In 1997, a masked man attacked Sandra Sully in her apartment car park, put a gun to her head, and pulled the trigger.
Now, on the 20th anniversary of the attack, the Channel Ten newsreader has spoken about the fear she’s lived in every day since.
Speaking to Stellar, Sandra says she still remembers laying there, bloodied, screaming and thinking: ‘I am going to die on the floor of a car park. This is it.’
Sandra’s brush with death: In 1997, a masked man attacked Sandra Sully in her apartment car park, put a gun to her head, and pulled the trigger – she revealed on Sunday
Pulling into her Surry Hills apartment complex car park in November 1997, a little after midnight, Sandra’s life was changed forever.
Upon exiting her vehicle, she was hit with the sinking feeling that she wasn’t alone – a feeling usually followed by the realisation it was just the wind, or a shadow.
But this time, it was a ‘muscular, menacing’ man in a balaclava, who grabbed her hair as she attempted to climb back into her car.
‘You realise life can be snuffed out in an instant’: Now, on the 20th anniversary of the attack, the newsreader has spoken for the first time about the fear she’s lived in every day since
‘I started fighting,’ the journalist recounted, as she kicked and screamed until: ‘he put a gun to my head.’
‘I thought, “Bloody hell, I am going to die. I am going to die on the floor of a car park. This is it.”‘
The assailant held the gun to her temple and fired the weapon twice – but thanks to a miracle that remains unexplained to this day, it didn’t go off.
Persistent, the man began to slap her in the face with the weapon, but Sandra kept screaming, louder and louder, until he turned around and fled.
The incident: Sandra pulled into her Surry Hills apartment car park in November 1997, only to witness a man approach her wearing a balaclava and holding a gun
‘He put a gun to my head’: ‘I started fighting,’ the journalist recounted, as she kicked and screamed until: ‘he put a gun to my head’
He pulled his balaclava off as he exited through a grate in the wall, turning to look at her as he rounded the bend.
Sandra sprinted for the lift and up to her apartment, where she banged on the door and screamed hysterically until then husband Mark Ryan woke up and let her in.
For the next ten years, she was assigned a security detail comprised of ex-Federal police officers, who would even accompany her on jogs through Centennial Park.
‘This is it’: ‘I thought, “Bloody hell, I am going to die. I am going to die on the floor of a car park. This is it,’ she remembered feeling as she lay on the floor, bloodied and screaming
Miracle: The assailant held the gun to her temple and fired the weapon twice – but thanks to a miracle that remains unexplained to this day, it didn’t go off
The pain, fear and suffering eventually diminished, but it’s the unanswered details that may haunt her for the rest of her life.
Among them, the handcuffs that were found at the scene, an apparent lack of motive, the fact the man has never been found and the pistol’s failure to fire.
The unanswered questions: To this day, details have remained a mystery: the handcuffs that were found at the scene, an apparent lack of motive, the fact the man has never been found and the pistol’s failure to fire
To this day, the TV veteran lives in fear, noting: ‘It was at least 10 years before I was ready to talk about it… and probably 15 before I felt like I could put it behind me.’
‘I still don’t like to be surprised. If someone makes a loud noise, I jump. I am always aware in a car park.’
‘You realise life can be snuffed out in an instant.’
The curse: It took Sandra 15-years to put it behind her, but she admitted: ‘I still don’t like to be surprised. If someone makes a loud noise, I jump. I am always aware in a car park’