Andrea Gunning

Because as much as these are stories about the moment of destruction, they're also about what happens after that moment.

How people get up the next day.

How they rebuild after the smoke clears.

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say a bomb dropped on Saskia's life.

And yet today, seven years after her discovery, she's still standing.

I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal Season 5, Episode 10, Waking Up.

Before we talk about where Saskia is today, there's something I want to share.

It's a bit of a left turn, but it has a lot to do with why I do this work and why I felt drawn to Saskia's story.

In college, I was raped.

At the time, I was going through a really bad depression.

And much in the same way that Saskia did, I drank to cope.

One night when I was drunk, a person who I considered a friend assaulted me.

It wasn't until the next day when I woke up that I knew something had happened.

For years, I blamed myself.

Maybe I let him on.

Maybe I deserved it.

It's a feeling a lot of victims of sexual violence experience.

And like a lot of victims, those feelings kept me silent for a long time.

I questioned myself and my understanding of what I experienced.

But that wasn't the case for Saskia.