He Told Her ‘It’s a Snake’… She Was Only Seven

Unfiltered Stories

Tiffany Kuntz was only five when her mother remarried and their home turned into a prison. Her stepfather controlled everything, hurting her and her brothers in ways no child should ever endure.   When her brother tried to protect her, it nearly cost him his life. For years, no one believed her. But she never stopped fighting.   Decades later, she stood in court and faced the man who destroyed her childhood and finally took back her power. Five life sentences. One survivor who refused to stay silent. 💔   #survivalstory #trauma #mentalhealth   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.   Find Tiffany Kuntz on her socials:  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tiffanylynnkuntz?lang=en   Make sure you hit the 🛎️ BELL ICON 🛎️ to get notifications every time we post new episodes, and don't forget to SUBSCRIBE by clicking this link:  ➮ https://tinyurl.com/USsub   🌅 FOLLOW US 🌅  Facebook ➮ https://tinyurl.com/UnfilteredFB  Tiktok ➮ https://tinyurl.com/UnfilteredTT  Snapchat ➮ https://tinyurl.com/UnfilteredSN

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00:00He picked my brother up and threw him up against a wall like all the way across the room. He

00:04was a

00:05small kid but he was my hero that day and he held him up against the wall and he just

00:10kicked him

00:11over and over and over and over and he was so small. So I ran away that day.

00:21It's difficult to say who I was before the end because I was so young when it started taking

00:28place. My parents decided to divorce. I was five so immediately after divorcing my father

00:35she married who we would come to call the warden. The reason that we, my brothers and I and eventually

00:41my mother, decided to call him this is because this is how he ran our home. The grooming process

00:47and began almost instantaneously. My first vivid childhood memory is that I was playing hide and

00:56seek with my brothers. I ran down the stairs and I don't know if I said that they were bugging

01:01me

01:01but there was a room off of the living room and the warden laid in that bed and he said

01:06get under

01:07the blanket they won't bother you here. I felt something behind me something odd. My child I

01:11don't have words for it but it was him and he was a rat and he was rubbing himself on

01:16me. I said what

01:17is that? He said oh it's a snake and I began to to call out for my mom because I

01:22don't like snakes and

01:23he covered my mouth and he said oh it's a nice snake it won't hurt you. And that's one of

01:27my

01:27very first childhood memories. Following the next couple of years after that encounter I remember

01:33he would always push to give me vows. He would put me to bed and when he would put me

01:39to bed he would

01:40me. It progressed from digital to oral and then at one point in time when I was seven I remember

01:47him

01:47saying that he was going to put his in my for lack of a better term. I mean how else

01:53are you going to

01:54make a seven-year-old understand? And I was terrified. He had pressured my mom to join a

01:59Tuesday night bowling league and I knew that on this particular Tuesday that was the night that

02:04my life would forever be altered. I remember him telling me that it had to be a secret that my

02:10mom

02:10would hate me. My mom wouldn't understand and it was a lot of pressure like that I would be

02:16disrupting the family and initially it was him grooming me like you know extra presents and the

02:24princess treatment. I was the only girl there were four four boys so it was just you know oh well

02:29she's

02:30a daddy's girl and you know gets special gifts and treatment. Now as I got older all of the anxiety

02:37and even as a child you instinctively know this is not right this is wrong and you don't want to

02:42keep

02:42secrets from your mom. By third grade I was developing an ulcer. I was always sick and somatic symptoms

02:48psychosomatic headaches stomach aches I was always in the nurse's office. So instinctively I did know

02:53that it was wrong but it wasn't violent by nature initially. As I got older and I began to fight

02:59back

02:59a little bit and grow angrier and angrier that's when the violence became more prevalent. So when I was

03:06seven and I was told that I begged my mother and begged her to go with her bowling and I

03:12didn't

03:12want her to go and I actually told her verbatim what I had said. He's going to stick his in

03:18my

03:18there was a big discussion and what I want people to understand about is the fact that they are very

03:26charming and charismatic. When they say a wolf in sheep's clothing that is literally what they are.

03:33They can take a story and spin it and it doesn't matter what the context. So my mother was led

03:39to

03:39believe that I was making it up because I wanted to go with her and I was just throwing a

03:43temper tantrum

03:44and this was supposed to be her time to herself and you know she's got five kids this is her

03:48her

03:48escape I guess or getaway and he had convinced me to say that I had heard that on the school

03:54bus

03:55and it was from a high schooler and that I had just heard it and I was making it up

03:59and I just

04:00wanted to go with her so she didn't believe me and it was like he picked different forms of

04:04for each of us so mine was primarily my older brother was primarily physical my younger brother

04:11was more emotional he didn't have a name he called him all kinds of awful names but never by his

