With each step she prayed that Luella Martin would be home. Pounding on Mrs. Martin’s door, she screamed in terror. “It’s Megan McCallister, please, let me in!” The door opened with Luella staring at her in shock—but before Megan explained, she leaped through the door, slammed it shut and locked the dead bolt. “A man,” she gasped, “in Dad’s house. He came at me.” Luella grabbed Megan by the hand, guiding her into a bedroom before closing and locking the door. Then she hurried toward the landline phone on the bedside table. “I’ll call 911.” As Luella grabbed up her phone, Megan checked her pockets for her own phone and realized that she must’ve lost it when she tumbled down the front stairs. She’d been approaching her father’s house when she saw someone lurking in the shadows of her dad’s porch. Unable to speak, she’d backed away from him. But when he charged her, she’d screamed and stumbled backward on the porch steps, barely getting up in time to escape the intruder and run to her father’s neighbor.
