Most people wait their entire lives for a miracle that never comes, but for one local woman whose name became known across the country, that miracle came early in her life.
In 2004, Brittany Fish was kidnapped, abused and left to die. She was only 5 years old.
Now, more than a decade later, she sat down exclusively with Spectrum News’ Brittani Moncrease to reveal what happened during those 24 hours she was held captive.
Vanishing at the hands of a demon
On April 24, 2004, a massive search was underway after 5-year-old Brittany Fish disappeared. The only trace left behind: her scooter found in a storm drain in her Northside neighborhood in Syracuse.
"We waited all night. My brother was pounding the walls and was just very… very… It was very dramatic and chaotic,” said Brittany’s aunt, Linda Taylor.
"It's not too often that when you have a child that's missing with no evidence of anything just disappears off the face of the earth. It was like she vanished,” said former Syracuse Police Chief Dennis DuVal.
Earlier that day, Brittany was riding her scooter to a friend's house just a few blocks from her home.
"There's a four-way intersection, a four-way stop sign and I stopped at the stop sign,” said Brittany, now 19. “I saw a white car approach me and I figured he was just stopping at the stop sign and he was going to keep going on his way."
But, he didn't.
"Then he ended up getting out of his car and going to the back of the trunk. He said he was looking for a butterfly catcher,” she recalled. "Then the next second, he had his arms around my mouth and he pushed me into the back of his car."
Reflecting on her thoughts at the time, she said she was in shock at first.
“I couldn't do anything, but scream and cry. Then he told me to get lower into the floor board of the car, so nobody could see me."
Brittany kept crying and screaming until the situation became more violent.
"He threw his car into park and put a gun to my head,” she said. “He said, 'You better stop crying before I shoot you and pull the trigger.' I was thinking more of my life than to be found at that point because I was like if I don't cry, then I have more of a chance. If not, then he could pull the trigger."
His voice – and his words – troubled her even more.
"The only thing I can think of is demon,” she said of her abductor’s voice. “It was just deep and the things he said to me didn't help. They were disgusting things that he was saying."
Hours later, Brittany's abductor dropped her off at a vacant building in DeWitt. He'd bound her hands and feet and wrapped duct tape around her head covering her eyes, nose and mouth.
"He told me to lay on the ground underneath the tarp. Then he said he had to run to the bank, and he was going to stop and get me McDonald’s because he thought I was hungry,” he said.
For hours, Brittany laid under that tarp in the blustery cold.
"The whole 24 hours underneath that tarp, it was a mixture between crying, screaming, throwing my body around. I had to keep urinating to keep myself warm,” she said. “I knew I was in the back of somewhere, but I didn't know if it was going to be accessible to somebody to hear me. That's why I didn't lose hope. I didn't stop."
A divine intervention
For Brittany, and those who tried to find her, each minute she was missing was excruciating.
"It's extremely precious as the clock ticks especially for someone that is young. The information that we know from the business that we're in is the more time evolves, the more dangerous the situation becomes,” said DuVal.
Then, the unthinkable happened.
A property owner visiting the lot heard what sounded like a puppy. When he lifted the tarp — it was Brittany.
"As soon as he said those words, 'You're safe. Everything is OK,' I cried. And not from horror,” Brittany recalled. “At first, I didn't see his face because my whole entire head was covered in duct tape, so I didn't see him. But, I knew by the voice that it was not him. It was just such a loving and relieving sound to not hear Kevin."
"We didn't find her by great police work,” DuVal said years later. “Someone came upon her. I felt and I still to this day that it was an act of God saying, 'I want this child to live and I’m going to cause this to happen.'"
At the time, DuVal called it ‘divine intervention.’
"I can't explain it. It was more a miracle and at 5-years-old,” Brittany said. “I didn't even know what a miracle was until I felt the feeling of a miracle."
Brittany’s family also looked to the heavens to explain the ‘how’ of her rescue.
"I believe that God played a big role in this because this is my angel,” said Taylor, Brittany’s aunt. “We're just glad to have her alive. She would have in a couple hours later died of hypothermia because it was that cold."
But, Brittany survived walking away with mental and some physical scars.
"It was barbed wire that was around your wrists,” Taylor said to her niece. “I remember going to the store with your father and getting ointment to put around your wrists. You had scars for a little while."
Perhaps the biggest scar was the one Brittany battled internally.
"I still went on with my life as much as I could. I still tried to be the most normal kid. I tried and tried,” she said.
Despite it all, she remained determined to be a victor not a victim and an emblem of hope.
Brittany still remains in contact with the man who found her. She says he's like a father figure to her — to whom she owes her life.
Living with terror
As for her abductor, it took a year before authorities caught up with him — leaving Brittany and her family fearful that he might return.
Before her kidnapping at age 5, Brittany Fish had a normal childhood.
"I went to school every day. I played with my friends every day,” she said.
But after April 24, 2004, Brittany lived in fear.
"There were months that I couldn't sleep. I had nightmares every single night. I couldn't close my eyes at night, but I still tried to keep that mentality of a kid."
Her abductor, Kevin Schaus, was still on the loose.
"I was terrified,” she said. “I didn't want to go to school I didn't even want to leave my house."
"They described the car for one thing. It was a dirty white car. All we could do. Every time we'd see a white car, we'd look in the car and see if it fit the description Brittany had spoken of,” said Taylor.
Brittany and her family were worried that Schaus would strike again — and he did.
Schaus was arrested in 2005 after abusing another young girl. The investigator on the 2005 case, Detective Bill Root, developed a relationship with Schaus after getting a feeling that the suspect had committed similar crimes in the past.
