Miracle in Cade County—A Synopsis
Sara Higgins was literally
the girl next door. She grew up in
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, just a few doors down from Eric Kampe. The two of them were inseparable playmates until
the third grade when they began to drift apart. They became reunited and dated all through high school. Friends assumed they would marry after
college and live the American dream.
But this is not to be. In the spring of her senior year, Sara is brutally
raped and beaten by a man wearing a black ski mask. She spends ten days in the hospital, three of the days in a
coma. She receives anonymous letters
from the rapist threatening to beat and rape her again if she does not identify
Eric as the rapist. Terrified, Sara
complies, and Eric is sent to prison.
Eric is paroled five years
later and returns to Cade County. Sara,
now a kindergarten teacher and the mother of a five year-old-daughter, is
guilt-ridden and continues to suffer emotionally from the rape. Eric is embittered and angry and is treated
as a pariah by the citizens of Cade County.
He is befriended only by a stray dog named Tiger and a five-year-old
girl named Rory. He is unaware that
Rory is Sara’s daughter, the product of the rape.
Rory, with blue eyes and
blond hair, looks nothing like Sara or Eric, and the rapist begins to worry
that the case might be reopened and a DNA test might exonerate Eric. He decides to kill Sara and Rory. The first attempt fails, sending Sara and
Rory into hiding. They live in a van
parked in the woods for three days, until Sara realizes that this cannot
continue and she will need help. She
cannot go to the police without confessing to perjury and obstruction of
justice, which would mean a prison term and separation from her daughter. She finally decides to ask Eric for help.
Eric, although still
embittered, decides to help for Rory’s sake.
He takes them to a hunting cabin that had belonged to his father. They
are to stay there until better arrangements can be made. The rapist discovers their hideout, ties
them up, and sets the cabin on fire—DNA samples cannot be obtained from burned
victims.
Eric returns to find the
rapist sitting on the hood of his car watching the cabin burn. Eric can hear cries for help coming from the
cabin. He tries to break in, but there
are security bars on the windows, and the rapist has locked the door with a
padlock. Eric tries to get the key from
the rapist but the rapist has a gun.
Eric can only watch helplessly as the cabin burns. He now realizes that he still loves
Sara. The rapist decides to shoot Eric
and let Eric take the blame for the double murder, but is shot instead by the
county sheriff who, after reassessing the previous rape, has found new evidence
exonerating Eric.
Sara, however, is able to
get free with the help of the stray dog named Tiger and escapes from the
burning cabin through a root cellar.
Sara and Eric are reunited and decide to move to Oregon with Rory and
the stray dog named Tiger, where they can, hopefully, live out that American
dream.