Live To Tell: River's Edge

College students Danielle Keener and Dan Zapp were out on a peaceful date, unaware at first that they are being stalked.

They are suddenly kidnapped at gunpoint and forced into a truck. The gunman brutalizes Danielle and pushes the teens to the edge of a river, shooting them both in the face.

The gunman thinks he's gotten rid of his witnesses… but he's wrong.

Well, as we were there, a red pick-up truck came up and stopped by us. And out comes this guy and he pulls a dog out - Rottweiler. He was asking us if we needed a ride and we, of course, politely declined.

He seemed normal. He got back in his truck and as we continued walking - this guy must have turned his truck around behind us. And he comes up next to us off to our right and blocks our path.

He immediately comes out of the truck with a gun pointed at us. He pointed it right at us and said, "Get in the f-ing truck."

And he was dead serious. At that moment I felt like I had entered a nightmare. It seemed completely unreal.

I remember Dan next to me was just saying, "Here, take my wallet; take my keys, my car. I can give you my car, there's a laptop in my car - just started offering him all these things or whatever. And he's like, "No, I don't want those things. Get in the truck."

It felt like we were driving forever. It felt like an eternity. At this point, this guy was just ranting and raving. He was just acting crazy. Completely crazy.

We just didn't want to be hurt so, of course, we were saying, "Whatever you want us to do, we'll do. Just please just let us go." And he eventually turned left onto this dirt road.

The three of us were standing there next to his truck. The river's in front of us and he's kind of pacing back and forth and has the gun in his hand, and to emphasize his points, he would kind of shoot the gun - shoot the gun towards the river - like "I don't know what to do" BANG. "You guys have seen my face. What am I going to do with you guys?" BANG.

When I first heard the gunshot go off it became more serious. This guy has the potential to end my life. I thought we were both going to die.Danielle Keener: I just kept thinking, "OK, what can I say to calm this guy down?" He was just acting crazy. We could tell that he was really frustrated and agitated and really getting worked up. I just remember huddling next to Dan during that time. When he was shooting his gun, he was shooting it into the river. It was almost as though he was doing it to scare us. And it did.

And then eventually, he told me to get back in the front of the truck and he had Dan get in the back with the dog. And I remember sitting in the front of the truck and he comes in and he comes into the side. And there we are sitting in the same spots again - him in the driver's seat and me in the passenger seat. And I had no idea what to expect next.

Well, as we were sitting there and waiting, he looks over at me and he says, "So, you said you'll do anything." And right in that instant I knew exactly what he was talking about. And I knew right then that I was gonna be raped. And I kind of just nodded my head. 'Cause I didn't want to die. And I definitely did not want Dan to die because of me.

So he did. He raped me.

And he took his gun and he kind of pointed it down for us. He said "Go. Go walk down there," which would be walking down towards the river. So Dan and I grabbed a hold of one another and we started walking down towards the river. And I was praying that he had gotten what he wanted from me. You know, that he was going to let us go.

And then I heard the gun go off again and then I saw Dan fall down and he fell down right in front of me. There was blood coming out of his mouth. And I knew that if Dan had gotten shot, I was gonna get shot - I was next. I immediately kneeled down and Dan and I -- we said "I love you" and we said goodbye to each other.

Everything just went black. I don't remember feeling any pain. But I just remember feeling a lot of pressure in my head. And the next thing I remember is waking up and I was in the river. And my whole body was just, I guess, numb. Like I really just couldn't feel anything at all. And I was spitting out things, so I figured I had been shot in the head - shot through the mouth. In that moment I prayed with more faith than I've ever had in my whole life and I just said, "Please, dear Jesus, just take my soul."

Soon after that moment is when I spotted Dan.

