Trevor Summers' ex-wife testifies how she was kidnapped, raped and nearly killed
TAMPA, Fla. - A woman who says she was kidnapped and raped by her estranged husband took the stand at his trial on Wednesday.
Alisa Mathewson has waited five years to tell her story of horror to a jury.
"This is where he is going to kill me and they're not going to find my body," she recalled.
On March 11, 2017, Mathewson and her estranged husband Trevor Summers were going through a bitter divorce. Mathewson and their five kids were living with her. Despite a restraining order against him, prosecutors say that didn’t stop Summers, who was obsessed and possessive.
They say Summers tricked his daughter Arden, who was 14 years old at the time, to leave a window unlocked for him.
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He broke into the house and attacked Mathewson in her bedroom where she would be kept against her will for hours.
"I got first tied up at 6 a.m. that Saturday morning. After he used the Christmas lights to tie me to the bed rails, he went and got the vacuum. He brought the vacuum in and use a vacuum cord to go underneath the mattress and wrap around to strap me more down," Mathewson explained.
Alisa Mathewson says her estranged husband, Trevor Summers, used Christmas lights to tie her to her bed.
After hours of being bounded and gagged, Summers untied her only to be violated in another way.
Mathewson cried on the stand as she recounted how Summers sexually assaulted her twice.
Alisa Mathewson takes the stand at the trial of her estranged husband, Trevor Summers.
Prosecutor Jennifer Johnson pointed out Mathewson never resisted or said "no" to the assault.
Johnson asked her what she was thinking as this was happening.
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"Just need to get through this day... I will just get through this day," Mathewson repeated.
Afterward, Summers hogtied her and tried to smother her to death with a pillow. She passed out and then woke up in a panic.
"I said, ‘Please, I’ll do whatever you want. Please.’ And he said, 'you’re going with me,’" Mathewson recalled.
Mathewson agreed to go.
Summers then drove to a Walgreens, where Mathewson, with her hands tied behind her back, tried to get away.
Trevor Summers and his estranged wife Alisa Mathewson.
A Walgreens employee saw everything and called police.
Summers, she said, drove them to a remote area in Ruskin. She described it as a safe house.
As police closed in, Summers wrote goodbye letters to the kids and attempted to slit his throat just before his arrest.
As she was being rescued by authorities, Mathewson asked about the safety of her children. She also asked if her parents knew the danger she was in.
Trevor Summers sits in a Hillsborough County courtroom.
After her near-death ordeal, to her shock, Mathewson had escaped with her life.
"I thought I was going to be dead that weekend," she reflected.
Summers faces several charges, including two counts of attempted murder in the first degree, sexual battery, and kidnapping.