In 1961,This Little Girl Was Found Adrift At Sea. Decades Later She Revealed The Heartbreaking Truth

In 1961, this little girl was found adrift at sea. Decades later, she revealed the horrifying truth. In 1961, a freighter sailed around the Bahamas and its crew spotted something incredible in the waters below. A young girl, close to death, drifting through the ocean on a tiny cork float. But just how had 11-year-old Terry Jo Duperalt come to be lost alone in the Atlantic Ocean? Her story will shock and astound you in equal measure. Originally, though, little Terry Jo's visit to that part of the world was meant to be the trip of a lifetime for the Duperalt family. In fact, Dr. Arthur Duperalt, a 41-year-old eye doctor from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and his wife Jean, 38, had been saving money to make this journey for a long time. And the couple also wanted to take their three children, Brian, 14, Terry Jo, 11, and Renee, 7, on a vacation that they would never forget. So they chartered a boat, the 60-foot Ketch Bluebell, to take them on a week's holiday from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to explore the islands of the Bahamas. On November 8, 1961, the ship set sail with the Duperalt family safely on board. One Julian Harvey was the captain of the vessel, and he had brought his wife Mary Denny along for the ride, too. For four days then, the trip went just as the Duperalts had planned. During that idyllic period, the Bluebell headed east, aiming for the small islands of Bimini, and from there, the Duperalts hit Sandy Point, a community on the island of Great Abaco. Here was the perfect spot for the group to drop anchor and enjoy a spot of snorkeling. They also gathered shells on the beautifully colored sands. Then, toward the end of his stay on the island, Arthur Duperalt spoke with Roderick W. Pinder, Sandy Point's village commissioner. Reportedly, Duperalt casually commented, This has been a once-in-a-lifetime vacation. We'll be back before Christmas. Of course, Duperalt didn't know it then, but his prediction would never be realized. So the group set off, and on the evening of November 12, with a full night's return sailing ahead, young Terry Jo Duperalt decided to retire to her cabin for an early night. However, her brother's cries woke her later in the evening, and she knew immediately that something was very wrong. I was awakened by my brother screaming, Help, Daddy, help! Terry Jo, who now goes by the name of Terry Duperalt Fassbender, told Fox News some 50 years later. It was the type of scream that In fact, Captain Harvey, a 44-year-old military pilot with a troubled past, had chosen that particular night to murder his wife of just four months. The reason? It was later revealed that Harvey had not taken out a life insurance policy on Dean. Apparently, Harvey intended to dispose Dean's body overboard and report her as lost at sea. Interestingly, though, this wasn't the first time that Harvey had brutally lost a wife. Later it was reportedly discovered that the captain had extraordinarily escaped from a car crash that had taken the life of one of his five previous spouses. What's more, he had already received sizable insurance payments after both his yacht and his powerboat had sunk. However, with the newest apparent scam, things didn't quite go to plan. In fact, Dr. Duperalt allegedly saw Harvey attacking Dean and intervened only for Harvey to kill him. Desperate to get rid of any other witnesses to his crimes, Harvey then reportedly murdered the remaining members of the Duperalt family, who'd been awake during the altercation. That left just Terry Jo sleeping in her cabin. When she emerged a few minutes later, Terry Jo said that she found her mother and brother in a pool of blood on the cabin floor. Assuming they were dead, she then reportedly climbed on the deck to ask the captain what was happening. However, Harvey allegedly pushed Terry Jo backwards below the deck, where the girl returned to her bunk, cowering in fear. In fact, she said that it wasn't until the water began to fill her cabin that she ventured back up onto the deck. Then Harvey, who had apparently opened up the ship's sea valves with the intention of scuttling the vessel, gave Terry Jo a rope attached to a dinghy to hold. Later, Terry Jo's friend Richard D. Logan would speculate that Harvey planned on murdering the girl as well. Logan told Today in 2010 when he saw her on deck, he realized, oh my God, there's a possibility that she might survive. I better kill her. So he went forward to get a knife or something to kill her. But she did not hold onto the line. Instead, Terry Jo dropped the rope and Harvey allegedly dove into the sea to catch up with the dinghy. In effect, he abandoned her on the sinking ship. But the newly orphaned girl was a lot tougher than she looked. Terry Jo said that she then unfastened a tiny cork float from the boat and sailed away on it just as the bluebell disappeared beneath the waves. Thereafter, wearing just a light blouse and rosy pants, she was at the mercy of the elements. At night, she would have been freezing cold. During the daytime, on the other hand, the sun would have glared down hard and potentially scorched her skin. With Terry Jo drifting alone in the middle of the ocean, the odds were obviously slim that a passing plane or vessel would catch sight of her. But one day, a aircraft apparently passing overhead raised her hopes. Alas, though, the pilots did not spot her. That said, someone or rather something had spotted her. One afternoon, Terry Jo reportedly spied mysterious forms beneath the ocean's surface near to her raft. Coming closer, a panicked Terry Jo was soon relieved when she saw that they were only porpoises. However, the harsh environment soon took its toll and it's said that Terry Jo began to hallucinate. At one point, for instance, she apparently imagined a small barren island up ahead. But when she attempted to splash towards it, the island sadly vanished. At last then, Terry Jo collapsed into oblivion. Yet fate still had a hand to play. Eventually, Captain Theo, a Greek freighter passing through the Northwest Providence Channel that cuts through the Bahamas, discovered and rescued Terry Jo. She was near death with a fever of 105 Fahrenheit and suffering sunburn and severe dehydration. One of the crew also snapped a photograph of her frail form floating in the tiny boat on a vast ocean, and this image subsequently made headlines around the world. Three days previously, the Coast Guard had found Harvey floating in Bluebell's dinghy along with Renee's dead body. The killer had claimed that a sudden storm had battered the ship and sparked a fire, ultimately sinking the vessel. He also said that he had unsuccessfully attempted to revive the girl after finding her in the water. However, soon after the news of Terry Jo's rescue had reached him, Harvey took his own life. In fact, police discovered his lifeless body behind his hotel bathroom door. Meanwhile, Terry Jo recovered from her horrific ordeal in a Miami hospital, and soon, some seven days after the dramatic rescue, police officials were able to talk to the brave little girl. It was then that Terry Jo gave her first account of that terrible night. Terry Jo's family also later memorialized the deceased at the Fort Howard Memorial Park, Wisconsin. The plaque there states, In memory of Arthur W. Duperault family, lost off the Bahama Isles November 12, 1961, found in the hearts of their loved ones dwelling forever with him who is eternal life. