A Story of Survival

By Kimberly Morton

Kimberly Morton is currently working on a book based on her ordeal and her unique redemptive experience. She has appeared on the Montel show, the Maury show and is in negotiation with the Tyra Banks show.

My attacker gave me the inconceivable ultimatum of choosing the method by which I would die. I cried profusely and begged him to spare my life…
-Kimberly Morton’s Story of Survival

My name is Kimberly Morton, and I am a 24-year-old college student. For as long as I can remember, both modeling and acting were two major goals in my life. I dreamed of strutting down the runways of New York City, Beverly Hills, Paris, France and acting alongside some of Hollywood’s biggest and brightest stars. However, all my dreams and aspirations came to a halt on the night of November 19th, 1998 in my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.
He lived right upstairs from me. Surprisingly, I had known him for most of my life. I regarded him as my friend. We shared in lots of laughs and intense conversations. I respected him, somewhat. He was much older than me. He came to my apartment door wanting to use my telephone. I opened the door, and he came right in.
He picked up the receiver of the phone and attempted to dial a number. Instead, he hung the receiver up and began asking me a lot of questions. He asked, “What’s wrong with you?” … “Why you holding your throat like that?”
I told him that I had not been feeling well and decided not to go to work.
Then suddenly without any fair warning, he grabbed me by my neck and dragged me back into my bedroom. He threw me on my bed and savagely, grotesquely, brutally attempted to rape me for what seemed like an eternity.
When he was finished with me, he decided that my fate of life had come to an end and began to suffocate me with my very own pillows. After raping me, hitting me, punching me, cutting me, and then suffocating me, my attacker gave me the inconceivable ultimatum of choosing the method by which I would die. I cried profusely and begged him to spare my life… When the suffocating didn’t work, he proceeded to strangle me with his bare hands.
I lost consciousness, and for all intense purposes—I was dead, and all of my body excrements left me.
I guess this atrocious animal wanted to be sure I was dead because after he made incisions all over my body, he then took a butcher knife and repeatedly stabbed me in my neck and in my side. In a botched attempt to remove any evidence he had left on my skin like his fingerprints, he poured bleach all over me. The bleach burned a significant amount of my skin. And, by the grace of God, it also awakened my brain and all else remaining senses.
As I regained consciousness, my assailant longed for the conversations we used to have when I thought he was my friend. He told me that he was very sorry for what he had just done to my body, and that he had not meant to hurt me. He told me that he would help me with my career. He also told me that if I told on him, he would come back and kill my mother.
Naturally, I had to promise him that I wouldn’t tell anyone. And he believed me because he jumped up and began unplugging my television and VCR—to make it appear as if someone had broken into my house.
I remember looking down and seeing blood all over the place, and looking down at my waist and seeing a knife sticking out of my side. I tried to pull the knife out, but he told me to leave it. And then, he was going to get help.
He stepped over me and went out the front door. As I got up from the floor, I glanced over at the mirror and saw the phone extensions and the bed sheet he had tied around my neck. I took them off of me and found my way to my closet to find something to slip on my naked body. I looked out the front door from which he left and hurried out of the back door.
I had just made it out of the back door, when I heard my attacker return with help, but I was overwhelmingly frightened. I heard him kick in the front door. Frantically, I scurried as fast as I could to my neighbor, Felicia. She asked if it were me because God knows I was unrecognizable. I know I must have been quite a sight. I had huge cuts all over my body, and I was bloody from head to toe. My eyes were blood red from ruptured blood vessels of the suffocation.
I assured my neighbor that it was me and asked her to please help me.
She asked who had done this to me, and without a moment’s hesitation, I told her that it was Carlos.
As she helped me to a nearby neighbor’s house, I kept telling her over and over again to keep him away from me. I told Felicia to call my mom at work, and she also called an ambulance because the knife was still in my side.
The news was spreading fast that something tragic had happened to me. Before I knew it, the apartment was filled with many concerned people who were screaming in disbelief. “Who did this to you?” … “Who could have committed such an atrocious act?” They were weeping and consoling and protecting me.
