A Missouri woman who survived a harrowing kidnapping and shooting by hiding under her friend’s lifeless body has now testified against one of her attackers. Melissa Pugh, who narrowly escaped death in the August 2020 incident, took the stand in the trial of Steven Chase Calverley, one of nine individuals charged in the kidnapping and murder of her friend, Sarah Pasco.



According to the Springfield Daily Citizen, Calverley, 33, was convicted of second-degree murder and other charges related to the brutal crime. The kidnapping, orchestrated by ringleader Gary Hunter Jr., led to the fatal shooting of 27-year-old Pasco and left Pugh fighting for her life. After being forced into a well in the woods of Lawrence County, Missouri, Pugh made the critical decision to lay still beneath her friend's body, hoping to survive while the attackers believed both women were dead.



Hunter Jr., who pleaded guilty in 2022 to second-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping charges, was sentenced to 40 years in prison. He had originally faced a possible death sentence but took a plea deal to avoid it. Authorities arrested all nine individuals involved in the kidnapping after a week-long investigation.



Pugh, who courageously testified against Calverley in court, spoke of her forgiveness for his role in the crime, though she expressed confusion over why he, a former Purple Heart-winning U.S. Marine, did not intervene to stop Hunter Jr. during the ordeal. "I know God spared my life for a reason," Pugh said, according to the Daily Citizen. "But I don’t understand why none of them tried to help us... Especially with Mr. Calverley being a war hero."



The terrifying sequence of events began when Hunter Jr. approached Pugh and Pasco while they were in a parked car in Stotts City. After forcing them into a life-threatening situation, he directed the women to the home of Christina Knapp, one of his accomplices. Over time, the plot involved all nine suspects, who eventually drove the women to a secluded wooded area in Miller, Missouri. There, Hunter Jr. shot Pasco while Pugh lay hidden beneath her, convinced she was going to die.



After the group left, Pugh, covered in her friend's blood, crawled out of the well and managed to call 911, leading to the swift arrest of the perpetrators. In the aftermath of his conviction, Calverley expressed remorse in a letter, telling the victims’ families, “I’m sorry I was a coward and didn’t try harder to stop him. I’m sorry I didn’t try to put myself between him and you guys.”

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