In 1961 This Little Girl Was Found Adrift At Sea

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A young girl on the verge of dying was discovered in the water around the Bahamas back In 1961. A freighter spotted the young girl floating on a tiny cork float. Her name was Terry Jo Duperrault, and how she ended up stranded in the Atlantic Ocean is shocking.



It wasn’t supposed to be like this. The trip that her father, Dr. Arthur Duperrault, a 41-year-old eye doctor from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and his wife Jean, 38, had planned was to be an epic family outing. But this trip of a lifetime did not end up going as planned.



The parents saved up for the big trip and along with their three children – Brian, 14, Terry Jo, 11, and Renee, 7 – they set off on their journey, chartering a 60-foot ketch Bluebelle boat which would take off from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and would then have them exploring, and enjoying, the beautiful Bahama islands.



The captain of the ship was Julian Harvey, who brought his wife Mary Dene along and they set off on November 8th, 1961. Four days in and the trip was wonderful so far.



But then on the night of November 12, Terry Jo was awoken by the cries of her brother.



Here’s what she said about that night:

“I was awakened by my brother screaming ‘Help, daddy, help. It was the type of scream that you know that something horrible is happening.”



It turns out that Harvey, the captain who was a 44-year-old military pilot, and turns out had a checkered past, decided that tonight would be the night. After only four months of marriage, Harvey decided to murder his wife, and cash in on the life insurance policy he had recently taken out. He planned to report it as a lost at sea situation. Harvey would toss Mary Dene’s body overboard.



Only things didn’t go as planned for Harvey. Dr. Duperrault witnessed what was going on. He intervened, but then was killed by Harvey. The captain then realized all of the members of the Duperrault family who witnessed what was happening, also needed to be murdered. Terry Jo had retired early to her cabin, and was the only one sleeping at the time.





Terry Jo would then emerge a few minutes later. Her mother and brother were lying in a pool of blood. She asked the captain what had happened.


 
The captain pushed her back to the deck below. The girl went to her bunk and was in complete fear. Water would begin to fill up her cabin, and this caused Terry Jo to go back to the deck.



Harvey opened up the ship’s sea valves. He intended to scuttle the vessel. He gave Terry Jo a rope attached to a dinghy for her to hold. But there would be speculation later from one of Fassbender’s friends, Richard D. Logan, who would say that he believed the captain intended on killing the girl also.



Here’s what Logan had to say:

“When he saw her on deck, he realized ‘Oh my God, there’s a possibility that she might survive. I better kill her.’ So he went forward to get a knife or something to kill her. But she did not hold onto the line.”



What happened instead is that Terry Jo ended up dropping the rope. Harvey then dove to sea to try and get to the dinghy, abandoning the girl on the sinking ship.



But Terry Jo untied a tiny cork float. Then began sailing away on it. Meanwhile the Bluebelle would soon disappear under the waves. It would be four days of drifting in the Atlantic. No water, no food. Hallucinations would set in. Yet she kept faith. She would be spotted, she would be saved she thought.

It was a Greek freighter, Captain Theo, passing through the Northwest Providence Channel and cutting through the Bahamas which would be the savior Terry Jo was hoping for. Despite the fever of 105 ºF, the sunburn and severe dehydration, she was still alive as a crew member took a photo of the frail figure floating alone in the enormous ocean waters. The image made the headlines.

Meanwhile, Harvey was found floating in the Bluebelle three days earlier. He had Renee’s dead body with him and came up with the story of how a sudden storm had battered the ship, leading to a fire, and then the sunken vessel. He tried reviving the girl when he found her in the water, he claimed.

Of course, Terry Jo would have a different story to tell. And when Harvey found out that the girl had survived, and had been rescued, he knew the full story would soon come out. Harvey booked a room in a hotel, and then killed himself.

Her relatives took in Terry Jo, and they were told not to discuss the horrible and traumatic events that went down in November of 1961. For 20 years, Terry Jo never said a word about what happened.



It wouldn’t be until the 80’s when she opened up to a few close friends about the whole experience. Psychiatric care soon followed. She would end up writing a book on the ordeal, along with Logan, called Alone: Orphaned on the Ocean. In it she fully talks about what had happened. The book finally became published in May 2010, nearly 50 years after the event had happened.



The book was part of a long overdue healing process. Here’s what she says about the experience and the aftermath of dealing with such tragedy:

“I always believed I was saved for a reason. But it took me 50 years to gain the strength to be able to give other people hope with my story.”

Via