Hoda Kotb Correspondent • Profile

St. Paul, Minn. -

Teri Lee: He followed me home … You know, it's creepy to have someone following you home.

Her name is Teri Lee. She's a single mother of four, afraid and maybe a little embarrassed.

(Police interview)
Teri Lee: It's terribly humiliating
Detective: Sure…

She's sitting in a Minnesota police station, doing something she never thought she'd have to do: being interrogated by a detective.

Teri Lee: This is disturbing to me because it's the third incident.

It's the third time Teri has had to talk with the cops about her ex-boyfriend. She says he's a man who just will not leave her alone, a man who's exposed her to a world of seedy sex. It's a world she doesn't want any part of.

Teri Lee: I didn't know that, that this was so out there.

But this day was just the beginning of Teri Lee's education in the darker ways of the world. Over the next four months, the 38-year-old would swap her routine life of PTA meetings and family get-togethers for a life of terror.

It would be a life that would test Teri and test her family and a life that would raise basic questions about who you can trust…

Hoda Kotb: It seemed like his whole life was a lie, didn't it?
Rachelle Ebner: Yes.

...and questions about who you can count on to protect you

Carolyn: Someone should have listened and helped.

It was all so far from Teri's beginnings.

Born into a loving family in a cozy St. Paul suburb, she was a high-spirited child nicknamed "T-Bop."

As a child, Teri would spend lazy summer afternoons at her parents' cabin on Big Marine Lake, splashing around in the water. Several years later you could still find her there on most weekends, splashing around with her children.

Vicki Swenson: It was my great grandparents [who] built it so it's been in the family for years. It really was a place for gathering, for food, just to build relationships. It's a good time.

It was at the lake house that Teri taught her younger sister, Vicki, to read. Just one of many life lessons Teri would teach her

Vicki Swenson [Teri's sister]: She was always that first person to call, the first person to find down the hallway when we were in school. You know that something was wrong, and she always said "Everything is OK."

"Everything is OK." It was Teri's catchphrase, said with a grin as she barrelled through high school. She was a gutsy athlete and a trusted girlfriend. And who could forget prom night?

Carolyn: We all gathered at Teri's house, kind of did the walk-through parade through her house. It was a special time

Here Teri is 17 years old, brimming with excitement as she joins the class of '86's Homecoming Parade. Teri was just as excited about her future.

The announcer at her Homecoming Parade said "She plans on going to college and someday settling down and getting married."

That dream came true in 1994 when she married Ty Lee, her junior high crush.

Carolyn: It was a really good fit. I could see it when they got married.

That same year, Teri gave birth to her first child, Taylor.

And then came Tyler, Trevor and Tara. Four children with T-names, just like their mom and dad. You could see them all speeding across the water at the lake house, sun-kissed and laughing.

Vicki Swenson: They worked really hard to buy a boat. There went Ty. That was his job for the day, was pulling kids on the tube. They very much valued being a family.

But Teri's family was about to be torn apart.

It happened on a dark county road, one winter night in 2001. Ty was driving home after a long day's work when he fell asLeep at the wheel. His truck swerved across the highway and hit a ditch.

Melissa Enge: It just soared into the trees, jumped over the driveway, hit one of those trees and then just tumbled.

Melissa Enge and her boyfriend, who had stopped to help, found Ty pinned under the cab of his truck. He had one thing on his mind.

Bill Enge: He was asking about his little girl … how she was.

Teri and Ty's eldest daughter, Taylor, had been asLeep in the passenger seat at the time of the accident. Now she sat by the side of the road

Melissa Enge: She was just upset. Crying.

A few hours later, Teri called her close friend Carolyn with terrible news. Taylor was OK but her husband Ty was dead.

Carolyn: Went down to the hospital right away and she was sitting there with a bag of his watch and his wallet and his things, and she was devastated. Just devastated.

Friends offered to pay bills and to help with child-care but Teri refused. She would say "Everything is OK."

Vicki Swenson: I think she knew everything wasn't OK but she didn't want anyone else to know. That woman was tough. Just incredibly resilient and strong.

Teri threw herself into her part-time job at 3M, the manufacturing company headquartered in Minnesota. Working there seemed a safe bet to Teri. That's where her friend Carolyn worked.

Little did Teri know that she was about to begin a dangerous journey.

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