Laura Jean Kucera

Laura Jean Kucera, who went by "Giz", was born to David J. and Mary (Bierman) Kucera. She had two sisters Sabrina & Dorothy, and five brothers, Joseph, Mathew, Charles, Benjamin and Patrick. Laura was shot twice in the head and once in her shoulder and left for dead by her ex-boyfriend Brian Anderson, who was at that time 22 years old. Brian abducted Laura on Oct 1st 1994, just days after finishing jail time. He left Laura for dead in a ditch, until he had second thoughts and led authorities to where he had left her. Laura's spirit was strong, as she survived four days in freezing temperatures (in just a t-shirt and shorts) until she was rescued. See Woman with Gunshot Wound Survives Four Days in Ditch. In May of 1995, during the trial in Ponca Nebraska, Judge Maurice J Redmond called Anderson a "bully" and a "coward" when sentencing him to 55 years in prison. After spending 51 days in a hospital and successfully learning how to walk again (although with difficulty), she died in a car crash in September 1995, almost a year after the initial assault. On the way to visiting her grandmother Laura ran her car off a gravel road into a ditch, rolling over the vehicle. See Woman Who Survived Shooting Dies in Crash. Laura was survived by 7 brothers and sisters and her parents: Father David, mother Mary, sisters Sabrina and Dorothy, brothers Joseph Mathew, Charles, Benjamin and Patrick. See Families Hope To Move Ahead. On January 15th, 2019, Netflix added a movie called "Only Mine" to its lineup. It is (very) loosely based on Laura Kucera's story. In the movie, her boyfriend is a policeman (in real life, he wasn't) and he is portrayed as much older than Laura (in the movie, named Julie). The movie also doesn't follow Laura's courageous and difficult recovery as well as the accident that ended, within a year of the attack, in her death. At the end of the movie is this dedication: “In 1995, Laura Kucera was kidnapped, shot in the head, and left to die. She lived. Her attacker remains in prison to this day. This film is dedicated to Laura, and to victims of abuse everywhere.” See Laura Jean Kucera: Obituary for a copy of her obituary.