Torture Box: Eduardo Valseca

0:01Elizabeth Smart This episode contains descriptions of kidnapping, physical abuse, torture, starvation, and other disturbing events. Listener discretion is advised.

0:12Eduardo Valseca They opened half of the box and they pushed me inside. They pulled the pillowcase off my face. And I found myself in this tiny little box.

0:24Elizabeth Smart It's like something out of a horror movie. Eduardo Valseca has been stripped naked and imprisoned inside a box. The sides are just inches away from his body, and they're covered in sandpaper.

0:37Eduardo Valseca I was bleeding because if you move a little bit, you rub against the sandpaper.

0:43Elizabeth Smart And the terror is only rising because Eduardo has no idea what they want from him.

0:49Eduardo Valseca They never spoke a word. Never.

0:52Elizabeth Smart No voices. No explanation. Just Eduardo. In a box with a terrifying realization that his captors can do whatever they want to him.

1:04Eduardo Valseca I knew I was going to die. I knew I was going to die.

1:10Elizabeth Smart My name is Elizabeth Smart. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped from my home and held captive for nine months. I survived. Now I'm on a journey to uncover how other people survived the moments that should have destroyed them. In their own words. Today, Eduardo Valseca is taking me inside his real-life horror story.

1:34Elizabeth Smart To understand how he ended up inside that box, we have to go back to the beginning. This is the story of what happens when survival demands more than you ever knew you had. Eduardo, thank you so much for being willing to share your story with me today. I think it's an incredible story of hope and resilience and endurance. And I just, I so appreciate you taking the time and being vulnerable enough to share it with me.

2:04Eduardo Valseca Well, Elizabeth, it's really an honor for me to be here with you. This is the first time ever that I'm being interviewed by another person that is being a victim. And that makes a huge difference because most people have no idea what you and I went through. So I am full of gratitude that you're here with me.

2:31Elizabeth Smart Eduardo Valseca grows up in Mexico as the son of a famous newspaper magnate, not unlike America's William Randolph Hearst.

2:40Eduardo Valseca Everybody knew him. He was popular. He had a symbol of being successful. being rich and all of that stuff.

2:50Elizabeth Smart As an adult, Eduardo becomes an art dealer, traveling between Mexico and New York City to buy and sell at notable art houses like Sotheby's. He eventually marries and settles in the U.S., where he has two children. But when the kids are 17 and 21, he and his wife separate. But love isn't finished with Eduardo. In a chance encounter that will change his life, he locks eyes with a woman who has stopped to use a payphone.

3:19Eduardo Valseca I felt a click. I don't know how to explain. I never felt that in my life ever before. I don't want to use a spirit.

3:26Elizabeth Smart It was like love at first sight.

3:28Eduardo Valseca Totally. Totally.

3:32Elizabeth Smart There's a big age difference. She's a 25-year-old actress, while he is 43 and divorced. But the attraction is undeniable. In time, their relationship blossoms and they get married, leaving the United States for Mexico. There, Eduardo and Jane have three children together. They buy a run-down 1,000-acre ranch and begin to renovate the property, creating a magical place for their children to grow up with a garden, animals, horses, and even a school.

4:02Eduardo Valseca In the beginning, there were like 14, 15 kids. And then we end up like 300 kids. Oh, my word. Yeah. We were honestly in heaven, in absolutely heaven.

4:16Elizabeth Smart The school becomes the heart of their community. It's where their children learn and where many of their friends' children do, too.

4:23Eduardo Valseca We would always take them to school every morning, both of us. And on the way to school, we were always singing, thanks to the beautiful day and the universe. And the school was only a mile away from our home, so it was a very close relationship. drive, just a few minutes.

4:43Elizabeth Smart It just sounds like you had just honestly like a magical life there.

4:48Eduardo Valseca We did.

4:50Elizabeth Smart Can you tell me. About the morning of June 13, 2007 and what happened?

4:58Eduardo Valseca It was just another regular day. We started waking up the kids, you know, lying down with them in bed and it's time to get up and go to school. They were very young. I think Naya was Three years old, or four. Emiliano was five or six, and Fernando was probably 10 or 11.