I remember when I saw him just being, you know, "Oh my gosh, Dan's alive." And just trying to get towards him with, like, everything I could. And I eventually got to Dan, and I grabbed hold of him so tightly. And we looked back at the shore where we had been and we saw this guy just standing there staring at us. The gun was still in his hand and I remember Dan saying to me that, well, "If we just play dead, if we just don't move and just kind of float down, he'll think we are dead and he'll leave." And eventually we kept watching him and we watched him get back in the truck and leave.

If I did not have Dan there to guide me I don't know what I would have done. I mean, he was put there to save my life in the river.Pete Prowell, Hunter I was sitting in my truck and I looked upstream and I saw two objects coming. I saw that it was two people. And when they got down to me, I stepped in the water and reached out and got a hold of his hand and pulled them in to shore. And then I saw that they were both shot in the head.

At that point, neither one of them could talk. They were shaking violently. I had to get help at that point, and there happened to be a car coming down there. And I stopped them, and I told them what happened, and I said, "You got to go up town here and get help."

At that time, he started to bleed very bad and he couldn't talk. The blood was choking him and he just couldn't talk. I thought they'd be lucky if they can make it.

Brent Keener, Danielle's Father: It was the evening of Jan. 8. I had a phone call that "Dani's been shot in the face." I went and opened a drawer on the way out the door and I picked up a photograph that I carried in my lap with a cell phone. I wanted part of her with me. And the photograph was the first thing that I was able to find. And I clutched that and kept that with me - talking to the photograph from Harrisburg to York Hospital.

During the drive down, I could only pray that she would be OK. I had no idea if I was gonna ever see Dani alive again - if I would ever get to hold her again.

Elizabeth Martin, Danielle's College Roommate: The drive to the hospital with my mom was really, really scary, because I didn't know what I was going to see once I got to the hospital. I didn't know what I was going to hear. I just knew that I immediately had to get there to see how Dani was doing. It was so scary, because this was one of my best friends and I didn't know if she was going to make it. And if she did make it, I didn't know how she was going to be - if she was going to be the same person.

I met Dani on the first day of freshman orientation at Susquehanna University. One of the first things I noticed about her was that she was just a really kind-hearted, genuine person. She had a great personality and she was just as enthusiastic about college as I was. So I knew that we would get along really well.

A couple of months into freshman year, a mutual friend introduced Dani to Dan Zapp. She met up with him for dinner, and they had a lot to talk about. And she just really felt like she had a lot of chemistry with this person. And she couldn't wait until the next time they met up.

I didn't know how something like this could have happened. I couldn't imagine who would want to do this to the two of them. We saw Dani's mom there in the hospital, and she told us all the details of the injury. My first reaction was that the two of them were not going to make it. I thought that the shot to each of their heads would kill them.

Dr. John Hankle, York Hospital: The most extensive injury on the female patient involved the right lower jaw. The bones were shattered in so many pieces that it looked like Rice Krispies. We noticed tremendous facial swelling. The patient's face and head were almost the size of a bowling ball.

Brent Keener: The feeling that I had when I first saw Dani in that condition was this sense of helplessness. I, as her dad, I couldn't fix the problem for her that dads like to do. And then knowing that my innocent, sweet daughter was laying there in that condition and, you know, asking, "Why?" Of course at that time nobody had an answer. Det. Doug Demangone, Northeast Regional Police Dept.: The brutality of this crime is beyond explanation. How do you victimize two innocent people, kidnap them, terrorize them, sexually assault the female victim, then shoot them in the head, push them in a river and leave them for dead? I think everyone was just shocked. Everyone was angry. Everyone was upset. We need to get this guy. And we need to get him now.

Police Chief Darryl Albright, Northeast Regional Police Dept.: Being a father of two daughters the same age, I was deeply concerned about this case. I told the mother we would do everything we could humanly possible to identify who did this and bring them to justice.

This was quite an undertaking -- the fact that we had so much area, so much riverfront to explore and look for a crime scene. We were walking pretty much shoulder to shoulder, looking down at the ground in front of us, and within minutes, I came across a large pool of blood that was about three foot up from the water's edge. And I looked down into the water, I saw about three shell casings from a 9mm handgun in there.