04:17actual

04:17name and always devalued him and degraded him and belittled him whereas my older brother you know

04:23we were we're all very small and he was a big man and he was very physical with my older

04:28brother

04:28often and then as I got older if I didn't comply my brother would be beat when I'm 12 my

04:35brother was

04:35like something's fishy because every house that we lived in had a door from the bathroom into their

04:42bedroom every chance that he got to me he would take it didn't matter who was around he was pretty

04:48bryzen with his at one point in time I was in a state park it was also a state park

04:54with a swimming

04:55a swimming area so my brothers and I and my cousins would all go to the swimming hole and he

05:00would swim

05:00with us and he would me under my swimsuit in front of all of these people but they didn't know

05:04because

05:04it was a murky pond you know it's just a pond water I felt really trapped so when I was

05:0912 and it

05:11became opportunistic my mom would go to the grocery store my mom would go to my aunt's or she would

05:16go to

05:16my grandmother's and anytime she would leave the house I would be expected to go in that bathroom

05:21and meet him in his bedroom and my brother was like this is odd and he decided he would peek

05:27inside

05:27and in doing so he is still haunted by what he saw and I'm still haunted by what follows

05:32following my escape from the bathroom he confronted the warden he said sob I know what you are I seen

05:40my sister and it was like this blind rage overtook him he picked my brother up and threw him up

05:48against

05:48a wall like all the way across the room he was a small kid but he was my hero that

05:52day and he held

05:54him up against the wall and he just kicked him over and over and over and over and he was

05:59so small

06:00so I ran away that day and when my mom got home my brother told her what had happened and

06:07the warden

06:07told her that it wasn't true and that my brother had lost the remote and gotten smart about it and

06:13that's why he beat him so I walked five miles to the next town that day and then I realized

06:18I didn't

06:19have anywhere to go so when I was taken home we got notified that a neighbor had reported the

06:24so when I was younger I had a lawnmower and I would go to lawnmower races and at one of

06:30these

06:30particular lawnmower races a neighbor lady had witnessed I think he was giving me a piggyback ride and he

06:35slid his hands up my shorts and then flipped me around in front of him and but she waited two

06:39years to report that and within that two years there was a family meeting between all of the

06:44women in my family and as an adult I am now aware that I don't know a single woman in

06:51my family that

06:52has not been by a family member or someone close to them going back in generations like to my great

06:59grandmother the women decided the best force of action would be not to leave they said don't leave

07:04them alone together them as in like I felt I had done something wrong that lasted about two weeks

07:10I just really grew up thinking that she hated me why else would she leave me in that environment

07:15when she was told time and time again she didn't hate me she was just a weak person my brothers

07:20and

07:20I all have struggled with that among other things my younger brother is still in the grasp of being

07:26bitten by that snake my older is in remission but still struggles that's so important that shift in

07:34mindset for survivors of assaults changing from the victim mentality to the survivor mentality is

07:41so important because our circumstances don't have to define us they don't we lived them it was horrendous

07:48but we don't have to I always say you can revisit the past but you don't have to unpack your

07:52and live there forever like it's okay to revisit it but don't live there don't reside there because

07:56that's not where you are now you have to stay present and you can choose to heal but it is

08:01a choice that

08:01you have to make every single day healing is every day at 15 I had decided I would rather not

08:09be here

08:09anymore than to ever allow him to touch me again and I voiced that and in doing so a huge

08:16physical

08:17altercation broke out he punched me in the face and knocked me through a wooden door and I had smuggled

08:23a cell phone I called the police I let them know they come and I was not separated from either

08:29parent

08:30to let them know what had happened they told the police officers that I was messing with a boy and

08:35mad because they didn't want me to have a boyfriend and I was just throwing a temper tantrum and the

08:40police officer told me that as my parental figure he had the right to discipline me after he punched me

08:45in the face that really solidified my distrust of law enforcement after that I went upstairs and I

08:51swallowed a whole bunch of he had been giving me the for a couple years but it wasn't to the

08:57point

08:57where like I needed it to to cope the eating disorder became that it became my best friend and then

09:03it

09:03would be like he would bring me the uh the or the and I would just be drinking it in

09:09my room you know by

09:10myself I was just really unhappy and you know there was some some self-harm when he was sentenced when

09:17he was arrested there were 119 cases of child child child and just various different ones but

09:25so five to seven touching oral seven and then that progressed to and that was so traumatic for me

09:36the pain associated with that was unimaginable like it was just terrifying and then it would be

09:43I I couldn't do it and he would become angry and then physical because he was mad at me because

09:49I

09:50I was a child and I couldn't I couldn't do what he wanted me to do the lead detective did

09:54tell me that

09:54my mother was a victim as well so I think a lot of the times if she had said something

09:59you know she

10:00would lose a couple teeth or it was mostly when he physically assault her would be a private though