5:19Elizabeth Smart They arrive to school, and Jane walks the children inside.

5:22Eduardo Valseca She said, just wait here for me, and I wait in the parking lot. But then she saw a car and a guy there watching us, and she thought I was very suspicious.

5:34Elizabeth Smart It's a very small, tight-knit community. Everyone knows everyone. So to see an unfamiliar car immediately catches Jane's attention.

5:44Eduardo Valseca She said, good morning, can I help you with something? And he said, no, thank you, I'm fine. I'm just waiting for somebody or something. And so she got in the car and we start driving back home.

5:57Elizabeth Smart But the man at the school isn't the only thing that feels different this morning.

6:01Eduardo Valseca We notice weird things. Like there were cars parked on the side of the road that we never saw before. I said to her, you know, what are these cars doing here? And she said, I don't know. All of a sudden, this white pickup was following me. And I had another SUV right in front of me. And in seconds, before you can even think, two guys came out of the SUV with guns. This whole thing, it took probably 15 seconds. My door was locked and the windows were up.

6:43Eduardo Valseca So this guy, the one in the pickup, breaks the glass on the car, just breaks it.

6:49Elizabeth Smart There are two other gunmen. Eduardo and Jane are surrounded.

6:54Eduardo Valseca He sticks his hand inside the car and he opens the door and he grabs my hands and he starts pulling me out of the car and I'm holding on to the steering wheel. So he grabbed the gun because I was giving him a hard time It hit me so strong in the head that my head immediately cut open and bleeding badly.

7:18Elizabeth Smart Were they talking to you at all?

7:19Eduardo Valseca They never, ever said even one word. They were so professional at what they did. You couldn't see their eyes. You couldn't see their face. They took me out of the Jeep and my wife also.

7:37Elizabeth Smart The men put Jane and Eduardo in the back of an SUV and drive off.

7:42Eduardo Valseca And I found myself with a head down in the back of the SUV. He put a boot on top of my head to push my head down on the floor. And he put a pillowcase over my head and tightened it. So I couldn't see absolutely anything. I was yelling and I was crying. I was scared. Jane was in another seat in the back. And she was telling me to calm down. She was telling me to calm down. She was also bleeding. And she also had a pillowcase.

8:14Elizabeth Smart So as all of this is happening, driving home from school, being ambushed, being held at gunpoint, your car being broken into, what was going through your mind?

8:26Eduardo Valseca I couldn't even think. I was so confused. In that second, you don't really think. You're just in panic.

8:42Elizabeth Smart Eduardo still has a pillowcase covering his face, but he can feel the vehicle pull onto a dirt road.

8:49Eduardo Valseca They left that car, and they moved me into another car than they have on the side of the main road, and I heard that they opened the door.

8:59Elizabeth Smart Eduardo is horrified when he hears his captors pull Jane out of the car. For the first time, he has no way to reach her, no way to know what they're doing to her, and no way to protect her.

9:13Eduardo Valseca They pulled her out of the car and then they slammed the door back. Then they picked me up and they moved me into another car than they have in that location.

9:24Elizabeth Smart Eduardo has no idea where they have taken Jane. Under the pillowcase, all he knows is that the car keeps moving farther and farther away. Then Eduardo feels the car stop and hears a garage door open.

9:40Eduardo Valseca The car dropped inside the garage. They grabbed me like a sack of potatoes. They walked up the steps one level, and then they opened this half door. It wasn't a full door. It was just half of a door. They pushed me inside. and they pulled the pillowcase off my face. And I found myself in this tiny little box. It was one inch wider than my shoulders on each side.

10:16Eduardo Valseca One inch. So two fingers in each side. And in the top, four fingers, so two inches.

10:26Elizabeth Smart Imagine you've been stripped naked and forced into a box made of wood and concrete. It's barely taller than you and only long enough for you to lay down in. The door has been closed and above you there are tubes coming from the ceiling, one to pump air in, one to pull the air out. There is no toilet, just a bucket with chlorine. And every side is covered in a coarse material that feels like sandpaper. So you bleed every time you bump up against it.

