Beaten and Left for Dead: The Story of Teri Jendusa-Nicolai

by Dave Alfvin

  Alfvin: How long did it take for the skin grafts to heal?

  Teri: To heal enough to where I could go home? About a month, but I was still healing. I mean, I was still healing, because we had to have a nurse come twice a day to change my dressings. Until the skin there was totally sealed up and good enough to actually walk on…I’d say four to six months before it was actually in a position where I could walk on it.

  Alfvin: The one article said that you were in the hospital, what, three months or two months?

  Teri: No, I was in the hospital for about two months. It was from February 1st to March 17th.

  Alfvin: But these grafts had to be changed at home, twice a day?

  Teri: Yeah, the nurse had to come in and change the dressings. At first it was twice a day, then it was once a day, and then I started doing it myself. For a long time it was just…sitting in a wheelchair with a bunch of bandages over my legs and big socks over them.

  Alfvin: So in those six weeks, did you do them the last three weeks?

  Teri: Yeah. And even after that, literally up until a year after that, I’d still put a little bandage on the top of my foot, just because it was so tender. And even now, I have to wear very soft socks and certain shoes. I can’t walk barefoot in the house or anywhere. It just feels like the floor’s pounding at my feet.

  Alfvin: What if you stub your foot?

  Teri: Oh my gosh! That’s so painful, because I’ve done that, stepping out of the shower. I was walking in the backyard a couple of weeks ago, and I tripped over a stupid piece of cement or something. Nick was standing there, and I was going…(pantomimes extreme pain)

  Alfvin: After that, you were just kind of taking it easy?

  Teri: Yeah. A lot of that, during that time, was getting psychological counseling.

  Alfvin: When did that start?

  Teri: It started in the hospital. Once I was in a regular room in the hospital, I remember her coming to see me in the ICU.

  Alfvin: What did they focus on at first? Did you have half your wits after this?

  Teri: What I remember from the trauma was how everything was setting. Number one, I hit it off very well with her…Robin Lacey…and she was about my age. I got along with her very well.

  Alfvin: What was her title? Psychologist?

  Teri: Yes. She did a lot of work-related injuries, but they sent her to me, which was very smart because we hit it off very well. I mean, I really got along with her. And I think, at first, she was just like, “You know, whenever you want to tell me about it, what are you worried about? What are your fears?” And actually, my main fear in the hospital was whether my kids were okay or not. She actually had to prescribe me a sleeping pill so I could rest at night, because I would get very anxious. I’d picture someone coming to the hospital and doing something, or going to our house and doing something. There was a long time I was extremely anxious. (laughs) Poor Nick. He would bring the girls to come and see me, and he would call me the minute they got home. I just went into an all-out freak-out, like, “Maybe something happened to them. Maybe they got in an accident. Maybe they’re all dead.” I was going through post-traumatic stress disorder. So that was the next phase, really. My face was healing, my head was healing, and we really just had to get the emotions healing. I actually saw her for three years after that. Even when I was back home, I’d drive to Illinois and see her, and she’d determined that I was okay now, but I still had generalized anxiety. I still, to this day, see Amanda go someplace with someone and…let me tell you, last year they had a class trip to DC, and…well, you should’ve put me in a mental hospital, because they took a plane, they were supposed to be at the hotel by nine p.m., I was calling and calling, it was around ten, they still hadn’t checked in, and I’m freaking out. I’m thinking the plane crashed, something happened. Unless you’re there, people don’t understand that it’s not just the normal “worrying about your kids.” It’s the “I am totally freaked if I don’t know what exactly is going on with my kids at all times and where they are.” If they go for a ride around the block or ask me if they can ride their bikes to the gas station and come back, if I think it’s taking too long and they don’t answer their phones, I start freaking out. So it’s still with me to a certain extent, but it’s not nearly as bad as it was.

  Alfvin: At least you’re not freaked out about yourself!

