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CNN Live Today

Survivor of Hatchet Attack Confronts the Past; Riding Across America in Memory of 9/11 Victims

Aired May 09, 2006 - 10:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: To Fairfax, Virginia, now, the first fatal shooting of a police officer in the line of duty. A detective, the mother of two young children, died in the shootout. Another officer is in critical condition this morning after surgery. A third has minor injuries. Investigators say the 18-year-old suspect opened fire outside the police station. He was shot and killed at the scene.
Left for dead, a college student survives a hatchet attack. Years later, she gathers her courage and returns to the scene of the crime, determined to find her attacker. Our Ted Rowlands has the story. His report was prepared for CNN's "PAULA ZAHN NOW."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the summer of 1977, Terri Jentz, then a 19-year-old student at Yale University, set off to bike across the country with her college roommates.

TERRI JENTZ, SURVIVED HATCHET ATTACK: Oh, incredibly excited. It was going to mean everything that college wasn't giving us.

ROWLANDS: Starting in Oregon, the young women followed the bicentennial trail, a route that would guide them all the way to the East Coast. Seven days into the journey, they stopped to camp at Cline Falls State Park near the city of Redmond, Oregon.

JENTZ: It felt like paradise when we arrived here. It was so stunningly beautiful that it was hard to imagine anything bad happening.

ROWLANDS (on-camera): When you do come back here, the memories come back.

JENTZ: The memories do come back.

ROWLANDS (voice-over): Something bad did happen at Cline Falls, that almost 30 years later as she shows us where they set up their tent Terri says she remembers it all. When the girls were asleep, someone drove into their tent.

JENTZ: And I woke to a screech of tires and a heavy, heavy weight on top of my body.

ROWLANDS: Pinned under a tire unable to see, Terri says she listened in horror as her friend was attacked with a hatchet.

JENTZ: I heard a sharp blow, and then I heard about six more blows and then there was silence.

ROWLANDS: Eventually the attacker turned the hatchet on Terri.

JENTZ: What was going in my mind at that point is we're being -- this is a single individual, a psycho who is murdering us in this campground.

ROWLANDS: Terri says the attack suddenly stopped, and the man with the hatchet drove away.

JENTZ: I wasn't in any pain. So it was an odd sensation. And I felt I was all wet with my own blood, which doesn't feel like water. It is thick and viscous.

ROWLANDS: Terri says she was able to grab her flashlight and get to her feet.

JENTZ: At that moment I saw a pair of headlights coming around the park. And I thought this could be the same guy coming back to finish us off or it could be help. But I had to risk it.

ROWLANDS: Bill Pennhollow (ph) and his girlfriend Boo Isaak, two high school seniors on a midnight drive, pulled into the park and saw Terri waving her flashlight.

BOO ISAAK, HELPED VICTIMS: She was just covered with blood. I mean, just covered. She had a hack mark in her head. And it was dripping off her face, really. She was just a terrible mess.

ROWLANDS: Terri and her friend both survived. News of the hatchet attack was reported in newspapers across the country, and in central Oregon, people were stunned at the brutality of the random attack.

ISAAK: Totally disrupted the whole community. No one came to the park anymore.

ROWLANDS: Years would go by without an arrest.

JENTZ: I felt like I wasn't interested in who had attacked me. I wasn't interested in anything about the place where I was attacked.

ROWLANDS: But as she grew older that changed. Terri says she started thinking more and more about the attack and started having reoccurring nightmares. Eventually in 1992, more than 15 years after the attack, she decided to go back to Oregon to try to find out what happened.

JENTZ: I was just trying to piece together the story as much as I could.

ROWLANDS: Terri teamed up with Boo Isaac, the high school girl who helped save her. For months, they made phone calls and went to visit anyone with possible information.

JENTZ: I didn't have any idea who attacked me, and I really didn't think that I would ever find out.

ROWLANDS: But the more they investigated, the more they focused on one particular person, and eventually they say they were sure they had their man.

JENTZ: There isn't any shred of evidence that has ever turned up in all of these years that has indicated otherwise.

ISAAC: Basically, hundreds of people we have talked to have told us little bits, just they all point that direction.

ROWLANDS: The women went to the Oregon State Police with their findings, and Detective Sergeant Marlen Hein, now retired, was assigned to reopen the case.

MARLEN HEIN, RETIRED DETECTIVE: The nickname Dick Damm the hatchet man came out almost immediately.

ROWLANDS: Dick Damm, who was just 17 years old at the time of the hatchet attack was a suspect in 1977, according to police. And for years many people living in the area suspected Dan, to the point that they gave him the nickname hatchet man.

HEIN: I definitely feel that he did it. And I wouldn't hesitate to take that information to a grand jury and present it to them.

JENTZ: I don't think there's a chance he didn't do it.

ROWLANDS (on-camera): The man Terri Jentz says is responsible for attack is currently in this Oregon jail, and although he denied a request from CNN for an interview, for years he has maintained that he has absolutely nothing to do with the attack.