10:59Eduardo Valseca In top of the half door, I have a camera. And in the center of the box, a really strong light bulb. And then two speakers where they play the same music nonstop. And that was done on purpose. They designed this box to torture you.

11:24Elizabeth Smart Just this morning, Eduardo is singing in the car with his wife and children, surrounded by the life he built and the people he loves. Then, in a matter of minutes, that life disappears. In its place, a world of captivity. He doesn't know where he is. He doesn't know what has happened to Jane. And he doesn't know who these men are, what they want, or what they are capable of.

11:51Elizabeth Smart This is day one.

11:54Eduardo Valseca In the first couple of hours, it was a shock. I mean, I'm inside this little box with the music and the whole thing, and then they walk in like 25 minutes later or half an hour later. They have gloves so you couldn't see their hands. They have the hoodies so you couldn't see the hair or the texture of the hair or the color.

12:15Elizabeth Smart And still they don't speak. One of the men begins writing on a piece of paper. They know who Eduardo is. They know who his family is. And they know about his famous father. They are convinced he has access to a fortune. And they are asking for $ 8 million in exchange for his life.

12:36Eduardo Valseca He started writing things down, telling me this is business for us. If you give us a hard time or your family gives us a hard time, collecting the money and the whole thing, we kill you. We don't have time to waste.

12:51Elizabeth Smart Eduardo and Jane don't have anywhere near $ 8 million. The fortune his father amassed has long since been used up.

13:00Eduardo Valseca We have the savings. Anytime that we made a little extra money, we put more in the savings to secure the education of the kids. But these people were asking for millions of dollars. So there is no way. then we can collect millions of dollars. No way.

13:16Elizabeth Smart Eduardo has no way to know if Jane is safe. And inside the box, there is nothing to take his mind off the terror of being trapped.

13:27Eduardo Valseca I didn't have any clue the time of the day. I have no distraction. I have no water, no clock, nothing. I was naked inside a torture box, bleeding all the time, because at night... If you sound to sleep, if you move a little bit, you rub against the sandpaper.

13:46Elizabeth Smart As Eduardo's captivity enters a second terrifying day, the light above his head never goes out, and music blasts from the speakers around the clock. You're being tortured through light and music?

14:03Eduardo Valseca The music, Elisabeth, the music, they started playing like metal, like rock and roll metal. After a while, it drives you absolutely crazy.

14:14Elizabeth Smart Eduardo is given just enough food to keep him alive. One hard-boiled egg, a couple bites of chicken, some lettuce, and even sleep is something his captors control.

14:26Eduardo Valseca They wouldn't let me sleep before 11 o'clock at night. They would keep the music so loud, the light and the whole thing. And if I lay down, they would put the volume of the music even higher.

14:37Elizabeth Smart After just six hours of tortured rest, the painful routine begins again. It's day three.

14:45Eduardo Valseca The music never stopped at night. They just lowered the volume. And at five o'clock in the morning, they just put the sound really loud. So it was, since you open your eyes, it was a never-ending torture.

14:59Elizabeth Smart Even the few hours Eduardo is allowed to sleep aren't safe.

15:03Eduardo Valseca In the middle of the night when I was allowed to sleep, they will come in And they started beating me up when I was lying down. I mean, like, really hard.

15:12Elizabeth Smart Days stretch into weeks, and his captivity continues. Then, in a moment of relief, Eduardo's captors tell him that they have released his wife, Jane. But the beatings continue. Did this happen every day? Did the beatings happen every day?

15:28Eduardo Valseca The beatings happened every week. They would beat me up, and then, obviously, I started bleeding. And in that moment, that's when they would bring me paper, and pen to write letters to my wife because they wanted drops of blood being in the letter.

15:46Elizabeth Smart Eduardo is forced to write to Jane, and because his captors want ransom money, they need to establish proof of life. They want him to refer to a series of recent events, and as he writes, Eduardo realizes he is describing his captors' campaign of terror against his family back home.