"For whatever reason, Schaus just gave up the case that he was arrested for. He gave up Brittany's case and he gave up two other very serious sexual assaults,” said Fitzpatrick.
Police soon learned that he had abused a total of four girls over the years, including Brittany.
"She had an excellent memory,” DuVal said. “She was very helpful. She remembered some very key things that obviously helped in the apprehension of Mr. Schaus."
“These cases were all in their own way difficult. We didn't have evidence. We didn't have DNA. We had his confession,” said Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick.
Schaus took a universal guilty plea and was sentenced 20 years-to-life. He will be up for parole in 2025.
"Kevin Schaus will reoffend while he has breath under his lungs. He should never get out and we pray to God that he will never get out,” Fitzpatrick said.
The battle, and nightmares, aren’t over
But the closing of the criminal case was only part of the battle for Brittany. Time and life was moving forward and she had to move with it.
Her aunt, Linda, wrote a children's book related to their family's ordeal. She took Brittany around the country for book signings and spoke to adults and youth about safety.
"It taught the kids what the parents go through, empathy and responsibility,” Taylor said. “I think it hit home with a lot of parents. I wanted to make her feel like a hero and not a victim."
Brittany also received the Courage Award from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
"One word that I think of is empowering. I don't understand why my case was the one,” she said. “I don't understand how I'm the one that got the Courage Award."
But, Brittany's aunt credits her spirit.
"She's got a strong one and I've always said that. I always said that she was awe-inspiring,” Taylor said.
She is now a young woman showing growth even through disparity. And Brittany isn't stopping there. She has plans moving forward dedicated to helping others overcome their own battles and nightmares.
Waning hope turns into inspired determination
The case was also an emotional rollercoaster for authorities.
"We were very, very discouraged within the first couple hours,” said Fitzpatrick. “I remember talking to Chief DuVal at the time and we were very pessimistic that we would find her alive. After all, why leave a witness? A helpless 5-year-old child — very easy to kill. She would be the best evidence of capturing the offender. Then, she turned out to be the miracle."
“We had so many resources that day from the community to the press,” DuVal said. “There were no jurisdictional lines in law enforcement when things like this happen and if there are you break them down."
When the property owner found Brittany in a vacant lot in DeWitt, DuVal and Fitzpatrick rushed to the scene.
"For me when that call went in, I was first concerned of obviously her safety and health, what condition she was in,” DuVal said.
"We were just shaking our heads. This can't be. This can't be true. It's too good to be true," Fitzpatrick said in a recent interview. "Obviously, she was horribly abused, but was alive and was going to be OK.”
The two visited Brittany in the hospital, noting her courage.
"Here's this big guy and this little, tiny, adorable cherub. Her eyes are wide as sausage and she's covered below her chin and she's frightened, but resolute — like she knew she was safe,” Fitzpatrick said.
It was a look that brought both comfort and determination.
"To me, it was a sign of relief,” DuVal said. “I knew, that although I was relieved, that it wasn't over."
"You just make a vow to yourself when you see something like that. We're going to catch this guy,” Fitzpatrick said.
The follow through on that promise paved way for closure for the victims and a chance to move forward in life.
“You don't have control over me. The State of New York has complete control over you. They tell you when to shower, when to defecate, when you can cut your nails, when you can shave. Your life is over. My life is going to flourish,” said Fitzpatrick. “There's some special reason why Brittany is still with us. She's going to do something amazing in her life."
And Brittany has begun that path now.
"I want to make it known that it's OK to not be OK. Like I said earlier, the 13 years that it took me, I was not OK inside, but it's okay because I think I needed that time to finally be OK,” Brittany said. “If you're not in the space that I am, it's just a very empowering feeling to be able to talk about it and just being able to be there and inspire."
Moving on, but sharing her story
"Brittany is bubbly,” she said of herself. “I'm very happy. I'm happy-go-lucky. For the things that I've been through, you wouldn't see it through me. I don't let it shine.
"I knew it was going to take a long time [to talk publicly]. Hence, why it took 13 years and I didn't even expect it to come now. It just — I literally woke up one morning and I was like, 'I'm ready.'"
Like her aunt, she is turning her writings into a book.
"Especially now, 13 years later, she's even more of a hero because she is coming out of this,” said Linda Taylor. “I think she's following in those footsteps and coming out and inspiring other people, writing a book. I really believe that is your calling."
"I don't want to dwell on it more,” Brittany said. “I just want to say that I am who I am because of it. It's going to be a huge inspirational book to those who have gone through what I have and worse to just talk about it."
She says that moment of her young life did not define her, but helped shape her.
And today, Brittany is pursuing a childhood dream.
"I'm in nursing school now,” she said. “I work at a nursing home and I absolutely love it, anything to do with medical, anything to do with caring for people, just anything to be there for somebody."
"I've been through a lot of cases, a lot of victims over the years,” said DuVal. “When I can see them in the future and knowing they're prospering, it makes me happy."
And there's more.
Brittany is also engaged.
"It's great. It's a great feeling,” she said. “It's good to have somebody there that when I'm feeling down, I have someone to talk to."
That companionship has come in handy each year when the anniversary of her kidnapping rolls around.
"On April 24th of every year, it was a horrible day for me,” she said. “I couldn't leave my bed like when I was in high school. I had to stay home. It was just a very dark day for me. Then when I met my fiancé, she flipped it around.
"We started doing fun things on that day. She's like, 'I'm never going to let you feel bad on that day.'"
And that’s a message Brittany hopes to spread to other victims of abuse.
"I just want it to be known that yes you're going to have to grieve,” she said. “You're going to have to let the traumatic episodes play. It's okay and it's going to take time, but it's okay to be there for a little bit. You need to just realize that once you've hit rock bottom, the only place you can go is high, higher."