Taken Hostage: 'It Was Stay and Die or Go'

July 20, 2009 — -- More than once during the 12 hours that Nancy Tyler's ex-husband held her hostage, he pressed a gun to her head and made her beg for her life as he counted down to her execution.

"He had my head pressed to the desk with the gun at my temple, holding me down, making me beg," Tyler told "Good Morning America" today.

Tyler, handcuffed to a bolt in the wall, said she had no doubt that her husband would interrupt her pleading and pull the trigger during one of the many menacing countdowns. When he handcuffed her to a bolt in the wall, she was convinced that her only real chance to live was to escape.

Tyler's ex-husband, Richard Shenkman, took her hostage July 7 and issued several demands to the police and a judge to remarry the couple and then a priest so the priest could read Tyler her last rites. She was allowed to pray with rosary beads throughout the day, because as her husband told her, she "would need them."

During her terrifying ordeal, Tyler, 57, pleaded when she had to, prayed when she could, and rested her head on her former husband's shoulder at one pont in an attempt to soothe his rage.

Tyler told "GMA" that when she got a chance to escape, she took it. Shenkman said he rigged all the doors in the house to explode, but Tyler said when she pulled the bolt out of the wall, it was a chance she had to take.

"He started the countdown. 'She's going to be dead in 20 seconds.'... At that moment it was stay and die or go," Tyler said. "It was either die with a gun to my head or die by going out a door. So I ran."

After freeing herself from the wall, Tyler ran out the house, over a fence and into the arms of a nearby SWAT officer who looked to her "like an angel."

Minutes later, flames from a fire allegedly started by Shenkman, 60, engulfed the house the couple once shared. It was the end to an experience that Tyler said left her so exhausted that near the end of the 12 hours she was "almost ready to let him do it."

"I couldn't stand up; I could barely walk," she said. But she said what needed to be said and did what needed to be done to survive the day.

"That was one of the things I did to get him off the rampage he was on. ... That was a very frightening moment, but it was what I need to do to stay alive," she said.

Tyler's Attorney Fights Over Bond, Shenkman's Threats Revealed

Despite his intentions to die that day, Shenkman was captured by police and is currently being held on $12.5 million bond.

Tyler's attorney, Norm Pattis, plans to argue for Shenkman to be held without bond in a hearing Tuesday.

Shenkman's attorney is expected to argue for a lower bail amount when the 60-year-old advertising executive appears in court this week.

With Shenkman's history of alleged abuses and the other charges he faces in separate incidents related to the marriage's break up, Tyler said she worried about what will happen to her and her family if Shenkman is released.

"There were good times in the beginning. He was a very controlling person. That got worse and worse. The last three years have been hell," Tyler said. "At this point all I want is for my children and myself to be safe. I don't want any collateral damage. I just want to live."

She said she briefly took her ex-husband back in 2006 because he claimed to have cancer and asked her to be with him through the treatment. But she broke up with him again when she realized his cancer diagnosis was a lie.

Since then, she said her ex-husband made it very clear that he had nothing to lose. Tyler said in the past Shenkman had taken photographs of her at the gym, bombarded her with threatening e-mails and voice messages, and even sued her in small claims court for their dog's veterinarian bills.

The couple's appellate court file includes a cassette tape of more than a dozen voice mail messages from Shenkman to Tyler that contain numerous threats.

"We are not getting divorced," he said in one message. "It is not going to happen. Listen to my words. We're not divorced. We're not getting divorced. We were married till death do us part. We made vows in front of God. He was our witness, and you can only get your divorce one way, and that's death. You can only be unmarried by death."

Tyler worries the harassment will continue if Shenkman is released from prison. She believes he could make bond with financial assistance from his brother, a wealthy financier based in Greenwich, Conn.

A hearing is scheduled Tuesday for Shenkman to consider a request by New London state Attorney Michael Regan to revoke $600,000 in bonds that Shenkman had posted after previous arrests. Those include an arson charge for a 2007 fire that destroyed a home Shenkman and Tyler owned in Niantic. Like the home in South Windsor, it was burned to the ground just before Tyler was to take possession of it.

Divorce Nearly Turns Deadly

Shenkman also has a hearing scheduled in Hartford Superior Court Wednesday where he will face charges including kidnapping and arson in connection with the South Windsor standoff and fire.

The criminal charges are just the latest in a long list Shenkman faces that began during his divorce proceedings. Other pending criminal charges against him include threatening, violating protective orders and forgery.

The newest accusations against Shenkman result from a tense standoff that capped three years of contentious divorce proceedings between Shenkman and Tyler.

Tyler is a medical malpractice lawyer who worked for Shenkman's advertising firm in Bloomfield, Conn., and pair married in 1993.

A judge granted the couple a divorce last year, though Shenkman had been appealing. The state appellate court rejected Shenkman's appeal.

Tyler was preparing for a hearing in family court where Shenkman was supposed to surrender the possession of the couple's South Windsor home.

She arrived at her law firm's downtown office and noticed her ex-husband's car parked outside the building. Tyler said she immediately called her friend to tell her what she had seen, but as she was on the phone Shenkman grabbed her from behind.

Tyler said Shenkman claimed to have a gun and forced her to get in the back of the car. She had just enough time to scream to her friend that her former spouse was armed and that she should call the police.

Tyler said Shenkman shoved her into the driver's seat of the car while he got in the seat behind her. With the gun pointed toward her back. Tyler pulled out of the parking garage and headed toward the home.

Shenkman called the police to announce what he had done and made a series of strange requests, including asking for a priest and a judge. The 60-year-old wanted to remarry his wife.

For her sake, Tyler played along with idea of reconciling. The police even got the town clerk to fax a copy of a marriage license which Tyler and Shenkman both signed.

Tyler said her ex-husband also installed Skype on his computer so that a judge would be able to marry the pair via the computer.

Shenkman repeatedly told Tyler he planned to kill her unless all 12 of his demands were met. Tyler prayed and tried to remain calm.

As the drama unfolded with the home, police surrounded the residence and tried negotiating with Shenkman, who also called a local newspaper reporter to tell her about his demands.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.