New Year's celebrations turned into a terrifying ordeal for a 22-year-old Winnipeg woman who got in an argument that night.
Now showing bruises, Shaylene Wilson said she doesn't want her six-year-old son to see her this way.
"His grandma sent me a message the next day saying to me, in tears, she might have to tell him his mom's in heaven,” Wilson told CTV News Monday.
Wilson was out with her boyfriend at a club in downtown Winnipeg on New Year’s Eve.
Winnipeg police said that’s when the couple got into an argument.
She was forced into a vehicle, where officers said Wilson was assaulted.
The vehicle crashed at the corner of Arlington Street and St. Matthews Avenue. Paramedics used the Jaws of Life to save her.
In a moment of clarity, Wilson said she somehow managed to snap on her seatbelt.
“I knew I was going to die. I had no doubt in my mind I was dying that night,” said Wilson.
Wilson started a relationship with her partner eight months ago. She said, in the beginning, he was good with her son and helped around the house.
Wilson said she got a protection order for him to stay away in November; but two weeks later, she let him move back in.
Kim Storeshaw is the director of victim family services with Nor-West Community Health Centre. She said it's not uncommon for partners to return to abusive relationships.
"There is something called the cycle of violence, and it has three phases. There is the escalation phase, the explosion phase and the calm phase," said Storeshaw.
Wilson said she was aware of community supports during the relationship, but didn't use them to their full potential.
She’s now thankful to be alive.
"You don't ever think it will get as bad as it did. You never think you will be in that position," she said.
Wilson said moving on is going to be very difficult. She plans to seek counseling and move, possibly to another province.
Christopher Rutherford, 31, faces several charges including attempted murder, forcible confinement and kidnapping.
