Escape from Terror: The Teresa Stamper Story

Plot

The movie begins with an introduction from Teresa Stamper giving an interview about her ex-husband Paul Stamper and how he caught her when she wasn't looking and that she thought that he was a charmer.

The story then flashes back to when 23-year-old Teresa Walden (Pitillo) was living with her mother, Wanda (Williams), in Hennessey, Oklahoma. She applies for a job as a secretary for Stamper Oil Company, owned and operated by Paul Stamper (Storke). She gets the job and becomes attracted to Paul, her boss, and they eventually begin dating. One day, Paul brings Teresa some flowers and a wedding ring and proposes to her. They get married in Las Vegas; but afterwards, Paul gives Teresa's job away to another lady, angering Teresa. When Teresa confronts Paul about it, he slaps her across the face, which begins a string of abusive episodes to come. Later, however, he shows up at Wanda's house, where Teresa had moved back to, and apologizes to Teresa. During this point, it was revealed that Teresa's father abused Wanda when Teresa was a little girl. Meanwhile, Paul takes Teresa to a house he bought and also gives Teresa a new jacket he bought for her, after which they kiss and make up.

After two years of a seemingly happy marriage, Paul and Teresa have a daughter, whom they name Katie. However, unbeknownst to Teresa, Paul had been stealing oil pumps. When Teresa goes to look for Paul at a local bowling alley he abuses her again by yelling at her and grabbing her violently believing that she is seeing someone behind his back. The next day, Charlie, one of Paul's employees, informs Teresa about Paul's theft and that Paul had also been abusing drugs; but Teresa doesn't believe it. Later that night, Teresa takes Paul to a bar, believing that he is just tired from working, but while at the bar Teresa sneaks into the men's bathroom and catches Paul injecting himself with heroin. He then hits her violently and leaves. Luckily, Teresa is found by an old friend from high school, Chris Butler (Tony Becker), who takes her to the hospital.

At the hospital, Sheriff Bill Douglass (Dourif) advises Teresa to get a restraining order against Paul which states that if Paul bothers Teresa again, he will be jailed. The next day, Teresa hires an attorney and files for divorce. She then obtains a restraining order against Paul. The attorney gives Teresa a tape recorder to record potential abusive phone calls from Paul; and later that night, when Paul indeed calls Teresa, threatening to kill her if she divorces him, she records the call. In court, Paul lies and says that he never threatened to kill Teresa and that he loved her, but Teresa's attorney proves him wrong by playing the tape. The judge then grants Teresa a restraining order against Paul and orders him to stay away from her or else he will be arrested.

After the divorce, Teresa begins a relationship with Chris; but one night, as they are driving home, they are pulled over by a car that they think is the police; but it was Paul, posing as a police officer and stalking Teresa. Paul then shoots Chris and kidnaps Teresa. Paul holds Teresa hostage until the next day, when she manages to escape from him at a diner and hurries to a nearby establishment, where she calls 9-1-1. The police then catch Paul, who attempted to escape on a bus, and arrest him. Teresa is then returned home to her mother and daughter. Teresa's boyfriend Chris survived the shooting.

In jail, Paul meets an inmate who will be released in three days. Seeing this as an opportunity for a jailbreak, Paul lies to the inmate, telling him that he is rich and will pay him if he helps him escape. The inmate foolishly believes Paul and helps him break out of jail. Sheriff Douglass finds out and advises Teresa, Wanda, and Katie to stay at his sister-in-law's house in Norman, Oklahoma until they recapture Paul. But their escape from Paul is unsuccessful, as he finds them there and leaves Teresa flowers. Sheriff Douglass tries to recapture Paul at the hotel room of the inmate who had helped him escape from prison, but the recapture was also unsuccessful. Chris also encourages Teresa to break up with him so she can start a new life to which she kisses him and accepts.

Five years later, on Katie's fifth birthday at their new house in Nashville Tennessee, Paul calls Teresa and tells her to wish his daughter a happy birthday for him. Teresa tells Paul to leave her and Katie alone. Teresa reports this incident to Sheriff Douglass and Douglass decides to put Paul's picture on the TV show Unsolved Mysteries. People begin to call in about a man supposedly named Gary Wickle, who resembles Paul and who is a truck driver. "Wickle" lives in Commerce City, Colorado and had kidnapped a woman, threatening to kill her if she didn't marry him. Douglass calls the Commerce City Police and has them do a surveillance of "Wickle's" house. It is revealed that "Gary Wickle" is in fact Paul Stamper and he had married a woman with two children of her own from a previous marriage and she is pregnant with their first child together. As Paul boards his truck to make a delivery run to Kansas, the police ambush and arrest him. When Sheriff Douglass gets the news, he informs Teresa and she happily embraces her mother.

Back to the present day; Teresa, in her interview, reveals that Paul was sentenced to 35 years in prison and that after the trial he was still saying that he loved Teresa. Teresa also says Paul never knew what love was and that she now knows what it isn't.

Cast