16:07Eduardo Valseca So the letter had to say, for instance, so you know that I'm alive. This morning they destroyed Cielo's car. It had like 20 bullet holes all over the place. So you know I'm alive. They killed our dogs. They cut the hair off the dogs and they hanged them down, bleeding in the front door of the house. So see, baby, I'm alive.

16:34Elizabeth Smart Eduardo keeps track of time by secretly scratching marks onto saved scraps of paper he keeps hidden from his captors.

16:43Eduardo Valseca After so many months with all the torture and the punishment every single day, I started losing hope little by little.

16:52Elizabeth Smart I mean, did you feel like you were going to die or did you feel like you were going to make it home?

16:58Eduardo Valseca I knew I was going to die. I knew I was going to die.

17:05Elizabeth Smart It's now November, and Eduardo has been in the box for five months. His captors expected the ransom to come quickly, and by now, they are losing their patience. Did you know that there were negotiations going on? Or were you just in the dark all the time?

17:22Eduardo Valseca I was in the dark all the time. But briefly, sometimes they say, they offer us very stupid little money. We want seven figures. We want big money. And if they're not willing to do it, we're going to have to kill you.

17:38Elizabeth Smart And as the negotiations drag on, those messages become more vicious.

17:43Eduardo Valseca Every week that your family, they didn't say your family, they said your fucking family, doesn't send the money we want, we cut a finger and send it to them in an envelope. Another week goes by, cut you another finger. Then if they don't answer like that, we're going to shoot you right in between the two eyes.

18:01Elizabeth Smart And this is all being written out.

18:04Eduardo Valseca Everything, they will put a note and they will make me read a note to give me the instructions that they want me to follow.

18:13Elizabeth Smart Another month passes. Christmas comes and goes. Then New Year's. And Eduardo is still inside the box. His captors have had enough and intensified the pressure.

18:24Eduardo Valseca They told me exactly the day. They say from 10 days from now, we don't hear from your family. We're going to shoot you. We're going to start with your left leg. Then we're going to go to the left arm. And then we're going to go to the right leg. And then we're going to go to the right arm. And see how long you're going to last. Oh my gosh.

18:50Elizabeth Smart Ten days pass, and the men do exactly what they said they would. They shoot him in the left thigh.

18:56Eduardo Valseca They made a hole about five inches or more, six inches, where the bullet came out. Then they sent pictures of me so my wife can send the money.

19:09Elizabeth Smart They tell Eduardo that he has 10 days to recover, and if his family hasn't sent the money, they will shoot him again, this time in the left arm. When the 10 days are up, they visit him once again.

19:22Eduardo Valseca They shot me in the arm with a. 22 caliber gun. Otherwise, they would have Eduardo's.

19:34Elizabeth Smart Captivity has stretched on for an agonizing seven months. The torture, the gunshot wounds, and the sleep deprivation have taken their toll.

19:44Eduardo Valseca I got an infection in my ears, and then it went to my eyes, and the shot in the left leg was totally infected. It was bad. It was all red and the infection was expanding.

19:58Elizabeth Smart Did they ever give you any medical attention?

20:01Eduardo Valseca They did because they didn't want me to die because the number one thing before paying them money is a proof of life. So they start giving me antibiotics.

20:16Elizabeth Smart Seven months of sleep deprivation, starvation, torture through light and sound, beatings and filthy conditions. What little bit of hope Eduardo has been holding on to is nearly gone.

20:29Eduardo Valseca There is no green light. There is no way that you're going to, we're going to kill you. Your fucking family is wasting our time. And they were so mean all the time. And they told me that they were going to chop me off in pieces with a machete. They were going to put me in a trash bag so my family would never see even my remains. You get to a point, they say, okay, you know, this is it for me.

20:58Elizabeth Smart This is just more than a nightmare. Like, this is just what you're explaining is truly pure hell. Was there ever a time, particularly towards the end, that you allowed yourself to imagine what seeing your family would be like?