Det. Demangone: The clock was running and we needed to get as much information as we could. I was assigned to go down to York Hospital to attempt an interview with Dan and Danielle. Unfortunately, Dani was in an induced coma, so we were unable to interview her. We learned that Dan was awake and that we needed to interview him as soon as possible. Dan's wounds at this point were very serious.

Dr. Hankle: The male's medical condition was critical. They were very concerned a blood clot could form and cut the blood supply to the brain.

Det. Demangone: He was in pain. Any kind of movement that he would make was very painful for him. But he was eager to help us. Being that Dan was unable to speak because he was on a respirator, we got a notepad from the hospital and a pen. And we gave that to Dan, and we proceeded to ask him questions about the description of the suspect.

Dan described the perpetrator as being a white male, 35 to 45 years of age, very drunk, blond hair. He had a brown hat, blue jeans, and black Nike high-top sneakers. He described the weapon as a black semi-automatic pistol, and the dog, of course, this black Rottweiler named Sam.

Dan was able to provide us information about the vehicle as being a beat-up red pickup truck with a white or gray cap. He described items in the back to include a toolbox and an aluminum baseball bat. We were looking for a violent person, someone with knowledge of the area, and this dog.

---

See Dan's Note to Police

---

I then took that photo lineup down to Dan. And I asked him, "Can you help me?" And as I had the pictures in my hand, and I'm laying them down in from of him, Dan's watching as I'm putting the pictures down. As I get to Mr. Babner's picture there was an instant reaction in his face of pure horror. His pupil dilated. His one eye was swelled shut, but his other eye, I mean, BAM - I saw his pupil go.

He immediately just started hitting the picture. He's hitting it, he's hitting it, he's hitting it on the table. And I said "Dan, is that the man?" And he said, "Yes, it's him." And I said, "Are you sure?" And he said, "Yes, definitely," and he's hitting that [picture]. And I looked at him and I said, "Dan, we're going to go get him."Danielle Keener: When I was in the hospital I had one hallucination after another because of the pain meds. I was flipping out. I was so scared, and the nurses had to come in and calm me down. At one point I was seeing bloody images everywhere. I saw, like, a woman hanging with blood running down her face. It was like, blood was everywhere.

Brent Keener: She would doze off for 10 or 15 minutes at a time, and when she would wake up she would be pointing to an area like there was something there. And she would write down on paper or draw what she saw: floating bodies in the air, bloody faces. It was hard to sit there and again not be able to help, only to comfort her in the best way that I could, by holding her hand. I couldn't fight all those demons that she was having inside of her at that time, but I tried.

Det. Demangone: I notified everyone that we had a positive ID on the suspect. The problem was we didn't know where he was. We looked for him at known associates houses, residences, anywhere we could possibly find him. But we were unable to locate him. It was late. We had been working all day. We broke. I went home and took my gun off, took my badge off. And I remember I was climbing into bed and my pager went off, and it was the chief county detective. I called him and he said, "We found the truck. Get back in here."

Capt. Roland Camacho, York Police Dept.: I had a phone call saying they were activating the QRT team. The Quick Response Team, which is another word for SWAT team, is utilized for barricaded gunmen, hostage rescue and high risk warrants. This was a special type of criminal - a very, very violent one. We didn't know if he was armed for sure, but we assumed that he still had the weapons that he used to commit this crime. He shot two people in cold blood. We weren't gonna take the chance that he threw those guns away.

We discovered that William Babner was staying at his girlfriend's house. By the time we arrived it was about midnight. We deployed the team and were set up about a house away. We were in the alley, sort of in the shadows, crouched down, hiding. Snipers were set up to cover the front of the house. Sometime early in the morning, a female left the residence. And she gave a whole bunch of information about who was left in that apartment.

