Would you help a woman being assaulted?

[tencats]

20. Was recently remembering an event I witnessed back in 1983

The memory of it still bothers me today after the passing of 31 years. I have it recorded in my old field notes that are put away somewhere and its remains a vivid memory yet today. In the early 80's I was making twice a year long 1200 mile trips driving down to the state of Florida during the months of September and October. I always traveled alone. My primary interest was collecting and photographing several of the Phoebis sp.that occur only in the southern most region of U.S. That being my purpose of my travel through the state of Florida I would seek out only the most uninhabited areas. It was a Sunday at approx 11 AM that I had passed through Tallahassee and was making my first collecting/survey stop about 15 miles southeast off of State Highway 20. Its large area of scrub habitat land owned by a paper co. The way in was by sand/dirt service roads set up on a N to S, E to W grid. I was in about one half mile driving very slowly when I herd a women's voice shrieking "Help Me, Help". I stopped but didn't see anyone at first but got my focus on the general direction of the calling for help. Then there was only quiet for about a minute but then I saw a women age possibly mid thirties crawling through the high weeds and brush coming towards me. She was wearing a off white patterned dress, something like one would wear to church on Sunday but very out of place here in the dry scrub land. I just stood there watching her coming towards me, half crawling half stumbling upright. She comes around to to the side of my car and pleads to be let in. I'm looking at her and see that she is all scratched up on her pale white bare legs and arms, not bloody but I could see and sense her panic in fleeing what? All she is saying is repeating "help me, please help me" and she's exhausted to the point of gasping for air. It was another long perhaps a good minute more I was confronted with what/who she was running from. While I was knelling down beside her I hadn't seen the man approach us from the opposite direction. He got by attention by bellowing at me "get the f__k away from her". I stood up to face him showing him my open hands, he stayed standing off in the high weeds at about 30 ft away. He was a large man I would guess 240 lbs, shirtless with soiled denim jeans. I stood facing him and tried asking "whats going here?". He just repeated "you get the f__k away from here". Every time he bellowed she would whimper something unintelligible. I was expecting her to enter my cay from the opposite side but she didn't. I don't know but maybe the door was locked on that side. It seemed like a long time I stood facing that guy, couldn't reason/talk with him, tried to calm him down but then he just exploded with "I'll shoot you down where you stand if if don't get the hell out of her now" and "you leave her be". He started forwards and was reaching for something he had behind his back, but I never clearly saw what it was that he had. I just got back inside my car and drove away. In the rear view mirror I saw the women remain knelling down in the rut of the road. I drove as fast as I could returning the where I had exited the state highway. There was a sort of rest stop and picnic area there that I thought I had remembered a pay phone box being there. But no phone. I was trying to think quickly as possible about what to do to summon help but I was just too far away from any connected phone and it being Sunday there was very little chance of stopping a passing car on the highway. The last option was then to open up my kit packed away in the my car's trunk. I had started packing a S&W model 39 several years before because of a very bad experience. However I could never really figure how I could or would use it. This seemed like the time to use it but I sure didn't like what I was thinking. I unpacked it, chambered a round and took off back to where I abandoned that poor women knelling in the rut of the road. Well, by the time I got back to the exact spot there was nothing but foot prints in the sand. I imagined I could see the imprints of a struggle where I had left her but beyond that there was nothing. No blood but what was it that had played out? I spent something like an hour more driving around but saw no person, nothing. Further along the highway I stopped at a phone and attempted to make a report to the police and that didn't go well either because I couldn't point out the location accurately. I continued then south to Naples. Thirty one years gone by and it bothers me yet, what was that?