Tracey and her husband Buck met when she fled Torrington at age 18 after her mother’s death in 1979.
She found a job in Florida cleaning a motel where Buck was staying with his construction crew.
He hit her for the first time a few months before she became pregnant her son C.J., who was born in August 1981.
The violence and obsessive behavior grew worse.
Tracey said she wasn't afraid of him yet.
“The first time he smacked me, I smacked him back.”
She said that he was apologetic.
She married him when she was four months pregnant, not because she wanted to, but because she wasn't ready to leave.
Tracey left him for the second and final time in October 1982.
For the next eight months, Buck Thurman had harassed, stalked and threatened his wife.
She called police 19 times in those 8 months.
Buck worked at Skee’s Diner in Torrington, was arrested once, in November after he had smashed her windshield with his fist at a red light on Main Street.
Tracey had just left a meeting with the city’s social worker about custody of C.J.
Tracey Thurman was 22 years old, a high-school dropout with a soft, pretty face and long brown hair and brown eyes.
She had been abused by her husband for five years.
She decided to file for divorce from her husband, Charles “Buck” Thurman in April 1983.
She look classes through legal aid and filed for her own divorce.
He was furious that she had dared to leave him.
On June 10, 1983, she was doing laundry at her friend Judy's apartment on Hoffman Street in Torrington while her son C.J., 22-months-old, was napping.
She had just checked on C.J. when Buck arrived at the apartment, despite a restraining order.Tracey called police at 1:20 p.m. and stayed inside for the next 15 minutes.
He was ranting in the backyard about how wanted to be a family and that he did not want anyone else to raise his son.
She went into the yard as Buck became increasingly agitated, yelling at her that if she didn't come down, he was coming up.
As she approached him in the yard, she saw a policeman Frederick Petrovits' car driving up the street, 20 minutes after she called police.
Buck started to yell at her about her calling the cops and pulled out a knife.
Tracey started to run, but she bumped into a parked car and Bucked grabbed her by her hair.
Buck then stabbed Tracey 13 times.
She had stab wounds in her face, shoulders and neck.
Frederick Petrovits, took the knife away from Buck.
He then left Buck alone and without restraint as he locked the knife in the trunk of his cruiser.
Buck than ran into the apartment yelling
"I killed your f – – – mother."
He then came back outside, C.J. in his arms, and delivered the boot stomp that broke her neck.
He stomped on her head as well.
Her husband’s bootprint marked her bruised and bloody face.
He had sliced three holes in her esophagus.
Her lungs were filling with blood as she lay helpless.
“At Hartford Hospital, they told me I wouldn’t walk again,”
Tracey said.
“I didn’t want to hear it. They considered me a quadriplegic. I said, ‘No, I’m not.'”
She was hospitalized for eight months.
During that time she learned how to eat and walk again.
Nerve damage left her with sensation but limited control on her right side and control but no feeling on her left.
A fear of Buck haunts her.
She said she can't rest with him out there.
When he made his first phone call from jail to his father, he was heard swearing revenge.
She said that he never showed remorse and that the last words he spoke to her were in court when he said before a judge that he would leave her and their son alone.
He served nearly eight years in prison and five years probation.
After Buck's was release from prison April 12, 1991, Tracey hardly does public appearances.
She doesn't want Buck to know what she looks like.
Tracey Thurman sued the City of Torrington in 1985, saying the police department failed to protect her and she won.
This led to dramatic changes in domestic violence laws, and in how police and prosecutors handle domestic violence.
In Connecticut, her case led to the 1986 Family Violence Prevention and Response Act, which requires police to respond aggressively to complaints of domestic violence.
Nationally, police departments changed policies based on the case.
Tracey is happily remarried now and her son is all grown up.
She worries about the safety of Buck's current wife.
