Survivor: Terra's Story

While Terra Newell is rightfully hailed as the heroine of the Dirty John saga, it’s easy to overlook the fact that she’s also one of the many victims left in John Meehan’s wake. Terra saw through Meehan’s carefully curated facade and repeatedly encouraged her mother to leave him. In August 2016, after stalking Terra for weeks, Meehan attacked her with a knife in a parking garage.

Terra wasn’t going down without a fight. She managed to kick the knife away from Meehan, then grabbed it and turned it on him. “I just started stabbing,” she says. “I knew if he got back up, he was going to kill me.” Meehan died as a result of his injuries in hospital four days later.

“People are surprised to learn that I defended myself,” Terra remarks. One can understand why: Terra stands 5’2”, with a petite frame and long blonde hair, nails perfectly manicured. However, one conversation with Terra will tell you she’s not the Orange County, California stereotype that springs to mind. She’s strong and unapologetically self-assured, especially when speaking about her struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder in the years since the attack. “We don’t talk enough about PTSD for women. The image that immediately springs to mind is that of a wounded soldier or law enforcement officer,” she says. “The truth is that trauma affects everyone, and for different reasons.”

Terra will spend some time at CrimeCon 2019 talking about her experience with PTSD and how we may begin to think differently about women as victims -- starting with the word itself. “Women are so often seen and treated as victims that we think we have to behave like victims,” she explains. “I think we should change that vocabulary and call them “survivors” instead. Just because you’ve experienced trauma doesn’t mean you have to cower in your house in fear. Treatment is there, and it can help you take back your life.”