  Teri: Yeah, it’s always about my kids. I’m always freaked out about my kids.

  Teri’s Return Home

  After thirty-seven days in the hospital, Teri was anxious to go home. A small crowd of well-wishers and neighbors patiently awaited her arrival in front of her Wind Lake home. Not having watched much television in the hospital, Teri would later learn just how big her story had become.

  Symbols of support were visible everywhere in the neighborhood: green ribbons representing survivors of domestic abuse had been tied to trees along the road, miles before Teri reached home. Colored Easter eggs hung from branches in her front yard, as well as a sign proclaiming: “Teri’s Tree.” At the front of the house, replacing the stairs, was a brand-new wheelchair access ramp, built by two neighbors using donated wood. That day was Teri’s well-deserved victory lap, and the surrounding community embraced the euphoria of the moment.

  Alfvin: Who was with you in the hospital room just before you left the hospital?

  Teri: I think it was just Nick, Holly, and Amanda.

  Alfvin: There were ribbons along your travel route into the neighborhood and “Welcome Home” signs. That had to be encouraging.

  Teri: It was so cool. Overwhelming.

  Alfvin: When you arrived home, was there a crowd waiting for you?

  Teri: There was a small crowd: people from the church choir, plus friends and neighbors. I was so exhausted; I just wanted to be home with my girls. “We’ll just have a nice quiet family night…sit on the couch,” I said. But, as it turned out, there was a large crowd of friends, plus food everywhere. That’s not what I had originally envisioned, but it was great seeing everyone. A little girl from down the block gave me a get well card that she had made. That was special. There were friends from school (where Teri worked); they brought large envelopes that were full of get well cards the school kids made for me. It was just overwhelming, awesome.

  Alfvin: Did things eventually begin to calm down?

  Teri: Oh no, we had a camera crew here from 20/20! I didn’t know they would be here, so that was a surprise. Eventually, we had to send everyone home.

  Alfvin: The local media and TV stations planned to meet with you the next day?

  Teri: Yes…it was really funny. We scheduled a media interview the next day at noon. I turn my television on at ten a.m., and on the screen is my house…I’m looking at my house on TV! So I go to the front window, and there are probably five satellite dishes in front of my house already waiting for the noon press conference.

  Alfvin: So you had a press conference…

  Teri: Yes, I was in my wheelchair, and Holly was on my lap. She thought that was really cool. Amanda was next to me, and Nick wheeled me out the front door. I answered questions, of course, and said it was great to be home, thanking people for all the support, the prayers, and everything else they’ve done. It wasn’t a very long interview. I remember a reporter asking what one of my immediate goals is, and I said, “To be able to go to the bathroom by myself.” (laughs) One friend of mine joked: “You dork! You said that on TV?” But, you know me…I don’t think anything of it! And it was my goal!

  Alfvin: That’s a riot, and yes…I know you! So was that the end of your interviews for the day?

  Teri: Yes, I had some physical therapy and nurses scheduled, but not much else.

  Alfvin: What did the nurses do when they visited?

  Teri: I had nurses visit me three times a day to change the dressings on my feet…to look at my feet and check everything. After a couple weeks, it went down to two visits a day. By the time summer arrived, they were checking me once every few days. Eventuall
y, I learned to change the bandages myself. Because the bedroom was upstairs, I made the family room my apartment. I had the TV, a daybed, my potty chair.

  Alfvin: What did the physical therapists do?

  Teri: They work with you so you can get along in your house, plus exercises. One of my exercises was to try and stand in front of the sink, so I could wash dishes. I said to the therapist, “We don’t have to rush with that! What I really need to learn is how to climb up these dang steps to the second floor.” The therapist helped me learn to move up the stairs by climbing on my knees.

  Alfvin: How else did life change in the Nicolai household?

  Teri: The first week I was back, both girls slept with me in my day bed every night. After I got back, my cat never left my side.