21:17Eduardo Valseca You know, not only that, Elizabeth, it was an incredible thing because you're inside a box and an empty box with nothing. So then you start developing these energy senses. Then they start getting stronger and stronger. Two, three times, I felt my family. I could hear the voice of each one of my kids and my wife telling me a message. And I felt it.

21:51Elizabeth Smart Then, just days before his captors have promised they will shoot him again, they enter his box with a phone. Jane is on the line.

22:00Eduardo Valseca When I hear her voice, I started crying. They wrote down what they want me to say to her. And then at the end, I told her I love you. And then he hit me in the head when I said that. And he closed the communication.

22:23Elizabeth Smart Eduardo's captors tell him they've reached an agreement with his family, but he's not sure what to believe. It's entirely possible that they have tired of him and his family, and he is about to face the end.

22:36Eduardo Valseca You know, Elizabeth, at that moment, to tell you the truth, life was... So out of me that I didn't care anymore about anything. I knew I was going to die. I knew I was going to die. Week by week with all the torture, they suck your life away from you. I reached a point that it was a little too much. I was already dead inside of me. They came into the box and they put the bucket upside down And they make me sit on top of the pockets.

23:16Elizabeth Smart They tie his hands behind his back and cover his eyes with duct tape. Then, Eduardo hears them spreading something across the floor. Plastic sheeting.

23:26Eduardo Valseca In my mind, I thought, that's to carry the body. I thought, this is it. This is it.

23:32Elizabeth Smart But they don't shoot him. They begin shaving him.

23:36Eduardo Valseca They cut my beard off. They cut my hair off. I was totally naked.

23:41Elizabeth Smart His captors hand him two pages of instructions spelling out exactly what will happen next. And for the first time, Eduardo realizes they are actually preparing to let him go.

23:52Eduardo Valseca So they gave me this shirt, this underwear, pants, shoes, everything, and also a baseball cap.

24:01Elizabeth Smart At 4 a.m., they come to get him and put him in a car.

24:05Eduardo Valseca They took me to a cemetery. They took the tape out. I didn't see anybody. Besides, everything was very dark. So they gave me a small lunchbox, like the ones you give the kids to take a sandwich to school. And they put $ 5 cash and they put an apple and a piece of bread. He put me against the wall and then he said, start counting. Once you finish counting to 200, you're absolutely free. You can go wherever you want.

24:38Elizabeth Smart Eduardo follows every instruction exactly. He doesn't know if his captors are still watching, and they've warned him that one mistake could get him killed.

24:48Eduardo Valseca When I finished counting, I couldn't believe. I couldn't believe when I started looking up and see the stars and look at the shape of the mountain on the right side, feeling fresh air. It was like I was in a different planet. It was like I was walking in Jupiter or something. Like that. So strange.

25:10Elizabeth Smart Eduardo doesn't know where he is. Eventually, he comes across three women who tell him where he can get on a bus.

25:17Eduardo Valseca I asked the driver if he could stop right there, and he did. And I started walking on the dirt road towards where I used to live.

25:27Elizabeth Smart Eduardo has lost half of his body weight. He's only about 80 pounds and is so weak he can barely walk. He flags a car driving by. that drives him the two miles back to his house.

25:41Eduardo Valseca The dogs recognized me right away. So then I got up and opened the first door. And the second door is the kitchen door that has glass in it. And my wife, she looked at me for a few seconds and she wouldn't open the door. She just wouldn't. So she started looking and got really, really close. And then when she saw my eyes, she says, that's him.

26:04Elizabeth Smart I remember the day I was rescued. And I was taken to the police station. I was taken to the hospital. And finally, I was brought home. But I will never forget walking into my home for the first time because it felt like the most beautiful place in the world. And it felt like in that moment that everything that had been taken away from me had all of a sudden been given back. And I remember I just never...

26:36Elizabeth Smart I never wanted to lose it ever again. I never wanted to miss out. On anything ever again. Can you talk about what you felt in that moment?

26:44Eduardo Valseca That's exactly what happened to me. You become so appreciative for every little thing. You don't take anything for granted anymore. When she opened the door finally and she grabbed me and hugged me, I felt I'm in heaven.

