Karen Palmer

And it was just kind of, it was a surprise.

And it was certainly not a convenient surprise.

It was very dangerous and awful to have realized this.

And so she called up Gil and told him.

And that was kind of the beginning of the end.

That's when the threats started.

I rented a place for me and the girls in Santa Cruz, which was 90 miles south of where we were living in Marin, because my attorney told me that I could go 90 miles without having to petition the court.

And I thought, well, I'll go far enough that he can see the girls, but he has to call me to set up a time.

Like, I have to know what he's doing.

He can't just show up on my doorstep.

And that turned out to be, he could definitely show up on my doorstep.

The distance didn't make any difference to him.

I mean, he got very, very scary very fast.

he told me at some point that he was going to cut my head off and put it in the refrigerator for our daughters to find.

Did you report him to the police?

You know, I was, for a long time, I was really afraid to report him to the police because he was the kind of person that

It would make everything for me and the girls worse if I reported him.

You know, he would be like, oh, you think you're going to get, you know, some kind of protective order?

I don't believe in protective orders.

I didn't want my mom to know how bad the marriage was.