  Alfvin: I want to move into the area where we discuss you becoming an advocate against domestic abuse. How did it begin?

  Teri: I believe the first time I spoke was at a church that contacted me with a request to speak at their church about domestic abuse. I was never a speaker, and I never thought I would want to be a speaker. I was always kinda shy in front of people. I was in choir but never wanted to do solos. I sang at a few weddings, and that was okay, but there was something about speaking in front of people…I couldn’t do it. But I thought, “Well, this is a church, and these are nice people, so…okay, I’ll do it.”

  Alfvin: How did it go?

  Teri: I was well received. When I heard the people say how they prayed for me…and then they’re hugging me. It was such an outpouring of love. Y’know, you go through life, and sometimes you don’t realize how good people are until something like this happens. I was just being flooded with love. So, from that church group, someone gave my name to another group, a women’s group, I believe. After that, a chain reaction started, and I spoke at quite a few church and women’s groups. Then, in late 2005, I was introduced to a booking agent who began finding me speaking engagements at colleges for a fee. I had never thought about a career as a professional speaker. I was just doing it to be nice and support the cause and the community that supported me.

  Alfvin: So you decided to try your hand at being a professional speaker…

  Teri: Yes, my first professional speaking engagement was at Carroll College. The auditorium was absolutely packed. People were sitting on the floor. The “normal me” would have been so nervous with all those people there…and I’m standing up on stage in front of them…but I wasn’t nervous at all. I have this fire inside me, this message that I have to get out to people…

  Alfvin: And so, the fear just wasn’t there…

  Teri: No fear at all.

  Alfvin: So you said to yourself, “I can do this...”

  Teri: I wasn’t just thinking, I can do this, I was thinking, I have to do this. You read about women who didn’t survive, like Lacy Peterson, and I say to myself, “Why did I survive and not her?” There has to be a reason. I have to be the voice of the many women who didn’t make it, who didn’t survive, who didn’t have a voice. To this day, I truly believe God led me to be where I am today, and I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing. Hopefully, I’m preventing this from happening to someone else.

  Alfvin: What are the types of venues where you speak?

  Teri: Quite a few: colleges, universities, fundraising events, technical colleges, women’s centers, crisis centers, churches, women’s clubs, some high schools, a few middle schools, groups that work with teenage kids, and judicial conferences.

  Alfvin: You also testified before state subcommittees on the problem of domestic abuse and legislation.

  Teri: Yes, I was successful in helping get all of those bills passed. (laughs again)

  Teri continues to speak out against domestic abuse at diverse events, on television, and in the media. Teri’s story continues to ring a solid chord across America because her saga is real, and so is the problem she speaks out against.

  David Larsen on Trial

  David Larsen in court

  The Sunday following Teri’s rescue, David Larsen appeared in Milwaukee’s U.S. District Court and was ordered to be held for three days while federal prosecutors decided what charges they would file against him. In the end, the state of Wisconsin charged David with (among other felonies) attempted homicide, kidnapping, assault, and homicide of an unborn child.

  Dean Strang, Larsen’s public defender, attempted to disallow evidence gathered at Larsen’s home from being used against him in the trial, claiming that because there was no search warrant present when the police arrived, the evidence was therefore invalid. Strang also moved to suppress statements made by his client to Racine detectives, and additionally tried to negate the search of Larsen’s wallet, which contained a business card for the public storage locker where Teri was found. The court, naturally, denied all of these motions.

  At this point, David’s Larsen’s defense strategies were running thin. He claimed to be suffering from depression, and thus wasn’t able to think clearly on the day of the attack. He contended that he was innocent by reason of insanity. But unfortunately for Larsen, the police had already established during interrogation that he himself had admitted to striking Teri with a baseball bat, and that he vaguely remembered something about duct tape. These signs all clearly singled him out as someone with a premeditated murder in mind, and no amount of denials or suppression attempts would be able to save him now.