I am a petite girl, attractive, outgoing and as popular and likeable as a 17-year old could have been.
My cousin, Taron, pulled the knife out of my side and threw it on the floor. Unbeknownst to me, Carlos had also wandered in. He picked up the knife and put it in the sink. He turned on the water faucet and tried to wash off his fingerprints. Then, he came and sat right beside me. He had blood and bleach all over him. It was at that moment that I went into a state of shock and started chocking.
As blood began to pour out of my neck, the ambulance arrived and carried me to the back of the truck. They had just closed the doors when a police lady came back and re-opened those doors. She asked me if Carlos Thomas had done this to me, and I told her in no uncertain terms and with as much energy that I could muster up, “yes,” and I closed my eyes as the police took my assailant down.
I was rushed to the hospital where I remained in critical condition for several days.
Being in the hospital was the most difficult time of my life. I had second-degree burns over 50% of my body. After a week in ICU, I was moved to the burn unit. The burns on my body hurt so bad, that I had to be put to sleep before they could even give me a bath. I had to go through physical therapy that was excruciatingly painful. My entire body had stiffened from the burns.
Burns on my legs made it difficult for me to walk. I had to walk slouched over for two months, because burns on my stomach made it difficult for me to stand up straight. Burns on my arms made it difficult for me to feed myself. I had to rely on family and friends to wash my face and brush my teeth.
I felt that my life was over, and I kept asking God why had He spared my life. “Why?” I knew I could never pursue a modeling or acting career now that my body was so messed up. I was hideous, a monster. I covered the mirror in my room because I could not stand to look at myself. I thought all my hope was gone until I met a nurse named Everett Perry. She was very nice to me, and she made me work hard.
Nurse Perry always made me do everything for myself. She would encourage me by telling me that I was still beautiful, especially on the inside and that that inner beauty would find its way out, and that one day I would still be a model. She would tell me that eventually I would be back to myself.
Many times I would become so angry with her for making me do so much on my own. However, today I thank her because I’m able to do everything that I used to do.
I have been brought closer to God because He has sent my way blessed angels to help me deal with the pressures of life.
Another influential person to cross my path would be Theresa Guy, a court advocate whom I came to love, admire, and respect tremendously. She was not only my court advocate, she is one of my heroes. She kept me strong through the many nightmares and sleepless nights. Just seeing her gave me strength, courage, and determination. Even when she was not around, her words remained in my head. “You can do it, girl” … “You’re a winner!”
Gospel singer Shirley Caesar was yet another source of light in my dark time. Her songs of hope and endurance gave me strength to keep fighting for my recovery. In one of her gospel hymns, Mrs. Caesar reiterates, You Can Make It. And by the grace of God, I am making it.
A significant turning point in my life was when Robin Givens took over as the host of a show called, “Forgive or Forget”. Robin had this wonderful way of reiterating certain inspirational points to the young teens that came on her show. And believe it or not, her words were powerful to me.
Knowing that Robin Givens is a successful actress and listening to her emphasizing how important education is, made me see things in a different light. She helped me realize that I could achieve my goals after all, and I decided I was going to go back to school. Because of her words, I am doing something meaningful and fulfilling with my life.
Job Corps was a steppingstone for me. I had dropped out of school in the 12th grade when I only had two months left. Hanging with the wrong crowd is what led me down that path. I would cut class and skip school altogether. When I went to school, it was no better because I was the one who would cause the disturbances in class. And, when I dropped out of school, I did absolutely nothing with my life.
After being out of school for 3 _ years after recovering, I decided that I was not leading the life I wanted to live. I went to live with my cousin and often we would discuss going back to school. She suggested that we go to Job Corps. I gave her a hard time about Job Corps at first, but I finally agreed to accompany her. We enrolled and within a month, we were ready to start.