Fighting For Freedom
Gracie's story
Just by looking at her, you'd never be able to tell how much trauma Gracie has endured in her young life.
"My father did awful things to me ever since I was little," she states in a YouTube video entitled "A Cry For Help."
​
​
"He's a rapist, he's an abuser, and I'm not going to be a victim of this monster."
​
For a long time, people around her ignored the signs and symptoms of her abuse - the deep rings around her eyes, the forced smile, or the uncomfortably intense fear in her gaze. Even once Gracie found the words to express what had been happening to her, with the exception of her mother, most people dismissed her claims.
​
It was only after repeatedly fleeing from her father's house with her brother Grant and refusing to return that she found some reprieve from her abuser.
​
The reprieve was short-lived when Grant was killed in his father's presence in highly suspicious circumstances. Grant's death has never been properly investigated.
​
Soon after her brother's death, her father began to demand physical custody of her again. Gracie was able to obtain a restraining order against her father but the private Christian school she attended allowed him on campus anyway, and even asked him to announce the baseball games.
After Gracie went public, the court placed Gracie in DCS custody and Gracie was again taken from her mother.
​
In a video she sent to the Instagram account she said she is "so grateful to everyone sharing my story."
Gracie says that when she is older, she wants to be an advocate for people struggling with the same issues she has faced.
​
