be around me. For my birthday, John bought me a

04:31Barbie

04:32dream house that was not put together. So Esposito said that he'd come over the next day and he would

04:38put it together for me. So Linda said that that was fine, that he could come over. So the next

04:44day

04:44on December 28th, he comes over in the morning, he puts together the Barbie dream house. And then

04:49he asks Linda if he could take me to an indoor arcade, um, place called space flex. And Linda

04:58didn't see a problem with it. When I was still living full time with Linda, um, when I was like

05:05nine

05:05and a half or younger, for some reason, John Esposito was constantly trying to get me to sneak

05:15out of Linda's house. So John would always make these plans to meet me around the corner at two

05:21o'clock. And then he'd call me later on that night and be like, why didn't you meet me at

05:25two o'clock?

05:25We were supposed to meet. So I always had some sort of excuse as to why I wasn't able to

05:31meet him.

05:32Um, when I went and lived with Marilyn, obviously that all kind of dissipated. I told Linda that

05:38I didn't want to go. And I told her that Marilyn told me I'm not allowed to be with him.

05:44And Linda

05:45basically kind of like pushed me out the door and was like, it'll be okay. You'll just be home in

05:49a

05:49couple of hours. And I obviously was not home in a couple of hours. John had said, well, before we

05:58go

05:58to space plex, let's go to seven 11 and get you a slurpee. And then he's like, well, let's go

06:04to,

06:05um, Toys R Us and I'll buy you a new video game. He brings me to Toys R Us. I

06:10pick out the, uh,

06:12Nintendo game home alone. And he's there. He's like, well, you don't have a Nintendo at your house

06:18to play this on, do you? And I was like, no. And he's like, well, why don't we go to

06:20my house and

06:21we can play it for a little bit before we go to space flex. So we went right to his

06:27house.

06:28Then his bedroom was this huge open room that, um, had a humongous closet in it.

06:35It had a little mini fridge in there. It had one of those like hanging from the ceiling,

06:40like punching bag things. It had every single up to date, um, gaming console available

06:48and every single board game that you can imagine. And then his bed. So when I was there with my

06:55brother, it didn't seem very odd that this is where we were hanging out. Cause that's where all

07:01the games were on this day. I felt very uncomfortable being in his house by myself,

07:06um, being up in his bedroom, sitting on his bed. He sat on the bed behind me and he put

07:14his hand over

07:15my mouth, told me that he wasn't going to hurt me and then pulled me onto his lap that at

07:19that point,

07:20he then sexually assaulted me while I was sitting on his lap. And, um, he continued to tell me that

07:28he wasn't going to hurt me. So he picked me up and had me underneath his one arm, um, like

07:35by my hip.

07:35So I was like laying down and kicking and flailing and crying and screaming. And he carried me into his

07:42office and he threw me underneath his desk. I remember that there was a phone on his desk.

07:48So I grabbed the cordless phone. I know that I hit nine one one, but the next thing I know

07:54he's

07:55standing in front of me. I'm under the desk trying to talk on the phone. Um, and he's standing in

08:01front

08:01of me. He comes, grabs the phone out of my hand, throws it up on the desk, grabs me out

08:07from underneath

08:08the desk. And he takes me and threw me into his closet. That was in his office. The closet that

08:16was in his office had an unfinished wall. So there were just nails sticking out from the drywall. And

08:24I remember my back piercing them. So now I'm crying cause I'm scared. I'm convulsing cause I'm hurt. I see

08:32that he is maneuvering something from the floor. And then suddenly this huge slab of concrete that is

08:40very, very thick rises up from the floor and it opens up this big hole. He then tells me to

08:49get in

08:49there and I tell him no. I'm sure he had to tell me several times before he just reached over

08:55it,

08:55picked me up and basically just dropped me down into this hole. But he then maneuvers himself around

09:03me in front of me and he pushes open this door and it opens up into this room that is

09:12somewhere

09:12on his property. There was a toilet just in the middle of the room that was unattached to anything.

09:18There was a milk crate on the floor. I don't know if it had anything in it. And then there

09:25was a

09:26surveillance TV up in the corner of the room that showed the outside of his house. At some point,

09:33John tells me that he's going to keep me there for a while. He wants to have a recording of

09:41me

09:42so he can play it for Linda saying that a random person took me. And then he wants to take

09:50photos

09:50of me laying on the floor looking like I'm dead. And he tells me he wants me to make a

09:56sound recording

09:58saying, some man took me. Some man with a knife took me. I don't know where I am. Oh no,

10:06here he comes or something along those lines. So he goes upstairs and I do the recording. And I wait

10:15a couple of seconds. And then I whisper into the recording, I'm at Big John's house.

10:22Of course, then he comes downstairs, he rewinds the tape and he listens to it. And he listens to it

10:29just long enough that he hears, I'm at Big John's house. So then he, I believe he slapped me across

10:38the face and told me to rerecord it with him down there. The total amount of time that I was

10:43abducted

10:44for was 17 days. Time basically stood still. I had no natural sunlight. My sleep schedule was

10:52completely off. I never wanted to go to sleep because from the very beginning, Esposito

10:59saying, I want to take a picture of you looking like you're dead so I could send it to the

11:02police.

