By Kayla Walker
While planting roses in her garden, a Delaware woman was abducted from her home and held captive for five days. Debra Puglisi was repeatedly raped by her captor, who had murdered her husband.
Puglisi told her story to University students in a program sponsored by Womyn of Action and Hofstra’s Organization for Progressive Empowerment (HOPE) on Feb. 22. Puglisi, who now goes by Debra Puglisi Sharp since remarrying, also recounted her story in the book Shattered: Reclaiming a Life Torn Apart by Violence. The book is now part of some universities’ curriculum, including Wilmington College’s victimology course.
On April 20, 1998, Puglisi’s husband, Anthony “Nino” Puglisi, was shot point blank in the head. When Puglisi, who had not heard the gunshots, entered her home she was quickly bludgeoned, tied up and raped in her basement. Her rapist had succeeded in knocking off Puglisi’s glasses. Without them she was left nearly blind.
Puglisi was put in the trunk of her assailant’s car and taken to his home. On the first night of her abduction, Puglisi overheard on the radio that her husband had been murdered, finally knowing Nino’s fate.
“After the announcement was made on the radio, he poked his head into the room he was keeping me and said ‘I’m sorry I had to kill your husband,'” Puglisi said. It was then that she realized she might not survive.
Besides the physical and psychological torment her rapist, Donald Flagg, subjected her to, Puglisi heard news reports that declared her to be the prime suspect in her husband’s murder because there was no sign of her.
“One thing that really, truly upset me was hearing my brother, who was in law enforcement, defending me on the news,” Puglisi said. “He kept referring to me in the past tense because he had been trained that by the fourth day a missing person was most likely dead.”
On day five, Puglisi had more mobility because he had untied her hands and was imprisoning her with handcuffs instead. After Flagg left for work, Puglisi was able to leave the bedroom where she had been help captive and called 911. However, her ordeal did not end there.
One of the reasons Puglisi tells her story is to help law enforcement improve how they handle such sensitive crimes. Upon calling 911, Puglisi had difficulty getting the emergency worker to understand her situation. The man on the other end of the phone had no clue who Puglisi was despite the fact that her story had been headline news in Delaware.
Puglisi played her 911 tape and it left some audience members in tears, while others sat immobile.
“I think that she’s a very strong person for not only speaking about what happened, but that she’s using her experience to help law enforcement and future victims,” said Courtney Baumer, a junior who attended the event.
After being found by law enforcement officers, Puglisi’s captor was identified and arrested. Flagg, who Puglisi referred to as “the asshole,” immediately confessed to the crime, but later declared himself not guilty by reason of mental instability when he went to trial.
Flagg was sentenced to eight consecutive life sentences for what he did to Puglisi and her husband, and was later sentenced to two more life sentences for a previous rape that had gone unsolved until Puglisi’s story became public.
“Restorative justice is okay for some people, but don’t tell me to forgive the man who killed my husband and raped me repeatedly when he’s not even remorseful,” Puglisi said. “I decided to live. I’m here to break the cycle of silence that accompanies rape.”
