Written by Yosef Michael on October 17, 2025.

Finding the place to begin writing about this experience has been complicated, because this one I do not want to have ever been part of my life. I had suppressed it for the last forty-six years of my life. In fact, I was trying to remember other events that occurred during that time frame, and I ended up recalling this.

This event occurred sometime between 1978 and 1989, when I was twelve or thirteen. I will add more facts once I can remember them.

Roy, my father, someone else, and I were heading to the lake for whatever reason. I do not yet recall why. The three adults had been drinking beer all day. When we were very close to the lake, less than a mile away, Roy, the driver, saw a mentally ill woman, about 38 to 40 years old, literally running away from her home as if she had escaped or something. Roy knew her family. Roy said, “Let’s catch her.”

Someone —or Roy, and my father — jumped out, caught her, and brought her into the van through the sliding side door, then closed it. I was sitting there watching from the very back seat, not knowing who she was or why she was running away from the place she lived. I expected Roy wanted to return her to her family. However, instead, he drove us back to his house.

Roy tried to convince her to have intercourse with him. He took her into his bedroom and tried to sweet-talk her; he called her names like honey, baby, sweetheart, and darling. However, she wouldn’t consent. He tried most of the night to manipulate her into agreeing. I drank some hard liquor, got drunk, and fell asleep, hoping these events were a nightmare that I would soon wake up from.

I do remember that sometime around 3:00 am-3:30 am, she came into the living room, where I was sleeping on the floor, woke me up, and said, “He is trying to kill me!” I looked at her in a fog of just waking up after being drunk, and heard Roy call for her to please, “Baby, please come back into the bedroom. I shut down emotionally and fell asleep again. I don’t know what the outcome was, if Roy had ever convinced her, or perhaps something worse.

As I think about that event, I understand the woman was incapable of consenting for at least two legal reasons: 1) She had a severe mental illness, and 2) They had kidnapped her; either way, it would have been rape, maybe two accounts of rape.

If you have read any of my older blogs or books, then you know that before this experience, I was already severely traumatized many times over. When I knew no one was taking her home, I wanted to call the police, but I didn’t. I froze, became exhausted, got drunk, and fell asleep in grief.

I was overwhelmed that my father had participated in the kidnapping, the kidnapping of a mentally ill woman, and he did not prevent Roy from trying to have intercourse with her. Roy certainly was the guiltiest, but the other man, and my father’s actions in this situation were morally bankrupt; they either didn’t care or didn’t see the crime that they committed, and no one stopped it.

After sunup, we all got into the van. Roy drove to where they had abducted the severely mentally ill woman, and they released her near the exact spot where they had kidnapped her, expecting that the family would be looking for her. They would find her, and not believe anything she tells them because of her severe mental illness and the stories that she was known for making up. Just because a mentally ill person says what seems fantastic doesn’t necessarily mean that there isn’t truth in what is said, just not being able to communicate it in a way that appears plausible or true.

Yesterday, October 16, 2025, I spoke with my psychologist about this. I gave more details as I cried that I had been a coward, not stopping them, and for not calling the police. Until she calmed me down, I was thinking about ending my life for not doing anything. That is why I decided to tell this story, and G-d forbid if someone finds themselves in this type of circumstance, they will be brave and call the police, and not shut down and freeze the way I had.

Today, if I were in the same type of situation, I would beat the living-hell out of the one attempting the kidnapping. I guarantee, the guilt I feel for not acting is worse than it would have been had I called the police.One other important thing to point out, under the Seven Laws of Noah, kidnapping and rape are both death penalty crimes. I’m not sure if I am subject to the penalty of death for not calling the police.