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. However, life for Terry Jo went on. After being released from the hospital, she went back to Green Bay, Wisconsin to reside with her aunt and her three cousins. For the next 20 years though, she didn't speak to anyone about the traumatic events of November 1961. Then, in the 1980s, she began to open up to a few close friends about what she had experienced. This led her to seek psychiatric care and later co-author a book with Logan called Alone, Orphaned on the Ocean. In it, she discusses her experiences in depth. Terry Jo finally published the book in May 2010, almost half a century after the ordeal had taken place. Incredibly, during signings for the book, people from Terry Jo's past turned up. In a 2010 interview with CBS News, she said, We had a book signing last month and some of my teachers from 49 years ago showed up, just to see that I was all right after all these years. They said they were sorry for not being able to talk to me and help. In those years, they were told to pretend like it never happened. I learned to live with staying quiet. Terry Jo also reflected on her childhood ordeal through the words she spoke in her 2010 interview with Today. I was never frightened, I was an outdoors child and I loved the water, she said. She added, I had strong faith, I believed in God and I prayed for him to help me, and I just went with the flow. In fact, Terry Jo still works around water today. She has also credited the book as the culmination for her healing process, and she hopes that it will help other people looking to overcome incidents of tragedy in their own lives. I always believed I was saved for a reason, she said to CBS News, but it took me 50 years to gain the strength to be able to give other people hope with my story. A stranded 11-year-old girl hasn't been the only eerie sight on our oceans, though. In 2016, two fishermen came upon a seemingly abandoned yacht drifting 40 miles out to sea. They made a particularly grisly discovery that they would certainly never forget. Drifting out at sea with a broken sail, the yacht painted a desolate picture. But as the two fishermen approached the stricken vessel, they could never have guessed at the nightmare that lurked within. Peering into the cabin of the boat, the two men were greeted with a scene straight out of a horror movie. They had finally discovered the incredible fate of a German sailor lost at sea. 59-year-old Manfred Fritz Bojerat loved adventure. Born in the Ruhr region of Germany, he hated the cold winters of his native country, so instead he traveled the world aboard his 40-foot yacht, Sayo, in search of warmer weather. Over the course of 20 years, he traveled more than 500,000 nautical miles. He conquered the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, explored the waters of the Caribbean, and sailed around the Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea. Many of his journeys were done in the company of his wife, Claudia, but when they separated in 2008, he set off on his own adventure, one from which he would never return. At first, Bojerat kept his Facebook page regularly updated with his adventures, but in 2015, the updates abruptly stopped. Indeed, the last thing he did was contact a friend on Facebook to wish him a happy birthday. After that, nothing more was heard from the German adventurer. Then, on February 27th of 2016, two Filipino fishermen discovered Sayo drifting 40 miles out to sea, off Surigao del Sur in the Philippines. Looking inside the yacht, they came across a truly horrific scene. Unnerved by what they had seen, the two men towed Sayo back to shore. There, local authorities began to pick apart the grisly discovery. They found Bojerat slumped at the desk in his cabin, almost as if he were asleep, but the sailor had been dead for a long time, and they were staring at his mummified remains. Documents found on board the vessel allowed authorities to identify the body as Bojerat, but exactly how he died and just how long his grisly corpse had been sitting there remains a mystery. Inside the cabin was total chaos. Clothing, books, and tins of food were scattered everywhere. Near the body, they found several albums filled with photos of Bojerat and his family. In one, he shares a picnic with his wife and daughter. In others, they take in the sights of Paris. It later emerged that Bojerat's wife Claudia had tragically passed away from cancer in 2010. Heartbreakingly, before he disappeared, he left a tribute to her on the internet forum dedicated to sailing. Thirty years we've been together on the same path, it read. Then, the power of demons was stronger than the will to live. You're gone. May your soul find peace. Your Manfred. But just how did Bojerat's mummified remains come to be found adrift in the middle of the ocean? How had a man with so many years sailing under his belt met such an unfortunate fate? A fellow sailor recalled meeting Bojerat in Mallorca, Spain in 2009. He told Bild, a German newspaper, that he didn't believe human error was responsible for the man's death. He was a very experienced sailor, he said. I don't believe he would have sailed into a storm. It was also noted that Bojerat's body was found close to the radio telephone in the boat's cabin. Had he been about to make a desperate last call for help? The final minutes of this lone sailor's life remain a mystery. Forensic criminologist Dr. Mark Bennett had a theory on how Bojerat might have met his end. He explained in Bild, the way he is sitting seems to indicate that death was unexpected, perhaps from a heart attack. However he died though, Bojerat's lonely existence meant that his body was fated to drift the seas aboard the now unmanned yacht. But that wasn't quite the end of the story. In Seyo's cabin, the combination of warm temperatures, dry winds, and salty air worked to preserve the body, leading to its mummified state. And so Manfred Bojerat stayed sat at his desk, waiting patiently for the moment his story would be revealed to the world.