10:06you know he was also on the fire department he was also so helpful a helpful neighbor and which

10:12in the same breath the neighbors would see the police at our house frequently when I turned 18

10:18I brought a boy home and I wanted him to meet my mom because I was serious about him he

10:24later become

10:25my first husband and my oldest daughter's dad great guy the warden came on court remember that rage that

10:32I talked about that he he that overcome him when my brother confronted him it was like staring into

10:39the eyes of the devil like his eyes would just turn black and he behaved like a jealous boyfriend

10:45I was trying to leave the premises and he wasn't allowing me he was trying to confront this boy

10:51he's 18 barely a man and my brother was home on leave from the military at this time

10:57and he was beating up his vehicle with a bat and throwing center blocks at it and trying to anything

11:02to get him away from me so that I could safely leave and when I did safely leave he got

11:08in his

11:08vehicle and followed me and chased me there was like a highway chase he pulled off in front of me

11:12was like hit me hit me like just crazy cuckoo bananas I should have ran him over we did get

11:18away and

11:18then I told my mother I said if you don't leave him any future grandchildren that I have for you

11:24will not be associated with you she and I and my brother all had to have restraining orders because

11:29he was stalking us the prosecutor at the time for whatever reason chose not to pursue charges not to

11:36file charges even though there were two open cases you know the five-year-old at the time and mine

11:41and

11:41there are emails in that case I sent you the case file from child services are you going to pursue

11:47this

11:47case and he says oh you know I probably will you know the game well it wasn't a game my

11:52life was not a

11:52game the other prosecutor who took office and found our case file and chose to pursue charges

11:58later lost her position and he regained he re-obtained office I filed a formal complaint

12:04against that prosecutor with the chief justice I said he was negligent due to his negligence my

12:11was left to harm other children for over a decade and that chief justice said that as the prosecuting

12:18attorney it's at his discretion which cases he chooses to pursue I think that's wrong I think

12:23that needs changed I don't think it's fair that they get to play God with people's lives however I

12:29did get a message from him a couple months ago on Facebook and it it said something it was a

12:35friend

12:35request that's what it was and I was like I said this is either a spam account or your are

12:40way bigger than

12:41anybody gives you credit for because I was not quiet about not wanting him to take office again I even

12:46made a radio ad because he was just so negligent and his ineptitude was undeniable and he was like

12:53he said oh it was a I think he called it like a pocket dial and like it was a

12:58friend request you toad

12:59so within those 10 years I spiraled I hit my rock bottom I was at my rock bottom when the

13:07lead detective

13:08called me I was slowly killing myself with I had become a functional the minute I would get off work

13:15I was going to the store I wasn't even making it home so I had lost my job lost my

13:22driver's license

13:22my husband had convinced me to take some time for myself and stay home and just be mom

13:27I don't know how I got lucky enough to have this man in my life but he is either a

13:34sadist or relentless

13:35in his love for me I don't know he's he's a glutton for punishment I don't know how he's put

13:39up with all

13:40my shenanigans for 10 years but he has and then I got a phone call out of the blue and

13:45it was the

13:46lead detective on my case and she said hey we found your case file and we would like to pursue

13:50this

13:51can you testify and that was just a switch flipped in my brain you know I got the closure that

13:58I needed

13:59somewhat in that case I put the bottle down through everything I had into raising awareness

14:06and spreading education because I wanted to be the advocate that I needed as a child and I didn't

14:13have so we went to trial it was a two-day trial first day I take the stand instant panic

14:19attack

14:19I can't breathe I did not expect that reaction in 2017 I had ran into him at a gas station

14:25because

14:25like I said he was free the restraining order had expired quite some time ago I was working on his

14:31trash route he was a garbage man and he was in his garbage truck I was getting gas I had

14:36my daughters

14:37in my vehicle and I looked down and I looked up and he was there and they were there and

14:41it was awful

14:42luckily a friend had pulled him behind me and she looked at me and she said get your together your

14:47babies are watching you I he looked at me and he looked smug like I would be happy to see

14:52him

14:53and that was infuriating so I hopped up on the side of his truck and I spit right in his

14:57face

14:58I call my handle on TikTok is taking back Tuesday because Tuesdays inevitably I would be

15:04sentencing was on a Tuesday I took back my power and my Tuesday that day and then the rest of

15:10his

15:10sentencing was on my dad's birthday so initially the jury convicted him of five life sentences

15:16and then that following August this was in June that following August the judge finished the sentencing

15:23he was arrested in 2021 and he was sentenced in 2022 so he was in jail that entire time there

15:30was

15:30no bond I say yes I got closure yes I got justice the jury convicted him I wanted him to

15:37admit it I

15:37wanted him to take accountability and that's something he never did

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