Lost, famished, scared, and drifting alone in the open sea for almost 4 days on a tiny
raft. And all that when she was just 11 years old. That’s the unbelievable but true story
of Terry Jo Duperrault, and you’ll be absolutely shocked when you hear all of it.
The story begins like your typical American dream. It’s 1961, and Dr. Arthur Duperrault,
a prominent optometrist from Green Bay, Wisconsin, decided to take his family of five on a long-awaited
vacation to the Bahamas. For this, he took a luxury yacht from Fort Lauderdale, Florida
to make the trip all the more exciting. Apart from Dr. Duperrault’s wife and their 3 kids,
there were his old friend Julian Harvey and his young wife. Dr. Duperrault took Harvey
along as his skipper because of his past as a Marine and World War II vet. His experience
at the sails and expertise in navigation gave everyone confidence that the voyage would
go marvelously.
And the trip was going just as you could imagine: sailing across the sunny seas, swimming in
the ocean, bathing in the sun. Five days of maritime paradise. Kids laughing, adults smiling,
everyone was happy… or so it seemed. The events that followed are fit to make your
hair stand on end. Even now, more than fifty years later, it’s hard for Terry Jo to speak
of what happened on the fifth night, and you really can’t blame her…
The then 11-year-old girl was awakened by a commotion from above her cabin. She heard
stomping on the deck and recognized the voices. Alarmed by the uproar, Terry Jo went outside
her cabin and onto the deck only to see Julian Harvey quickly walking towards her.
Still uncomprehending, Terry Jo asked him what was happening, but his only reply was
an order to get back below the deck. Frightened and shivering, Terry Jo complied, lay back
into her bunk, and waited. All that followed was stark silence. It was only when her cabin
started filling with water that she dared leave it again and take another look at what
was going on.
It turned out that Harvey had opened up the yacht’s sea valves to sink it with everyone
on board. There wouldn’t be any radio calls for help or a joint effort to keep the ship
from sinking – crazed Harvey had taken care of that possibility. He and little Terry Jo
were the only ones still alive…
Seeing that she’d shown up on deck again, the man approached her and gave her a rope
tied to a dinghy. He told her to hold it, and that she did. But when he left her for
a brief second, what the girl did next would end up saving her life in that moment: she
let go of the rope, and the dinghy started floating away from the yacht.
Harvey panicked and dove down into the ocean to catch up with the dinghy. Terry Jo, however,
managed to keep her wits about her and remembered there was a small cork lifeboat on the yacht
as well. She untied it, threw it into the water on the other side of the yacht so that
Harvey couldn’t see her immediately, and escaped the horrible scene.
But the 11-year-old girl still had more surviving to do. For the next 3½ days, she floated
aimlessly on the little cork raft that was becoming flimsier and more deteriorated with
each passing day. The nights were freezing, yet the scorching sun beat down on her during
the day. How the little girl managed to hang on to dear life is still beyond comprehension.
But she was weak, and her strength was fading.
That was how a Greek freighter called Captain Theo found the little girl, and the ship’s
crew just couldn’t believe their eyes when they spotted her. In the tiny white lifeboat,
a small, frail body sat all wet and completely exhausted. When the crew took her on board,
they saw she was severely dehydrated, sunburnt, and fevered. The yacht the family had taken,
which was called Bluebelle, was nowhere to be seen; neither was Julian Harvey’s dinghy.
They later found out Terry Jo had been stranded for 84 grueling hours in her little escape
vessel with no food, water, or shelter. It was a miracle that she managed to survive
this ordeal as well.
When she came back to the mainland, she was immediately rushed to the hospital. Soon enough,
the photo Captain Theo’s crew had taken of the little survivor before pulling her
up onboard as well as the story behind the whole ordeal made headlines across the world.
So what had happened on board the Bluebelle and how did a peaceful family vacation go
so terribly wrong?
As it turned out, the whole thing started with Julian Harvey wanting to collect a $20,000
life insurance policy he’d drawn for his wife of just four months. It struck him as
very convenient that she should drown in the ocean in an “accident.” It was later discovered
that he’d been married five more times before that, being the sole survivor of a car crash
with one of his wives and her mother, and had lost two sea vessels under suspicious
circumstances. All these resulted in him collecting sizeable amounts of money for the losses.
So, the plot Harvey conspired was rather simple: to fake an accident for his wife under the
cover of night while everyone else on board was asleep. In the morning, he’d tell them
that she simply fell overboard and he couldn’t save her. His plan, however, was thwarted
when the Duperraults heard the commotion. That’s when Harvey decided to get rid of
any witnesses on board, and sink the boat to conceal the evidence.
He was probably getting ready to take care of the last witness when he handed little
Terry Jo that rope. Still, others believe that he’d planned to let the girl escape
because somewhere deep inside himself, he wanted to get caught. Whatever the case, Terry
Jo Duperrault escaped the man, which would bring him to his ultimate demise.
His dinghy had been found 3 days earlier than Terry Jo’s raft. Another freighter, the
Gulf Lion, picked Harvey up and gave him to the US Coast Guard. He told the investigators
that the Bluebelle’s masts had been broken by strong winds in the open sea. As they fell,
they tore through the yacht’s hull and made a hole in a gas tank, which started a fire.
According to Harvey, he was the only one left alive. No one suspected him of committing
any crimes yet.
After a few days, however, he heard the news of Terry Jo’s miraculous rescue. That’s
when he knew there was no real escape for him, and he’d be brought to justice for
what he’d done. He decided he wouldn’t let them get him alive, so he checked into
a motel room and ended it there.
That all happened in 1961, but no one knew the whole story from the little survivor’s
point of view for 20 long years. Terry Jo didn’t want to speak about her incredibly
traumatic experience to anyone. She needed time to heal her wounds.
In the 1980s, she finally found the strength to open up a bit and discuss the tragic events
on the Bluebelle with a few of her close friends. Eventually, they convinced her to seek some
professional help and support as well. Terry Jo, by then a young woman already, took their
advice and decided it was time to do something about her past. Unsurprisingly, it was still
haunting her. She did get the right care and, at long last, found some relief from what
she’d survived all those years prior.
And the peak of her recovery was a book she wrote with the help of psychologist Dr. Richard
Logan called Alone: Orphaned on the Ocean. It was published in 2010, almost 50 years
after the events it describes, but it still chills the souls of everyone who reads it.
Terry Jo now goes by Tere Jo Duperrault-Fassbender, and her book is signed as such. She confesses
that writing it was the final step of her healing process. In one interview, she said
that she hoped her book would also help other people with traumatic experiences overcome
their tragedies and live on.
It takes real strength of character to not only survive such a nightmare at just 11 years
old but to also talk publicly about such personal events in your own life. Tere Jo is living
proof that nothing can overcome the human will to survive and keep moving forward!
Do you know of any incredible stories of survival and rescue? Share them in the comments below!
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