Woman allegedly beaten, nearly killed by ex-boyfriend in gas-filled home shares story

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN/Gray News) - A domestic violence survivor who was allegedly brutally beaten and kidnapped by her ex-partner is speaking out about her fight to live and how she hopes to inspire others to seek help.

Jesserae Beck, 42, spent just two weeks in the hospital after she was allegedly beaten within inches of her life by her ex-partner in late September. But with metal pins in her ribs and a partially collapsed lung, she will likely remember the pain for a lifetime.

Now, Beck is sharing her story in hopes she can inspire others impacted by domestic violence to seek help and community.

“I try to stay positive because if you continue to live in the negative and you wonder the whys, you’re going to stay there forever,” she said. “So, my biggest goal is to keep going and be motivation for other women. You’re not alone — there’s help out there.”

[Content warning: This story contains graphic descriptions and images of domestic violence]

Beck said she met her alleged abuser, 36-year-old Christopher Collins, in July of last year. The couple especially loved cooking together, but their relationship changed suddenly in late August.

“He never laid a hand on me previously,” Beck said. “Never would I have ever imagined that any of this would have ever taken place, to be honest.”

She filed a protection order after she said Collins beat and strangled her inside one of his homes in east Lincoln, Nebraska. Court records detail how he allegedly choked and beat Beck, slamming her head into the floor, breaking her ribs and punching her in the face.

She wrote in the filing for a protection order that Collins told her he was going to kill her, court documents show.

“It was like he snapped into a completely different realm,” Beck said. “It was hard for me to understand, like, why would you do this? Why would you have wasted all the things that you’ve built as a man, to hitting a woman and could possibly lose everything?”

Collins was arrested after the August incident and charged with assault by strangulation. The couple reconnected shortly after, wanting to move forward together as well as pursue in vitro fertilization in the fall.

“For some reason, I was searching for closure, and I shouldn’t have been,” Beck said. “And it tore me apart. It didn’t tear me apart that I had gotten beat. I was more worried about him and how he was feeling in those moments.”

The couple went to court Sept. 24, where Beck asked for the protection order to be lifted. That night, she left her home to take Collins a homecooked meal, telling her daughter she’d be right back – but she never came back.

Beck said she woke up in one of Collins’ rental properties with no memory. She said Collins told her he’d hit her so hard she went unconscious.

“He actually thought I was dead, essentially, and he didn’t know what to do,” Beck said. “I’m waking up in a completely different house, but he wasn’t expecting me to wake up, I think was the thing.”

Beaten and bloody, she said she laid next to Collins in bed for hours. She said Collins told her the assault was “really bad this time,” adding, “I don’t want you to look at your face.”

“I couldn’t fathom what was going through his head, nor did I want to ask,” Beck said. “I just knew that I needed to buy as much time as I could so that nothing bad happened to me.”

Beck said at one point, Collins asked her to slit his throat, but she refused.

“I said, ‘I will not watch somebody I love bleed out by the hands of myself.’ And he said, ‘Well, then I’ll kill you and then I’ll kill myself,’” Beck said.

Beck said she then told him to do whatever he felt was necessary. Later, she said Collins thanked her for not killing him and claimed he would take her for help the next day and turn himself in.

“How did the person that I love so much bring us both here?” Beck said. “Not only is he ruining my life, but he’s ruining his own.”

Then, she recalled loud bangs and a strong smell of gas, which she said Collins explained as someone working on a line in the area.

“But in the back of my head, I knew what he had done,” Beck said. “He had zero intention of both of us making it out.”

Thinking of her three kids and how they would fare without her and her family, her sisters and cousins who would be left behind, Beck prayed.

“I just kept praying and praying and praying before I fell asleep: ‘Please, somebody find me. I do not want to end my life here on this note,’” Beck said.

She awoke to loud bangs, explaining she thought the house was blowing up. But it wasn’t — it was a law enforcement SWAT team.

Beck said Collins was trying to strangle her as they broke in.

“I remember Chris getting up after me and grabbing a glass bottle of Tito’s, and he slammed it on my head. Then, he got on top of me, trying to strangle me,” Beck said. “Then, SWAT attacking him. I remember looking up, and there was like three or four guns right above my head and this man grabbing my hand and getting me out.”

SWAT pulled her out of the gas-filled house, wrapped her naked body in a sheet and took her to safety, having to lift her into the SWAT vehicle because of how injured and in pain she was.

“I don’t know how much longer it would have lasted before we blew up. But he would have blown up, not just us, but he would have blown up a couple more houses on top of us,” Beck said. “So, not only would my life have been gone, but somebody else’s innocent lives would have been gone as well. That is a hard pill to swallow, too.”

All this time, Beck said she had no idea of the manhunt that had been underway.

“And then (the SWAT officer) looks at me and he said, ‘You’re the girl that everybody’s been looking for,’” Beck said. “And I said, ‘I think you must have the wrong girl.’”

Now, Beck lives with severe brain bleeding, head trauma, broken ribs and a punctured lung. She has post-traumatic stress disorder and has to use a walker for balance.

“I still ask myself, ‘Why would you do that to me?’” Beck said. “And everything that I was reaching for, I have to start over. That is the hardest thing for me. To sit here and question the ‘whys.’ I have to tell myself I can’t go searching for that anymore. It’s only going to lead me to more bad things that I don’t want.”

Beck went through rehab for her physical and cognitive issues, making a promise to herself that whatever they wanted her to do, she’d do double to heal faster.

“It could be worse, you know. I could be dead, and I’m thankful every day I’m not,” she said.

Beck’s positivity through immense struggle was apparent during her interview as was her respect for her alleged abuser.

“Love doesn’t stop just because something happened. I have to learn to un-love a person, and I don’t want any ill will or harm to him,” Beck said. “That’s just not who I am as a person, and that’s not how my heart is built. I’ll continue to pray for him that he gets the help that he deserves and he needs.”

Collins was arrested and faces several felony charges, including kidnapping and terroristic threats. His next court date is Nov. 6, and he faces life in prison.

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic violence, help is available. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at (800) 799-7233, the Friendship Home at (402) 437-9302 or Voices of Hope at (402) 475-7273, or call 911 if you’re in immediate danger.