27:01Elizabeth Smart The children are already in the house, but Jane doesn't want them to see their father like this She sends Eduardo upstairs to take a shower and to get rid of the clothes the kidnappers gave him.

27:12Eduardo Valseca When I saw myself for the first time in a mirror, when I lift my shirt, I have to put it down because I couldn't believe what I saw. All my ribs and everything were sticking out. My face was like, I looked like 20 years older. I took a shower and I did the best I could. And then she said, now, The kids are going to come and say hi to you.

27:38Eduardo Valseca So I went on my knees and I hugged each one of them for so long and kissed them and loved them. In silence, just grab them and feel them close to me one by one. And I felt little by little, life is coming back to me.

27:56Elizabeth Smart After months of extreme starvation and terrible living conditions, Eduardo has liver damage, a concussion, three broken ribs and is fighting multiple infections. But the family Eduardo has been dreaming about is now here, helping take care of him, bringing him food, staying close.

28:16Eduardo Valseca It was a long process because I was in very bad shape physically and emotionally. And the kids were so incredible, kind and loving with me. They were always around me bringing me stuff to drink and to eat. They were taking care of me like, wow, they touched my heart so strong, the power of love.

28:43Elizabeth Smart As police begin their investigation, they make a discovery near the family home, hundreds of cigarette butts, evidence that someone had been sitting outside watching them.

28:54Eduardo Valseca They were watching us for, they think, probably about two months or So they knew exactly the routine that we had.

29:03Elizabeth Smart After finally making it back to his beloved wife and children, the police tell Eduardo that none of them are safe.

29:11Eduardo Valseca He said to me, we are not able to take care of you. So we recommend that you and your wife get out of the country. Go to the United States.

29:22Elizabeth Smart They are given 24 hours to pack. The police take them to the airport and put them on a plane heading for Virginia. but when they get there, they are met with the news that threatens to shatter their newfound hope. Throughout Eduardo's captivity, Jane was fighting on two fronts while dealing with his captors, she was also traveling back and forth to Maryland for follow-up treatment after a battle with cancer.

29:47Eduardo Valseca Right after we landed in the United States, she went to check herself at the hospital and the cancer came back very aggressively. At the beginning, it was in her breast, and then it went to the liver, and from the liver went to the bones, and she had it all over her body.

30:08Elizabeth Smart Jane begins treatment, chemotherapy, radiation, but the treatments that are killing the cancer are also making the time she has with her children increasingly difficult.

30:19Eduardo Valseca She came to me and she said, I'm buying time at a very high price because the chemotherapy is poison. and it's taking my life away. So I don't think that I'm going to decide to have another chemotherapy.

30:37Elizabeth Smart Jane stops treatment, and the family tries to do something that has been almost impossible since the kidnapping, live. Jane writes about what happened to them in a book, We Have Your Husband, and in 2011, their story is made into a Lifetime television movie. But as time progresses, Jane is getting weaker.

30:58Eduardo Valseca Every single day, just to look at her, it was so painful, so tremendously painful. We used to walk every morning, and I was always, for 20 years, I was always behind her. She was always in top, turning around and saying, come on, my friend, I'm waiting for you. But the last weeks, she was behind me.

31:28Elizabeth Smart Just four years after Eduardo makes it back, Jane passes away in their home around midnight. She's just 45 years old.

31:38Eduardo Valseca The kids were sound to sleep. When I went to wake them up in the morning to take them to school, and the first thing they asked me, like every morning, how is mommy? That was the worst day of my life. I tried, but I couldn't, to tell them mommy's gone.

31:56Elizabeth Smart So Eduardo goes to his 16-year-old son for help.

32:01Eduardo Valseca So I have to go to Fernando's room, and I say, baby, please help me. I just can't do this. So he grabbed Naya, the youngest one, and hold her like a father, and grabbed Emiliano by the hand and said by the steps, and said, mommy, I've died. That was horrible. That was horrible. That was a pain for me. Every single day when I went to pick them up at school, they were always crying. And that was a pure torture in my heart that I couldn't help. I couldn't make them happier.

