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"He Saved My Life"
Lidgett lunged, grabbing the man’s knife hand and pushing it toward the windshield. Seizing Schmidt by her jacket, he strained to pull her out of the car. But the attacker hung on tight. He sliced her cheek again, then stuck a gloved hand in her mouth to keep her from screaming and stabbed her hard in the lower left leg. When Lidgett finally got her free, the young woman slumped on the ground.But the slasher wasn’t finished. Schmidt scrambled to her feet, and Lidgett pushed her behind him in the narrow gap between the two vehicles. The masked man leaped out of the car. Facing him head-on, Lidgett noticed something odd: A cable—the kind used to lock up a bicycle—was tucked under each of the guy’s sleeves. The ends peeked out from his cuffs.
Raising both hands over his head, he stabbed wildly at Lidgett. But the older man had sharp reflexes. He held up an arm to shield himself, then threw his full weight onto the open car door, slamming it onto the slasher, who let out a surprised gasp of pain. Before he could wriggle free, Lidgett slammed the door again, then a third time.
By now, other employees inside had heard the fighting. Darting out from behind the car door, the man took off. The store’s assistant manager jumped in his pickup to chase him. But the attacker ran behind the hardware store and disappeared into some thick bushes.
Ten days later, police arrested Joseph William Duncan, 27, and charged him with attempted kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon. A police dog had tracked the assailant’s scent to a rose bed near the scene. There, an officer found a black backpack containing a knife, gloves, a black neoprene mask and bicycle cable—items similar to those identified by witnesses.
Duncan told police he was infatuated with Judith Schmidt and had asked her out several times. Every time, she’d turned him down. Although Schmidt was unable to identify her attacker because of his disguise, she acknowledged that she knew Duncan. They had met in a chemistry class at Shasta College. Once, she recalled, he’d gotten angry when she refused to go out with him, yelling and punching a concrete pillar.
According to the police report, Duncan had told people that he planned to kidnap a Shasta student he called Judith so that she would have to marry him. The day after the attempted kidnapping, he reportedly asked friends if they’d heard about the incident. One noted that Duncan seemed to know details that weren’t in the newspaper. She called the police.
Duncan has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He told police he was at a movie that night.
As for Schmidt, she needed seven stitches in her leg. Fortunately, the cuts on her face weren’t that deep. Of Lidgett, she says, “He saved my life. I couldn’t have gotten away by myself.”
Six weeks after the attack, while Lidgett and his wife beamed from a pew on the bride’s side, Schmidt walked down the aisle of Faith Assembly Church with her new husband. The bride’s hair was swept up under a snow-white veil, her face picture-perfect. The scars didn’t even show.
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