11:03Esposito spent a decent amount of time down in the dungeon with me. Um, as the police presence

11:10at his house became more prevalent and they were, they knew he had me, but they didn't know where.

11:19After that point in time, he would really only come down in the evenings to bring me food,

11:26um, clean up whatever food I had from the day prior and then go back upstairs. So I think that

11:32that was just kind of wearing him down. And then I think toward the end, I lied to him and

11:40I told him

11:41that I wasn't feeling well. And I think he tried to bring me some sort of medicine and I lied

11:47to him

11:48again. Like, I'm just, I'm really not feeling well. So I think he got scared that something was really

11:53wrong with me because I've been down there for 17 days, no light, no other human contact, nothing.

12:00So that's when he finally decided to call his attorney and tell his attorney that he had me

12:08or that he knew where I was and that he had me. The attorney then in turn called the district

12:15attorney's office and said, we know where Katie is, but we want to deal first. Well, on January 13th,

12:24he, I heard the door opening because he had to use a big power tool. I heard the door opening

12:32and it was in the late morning or early afternoon. So I'm freaking out, like what the hell is going

12:43on?

12:44What's happening? And then I hear other male voices besides Esposito. So one of them opens up the door

12:54door and I'm laying there. I was chained by my neck. Um, so I'm laying there chained by my neck.

13:02They get the key, they unlock it. And they tell me we're police officers. You're safe now. They told me

13:09that I'm safe and that I could come out. I just stood there or I sat there frozen. Um, they

13:16again told me

13:17that it was safe to come out. So I collected my clothes that I had worn into the dungeon that

13:24day,

13:25grabbed them. The door was still open and I hightailed it out of there. Now they're like,

13:31okay, well, we're gonna, we're gonna take you out of here. We're going to go to a hospital.

13:34And they put me in this unmarked cop car with, um, I think two male officers and maybe a female

13:41officer in the back. And they tell me that we're going to go to the precinct. I'm like,

13:46okay, but we're still within the, um, confines of Esposito's fence. We haven't gotten out there yet.

13:54Um, somebody called the media and alerted the media that I was going to be released.

14:01And the police knew that the media was all outside, um, gathering. And one of the officers

14:08looked at me and said, smile and wave. All I wanted was to get food. Like that's all that I

14:14wanted in the

14:15world that wasn't happening. And they concluded their questions. I might've gotten a change of

14:21clothes when I was at the precinct, or I might've stayed in the same clothes that I had been in

14:26for

14:26several days up until this point in time. And so they brought me to the, uh, Schneider Children

14:33Hospital on long Island. They get me into a room, they get me up into a room really high up.

14:38So no

14:39cameras can take photos or anything else. They have a guard posted outside of my door. I think

14:46they had somebody in my room as well. And I asked them if I could shower. And they told me

14:52that I

14:52wasn't allowed to shower yet, that they had to do an exam on me. And they are doing every single

14:57examination possible on me. Like I was getting the rape kit done. I was getting blood work done.

15:04I hadn't eaten. I hadn't drank anything. I was getting poked with needles. I asked the nurse if

15:11I could get something to drink. And at first she said no. And then she was like, well, I guess

15:19we can

15:19get you an orange juice or something. So they get me an orange juice. And I remember still laying down

15:24with doctors poking and prodding my private areas, drinking this orange juice that this nurse was

15:30giving me through a straw. After I was released from the hospital, I assumed that I was going to go

15:38back

15:38with Marilyn and John and Grandma Helen. Unbeknownst to me, I was shuttled two and a half hours from

15:48the Children's Hospital to the tail end of Suffolk County. And I was put into a foster home. It was

15:56explained to me that I would be in the foster home temporarily while there was an investigation done

16:02on Marilyn as to how the hell this all happened. Basically, how does one little girl get physically

16:11and mentally and emotionally abused by her godmother and her godmother's husband and then sexually abused

16:18and raped by her godmother's husband and then abducted by a completely third party. So I went and lived in

16:25this house with this family that helped each other with homework. And my sister would do my hair in

16:34the mornings before school. And they cared about me brushing my teeth. We sat down for meals. That was

16:42the oddest thing for me that we all sat down at the table together. Everybody who was home sat down

16:48at

16:48the table and there was more than enough food to go around. There wasn't cigarette smoke billowing

16:55through the air. I remember we had two golden retrievers, Maggie and Abby. They were fantastic.

17:04And it was just very odd going from the childhood that I had had to this

17:12And it was like, what is a normal family. When I went and lived with my foster parents, Barbara and

17:16Ted,

17:17I stayed with them from the time that I was found until I was 18 years old. I turned 18

17:28during my senior

17:28year in high school. So at that point in time, I could have moved out if I had wanted to.

17:33I stayed with

17:34them through the through my graduation of high school. And then I stayed with them throughout college.

17:42Esposito, he struck a plea deal before he ever released me. So he was sentenced 15 years to life.

17:52Sal and Galeri, I had to go to court against him. And he was sentenced for four to 12 years

18:00in prison.

18:00Obviously, one of the most important things in my recovery was my family, my foster parents, my siblings,

18:09and then doing therapy as well. They literally treated me as their daughter and their sister.

18:15I was literally just one of their family.

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