32:44Eduardo Valseca I couldn't make them feel any better. That was worse than inside the box to see the pain of these beautiful kids.

32:56Elizabeth Smart More than a decade after the kidnapping, Mexican authorities publicly link a high-profile militant to a kidnapping organization believed to have operated around their home. But Eduardo has made peace with the fact that no arrest has or will probably ever be made.

33:13Eduardo Valseca It's an act of loving yourself to let go of this tragic thing. What got me to that point was the love of my kids, especially Fernando. I saw him so angry. So then I said, I have to let go and teach them with my own sample that I don't care about these people. They're not in my heart. They're not in my thoughts. They're not part of my life.

33:39Eduardo Valseca They're nothing. The best way to deal with these horrible things is forgiveness. Not because you want to do a favor to them, because you want to have a healthy life yourself. It's an act of loving you, not them.

33:56Elizabeth Smart I mean, if I believe in anything, it's miracles. I think it's a miracle that I'm alive. I think it's a miracle that I'm back here. I look at your story, and I think it's a miracle. I think it's amazing. I think it is absolutely incredible how people can go through hell and come out the other side and keep going.

34:20Elizabeth Smart Eduardo has spent years exploring what allowed him to survive, and he keeps coming back to something he learned inside that box.

34:29Eduardo Valseca I was in shock, but then I say to myself, don't freak out. You're in control of yourself. There are three things that I repeat thousands of times, and that was one of them. I am in control of myself.

34:44Elizabeth Smart I'm in control of myself. Trust the universe and love can go through anything. Eduardo says he can also see how the horrific pain that he experienced has brought him some of the greatest gifts.

34:57Eduardo Valseca It has made me so much appreciative of life. We learn through painful things, you and I and many other people, and that makes us deeper, more thoughtful, more compassionate, more kind, more aware of the fragility of life. So everything has the other side.

35:23Elizabeth Smart For Eduardo, surviving isn't just about what you leave behind. It's what you decide to do with the life you still have. And that includes telling his story.

35:34Eduardo Valseca You are a perfect example of that. Because you have turned the worst nightmare that anybody can even imagine into helping the other people that suffer. And I'm so grateful. thankful that we have people like you full of compassion then come and bring this awareness to people to know that you can make.

36:00Elizabeth Smart It well I just I just want to say thank you so so much for sharing your story you are incredible I have just I don't think enjoyed is the right word but I've just felt so honored that you would share it with me today because it is absolutely incredible. So I want to say thank you. Thank you so much for that.

36:24Eduardo Valseca I feel the same way about you. With you, it's so easy and so simple because it's like an echo in my soul because I'm talking to a person that has gone through the same extreme pain and desperation that I have. So for me, this is the most incredible opportunity Ever since I left that box, you know. So thank you, Elisa, very, very much from the bottom of my heart.

36:55Elizabeth Smart Thank you. Next time on The Survivor Files.

37:00Alisa Mathewson I got startled awake at 3 a.m. I could just feel that there was someone in my room. And I just started screaming.

37:11Elizabeth Smart Elisa Mathewson wakes in total darkness. There is a presence in the room. Not a sound, not a shadow she can explain, just the certainty that she is not alone.

37:24Alisa Mathewson He climbs on top of me and suffocates me with a pillow. I remember taking like my last bit of air from under that pillow and just thinking, I'm going to meet Jesus. I thought I was dead.

37:43Elizabeth Smart If you have a question for Eduardo Valseca, Our previous guest, Lisa May, or me, about our experiences or your own personal challenges, email thesurvivorfiles at gmail.com and we may answer your question in an upcoming episode. Thank you for listening to The Survivor Files. New episodes every Monday. Subscribe, listen, share, and follow us at thesurvivorfilespod on Instagram. The Survivor Files is produced by Marwar Junction Productions for iHeart Podcasts. Our producers are Steve Kniff and Natalie Freed. Our executive producers are Joseph Freed and Alison Berkley.

38:23Elizabeth Smart The executive producer for iHeart Podcast is Katrina Norvell.