PARK HILLS, Mo. — A Park Hills woman is saying it's a miracle she's alive after she was found badly beaten by her former partner. And now, she's working to help other women so that no one has to experience what she did.
"It was an open skull fracture on the front and it was a closed skull fracture on the back, which means it caved in. And then the bleed was somewhere in the front," described Melanie Seiberlich.
Seiberlich said Brandon Downs beat her and left her to die.
"He'd give his shirt off his back to someone who needed it even if he had another shirt. But when it flips, it flips, and it's completely opposite."
According to her, Downs flipped on April 27. He showed up at her Park Hills home unannounced and refused to leave.
"I came in the garage and he was just there. It started right there. It was that fast. There was no time to think to really do anything."
Downs began dealing blows, and Seiberlich said she passed out with little to no memory of what happened.
Her constant reminder: blood stains in her bedroom that she can't seem to scrub out.
"That's the last place I remember, and for some reason that bothers me. I thought I'd be OK with everything, but that's my bedroom. That's where you're supposed to be safe and you're supposed to sleep, and it bothers me."
Seiberlich escaped and was found hiding underneath a nearby van until she mustered up the courage to knock on a neighbor's door.
She was taken to the hospital where she was treated for a skull fracture, a brain bleed and five broken ribs.
"'Boo! I'm alive. Did you see a ghost?'… I want him to see that he didn't do what he set out to do. Whether he meant to before or not, he still didn't accomplish what the end result was gonna do."
She's sharing her story in hopes that anyone else who may have been a victim of domestic violence finds the courage to come forward.
"I got very, very lucky and I don't wanna see anybody else not be so lucky."
Downs is now in custody. Police say they arrested him last Tuesday after a short chase.
He is currently being held on $250,000 cash-only bond.
Resources are available for anyone who is in a violent or abusive relationship. StartHereSTL.org has several phone numbers and websites listed online. You can also contact the Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-4673 or reach out to them online at RAINN.org.
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