Young Hero Saves Self, Mother
July 21, 2005 -- -- Thirteen-year-old Courtney Sharon doesn't see herself as a hero -- though everyone around her thinks she is for what she did nearly three years ago.
On Aug. 23, 2002, Courtney was at home with her mother, Carolyn Marksberry, and her siblings, 7-year-old Chelbi and 6-year-old Cody in the small town of Warsaw, Ky., when someone came banging on their door.
It was the middle of the night, and Marksberry's new husband, Chuck, was away on business. But the person at the door was Marco Chapman, a family friend, so she let him in.
As soon as Marksberry had her back turned, she says Chapman brought a knife to her throat. Police now believe Chapman had a secret drug habit and had been coming off a two-day crack and cocaine binge.
Marksberry says he took what cash she had in her wallet, and then tied her up, and began stabbing her. "I was terrified, absolutely terrified," Marksberry told "Primetime" co-anchor Cynthia McFadden.
Marksberry began screaming, and her children woke up to investigate. Chapman attacked them too. After he attacked Courtney, she pretended to be dead. When he turned his attention away from her, she decided to run for help.
It was a painful decision to make, since her brother had been critically injured. "I grabbed my brother's hand, and I said, 'I gotta go get help,'" she told McFadden. "He said 'No, don't leave me.' And I said, 'I'll be there in a minute, I'll be back.'"
Courtney fled out the back door and raced through the dark to the house of a neighbor -- who called 911. Chapman heard the door slam, and fled.
Authorities believe that's what allowed Courtney's mother to survive. "She not only saved her life, she saved her mother's as well," said Kentucky State Police detective Todd Harwood. Carolyn was minutes from death when rescuers arrived.
But Chelbi and Cody did not survive. The coroner says they died within minutes of their attacks.
But Courtney's work wasn't done. Police needed her help in identifying the attacker. She was able to describe what he was driving and what he was wearing, right down to the lettering on his T-shirt.
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