Photo:Heal Squad
Heal Squad
WWE starDaria Berenatois reliving the terrifying night when she came face-to-face with her stalker.
In an exclusive clip for PEOPLE featuring her conversation withMaria Menounoson the journalist’s podcastHeal Squad, Berenato, 29, reveals what happened after a male intruder gained access to her Florida home when she was inside one summer night in 2020.
According to theTampa Bay Times, a South Carolina man named Phillip A. Thomas II, then 24, was later arrested for attempting to kidnap Berenato. While she was able to escape, police found the man still inside her home, armed with a knife, plastic zip ties, duct tape, mace and other items, per the newspaper.
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For Berenato, the night was was traumatic and had long-term impacts.
“That night after the incident, I thought I was gonna go back into the house and sleep there, because I was stubborn and I was in shock, and I didn’t know what was going on,” she says. “I didn’t know left from right at that point, and then the sun goes down, and I’m uncontrollably shaking, and I’m in a hotel room under an alias name because I’m so paranoid that even though he’s arrested, he’s somehow gonna find me, and I have the dresser pushed up against the door.”
Weeks later, she was living in a safe house, with armed security guards. Even when she went to the gym, her protection would follow her, she says.
“I mean, guys with guns standing at each door entrance of this home in a secured location, 24-7,” she recalls. “Just a constant reminder. I mean, it’s just weird. And I would go work out at the local LA Fitness, and he would come work out with me.”
She adds, “I didn’t feel the full effect of what had happened for months, because I was in full-blown fight or flight, I was living in fight or flight mode for months, maybe years.”
Yet Berenato says she was able to “see the dragon and slay it” after Thomas pleaded guilty to attempted kidnapping, aggravated stalking and armed burglary, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison and 15 years of probation.
The sentence came as a relief to the athlete, who at one point in her recovery, says she even told her dad she wanted to build a house with a moat, employ armed security guards at all times and have at least five attack dogs.
“Yeah, I was very scared. I was still in game mode,” she says. “I was still in ‘This is what needs to be done. This is what we have to do.’"
source: people.com