(voice-over): Right now he's awaiting trial in a robbery and assault case. Dick Damm has been in and out of jail much of his adult life on charges ranging from drug possession to kidnapping. Sergeant Hein and the women say in addition to the convictions against Damm, he's also been accused of some very violent attacks. They say they have interviewed many women who claim Damm tortured and abused them.

HEIN: He had assaulted and tried to drown another gal, had raped another gal.

ROWLANDS: There's also a lie detector test, which Damm took in 1995, the report filed after the polygraph concludes Damm was, quote, "deceptive" when asked about the attack. He did deny he carried out the attack, saying, quote, "I swear to God."

But the report also reads, quote, "Mr. Damm stated that he was very violent back then and very heavy into drugs." In fact, he says he showed up for the test under the influence. Dick Damm will never face charges for the attack on Terri and her friend because the statute of limitations has expired.

Terri Jentz has written a book about the attack and her mission to find the truth. And she says she is finally at peace. JENTZ: In order to move to the future, I had to go back and face my past.

ROWLANDS: Ted Rowlands, CNN, Redmond, Oregon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And you can catch more stories like that from Ted Rowlands on CNN's "PAULA ZAHN NOW," weeknights, 8:00 Eastern, 5:00 Pacific.

I want to show you some pictures we're just getting in to us here at CNN. This is General Michael Hayden, recently nominated to take over the CIA, walking alongside California Senator Dianne Feinstein. She's a Democrat, and has come out in support of Michael Hayden, even though there's some critics on both sides of the aisles of his nomination. More on that ahead.

Also we're looking at a journey coming to an end. Riders paying tribute to the flight crews lost on 9/11. It's a ride to remember, and we're there for the conclusion, when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: The costs keep going up, the questions keep coming. Planners at the World Trade Center site are trying to figure out the bottom line on the 9/11 memorial.

CNN's Joe Johns takes a look. His report aired on "ANDERSON COOPER 360."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN CAPITOL HILL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When the dust settled, the loved ones found, the immense human wreckage measured, everyone understood it would be a day to memorialize, a terrible day never to forget.

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (R), MAYOR OF NEW YORK: The greatest honor we can do them is to remember them.

JOHNS: Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke about the victims of 9/11 on the fourth anniversary of the attacks. But what he didn't say and what no one can seem to agree on is how to remember them.

RUDOLPH GIULIANI (R), FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK: We should think about a soaring, monumental, beautiful memorial that just draws millions of people here to just want to see it.

ROSEMARY CAIN, MOTHER OF SEPTEMBER 11 VICTIM: The majority of family members want a memorial that is going to be dignified, respectful, and historically accurate.

JOHNS: From officials to family members, there have been so many opinions on so many grand scales, and the costs and how to pay for it just gets bigger, if not more complicated. BLOOMBERG: There's just so many things we want to do in society. Every one of them has great merit, but you can't do them all, and you have to do many of them.

JOHNS: The current proposal is exquisite, dignified, thoughtful, a field of trees in the midst of Manhattan skyscrapers, with recessed pools in the footprints of the Twin Towers, a place of meditation. The first cost estimate in 2004 for the memorial alone was $350 million. Last year, it jumped to almost $500 million.

And now a new internal memo obtained by CNN calculates the cost of the memorial, museum and the surrounding infrastructure at nearly $1 billion. That includes an extra $300 million for new sidewalks, electrical systems and emergency operations centers, and then another $75 million for expansions to the museum's entry pavilion, exhibition hall and added lighting for the reflecting pools.

Politicians who have veto power over the project, like New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, say it is out of control.

GOV. JON CORZINE (D), NEW JERSEY: I like no surprises. Going from $500 billion to $1 billion without much of a warning seems to me to be a surprise.

JOHNS: Though some say you can't put a price tag on a memorial like this, take a look at the World War II Memorial in Washington. It opened in 2004 and cost $182 million, about a fifth of the current estimate for the 9/11 memorial.

(on camera): Why is the New York project so expensive? It's a big plan that keeps getting bigger. Plus, building almost anything in New York City is going to cost a lot more than building it almost anywhere else.

(voice-over): Private donors are expected to pick up at least some of the costs, but the overall project is nowhere near fully funded. And some family members of the victims are now saying the city is losing sight of what's most important.

CHARLES WOLF, HUSBAND OF SEPTEMBER 11 VICTIM: I think they need to go back and re-prioritize. We are memorializing the 3,000 -- close to 3,000 people that were killed that day, which my wife was one of them.

JOHNS: For the families, having a place to remember their loved ones may seem priceless, but what did the attack mean to New York, to the entire country, to the world? How much is all of that worth to get it built? How much is it worth to the taxpayers?