Det. Demangone: And it was learned that at round eight in the morning, Mr. Babner's youngest child would be coming out to get on a bus. The plan was that once that child got on the bus, and that bus started taking off down the road, that we were to assault.

Capt. Camacho: We're hearing the snipers looking down at them, "OK, we have an open door. There's a child. There's a man. Yes, it's Babner. He's in the door." And we're still waiting and we're hearing, "The child's going down the stairs. The child's getting on the bus. The bus is taking off. Go! Go! Go!" I was about the third man through the door. I grabbed him. And I was yelling, "Let me see your hands! Let me see your hands and get down to the ground! Get down! Get down," and physically took him and knocked him to the ground. We cuffed him, and that was it. He was shocked. It's not every day that you can say you put your hands on a monster, and that's what I did that day.

Det. Demangone: During the execution of the search warrant, all this stuff that Dan had seen was there. We found the black Nike high-top sneakers, blue jeans, his shirt, the hat, as well as the firearm. To no surprise to us, Sam [the dog] was just as Dan had described him. Dan's recollection was just outstanding. The mere fact that he could recall the details he recalled was very surprising to me. We had a who, what, when, where and how, but not a why. And you know, I don't think we'll ever know the why.

Chief Albright: After Babner was captured, I had a big sigh of relief, but I knew our job was just beginning then. We had to hope for the best for the two kids, that they'd be able to come to trial and testify against him. I still wasn't sure of the conditions of either one of them.

Danielle Keener: When I was in the hospital they put me in an induced coma. While I was in the induced coma they sewed my tongue. My jaw had been shattered so they added a plate in my jaw. So when I woke up, I had a tracheotomy. So I had a tube coming out of [my throat]. I had a stomach tube when I woke up. I mean, I was bandaged. And swollen. My jaw was like, out to here. My mouth was wired shut. My teeth were all dirty, like there was dirt in my teeth. And when I looked at myself in the mirror, it was only from here on up, but when I looked at myself, I started to cry. I hated what I saw.

That first picture that Dan and I ever took together of me and him and my car, it was right next to me on the bed. I knew I remembered watching Dan walk out of the river, and I didn't know what had happened to him since then. I really had this feeling that he had died, that he did not make it.

When I woke up from the hospital, I kept asking my family, "Where's Dan? How's he doing?" And my family kept saying, "He's alive. He's doing really well. He's right down the hall from you." And I did not believe them. I thought that he had died. And so he wrote me a note and it said, you know, "I love you. I'm OK." And after I saw that, I knew that he was alive. I knew that he made it. Dan Zapp: I never had any idea how close I was to dying, even after I had been back at the hospital.

The bullet entered back here [behind my ear]. There's a tiny lump. And it went straight through my windpipe, and outta my jaw, and it exited [through my cheek]. It wasn't until much later that I heard how the bullet had chipped one of my vertebrae, how the bullet had passed straight through my windpipe. You know, if the bullet had been another inch or a few millimeters closer to my vertebrae, I could be dead or paralyzed.

When I saw the picture [of Babner] the first time, I was scared at first to see his face again, but I was extremely excited; extremely relieved that I had found him. I knew this was him. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt this was the guy who shot us. Whether he admitted it or not, these are things that he had done, and he was going to have to pay for them.

SIX MONTHS AFTER THE SHOOTING

Ed Paskey, York County Prosecutor: Nobody wanted to take this case to trial. And we certainly didn'T want to have Dan and Danielle go through this experience, but he left us no choice. He just wouldn't admit his guilt. He wanted his day in court for whatever bizarre and sick reason. He got it.

Danielle and Dan were both very emotional before the preliminary hearing when they entered the courtroom for the first time. We just tried to tell them they would be safe. He could do nothing further to harm them.

Danielle Keener: I was terrified to see him again. I mean he was a monster to me. I did not want to be in the same room with him.

Dan: I felt just full of fear again. That face had just instilled so much panic inside of me.

