Cece Opanowski
Appearances
48 Hours
Facing a Monster
In January of 1996, I just finished my first semester of college in upstate New York. My ex-boyfriend, Sean Doyle, and I had been broken up for approximately four months. My name is Cece Opanowski. My mother was going away for the weekend, so I had this whole big house to myself. And my friend Shannon and I, we were very close. I said, well, let's stay at my house because there's no one around.
48 Hours
Facing a Monster
It was just a girls' night. We just wanted to chill out. You know, it's winter, it's cold, we built a fire. My parents had a great stereo system, so, you know, we put on some music and danced around and, you know, just did girl stuff.
48 Hours
Facing a Monster
I need to make sure that he is put away for murdering Lori. At this point, now I'm angry. I'm not fearful.
48 Hours
Facing a Monster
So Shannon leaves, and I get up and go around the house doing whatever, watching TV, you know, being a lazy teenager. And I get a knock at the door, and I open it, and it's him. And he said, I just want to talk to you. And once he was inside, things got much different. He pushed me onto the couch, started, you know, holding me down and restraining me, you know, yelling at me.
48 Hours
Facing a Monster
And he picked me up and pushed me against the French doors and kept banging me against the French doors.
48 Hours
Facing a Monster
I was relieved and happy that he was going to be punished for what he did.
48 Hours
Facing a Monster
To me, it almost felt like there wasn't a man left inside of him, but more like a monster. For your crimes to become worse as you go, to almost perfect them, to think about them in that serial fashion.
48 Hours
Facing a Monster
My hair was in a ponytail, and he picked me up, held me up, and cut my hair off. It was gone, just all of it. He had already been choking me, and I thought he was going to stab me.
48 Hours
Facing a Monster
Be vigilant. Look at what's happening in front of you and make sure someone knows. Don't keep it quiet. Pay attention. And when you have that feeling, that one that doesn't go away, you know, the one that you try to push down, that's the one you should listen to the most.
48 Hours
Facing a Monster
I'm in complete shock. I can't believe it's happening, and I have to figure out how to get out of it. But during this time, the phone continues to ring. I waited a couple of minutes, and I called her back. I explained to him, if I don't answer this phone, my mother will call the police. So I do pick up the phone, and it's Shannon. I said, hey, are you OK?
48 Hours
Facing a Monster
And I don't know why I did this, but I started unloading the dishwasher. And I'm saying to her, no, no, yeah, everything's fine. No, no. And no kept coming out of my mouth. And he didn't pick up on it, but she sure did. And that's when she said, is he there? And I said, yes.
48 Hours
Facing a Monster
I can tell you that I knew nothing was ever going to be the same. And it was going to change the way I looked at everything.
48 Hours
Facing a Monster
They do not put him in handcuffs, and they put us in the back of the same police car. Mind you, all of this time, I've clearly looked like I've been assaulted. My hair is completely cut off. And when they arrived at the police station,
48 Hours
Facing a Monster
And they made it seem like it was some fight between two young kids that turned, you know, slightly dark.
48 Hours
Facing a Monster
Looking at it and you're saying, did this really happen to me? You know, how could this happen to me?
48 Hours
Facing a Monster
When you're a 16, 17-year-old girl and, you know, you're looking at, oh, jealousy, you know, he must love me so much, and that's why he's doing this, or he followed me home, he's so worried about me. But is that really what the case is? When you look back as an adult and someone with experience, you know, you think that's probably not okay.
48 Hours
Facing a Monster
He at one point did get a tattoo. It was a heart on his arm and it had my name in the middle. What did you say? Why would you do that? And his response?
48 Hours
Facing a Monster
And this is where things start to get darker. You know, he doesn't have any prospects. He knows that I'm getting ready to go away to school. And to him, his whole life is about to completely change.
48 Hours
Facing a Monster
He stood outside, basically threatening that he was going to kill me. And now he's threatening not just you, but anyone around you. Basically anyone around me.
48 Hours
Facing a Monster
You know, I was always looking over my shoulder. I bought myself a Swiss Army knife. I'm having night terrors. You know, waking up crying, waking up screaming, not being able to sleep.
48 Hours
Facing a Monster
I didn't want to have to face him in court. I didn't want to be going over this over and over and over again. I really wanted it to go away.