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Escape from Brushy Mountain
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At a remote mountain campsite, Sean Farmer is in a life-or-death struggle with a gunman intent on killing him. Sean walked us through what happened next. He charged the shooter, and then....
Sean Farmer: He turned back towards me. Shot me in the chest.
Chris Hansen: Shoots you in the chest.
Sean Farmer: At that point, nothing happened. There was no more bullets, no more fire. So it was just, you know, staring each other down, briefly.
Incredibly, Sean absorbed a point blank gunshot to the chest, but somehow, he is able to turn and run for his Jeep. As he gets in, the gunman runs alongside, and lines him up for the finishing shot.
Sean Farmer: At that time, I just put my hand up. Hoping just to-- if he was gonna shoot me, shoot me through the hand, just, you know, block it a little bit. So I start the car. And once the car started, he went past me, and was from behind. So, when I started the car, I ducked down in the passenger seat, and just drove away.
Meanwhile, Scott Johnston has taken refuge in the woods. He's been shot in the back and the neck, and he remembers thinking he could bleed to death right there.
Scott Johnston: Oh, I mean, the blood was just squirting out of my neck. I mean, it was-- every time my heart beat, it was just, boom, boom. And, like I say, I mean, I just stuck my finger, ya know, probably a quarter inch down inside the wound.
Chris Hansen: And you know you had to get that wound plugged?
Scott Johnston: Yeah. I knew that--
Chris Hansen: Otherwise, you weren't gonna have...
Scott Johnston: Yeah. I woulda died right there.
Chris Hansen: ...much longer to live.
When Sean tore out of the campsite, he says he realized Scott was still back in the woods somewhere, wounded and bLeeding...but Scott saw Sean escape, and was already on the move.
Scott Johnston: I took off and I made it down through the woods. I was going to go down to the road. And meet Sean down at the road, and I saw his headlights coming and he stops and I jump in. I just screamed I said, "Go. Go." I said, "We're both shot and we gotta get outta here." And I mean, he just punched it.
But help is miles away from their Appalachian Trail campsite - a long, dangerous drive down a dark mountain road.
Sean Farmer: The first thing was just to get away from this guy. As far as away as possible. My first thing that I thought about was, you know, how far we are away. We were about five miles from any house. And at least 40 miles from probably a hospital.
Chris Hansen: You've both been shot twice.
Scott Johnston: Yeah.
Chris Hansen: Critically wounded.
Sean Farmer: Uh-huh.
Scott Johnston: Yeah.
Chris Hansen: Dark out. You can barely see.
Sean Farmer: Right.
Chris Hansen: How are you gonna get down this mountain?
Sean Farmer: I guess, you know, the saying, "Hammer down. Put the gas to the floor. That's what I did."
Scott Johnston: We went down that dirt road doing like 40 miles an hour - 50 miles an hour - on the road that you can normally do like 20. And - and I can look over, and I can see he's shot in the face. And I - and I'm worried, like, you know, he's shot in the brain, or something that, you know. It's dark. I mean, we're both shot. We're both bLeeding. I mean, we're both in a panic. There-- there's a small bridge that you have to cross the creek. We crossed that and then the road veers left. Well, when we veer left, the next thing I know the jeep just runs up on the side of the embankment. And, I mean, the rocks are flying and there's trees, and I'm screamin', "Sean, Sean!" And - and we - we come down off the embankment and we stop. He's shot in the face. And I was sitting there thinking, well, you know, he can't see. He's blacking out. I said, "Let me steer." And I said, "You just listen to me and I'll tell you when to work the pedals." But I mean, all of a sudden we just take off again. And I mean we're flying down the road. And the road curves in S turns you know turns. And-- and I, I mean, I'm steering from the passenger side. I--I'm holding my finger in the bullet hole right here to keep myself from bLeeding to death.
Scott Johnston: And-- and we drive down about two or three miles. And it comes to a really sharp curve in the road. And the next thing I know is-- is we hit it too fast. And I'm telling him, I'm like, "Slow down. Slow down." And-- and we just skid sideways in the road around that curve.
And the wheels probably come within a foot of going over like a - a 20 or 30-foot embankment. And - and we skid to a stop right there. Totally sideways in the road. And – and - and I'm like, you know, "Go, go, go." And - I whip it back around. And we take off.
Scott Johnston: And - and we make it down to the botTom of the mountain. And when we got down to where there's three or four houses, for some reason, you know, we passed the first or second house. And I just says - I said, "Stop here." I said, "These people are going to help us." And I jump out. And I run up to the-- the house. And - and I bang on the door. And I say, "Call 911. Call 911." I said, me and my friend have been shot. And they come to the door and they see me, and I'm soaked in blood - I mean from head to toe.
Meanwhile, Sean got out of the car and tried to stagger to the house.
Sean Farmer: I was - I guess - so drained. Because when I got out of the car I was almost - I almost fell down. I was just out of it.
Melissa Miller answered the door, and couldn't believe what she saw.
Melissa Miller: I thought it was one of my son's friends playing a joke. Until I actually went to the door and seen him holding his neck, and blood was running down. I said, "Oh, my goodness, this is not a joke."
Chris Hansen: This is the real thing.
Melissa Miller: This is the real thing. So I went and run to the phone and called 911.
But the Miller's home is about forty miles from the nearest hospital. Scott and Sean were still a long way from medical help.
Chris Hansen: How long did it take before the ambulance got here?
Melissa Miller: Forty-five minutes.
Chris Hansen: Forty-five minutes?
Melissa Miller: Yeah.
Chris Hansen: Did you think there was a chance they wouldn't make it?
Melissa Miller: Yeah, it crossed my mind. It really did. You know, I was scared.
Sean Farmer: Scott sat right here on this stoop, and I was over here on this corner.
The two friends sat on Melissa Miller's porch - together - wrapped in blankets, bLeeding, waiting for the ambulance.
Scott Johnston: The - the whole time we were sitting on the porch, my - my main concern was for Sean because I knew he was shot in the face. And, I mean, I was-- I was scared, ya know, that- that he was gonna die or something.
Sean says he thought he was going to be okay. He was worried about Scott, he says, and wondering who just shot them, and why?
Sean Farmer: I was beyond the point of thinking I wasn't gonna make it. I was more just pissed off more than anything. That was - I was just going through pain -
Chris Hansen: Why the hell did this guy do this to me?
Sean Farmer: Right.
Soon, Scott and Sean would find out that what happened to them had happened before in circumstances that were eerily similar: two campers attacked for no apparent reason, in the same woods, at virtually the same location.
But right now, the two men had one more harrowing, life and death ride to take.
Scott Johnston: By the time I was loaded in the helicopter, I was starting to, like, spit up blood. And--
Chris Hansen: That's not good.
Scott Johnston: I - I knew then I was sort of in trouble.
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