NIGHTMARE ON STALKER STREET:  AMY HILLMAN’S STORY

Imagine that you are the character in Nightmare on Elm Street.  It has been days since you’ve slept because you know that the moment you drift off, your most terrifying fear will become reality.  Do you remember how you felt at that moment, just before Freddy Krueger sprung out of nowhere and viciously attacked his victim?  Even though your mind told you it was just a movie your muscles ached from the tension, your heart raced, and your breath came in agitated spurts.

This is what it’s like to be the object of a stalker’s menacing pursuits.  This is how you live every moment when your life is a Nightmare on Stalker Street.  Only in your movie, the final minutes are missing where the evil character is subdued, the credits roll, and the fear and anxiety subside.  This was Amy Hillman’s life for two years.

You’ve probably never heard of Amy.  She’s not a famous public figure.  She’s just a regular woman, who moved to Nashville to pursue her dream of becoming an entertainer, working various jobs like most aspiring stars do to pay the bills.  Amy didn’t know her stalker.  She never participated in “dangerous” activities that one would imagine might invite the attention of a twisted person.  Her story, with a different roll of fate’s dice, could easily have been yours.

Amy knows what it’s like to cringe every time her phone rings, and when she answers it there’s a stranger’s voice on the other end that knows things;  Personal things.  She knows what it’s like to return home and search every crevice of her apartment, acutely aware of any item slightly out-of-place because someone has been there.  She knows what it’s like to see a person everywhere she goes.  Someone she doesn’t know, but somehow always knows where she is.

Amy knows what it’s like to go for weeks without sleep, her body in constant fatigue and pain, her state of mental health diminishing;  Her work suffering;  Her friends, although supportive, are helpless and after a while even they question her sanity.

And when she finally drifts off for a few moments, the lines between her reality and her dreams become blurred.  She knows when she awakens, covered in bruises, that she has been violated.  The feeling is so real that she visits her doctor only to find out that her injuries are self-inflicted from fighting off a would-be attacker in her suspended state of consciousness. 

Like most people, you are probably saying to yourself, “Why didn’t she go to the police?  Why didn’t she do something to stop this bastard!?”  She did.  She did everything you’re supposed to do.  But the system failed her.  It fails all stalking victims.

When you become a stalker’s target, your first instinct is to go to the police to get help.  You might even find a detective that goes above and beyond the call of duty to help you.  Amy did, but it still wasn’t enough.  Amy quickly became an expert on stalking laws and did everything she could to try and stop the madness according to the letter of the law.  What she didn’t count on was that her stalker also knew the laws, and he knew that they were riddled with loopholes through which he was able to infiltrate every ounce of privacy Amy had.

That was two years ago for Amy.  Like most stalking victims, Amy’s body, heart, and mind finally collapsed, forcing her to leave town for six months, leaving behind a fulfilling and lucrative job and burgeoning prospects in her singing career.  She underwent extensive counseling and medical care.  When she finally returned, she had to move to a new town and start all over again.

She did.  Amy continues to heal today.  As a part of her ongoing recovery from an experience that has changed her life forever and is indelibly etched in her very being, she sought counseling through group therapy.  She quickly found that there are no programs designed specifically for stalking victims to join together and support each other through their healing processes.  She’s working to change that.

There are people in Government that are beginning to recognize the shortfalls in stalking laws and want to change them.  Amy is talking to them.  She is making them aware of the horror that hides in the shadows and showing them where the laws are flawed.  She will stop at nothing to prevent another person from experiencing her Nightmare on Stalker Street.

Oh, and Amy’s stalker?  He’s still out there living his life, unscathed and unpunished.  And he’s loose in your community.