Ed Paskey: Babner did not testify at trial. I don't recall him calling any witnesses. He had nothing. He had nothing but his arrogance. He just sat there, and it was almost like he either wanted to have Dan and Danielle relive this by recounting what happened in a public forum, or he just frankly didn't care. When Dan and Danielle were testifying at trial, it was completely silent in the courtroom. You could have heard a pin drop.

Danielle: When I was on the stand, I mean there were times when I had to break down. I mean, they had to show me the evidence so I could point it out. They showed me the clothes that were cut off me, so it was the first time seeing that. And there was like mud splattered all over them. Y'know: the gun. "Is this what the gun looked like?" It was really hard to experience and sit there and share that with everyone. And I knew that my family was sitting there, so I knew all the details I was sharing, especially about the rape, my family was hearing it, too

Ed Paskey: The amount of courage that Danielle showed during that trial was unbelievable, because she had to tell total strangers some of the most intimate details that she could ever possibly have to relate to anyone. Dan saw the crime from a different perspective than Danielle. So the jury was very interested in what Dan had to say.

Dan: I was trying to come up with any plan to get us out of that situation. I thought I just need to find a way; I just need to find how we're going to escape this, because there's gotta be some way to get out of this. And I start to try to plead with him and I said, you know, "Sir, I'll give you anything you want if you just let us go." He just told me to shut up. He said, "Shut up, I don't want to hear it from you."

At some point I realized that they started to move around up front. I realize that he's raping her. That was really hard, to know that something that terrible was happening to somebody I cared about, and I was that close, but I couldn't - there was nothing I could do about it. After he had raped Danielle he motioned with the gun, and he said, "Walk down there. Walk down by the river."

The real gravity of the situation started to hit me. I started to realize that I'm going to die today. That no matter what I try to do, this man is going to kill me. And today is going to be the last day of my life.

All of a sudden I just felt this tremendous force. This impact that just hit me and knocked me right to the ground. And it was so sudden and it was so powerful that my mind couldn't even catch up to it. I wasn't even sure what had happened until I hit the ground. I didn't even know that I had been shot. And I was just sort of laying there looking at the dirt and I realized that there just was like blood coming out of my mouth. And I started to get really cold and I started to get really tired very fast.

She kneeled down and she was obviously upset and I just said to her, "Dani, I'm sorry I have to go now." The next thing I remember is this feeling of being rolled; of my body turning end over end, and then all of a sudden, the shock of cold, of like freezing cold as I hit the water. And so I just started to float in the water and drift downstream with the current. It was right around that point that I noticed that Dani was right there too, and she had been floating along in the river.

Danielle: I don't know what I would have done if Dan had not been there. Dan was my lifesaver in that river. I remember at one point our hands separated from each other and I could not move on my own. And he felt my hand slip from his. And he turned back around and he swam back and he grabbed me and pulled me to shore. I do not believe I would have survived without him.

Ed Paskey: Dan will never admit this, but he truly is the hero of the entire case. He was constantly thinking. He was constantly encouraging. Without Dan, Babner has no face and is not apprehended. Without Dan, Danielle isn't able to swim in the water. Dan kept both of them alive.

Dan: It's still tough, I still don't consider myself a hero in any sense, but I'm glad I was there. And if me being there means that she survived, I'd do it again. I'd do it again a thousand times.

Danielle: When the verdict came, I remember sitting next to Dan and I was holding on to Dan's hand. And [Babner] was charged guilty on all accounts, on everything that he was charged with. I mean I just remember afterwards like this flood of relief going through me.