Joe Johns, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And you can see more stories like that on "ANDERSON COOPER 360," weeknights at 10:00 p.m. Eastern. Well, he's become a friend to us here on LIVE TODAY. Now the moving tribute that Tom Heidenberger is now coming to an end. The airline ride across America honors the 9/11 flight crews. Bike riders left Los Angeles last month. Each leg of their journey honored a different crew member who died on 9/11. They stopped in Phoenix and Dallas, and then headed to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, near the flight 93 crash site. From there it was on to New York. And today they go to the Pentagon. Today's ride is in memory of Tom's wife, Michelle Heidenberger. She was a flight attendant on American Airlines flight 77.

Tom is joining us live today for one last visit. Tom, good morning.

TOM HEIDENBERGER: Good morning, how are you?

KAGAN: I'm doing good, but the bigger question is, how are you doing? We have visited with you along the way. We have talked about the different flight crew members that have been honored, but today is the woman that inspired you to take this ride, your wife, Michelle.

HEIDENBERGER: Right. Well, she didn't just inspire me to take the ride, she's principally responsible for me getting exposed to aviation, a career in aviation, becoming a pilot. She was very supportive of me. And besides, she was just a great mother, a great friend. And it's a tribute not just for her, but to the 33 crew members, but also to the 3,000 victims who died that day.

KAGAN: How emotional is it going to be as you ride up to the Pentagon?

HEIDENBERGER: Well, the start already was rather emotional. We were 40 or 50 cyclists who left Columbia, Maryland. And as we went through the small towns like Clarksville and Ashton, Maryland, school kids were out on the highways, on the side of the roads, waving flags and cheering us, and it's -- there wasn't a dry eye. And for me, it's very, very emotional for obvious reasons, because today we're riding for Michelle.

KAGAN: Let's talk about the purpose of the ride.

HEIDENBERGER: The purpose of the ride is to create a public awareness to the 33 crew members who were the first of the first responders. They were the defenders and the leaders in the sky that day. Why shouldn't we, or why shouldn't I, lead and spearhead the fund-raising effort, the awareness to the three memorials at the Pentagon, at the World Trade Center and at Shanksville.

Here we are five years later now almost, why shouldn't we have these memorials completed? Not just for the families, but for all of America. Let's give them a place to go, and we'd like to do it. I would like to do it in the memory, and in the name and in the honor of the 33 crew members through donations through airlineride.org.

KAGAN: Started as a fund-raiser and a bike ride but I imagine it became much more than that. How has this Ride Across America changed you?

HEIDENBERGER: The biggest change in me, so to speak, is learning more about not just the country, but of the people of the United States. They come from all walks of life, all income levels. And it's just been very, very humbling, not just their support, but seeing how they live and what they do to make and earn a living and what they want to do so far as supporting the memorials.

For example, in Wickenburg, Arizona, was there an elderly couple who stood outside for three and a half hours just to wave us to. School kids out waving to us, people honking. I mean, it's changed me from the standpoint of having seen this country from above and really not having direct contact with people, now having ridden across the country almost 4,000 miles, dealing with the people, interacting with them, I'm very, very humbled, and it's an honor and a tribute for me to do this.

KAGAN: Your partner through this has been your bike, which I understand you have there with you with a few battle scars, perhaps.

HEIDENBERGER: Yes.

KAGAN: After today, will you be getting back on it or will it be a while before you want to ride again?

HEIDENBERGER: Well, the biggest question I have -- I've been asking myself -- is when I go for a ride again, how am I going to be able to go for a 20 or 30 or 40 minute ride when I've always been going for a few hundred miles? But no, I will ride again. I'll take a couple days off, rest, relax, catch up on paperwork -- because I've been gone for almost 40 days. And then I will ride again and I will continue to do this, ride in memory, not just of Michelle, not just in memory of the 33 crew members, but ride as an inspiration for the 3,000 victims and for all of America.

KAGAN: My final question to you. You've retired from the airlines. You've done the ride. Besides the memorial, what's next for you?

HEIDENBERGER: Keep doing what I'm doing now. Try to make a difference. Try to help get all these memorials built or get them the funding for it. If I can just add one thing. If everyone were to take a minute and donate a dollar, one dollar, it's a third of a gallon of gas, you wouldn't have the brew-ha with politics getting involved with any of the memorials. The money would be there for the memorials and they would be completed. Not five years later, not five years from now, but they would have been done.

KAGAN: Tom Heidenberger. Well, you did the pedaling and the hard work, but we got go along for the ride across the country. And I thank you on behalf of our viewers for that invitation.

HEIDENBERGER: Thank you very much. It's been a treat and an honor to do this and I'd like to do it again.

KAGAN: We'll follow you then. HEIDENBERGER: Okey-doke.

KAGAN: Thank you, Tom. We'll be thinking about you as you ride toward the Pentagon in honor of your wife Michelle.

HEIDENBERGER: All right, thank you.

KAGAN: Thank you. Tom Heidenberger. .

Well, grab that game controller and hold on for a different kind of ride. PlayStation 3 is on the way. LIVE TODAY is plugged into that on the power and the price.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

KAGAN: All right, Susan, thank you for that. Still ahead, would you name your baby after Lou Dobbs? There's a dare to do just that. We'll tell you at the top of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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