In 2005, a man took the gun from a deputy on his way to his rape trial. He shot and killed the judge and court reporter before fleeing. Police launched a manhunt to find Brian Nichols.
Meanwhile, 26-year-old Ashley Smith had just moved into a new apartment to begin a brand new chapter. In the middle of the night, she returned from the convenience store when a stranger forced his way into her apartment. That stranger was Brian Nichols.
Over the course of the next seven hours, Ashley was held captive in a nightmare, and all she could think about was her 5-year-old daughter. As she begged Nichols for her life, Ashley kept saying her daughter's name. She told Nichols that she was a widow; two years earlier, her husband died, and Ashley coped by turning to drugs. Her daughter was taken away as a result of her addiction.
As the hours ticked by, Ashley began to develop a rapport with the killer, getting him to open up about his life choices. Nichols untied Ashley and became more relaxed. She began to read to Nichols from The Purpose-Driven Life, a book she was reading by a pastor named Rick Warren. “When I stopped, he said read it again. Something connected there of maybe you really do have a purpose and maybe I do too. He asked me what I thought his purpose was…"
What happened next is so incredible that it's been made into a feature-length movie. Watch Ashley tell her story in the video below, and please SHARE this with your friends on Facebook.