Ed Paskey: William Babner was convicted of two counts of attempted murder; two counts of kidnapping; one count of robbery; three counts of involuntary deviant sexual intercourse, one count of rape. His sentence was 117 ½ to 235 years in a state correctional institution. William Babner is the face of evil. The next time Babner is gonna get out of prison, he's gonna be in a box.Dan Zapp: Danielle and I stayed in touch after the incident. We tried to talk occasionally, but our relationship wasn't anything like it was before. It was like every time that I talked to her, I had to bring up the past all over again. I had to think about all the things that I thought I had done wrong, all the ways that I couldn't save her and I couldn't get us both out of that situation. And most of the time I couldn't stand it. And over a period of time I started to pull further and further away.

Danielle Keener: Transitioning back to being in college was really hard for me. I really struggled with being around men that were strangers to me.

Elizabeth Martin: At first she was a little withdrawn. You know, she was very scared. She didn't want to walk alone at night. She did have a lot of nightmares, and it was upsetting for all of us because we really wanted to help her. And we really - we didn't want her to be scared or sad. But with the circumstances, there really wasn't any other way. That's how she was.

Danielle: I knew though, in the back of my mind, that there was still a lot that I had to do personally in order to feel as though I could you know, live again.

Elizabeth Martin: Four months after Babner was convicted, we had Take Back the Night on the Susquehanna University campus. And what Take Back the Night is, is a rally against rape. Everybody can attend, and they can get up and speak about their experience with rape or violence.

Danielle: And I saw all these brave women walk up to the microphone and just share, you know, "I'm a rape survivor," and share parts of their story. It was just so inspiring and so empowering that they had a voice that they were able to share.

Elizabeth Martin: There was about 10 minutes of silence. Nobody was getting up to speak, and Dani got up to speak. And we knew she was gonna tell the whole story. And we knew that she was gonna share this with everybody, and that was probably the most emotional moment for all of us because you could kind of see the bravery in Dani, and the growth that she was making, and how strong she was. She just got up there and she told the whole story. And it just really moved everyone, and it really moved all of us. And we were so proud of her. We were really, really proud of her.

Danielle: I just, I felt so much power and so much strength. And part of what I felt he had taken from me, I was able to pull back and say, "You know what, he may have taken a few things, but there is so much that he didn't take, that he couldn't touch. And that is what makes me who I am."

Dan: I think it took me a lot longer than it should have to get to a more comfortable place in dealing with the incident and talking about it and looking at it from a healthy perspective. I knew that I should be getting therapy, you know? I should be dealing with it. I just really didn't want to. I wanted to try to ignore it and just hope that eventually it went away. In the last eight years, I feel like I've grown up a whole lot.

Regarding the incident, my perspective has almost entirely changed. Danielle and I, we've really reconnected over the past couple of years. We've really started our relationship over from where it kind of ended. We're really close now, and I consider her a great friend and someone who I hope to know for the rest of my life.

Danielle: Dan met an amazing woman at college who has been such a great companion for him. She has definitely helped him to get to that next level in his own survival and healing. They got married in 2007.

Dan: I feel like everything's kind of going in the direction I always wanted it to go. And I'm just really happy for everything that I have right now.

Elizabeth Martin: In spring of junior year, I introduced Kevin MacGuire to Dani. And they connected instantly and dated, fell in love, and he proposed to her just a couple years later. The police chief and the men who rescued Dan and Dani, including the duck hunter, were all guests at the wedding, as well. Dani was so beautiful at her wedding. She was glowing.

Brent Keener: Dani looks absolutely wonderful. She is just doing great, and looking great. And [I'm] extremely proud of her.

Danielle: I'm so happy that I have made it to where I am today. The gratefulness that I have for my beautiful baby girl and my husband that I have I don't have to think about what happened to me every day. It doesn't define me anymore. I have learned how to make it a part of who I am. It has made me a better person.

Dan: Danielle and I are forever intertwined. That's like a connection that no one else can ever take away from us. She's always going to be a part of my life.

Danielle: It's as though our souls are connected. He'll be a part of my life forever.

Did you look death in the eye and live to tell?
Share your survival story

Created by Judy Tygard
Produced by Katherine Davis, Michael McHugh, Alan Miller and Kevin Hayes