  A court-appointed psychologist examined Larsen thoroughly and reported that David Larsen knew exactly what he was doing when he viciously assaulted his ex-wife and left her to die. Therefore, the psychologist concluded that Larsen was not eligible to use an insanity defense against his kidnapping and murder charges. “There should be no known reason to dispose of her body in another state in a storage locker, except to hide evidence of wrongful conduct.”

  In an effort to reduce the sentence, Larsen’s lawyer argued that the crime of interstate domestic abuse should encompass the crime of kidnapping, thereby avoiding the separate charges for kidnapping. But the court disagreed on the grounds that the victim, Teri, was held against her will, citing an earlier court decision where, “…the ‘holding’ requirement necessarily implies an unlawful physical or mental restraint for an appreciable period.”

  Regardless of his feeble attempts at defense, the cumulative evidence against Larsen was enormous: the bloodstained carpet, the storage locker, and Teri’s clothing, among others. By now, his defense hinged primarily on the constitutionality of the Commerce Clause and “multiplicity” issues (multiple charges). Larsen had, at long last, run out of ammunition.

  Bravely holding back her tears, Teri testified to the many acts of violence that David had inflicted upon her on that fateful day of her kidnapping. David Larsen sat almost motionless as she spoke, glaring and leering at Teri during her testimony, as if he were attempting to stare a hole through her in one final act of intimidation.

  But Teri knew full well that her ex-husband, abuser, and kidnapper would try something like this, and did not take the bait. She wouldn’t give him the smallest amount of satisfaction at knowing he could frighten her, and refused to make any eye contact with the man who tried to murder her. David’s overall appearance during the trial was glum, emotionless, and blank. There were no more second chances or loopholes, no avenues of escape. There was only the trial, and then, the sentencing. All he could do now was sit back and await his early, unintentional retirement.

  The State of Wisconsin sentenced David Larsen to thirty-seven years in a Wisconsin state penitentiary. The district judge defended his decision, based on the fact that Teri had also suffered a miscarriage. In the subsequent federal trial, David Larsen was sentenced to life in prison. And even though he had no prior criminal history, held a steady job, and was very active in his church, little (if any) of this mattered to the judge during the process of determining Larsen’s sentence.

  As one would expect, Larsen contended that his sentence was unreasonable because the district judge went two lev
els higher than suggested sentencing guidelines. The courts, however, upheld their sentencing. However, Seventh Circuit Judge Diane S. Sykes, wrote: "(The life sentence is) substantively reasonable given the cold-blooded brutality of Larsen's crimes and the extreme pain and anguish he inflicted, on Jendusa-Nicolai primarily, and on her family as secondary victims.” After the sentencing, Teri remarked, "His crime was incredibly brutal and horrifying and absolutely unprovoked. I've seen no remorse. He's a violent person and that's why I left him."

  Finally, after nearly a decade since she’d met David, Teri’s long, long nightmare was over, and the peaceful dawn had finally arrived. Larsen would die in prison, to haunt her no more.

  But Teri still had a high price to pay for her ordeal. She had to quit her job, and her husband, Nick, had to take off work in order to care for her. There were many doctor bills that needed to be paid, as well as several other medical expenses. To recover these losses and more, Teri filed a civil suit against David Larsen for monetary losses, doctor bills, pain and suffering, mental anguish, and the toll this nightmare had taken on her family. The court ruled in Teri’s favor, awarding her, Nick, and her daughters the majority of Larsen’s assets, netting her a total of over three million dollars in damages.

  Justice was served, and now David Larsen’s final chapter had, at last, been written.

  Epilogue: Teri’s Reflections

  In this interview, my editor Davis Yeo and I speak with Teri Jendusa-Nicolai about her new life in the aftermath of the kidnapping, including her message for women who may be experiencing abuse in their homes, whether it be physical, verbal, or psychological in nature. Regardless of motive or excuses, abuse of any kind is unacceptable on any terms.