Woman survives car ride beating from Chapel Hill to Durham
ORANGE COUNTY, N.C. (WTVD) -- A Roxboro woman is sharing her domestic violence survival story in hopes of saving lives.
Jasmine Cash says she was nearly beaten to death during a car ride with her boyfriend from Chapel Hill to Durham on Sunday morning.
The two were on a date at a nightclub when an argument turned violent.
"He hit me again, and I tried to climb out of the car. He restrained me. He put me in a headlock," said Cash.
The headlock would last all the way from Chapel Hill to Durham.
While her boyfriend drove with one hand, Cash says he beat and choked her with the other. She thought she was going to die.
"I was saying everything I could think of to make him stop beating me," recalled Cash. "Nothing would make him stop. After I said my prayer, I was able to get away."
Her boyfriend fled the scene. The U.S. Marshal Joint Fugitive Task Force arrested 23-year-old Terrail Hicks in Oxford on Wednesday.
He's charged with attempted murder, assault by strangulation, assault inflicting serious injury and kidnapping.
ABC11 tried to contact Hicks' attorney but got no response.
While authorities searched for the suspect, Cash shared her ordeal on social media. From likes to shares, the response she got was unexpected, including direct messages from strangers.
"I got over 2,000 messages from women and different people letting me know about their experiences like this," she said. "I saw that by me speaking it out it help a lot of other people to speak out as well."
Advocates of domestic violence survivors with the Durham Crisis Response Center say speaking out can save lives.
"She's amazing. She's alive to tell it and that is always a success story," said DCRC Director Aurelia Sands Belle. "It's a lot of reasons why women stay. But, for every reason, there's an option."
Sands-Belle says where there's help, there's hope.
She encourages victims to call their 24-hour hotline at (919) 403-6562.
Cash admits the assault wasn't the first time and that she was reluctant to report her boyfriend.
She wants other survivors to get out before it's too late.
She's wearing sunglasses to hide her swollen eyes, stitches, and a fractured jaw. She says she'll soon undergo surgery.
"The next time I might not have been able to tell my story," Cash added.
To contact the Compass Center for Women and Families, a Domestic Violence agency in Orange County, the 24-hour hotline is (919) 929-7122.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline is (800) 799-7233.
